Reading Response: Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters To A Young Poet

“How should we be able to forget those ancient myths that are at the beginning of all peoples, the myths about dragons that at the last moment turn into princesses; perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrible is in its deepest being something helpless that wants help from us.” Rainer Maria Rilke, Letters To A Young Poet pg. 52

I travelled to Beijing last winter to visit a close friend from high school. On my way to her home, right as the sun was setting, I heard the sound of a rock band playing from a courtyard. Turns out it was five young Chinese musicians who wanted to practice their songs before a school performance.

Though the band did attract a few listeners, not everyone liked the music. At the start of the third song, a middle-aged homeless woman pushed to the front of the crowd and began screaming at the musicians about noise pollution. They tried their best to ignore her, but she wouldn’t leave, and continued to yell at an even louder tone.

There were a total of about thirty people, all of us watching in shock and doing nothing to help as the scene unraveled. I remembered shrinking back, even though I scolded myself not to, because one, the homeless woman was beginning to get more physical, and two, I was afraid. The woman eventually started throwing objects at the band and, at one point, even tried to jump onto the stage.

One musician, who became very upset, stopped singing and pushed her to the ground. He proceeded to kick the woman, who began crying.

It was at that moment a tall Chinese man silently pushed his way through the crowd and crouched next to the woman. The man asked her if she was okay and if she needed any help. Though I couldn’t hear what was said, I felt moved by the way the man helped bring a troubled woman to her feet. I felt moved by the way the man tenderly wrapped his arm around the woman, and directed her away. And I felt moved that the man did something we were all afraid to do.

I couldn’t help but wonder how true Rilke’s words meant. How many times are we given the impression to fear dragons because they are heartless, brutal creatures? How many times have we took actions to differ? And how many times are we still not able to understand that the dragons possibly are secretly princesses in waiting?

Too many.

Too often have we lived by the idea that dragons are villains and so, must be slayed. The possible idea that they could also be heros produces so much tension that we frequently turn to fight our mind in self-destructive ways.

Still, we should support dragons even if they are our greatest fears, because, in the end, their terrible image is just our imagination, or as Rilke says, a myth. By leaving the misconceptions we cling to, the stories we fabricate, the false visions we keep, and the lies we spread, we will be able to destroy the real dragons: ourselves.

Maybe this homeless woman was a princess in disguise. And maybe, just maybe, she was waiting to find a person who could act with beauty and bravery.