The essential Rilke
Ratings8
Average rating4
From the Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Galway Kinnell and co-translator Hannah Liebmann comes The Essential Rilke, with newly translated selections of the poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke and an informative introduction. This collection also features all of the poems in their original German on facing pages. German poet Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) enjoys ever-increasing popularity. His Duino Elegies is generally considered one of the greatest long poems of the twentieth century. The Essential Rilke includes all the celebrated Duino Elegies as well as a number of shorter poems--the favorites and the less familiar. Throughout his poetry, Rilke addresses questions of how to live and relate to the world in a voice that is simultaneously prophetic and intensely personal. Kinnell and Liebmann's translations put accuracy first and yet retain the power and grace of poetry. The Essential Rilke adds a valuable bilingual edition to Ecco's popular The Essential Poets series and these translations offer new insight into this complex German poet whose work is read and admired throughout the world.
Tags
Genres
Reviews
Popular Reviews
Reviews with the most likes.
3.5 stars.
Rating would probably have been higher if I had given myself time to savor instead of rushing through. I plan to re-read eventually.
[You who never arrived] is the entire reason I read the collection, and still one of my all-time favorites.
I think this may have been my third time reading this book cover to cover. Honestly, I read it in spots constantly. I carry it with me everywhere, like Linus with his blanket. Whether it gives good luck or simply makes me feel safe, I'm not sure.
Rainer Maria Rilke is one of the few people that I can say is my favorite artist. You will never get my favorite movie, or book, or painting, or song, because they change constantly and I am never able to think of any single one as more meaningful than another. I love them all.
But Rilke holds this special place as my “favorite” poet. In the words of Marina Tsvetaeva, writing to Rilke on his deathbed in 1926: “You are not the poet I love most. ‘Most' already implies comparison. You are poetry itself.” I am inclined towards those sentiments. Rilke is the poet that spoke to the lost, confused, endlessly yearning child within me that was drawn towards beauty and the infinite without the slightest hint as to why. He helped me find where to step when I started down a hidden path that no one among my family or friends knew. He taught me that writing could be precisely what it wanted to be, and all that I had to do was listen. Listen and gather the world inside of myself and transform every Thing that I could carry. Do that, and perhaps there will be a few lines to show for it. Even if there aren't, life will become incredibly beautiful, and that was reason enough for me. Rilke taught me how to love myself, even though the wiring of my brain places me on the autism spectrum and has caused me more than a little trouble and alienation throughout my life. Rilke spoke to me as someone who understood, and could teach me to understand. This man's work is my life, not in the sense of obsession or possession, but in the sense that it is a part of me just as the hair on my head, or the shape of my nose.
I first read Letters to a Young Poet, over and over. That was how I found out about Rilke. When I decided I wanted to read his poetry, not just read him writing about poetry, I found this book. It changed my life, and I keep it with me wherever I go now.
Characters
See all (0)
