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71st out of 160 books
—
79 voters
Duino Elegies/The Sonnets of Orpheus
Long considered the definitive English translation of Rilke’s brilliant and haunting masterworks, A. Poulin’s edition of Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus provides an essential introduction to some of the most passionate and intensely creative visionary poetry of the twentieth century. With a new foreword by the esteemed poet Mark Doty and a fresh new design, Poulin...more
Paperback, 224 pages
Published
April 20th 2005
by Mariner Books
(first published 1923)
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Mar 04, 2012
Adam Floridia
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
discovered-thanks-to-goodreads
I've never really liked poetry unless I'm teaching it because only then do I take the time to appreciate it. Yet, even without deep analysis so many poems can elicit immediate visceral responses to poignant imagery and intense emotion. For that reason, I've decided to make this Jameson's bedtime reading :-)
Different poems have different effects on his slumber:
Some cause him to think deeply
Others drive him into hiding
Some inspire a triumphant cheer
And others he just fucking hates
Finally, some are...more
Different poems have different effects on his slumber:
Some cause him to think deeply
Others drive him into hiding
Some inspire a triumphant cheer
And others he just fucking hates
Finally, some are...more
Yesterday our campus bookstore had a sale and so I went and bought books including this one. Then instead of doing math homework I laid in the grass and read Rilke out loud to myself for two hours. I didn't mind that my throat got dry after a while.
2 likes · like · see review
Probably the most infuriating book of poetry I've ever read, perhaps will ever read. The highs and lows are so dizzyingly high and so mind-numbingly, banally low that I couldn't always keep pace. The first and tenth elegies were high, the other elegies interesting and beautiful, if you can stomach the whole whiney little boy thing he falls into occasionally, and his affection for idiot-metaphysics ('Sein Aufgang ist Dasein' and so forth). Many of the sonnets, however, are appalling. Once Rilke d...more
I'm sorry. I really am. I really wanted to love this book, since I love poetry and I have read some excerpts of other works of Rainer Maria Rilke and I thought they were pretty interesting.
But I just couldn't bring myself to appreciate this one.
I consider myself an erudite/educate person, however you prefer to call it but I have to admit that I spent most of the time extremely confused.
I couldn't understand what was that the author wanted to transmit with the metaphors and chains of imagery he u...more
But I just couldn't bring myself to appreciate this one.
I consider myself an erudite/educate person, however you prefer to call it but I have to admit that I spent most of the time extremely confused.
I couldn't understand what was that the author wanted to transmit with the metaphors and chains of imagery he u...more
Poulin's translation makes certain different choices than I might. For example, "Weltsraum" tends to become "cosmic space". This material is certainly susceptible to New Age or deep-ecology readings; my own, naturally, tend to be more para-Christian than anything. Matter of taste perhaps. At a technical level, on the other hand, I have to admire Poulin managing to keep an English sonnet rhyme scheme in his translations while still keeping a sense of the German's freedom.
All that said, the point...more
All that said, the point...more
Translated and read by Stephen Mitchell. I love Rilke so instead of commenting on the poems, I'll kvetch a little about some of the shortfalls of audiobooks. In book form, does this translation have an introduction? Explanatory notes? A facing page in the original German? In addition to the pretty clear sense at times of not getting the whole book, I also wonder how to convert audio duration to pages. It doesn't trouble me that much, but I find myself more drawn to novels as I peruse audiobooks....more
Apr 11, 2009
Kent
rated it
5 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Shelves:
german-poetry,
poetry-1900-1940
I wish I was fancy enough to comment on this translation versus others. Alas, I am not fancy. Only deeply impressed by Rilke's elegies. I had read them before and enjoyed the terrifying angel, and Rilke's observation that terror must be attendant to beauty. But this reading, oh, this reading. If I had the eyes and mentality of an animal I might be able to do justice to all that is beautiful here. But I am only too human.
şaire haksızlık etmek istemem ama çeviriler bence şiir kitapları için yetersiz kalıyor. yanlış anlaşılmasın çevirmenin de burda bir hatası olduğunu düşünmüyorum. fakat ne kadar okursam okuyayım şiirdeki ahengi bütünde bulamıyorum. ben de ahenkli bulduğum satırlarla yetinmeye çalışıyorum.
