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Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God
While visiting Russia in his twenties, Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the twentieth century's greatest poets, was moved by a spirituality he encountered there. Inspired, Rilke returned to Germany and put down on paper what he felt were spontaneously received prayers. Rilke's Book of Hours is the invigorating vision of spiritual practice for the secular world, and a work that s...more
Paperback, 257 pages
Published
November 1st 2005
by Riverhead Trade
(first published January 17th 1975)
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Whoa. Whoa.
I read a checked-out library copy of this book, but about halfway through I realized that I was going to need to own it. Still working on that. But thanks to Rilke, I finally understand the point of poetry. Don't get me wrong - I've appreciated poetry before, like the imagery it evoked or the cadence it gave or whatever. But THIS. Well, just refer to the first two words of the review.
I found this stuff profound. In almost every poem I found a stanza or thought that would just stop me...more
I read a checked-out library copy of this book, but about halfway through I realized that I was going to need to own it. Still working on that. But thanks to Rilke, I finally understand the point of poetry. Don't get me wrong - I've appreciated poetry before, like the imagery it evoked or the cadence it gave or whatever. But THIS. Well, just refer to the first two words of the review.
I found this stuff profound. In almost every poem I found a stanza or thought that would just stop me...more
First of all, I have to clarify: I'm not a student of the English language or poetry, so my feelings for these poems, like most of us, are truly from my personal perspective. From the those poems that we all had to read in school, and the few that I occasional encounter here or there, I have never been affected as deeply as the writing of Rainer Maria Rilke. Since Rilke wrote in German, it's a wonder how English translations of his works still affect me so deeply and effortlessly.
This edition ce...more
This edition ce...more
The task of a translator, I think, has always been unappreciated. It is a demanding one, a task that can never be done to the perfection it begs. Language is a living, breathing thing, and it holds within it an entire culture, and in that culture, an entire people, and within these people, an entire world. It is not possible to withdraw one such world and make it fit into the shape of another.
Yet if we are to even try to understand one another, the many of us on this earth and our ways, then tr...more
Yet if we are to even try to understand one another, the many of us on this earth and our ways, then tr...more
It is, honestly, daunting approaching a book as timeless, and personal, and profound as "Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God". Written without the initial intention for publication, inspired by Rilke's experience of Italian Renaissance religious art in Tuscany, and his intimate relationship with Lou Andreas-Salome (she had called Rilke "the first true reality" in her life), there is a meditative melancholy to Rilke's verses that make them almost gritty, in a way, alternately praising his in...more
My god, Rilke is a poet. The poems that comprise the three books within Rilke's Book of Hours are among the most endearing I have ever read. I've always been a fan of the metaphysical poetry of Donne and Herbert, and Rilke stands with them, even though he comes out of different strands of literature and aesthetics. He provides thoughtful and heartfelt meditations on the duality of darkness and light and on the intimate relationship between God and humanity, of the known and the unknown, and of t...more
My favorite poem of Rilke's is found in this book. I first read it in the bathroom of the Video Saloon where it had been written with sharpie in the first stall.
"I am praying again, Awesome One"
(Ich bete wieder, du Elauchter)
You hear me again, as words
from the depths of me
rush toward you in the wind.
I’ve been scattered in pieces,
torn by conflict,
mocked by laughter,
washed down in drink.
In alleyways I sweep myself up
out of garbage and broken glass.
With my half-mouth I stammer you,
who are eternal i...more
"I am praying again, Awesome One"
(Ich bete wieder, du Elauchter)
You hear me again, as words
from the depths of me
rush toward you in the wind.
I’ve been scattered in pieces,
torn by conflict,
mocked by laughter,
washed down in drink.
In alleyways I sweep myself up
out of garbage and broken glass.
With my half-mouth I stammer you,
who are eternal i...more
Note: Goodreads appears to group reviews for different translations of the same work. My review is for "The Book of hours: Prayers to a Lowly God," translated by Annemarie S. Kidder, Northwestern University Press.
My experience of Rilke is that most translations fall somewhere between "not very good" and "extremely awful." I have to say, even with low expectations, this book is disappointing. It's poorly translated and contains glaring typographical errors.
Kidder follows the rhyme scheme often b...more
My experience of Rilke is that most translations fall somewhere between "not very good" and "extremely awful." I have to say, even with low expectations, this book is disappointing. It's poorly translated and contains glaring typographical errors.
