Vorobey I.A. Francis of Assisi as an Ideal Poor Man in Rainer Maria Rilke's 'The Book of Hours'

Abstract: The subject of the present research is the linguistic analysis and interpretation of the metamessage 'Francis as an ideal poor man' referring to the concept of poverty in 'Das Sunden-Buch' ('The Book of Hours') written by an Austrian poet of the XXth century Rainer Maria Rilke. Poetic messages form a different message of the concept based on the generally accepted meaning of the message. The author of the present article pays special attention to the conceptual level of the concept. The article is mostly devoted to the interpretation of the last poem 'O wo ist der, der aus Besitz und Zeit' ('Where it is, the creator of the great poverty') in the third part of the cycle 'Das Buch von der Armut und vom Tode' ('The Book of Poverty and Death'). The author analyzes the lexical and conceptual structures of the concept's metamessage and discoveries their relations to the other concepts of The Book of Hours. In order to study the poetical concept, the author has used the hermeneutic-linguistic method involving the following three steps: 1) Roland Barthes' method of textual analysis; 2) the method of predicate nests; and 3) the method of hermeneutic circle. The novelty of the research is caused by the fact that the author provides a comprehensive linguistic analysis and interpretation of the final poem from Rainer Maria Rilke's 'The Book of Hours'. The realy period of the poet's creative writing is isually left out. The main conclusion of the research is that in The Book of Hours the phenomenon of poverty renders the message which differs from the generally accepted meaning. According to the researcher, the image of Francis is the prototype of Orpheus who appears in the late period of Rilke's creative writing. 

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