The opening of the future: Heidegger's interpretation of Rilke1

The aim of this paper is to revisit Heidegger's phenomenological reading of Rilke with a view to eliciting its implications for our future and that of phenomenology. The paper focuses on how Heidegger, despite regarding Rilke as a much-needed poet in these destitute times, criticises the metaphysical and Nietzschean underpin- nings of his poetic account of the open and animal existence within it. In addition to shedding considerable light on Heidegger's own conception of the open and human existence within it, focusing on this criticism underscores how the sort of phenom- enological thinking exemplified in Heidegger's reading of Rilke essentially and uniquely provides an opening of the future.