Kidder follows the rhyme scheme often b...more
view all 4 comments
I read the forty pages of preface material and a bunch of the poems, and I was so hooked, I bought my own copy (a different version, which includes the German text as well), which I am using to really study the poems. The prefaces by each translator are marvelous. And the introduction that places the poems in the context of Rilke's life was concise and insightful. The translation notes were fascinating. Part of why I love this translation of the poems is that they are done by women, and women wi...more
I usually don't much like all the new translations of Rilke, but Barrows does a really good job of making these extraordinary, strange, and mystical poems retain their wildness in English. Very good.
I see why his work is loved. Here are three of the many passages I liked:
I love the hours when I’m blue, depressed,
my senses sharpened and I wide awake;
for then I have found, as in letters of late,
my future life lived out like stories
and lived out at best.
These hours give me assurance that I have
the room for a second, much fuller life.
You see I want much.
Perhaps I want it all:
the dark that goes with any bottomless fall
and the sun-speckled climbing up.
I can’t believe this death spells drea...more
I love the hours when I’m blue, depressed,
my senses sharpened and I wide awake;
for then I have found, as in letters of late,
my future life lived out like stories
and lived out at best.
These hours give me assurance that I have
the room for a second, much fuller life.
You see I want much.
Perhaps I want it all:
the dark that goes with any bottomless fall
and the sun-speckled climbing up.
I can’t believe this death spells drea...more
Much interesting about Rilke’s attitude to God at this period. In paraphrase: - You are not where or what I have thought you to be. I create you. You need me as much as I need you. And oh, what will you do when I am gone? You are my heir, my protégé.
He writes, and this strikes one as signature:
I feel it now: there’s power in me
to grasp and give shape to my world.
I know that nothing has ever been real
without my beholding it.
All becoming has needed me.
my looking ripens things
and they come toward m...more
He writes, and this strikes one as signature:
I feel it now: there’s power in me
to grasp and give shape to my world.
I know that nothing has ever been real
without my beholding it.
All becoming has needed me.
my looking ripens things
and they come toward m...more
I came upon an old, now out-of-print edition of this (with a stained glass window on the cover...) in a library years ago, and almost wept among the stacks. I do not know what I feel about God...I subscribe to no formal religion at present, though I find myself uttering prayers now and again, or earnestly thanking *something* under my breath, so perhaps my half-belief is what causes these words to move me so, still. But perhaps it is the profound HUMANITY to be found in Rilke's lines, alongside...more
I have a different version/translation, of selected poems from "Das Stundenbuch" ..translated by Babette Deutsch.
http://www.amazon.com/Poems-Stundenbu...
The difference between her translations and those of others is amazing.. so powerful! The possibility of reading Rilke in the original should be enough incentive for me to work very hard on my German!
http://www.amazon.com/Poems-Stundenbu...
The difference between her translations and those of others is amazing.. so powerful! The possibility of reading Rilke in the original should be enough incentive for me to work very hard on my German!
rainer maria rilke is the poet's poet. he has a lot to say about God as more like a network or complex matrix of life rather than as an aged king with a crown. he also identifies the rot in modern society as is concerned deeply about the future of humanity, or whether humanity will even have a future. i am a fan of the work of joanna macy, and i also love poetry, so that's what led me to get this book, and i loved the book, as well as the various introductions, prefaces, and history of the great...more
Although the object of affection behind the poems were secular, the sentiments of love are universal, thus interpretation is subject to the reader.
One of my favorites:
Extinguish my eyes, I'll go on seeing you.
Seal my ears, I'll go on hearing you.
And without feet I can make my way to you,
without a mouth I can swear your name.
Break off my arms, I'll take hold of you
with my heart as with a hand.
Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.
And if you consume my brain with fire,
I'll feel you burn...more
One of my favorites:
Extinguish my eyes, I'll go on seeing you.
Seal my ears, I'll go on hearing you.
And without feet I can make my way to you,
without a mouth I can swear your name.
Break off my arms, I'll take hold of you
with my heart as with a hand.
Stop my heart, and my brain will start to beat.
And if you consume my brain with fire,
I'll feel you burn...more
The translators are a couple of Rilke groupies who seem surprised at the continued relevance of his poems (why?), yet also mess with the line breaks to make them more "contemporary." They also cut the poems up and reorder them on pretty specious grounds. While the poems read quite well in English, I wonder at the reasoning of translators who would retitle this work Love Poems to God.