Böyle saklamak istiyorum seni, kendini aynaya koyduğu gibi, en içine ve her şeyden uzağa. Rilke
Böyle saklamak istiyorum seni, kendini aynaya koyduğu gibi, en içine ve her şeyden uzağa. Rilke
Rainer Maria Rilke is one of my all-time favorite poets - an artist of stunningly original gifts. I always read his work in German, which is a special gift, because although I have translated his work myself, so much of the original genius is untranslatable. Nonetheless, I recommend that everyone give the English a try and glance now and then at the German originals.
Roger Housden's "ten poems to change your live again & again" begins with Part Two, XII of Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpheus." Housden includes this sonnet (from a translation by Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy) and then explicates the poem, commenting on it from his own life experience.
Reading this particular sonnet led to get a copy of all the "Sonnets to Orpheus," dual language edition with the German translated by Stephen Mitchell, from the public library. Although my German proficiency is weak...more
Reading this particular sonnet led to get a copy of all the "Sonnets to Orpheus," dual language edition with the German translated by Stephen Mitchell, from the public library. Although my German proficiency is weak...more
A dear friend of mine had told me about Rilke. This is my second book of poetry and I absolutely love Rilke's poems. This book is great because it has the orginal poems in German (I so wish I knew German) and the translation in English.
My favorite poem in this collection is Duino Elegies. They are amazing. If you love poetry I highly recommend Rikle.
My favorite poem in this collection is Duino Elegies. They are amazing. If you love poetry I highly recommend Rikle.
I apologize. I don't speak German, and I just don't understand this. The chains of images don't always follow from one another, and, rather than extending metaphors, he just mixes them. I do not enjoy being confused, much less being confused every single page. It felt like reading Gibran or Ashbery, and had me running back to Keats. I'd rather read a cookbook--at least it's lucid.
I loved the First Elegy, but everything afterward annoyed the hell out of me. Taken one phrase at a time, a lot of what Rilke has to say is interesting, and he does seem to have a way with words (if the translation is anywhere close to the original German), but the little frightened mama's boy that starts to emerge is a very unattractive figure, and seen in that light his intellectual exercises seem like hollow replacements for real living. Maybe I just wasn't getting it. It seems like every tim...more
Apr 23, 2008
Jake
rated it
3 of 5 stars
·
review of another edition
Recommends it for:
Poets, lost souls, hippies with a bent for the bookshelf
I suspect I would have gotten a lot more out of this book, on an emotional level, were I more poetically-inclined/-informed/-etc. As it is, what few poems I understood intellectually were outstanding.
This is one of those new-fangled high-speed books printed in dual languages. The English translations of the German, the few times I checked them, were both poetically and semantically sound.
I know a huge number of people have gained great insight from reading Rilke's poetic output—but I guess I'm n...more
This is one of those new-fangled high-speed books printed in dual languages. The English translations of the German, the few times I checked them, were both poetically and semantically sound.
I know a huge number of people have gained great insight from reading Rilke's poetic output—but I guess I'm n...more
Read and reread the Elegies in different translations from the library. Decided to buy this particular translation for my bookshelf.
From the Sonnets,
"Oh where are we? Freer and freer,
like kites torn loose, tattered by wind,
we race midair, edged with laughter."
From the Sonnets,
"Oh where are we? Freer and freer,
like kites torn loose, tattered by wind,
we race midair, edged with laughter."
A constant companion.
Rilke's verse has been attempted by many a translator (Edward Snow and Stephen Mitchell are favorites), but not one has truly approached the master himself. For the Greeks, the poet was a "maker" (poeites) who coaxed new creations out of language. Rilke does not merely create from language; he recreates language itself, bending the rigid German language into fluid shapes, startling sounds. For these final poems to the Angel and to Orpheus, Lorca's poem "Abajo" might serve as...more
Rilke's verse has been attempted by many a translator (Edward Snow and Stephen Mitchell are favorites), but not one has truly approached the master himself. For the Greeks, the poet was a "maker" (poeites) who coaxed new creations out of language. Rilke does not merely create from language; he recreates language itself, bending the rigid German language into fluid shapes, startling sounds. For these final poems to the Angel and to Orpheus, Lorca's poem "Abajo" might serve as...more
سوگندنامه و اشعار راينر ماريا ريلكه
جدا افتادن و تنها شدن شبيه باراناند.
