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Title: The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke by Stephen Mitchell, Robert Hass, Maria Rainer Rilke ISBN: 0-679-72201-7 Publisher: Vintage Pub. Date: 13 March, 1989 Format: Paperback Volumes: 1 List Price(USD): $13.95 |
Average Customer Rating: 4.64 (11 reviews)
Rating: 3
Summary: Some translation, some rewriting
Comment: Despite the glowing reviews, and my adoration of Mitchell's _The Book of Job_, I was disappointed by this book. First, I have previously heard poems from _The Book of Hours_ that sang to me, but there are only 2 fragments from that book included here. Second, the translations in places lose (to my ear) too much of the meaning and poetry of Rilke. Having just learned German and lived 10 days with Germans in Germany, I could tell that it was the translation--and not Rilke--that was lacking. Some of the translations are powerful and beautiful--if somewhat different from Rilke--namely, Spanish Dancer, Archaic Torso of Apollo, Washing the Corpse, Exposed on the cliffs of the heart, Antistrophes, Original Version of the 10th Elegy, Imaginary Career, and some Sonnets of Orpheus.
For too many of the other poems, though, there is more poetry in simply the sound of the German read aloud (absent of meaning) than in the content of the English version. Sometimes this may be because Mitchell is striving for a similar rhythm or rhyme as Rilke's; there are places, though, where this can not be the excuse. For example, in the idiot's song, Rilke has, literally, "Sometimes think I, I can no more--"
Manchmal glaub ich, ich kann nicht mehr--,
which Mitchell translates
Sometimes I think that I can't go on--,
which adds another (perhaps obvious) meaning, hitting the reader over the head -- and is _less_ rhythmic than the literal!
Or examine the last lines of "Buddha in Glory" from Rilke:
"denn ganz oben werden deine Sonnen / voll und gluhend umgedreht.
Doch in dir ist schon gegonnen, / was die Sonnen ubersteht."
Literally: "for quite above become your suns / full and glowing spinning round. / Yet in you is already begun / what overcame the suns."
For unsurmised reasons, Mitchell has changed "suns" to stars", and altered other meanings--to my comprehension, weakening it:
"a billion stars go spinning through the night, / blazing high above your head. / But in you is the presence that / will be, when all the stars are dead."
Rating: 5
Summary: My favorite collection of Rilke's verse in English
Comment: Over the years I have owned and read a number of translations of Rilke's verse. I find this superb volume translated by Stephen Mitchell to be both the best selection of his poetry and the finest translation. Take nearly any of the poems in this volume and set it beside a competing translation, and the Mitchell version is both more poetic and more in keeping with the spirit of Rilke.
This volume collections all of the Duino Elegies, and generous portions of the various collections, including a fair number of the Sonnets to Orpheus. For most, this will be the only edition of Rilke's verse that they will need.
These are some great, great poems. Apart from the Duino Elegies, I believe my favorites would include the amazing "Archaic Torso of Apollo," in which the poet becomes so entranced studying the statue that it proclaims to him in closing, "You must change your life." "The Panther" is without any question one of the most haunting poems of the twentieth century, with its building sense of some great revelation, only to end with the expected image plunging into the heart and disappearing. My favorite poem in the collection, however, may be one from the UNCOLLECTED POEMS, the amazing "You Who Never Arrived," in which the poet muses on all the occasions upon which he and his beloved never met (Rilke's belief was that we are destined never to meet our true love), but nevertheless perhaps came tantalizing close. For instance, he walks into a shop from which she has just left, where the "mirrors are still dizzy with your presence." He ends his musings, "Who knows? perhaps the same/bird echoed through both of us/yesterday, separate, in the evening . . . "
This is an essential volume for any lover of great poetry. I can't recommend this highly enough.
Rating: 5
Summary: Beautiful!
Comment: I bought this book along time ago, but it has remained on my shelf untouched until tonight because I knew that Rilke wrote in German and that I would be reading a translation which I thought my detract from the power and original intention of the poetry. But I decided to open it tonight out of curiosity after reading a few of the letters from Letters to a Young Poet and Rilke immediately became my favorite poet. Even when I don't understand what he is saying his poems carry an immediacy and a power which bring me close to tears. I have not read any other translations of his work so I am not qualified to comment on the quality of this translation, but if you like poetry I would definately suggest getting your hands on some Rilke!
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Title: Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke, M.D. Herter Norton ISBN: 0393310396 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2004 List Price(USD): $9.95 |
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Title: Rilke on Love and Other Difficulties: Translations and Considerations by Rainer Maria Rilke, John J. L. Mood ISBN: 0393310981 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: August, 2004 List Price(USD): $12.95 |
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Title: Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God by Anita Barrows, Joanna R. Macy, Rainer Maria Rilke ISBN: 1573225851 Publisher: Riverhead Books Pub. Date: April, 1997 List Price(USD): $9.00 |
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Title: Ahead of All Parting : The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke by Maria Rainer Rilke, Stephen Mitchell ISBN: 0679601619 Publisher: Modern Library Pub. Date: 01 August, 1995 List Price(USD): $24.95 |
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Title: Stories of God by Rainer Maria Rilke, M. D. Norton ISBN: 0393308820 Publisher: W.W. Norton & Company Pub. Date: April, 1992 List Price(USD): $11.95 |
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