Dear Marion,

The lines from Rilke:
"Die grossen Worte aus den Zeiten, da
Geschehen noch sichbar war, sind nicht fuer uns.
Wer spricht von siegen, ueberstehen ist alles."
conclude his Requiem for the sculptor friend
Wolf Graf von Kalckreuth, who committed suicide.

I have until now considered magnificent words
from days when events were still visible, as refering
to the texts of the Christian Bible which proclaim
Christ's victory over death. Your question suggested
to me the relevance of other epic accounts,
for example the poetry of Homer. Rilke, of course,
preached in Kierkegaard's wake, that reality is
inward, intangible and invisible, and that therefore
outward, historical victory is meaningless. To the
spirit all that matters is survival.

Jochen