از روی اقيانوسها بالا میرود به سوی غروب:
از روی دشتها، چرخزنان و دور،
بالا
به آسمان، خانهی ديريناش.
بر ما میبارد در آن ساعات چهچهه
وقتی خيابانها صورت خود را به سوی صبح میگردانند
و وقتی دو تن که هيچ پيدا نکردند
ناکام و افسرده، دور خود میچرخند:
و وقتی دو تن که همدگر را تحقير میکنند
مجبورند در يک رختخواب با هم بخوابند.
جدا افتادن و تنها شدن شبيه باراناند.
از روی اقيانوسها بالا میرود به سوی غروب:
از روی دشتها، چرخزنان و دور،
بالا
به آسمان، خانهی ديريناش.
بر ما میبارد در آن ساعات چهچهه
وقتی خيابانها صورت خود را به سوی صبح میگردانند
و وقتی دو تن که هيچ پيدا نکردند
ناکام و افسرده، دور خود میچرخند:
و وقتی دو تن که همدگر را تحقير میکنند
مجبورند در يک رختخواب با هم بخوابند.
Both of these books are translations, but try to get the translations from Edward Snow. Ellen Bass told me he is one of the very best translators for Rilke.
One of my all-time favorites. I will continue to read the Duino Elegies until the day I die. Amazing. I'll post more of a review later.
Elegies one, four, five, nine and ten have been constant companions on many travels both here and further afield. I adore Rilke; his words create imagery that transcend time and place.
Dad read this to me at bedtime see . I must admit...it did put me to sleep.
One of the best translations I've read. Al Poulin would make Rilke sing to all his terrifying angels.
Something is definitely lost in translation. I have no doubt that Stephen Mitchell is the anglo authority on Rilke, and this is probably as good as it gets, but all I could think is that I really need to learn German to appreciate the original (not to mention also getting around to reading my favourite book Das Parfum in its original language...) I've come to realize that I don't like reading translations of poetry. The only exception being Baudelaire, translated by Poe (and vice-versa - check i...more
but you really need to read the German. All the salt and dirt is gone from the English.
In a side-by-side this seemed the best translation...intro by Mark Doty is wonderful.
This book is astounding. I can't believe myself for not reading it sooner. POETRY.
the robert hunter trans. of this book is awesome.
The ninth elegy is my favorite poem of all time.
I'm completely in love with him.
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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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“Praise the world to the angel, not what can’t be talked about.
You can’t impress him with your grand emotions. In the grand cosmos
where he so intensely feels, you’re just a novice. So show
him some simple thing shaped for generation after generation
until it lives in our hands and in our eyes, and it’s ours.
Tell him about things. He’ll stand amazed, just as you did
beside the ropemaker in Rome or the potter on the Nile.
Show him how happy a thing can be, how innocent and ours;
how even grief’s lament purely determines its own shape,
serves as a thing, or dies in a thing — and escapes
In ecstasy beyond the violin.”
—
2 people liked it
You can’t impress him with your grand emotions. In the grand cosmos
where he so intensely feels, you’re just a novice. So show
him some simple thing shaped for generation after generation
until it lives in our hands and in our eyes, and it’s ours.
Tell him about things. He’ll stand amazed, just as you did
beside the ropemaker in Rome or the potter on the Nile.
Show him how happy a thing can be, how innocent and ours;
how even grief’s lament purely determines its own shape,
serves as a thing, or dies in a thing — and escapes
In ecstasy beyond the violin.”
“Jubilation knows and Longing grants —
only Lament still learns; with girlish hands
she counts the ancient evil through the nights.
But suddenly, unpracticed and askant,
she lifts one of our voice’s constellations
Into the sky unclouded by her breath.”
—
1 person liked it
More quotes…
only Lament still learns; with girlish hands
she counts the ancient evil through the nights.
But suddenly, unpracticed and askant,
she lifts one of our voice’s constellations
Into the sky unclouded by her breath.”
Feb 22, 2012 07:07am
Feb 22, 2012 07:19am