One of my most beloved quotes:
"I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?"
Despite that, I really wasn't impressed with many of these poems. they struck me as too religious, just a more palatable way of describing the bible stories. Once in a while there is another g...more
"I live my life in widening circles
that reach out across the world.
I may not complete this last one
but I give myself to it.
I circle around God, around the primordial tower.
I’ve been circling for thousands of years
and I still don’t know: am I a falcon,
a storm, or a great song?"
Despite that, I really wasn't impressed with many of these poems. they struck me as too religious, just a more palatable way of describing the bible stories. Once in a while there is another g...more
Sometimes I go to the quiet dusty library corner in my mind where sunlight scatteres through aged glass and choose a thought to mull over. Apparently Rilke occupied this spot I thought was only mine..he does it so much better though. His thoughts and heart fly beyond human imagination and dwell in the deeply spiritual, where there is no sound only being and truth. He suspends a ticking clock..and the reader fully inhabits the moment. Rilke reminds me of an Impressionist painter of the master cla...more
I am a fan of Joanna Macy, so this review is a little biased. I love this translation, and I find it much more accessible than other translations of Rilke's Book of Hours. My favorite line is "I live my life in widening circles." Barrows and Macy are able to evoke poetic imagery and spirit of the poem in the translation. I know Barrows is a poet herself and Macy is an explorer of the poetry of now, presence on the moment, which is a great combination in bringing something new to Rilke's poetry i...more
"And God said to me, Paint:
Time is the canvas
stretched by my pain:
the wounding of woman,
the brothers’ betrayal,
the city’s sad bacchanals,
the madness of kings.
And God said to me, Go forth:
For I am king of time.
But to you I am only the shadowy one who knows with you your loneliness and sees through your eyes. "
Time is the canvas
stretched by my pain:
the wounding of woman,
the brothers’ betrayal,
the city’s sad bacchanals,
the madness of kings.
And God said to me, Go forth:
For I am king of time.
But to you I am only the shadowy one who knows with you your loneliness and sees through your eyes. "
A friend loaned me this right before I was caught with insomnia in a haunted attic. I read it through three times that night- and believe it's one of those books that found me a the perfect time.
"Maybe you don't know what the nights are like for people who can't sleep. They all feel guilty..."
Honest and original.
"Maybe you don't know what the nights are like for people who can't sleep. They all feel guilty..."
Honest and original.
Aside from the fact that the translators took undeserved liberties, the poems represented (and should I say this translation only loosely represents the poems) are some of my favorite Rilke poems.
Buy a different translation!
Buy a different translation!
The Book of Hours in other translations is definitely worth the read, however, this translation is unadulterated rubbish. Find a M.D. Herter Norton or Edward Snow versions if you plan to dive into this.
I first read this in a college poetry class. Rilke's writing is painfully beautiful. He truly gives himself over to God, with all of his human fear and ugliness intact. Magnificent.
I love this version -- Joanna Macy (environmentalist/Buddhist/nuclear activist/grief educator) is one of the translators. Each poem is just breathtaking. Rilke was a seeker.
I think I'm not sufficiently metaphysically inclined to appreciate this one. Many of the images and sentiments evoked are lovely, just not my preferred cup of tea.
THIS is in it:
For we are only the rind and the leaf.
The great death, that each of us carries inside,
is the fruit.
Everything enfolds it.
Oh. My. Goodness. This is, I believe, my favorite book of poetry. Certainly the best book I have read in a while. Stunning and lovely.
I always find something nourishing and uplifting in Rilke's poems. This collection is my favourite of the collections of his work.
I don't think I will ever stop reading this book. It touches my heart and opens my mind in new ways every time I open it.
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Rainer Maria Rilke is considered one of the German language's greatest 20th century poets.
His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety — themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.
He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. His two mos...more
More about Rainer Maria Rilke...
His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety — themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.
He wrote in both verse and a highly lyrical prose. His two mos...more
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“I live my life in widening circles That reach out across the world.”
—
273 people liked it
“I am circling around God, around the ancient tower, and I have been circling for a thousand years, and I still don't know if I am a falcon, or a storm, or a great song.”
—
190 people liked it
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