Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria Rilke (Modern Library)
by Rainer Maria Rilke
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At one point, I must have had every Rilke book that was translated into English. He is simply amazing. I ended up bequeathing the collection to a friend, who also felt the same about him. This book has been a wonderful companion and is always close at hand. I love the translations and the inter-paginated German and English. It has all of his major works, including Sonnets to Orpheus and The Duino Elegies. It also has plenty of poems, prose, and tons of great end-notes from his personal let...more
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Read in May, 2006
recommends it for:
artists and astronomers
This is the first book in my life that I read cover to cover twice in a row, and there is still more depth to explore.
I read every line, let it sink into my mind and arouse emotion fully. I believe this is called surrender.
Rilke is a very obvious existentialist. There is a fundamental quality to his writing and to his topics that make each metaphor matter.
Beware - he does not think of angels in the Christian sense, nor does he speak of God in the Christian sense. However I felt...more
I read every line, let it sink into my mind and arouse emotion fully. I believe this is called surrender.
Rilke is a very obvious existentialist. There is a fundamental quality to his writing and to his topics that make each metaphor matter.
Beware - he does not think of angels in the Christian sense, nor does he speak of God in the Christian sense. However I felt...more
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"Yes, the springtime were in need of you. Often a star
waited for you to espy it and sense its light.
A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past,
or as you walked below an open window,
a violin gave itself to your hearing.
All this was trust. But could you manage it?
Were you not always distraught by expectation,
as if all this were announcing the arrival
of a beloved? (Where would you find a place
to hide her, with all your great strange thoughts
coming and going and often...more
waited for you to espy it and sense its light.
A wave rolled toward you out of the distant past,
or as you walked below an open window,
a violin gave itself to your hearing.
All this was trust. But could you manage it?
Were you not always distraught by expectation,
as if all this were announcing the arrival
of a beloved? (Where would you find a place
to hide her, with all your great strange thoughts
coming and going and often...more
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Lovestruck poetry at its finest. Admonishingly adorned with prescient, melancholy observation transmogrified into solemnly amorous combinations of symbols; Rilke's poetry and prose is sad, intelligent and, a common result of the partnership of those two qualities, beautiful.
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Read in January, 1999
This is Stephen Mitchell's translation. I wish I could read the original. So far, I prefer Mitchell's translations to others I have read.
I especially liked the prose translations.
I'd like to hear other thoughts re: whose translations of Rilke are "best" and why.
I especially liked the prose translations.
I'd like to hear other thoughts re: whose translations of Rilke are "best" and why.
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this man saved my life in 1999. love him. haven't read this yet but knowing it has been in my collection has been more than a comfort even still. love him. bedtime reading
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recommended to Grace by:
Jed
Read most of it, here and there...it led me to other things by Rilke which I LOVED.
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recommends it for:
Anyone
Desert island book. Beautiful, thoughtful, this man is a genius.
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Read in January, 2006
"You must change your life"--and this book should do it for you.
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translated by stephen mitchell... best translations of rilke
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