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Letters to a Young Poet

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Joan M. Burnham (Translation), Kent Nerburn (Foreword)

4.35 of 5 stars 4.35 · rating details · 12,859 ratings · 995 reviews

These have been called the most famous and beloved letters of the 20th century. Rainer Maria Rilke himself said that much of his creative expression went into his correspondence, and here he touches upon subjects that will interest writers, artists, and thinkers. Letters to a Young Poet is a classic that should be read by everyone who dreams of expressing themselves creati...more

Hardcover, 114 pages

Published March 7th 2000 by New World Library (first published 1929)

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Mar 08, 2013 s.penkevich rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: Anyone who desires to write

Recommended to s.penkevich by: Rakhi Dalal

Shelves: the_write_mind, favorites

‘Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.’

Rainer Maria Rilke puts forth the question ‘must I write?’ in these letters from the great poet to the unknown Mr. Kappus. ‘Dig into yourself for a deep answer,’ he tells the young poet, ‘and if this answer rights out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity.’ Letters To A Young Poet, written between 1903-08, contains some of the mo...more ‘Go into yourself and see how deep the place is from which your life flows.’

Rainer Maria Rilke puts forth the question ‘must I write?’ in these letters from the great poet to the unknown Mr. Kappus. ‘Dig into yourself for a deep answer,’ he tells the young poet, ‘and if this answer rights out in assent, if you meet this solemn question with a strong, simple “I must”, then build your life in accordance with this necessity.’ Letters To A Young Poet, written between 1903-08, contains some of the most passionately moving words of encouragement and examination into the life of an artist. Rilke advises that ‘a work of art is good if it has risen out of necessity’, that they must feel they ‘would have to die if you were forbidden to write.’ From there, he instructs towards the soul-searching life of solitude which best cultivates the artists gift. With powerful prose that often reaches the same sublime peaks found in his poetry, these magnanimous, heart-felt letters are some the most empowering words of wisdom into undertaking of the arts as well as an impressive portrait of Rilke himself.

It is difficult to accurately explain the powers of transcendence contained in these letters. What is especially difficult is to do so in the realm of reviewing, a sort of critique that bastardizes the original message by having it be received tainted from my amateur perspective as it passes through me¹, as Rilke himself cautions against reading any sort of literary criticism, positive or negative in his very first letter.

’Nothing touches a work of art so little as words of criticism: they always result in more or less fortunate misunderstandings. Things aren’t all so tangible and sayable as people would usually have us believe; most experience is unsayable, they happen in a space that no word has ever entered, and more unsayable than all other things are works of art, those mysterious existences, whose life endures beside our own small, transitory life.

While, as Rilke point out, the ethereal joys brought about in me while reading this are ineffable, I would still like to take a few moments of your time to discuss how beautiful these letters are. It is a sort of minor-key beauty, spending much time navigating through the implications of solitude and painful soul-searching, yet it elevates the heart to such high levels and is sure to make anyone reach for a pen in order to try their own hand at poetry.

‘We know little, but that we must trust in what is difficult is a certainty that will never abandon us,’ Rilke writes. Constantly he tries to impress upon the young poet that the road to greatness is a difficult, lonely path, and that any meandering towards what is easy is destined to lead to failure or mediocrity. ‘It is good to be solitary, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult must be one more reason for us to do it.’ In the Bukowski poem How to be a Good Writer, he examines the life of those he considers great and asks :

remember the old dogs
who fought so well:
Hemingway, Celine, Dostoevsky, Hamsun.
If you think they didn't go crazy
in tiny rooms
just like you're doing now
without women
without food
without hope
then you're not ready.

This is merely a more blunt and coarse explanation of Rilke’s own sentiments. While it may seem a frightening truth, that we must always take the hard road, and that we must seek solitude in ourselves to mine the gold buried within us, that we may reach a point of near-madness, he presents it as such a beautiful gift, a place of inner turmoil that is bliss to the writer because it is how language is able to take root in our souls and grow.

’What is necessary, after all, is only this: solitude, vast inner solitude. To walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours – that is what you must be able to attain. To be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grownups walked around involved with matters that seemed large and important because they looked so busy and because you didn’t understand a thing about what they were doing.’

Rilke advises that childhood is one of the richest places to seek ourselves and our inspirations. Not only to call forth our dusty memories and let language polish and remold them into something remarkable, but to use a childlike ‘not-understanding’ to best examine the world.

‘Why should you want to give up a child’s wise not-understanding in exchange for defensiveness and scorn, since not-understanding is, after all, a way of being alone, whereas defensiveness and scorn are a participation in precisely what, by these means, you want to separate yourself from.

What really stood out to me about Rilke was his utter humbleness. Rilke responds to Kappus as if Kappus were the most important person in the world, and he begins each letter with an honest apology for the delay in his responses. Rilke remains ever humble in his words, and though he offers brilliant, shining insights, suggestions and long investigations on a variety of topics beyond writing (God, love – especially his distaste for those who mistake lust for love and how it damages the artistic heart, Rome, paintings, etc.), he never asserts himself as anything but a man with no answers, only direction. He reminds Kappus ‘Don’t think the person who is trying to comfort you now lives untroubled among the simple and quiet words that sometimes give you pleasure. His life has much trouble and sadness…’. We all face our anxieties day by day, and even those we look up and even idolize were never able to reach perfection. We are all human, and Rilke manages to both send us reaching for the heavens while still remaining firmly grounded here on the Earth.

This is a fantastic short collection for anyone with any interest in writing. It is one of the most beautifully empowering books I have ever read and reminds the reader of the mindset they must accept in order to let the arts flourish in the soil of their souls. Whatever the topic he discusses, it is wholly pleasant to be immersed in the flow of his writing - each word is a warm embrace. While the letters are intended for Mr. Kappus alone, and his side of the conversation is missing, the message is universal. From the man who wrote some of the finest poetry of the 20th century, this book should be read by everyone before they pick up a pen to write (the same goes for Sorrentino’s Imaginative Qualities of Actual Things, but that is a discussion for another time). I’m surprised this isn’t required reading in all freshman college literature courses. This is truly a gift of writing, it sustained a smile across by face the entire time.
5/5

'Just the wish that you may find in yourself enough patients to endure and enough simplicity to have faith; that you may gain more and more confidence in what is difficult and in your solitude among other people. And as for the rest, let life happen to you. Believe me: life is in the right, always.'

¹ For more on the corruption of literature through any attempt at interpretation or criticism, I highly recommend reading Susan Sontag essay Against Interpretation (thank you to Mike for showing me this essay). Also, for further reading on the distortion of Rilke’s words, William H. Gass has his take on translating the great poet: Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation

(less)

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May 16, 2013 Fionnuala rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Dear Mr Rilke,
How can I thank you enough for these marvelously heartfelt letters, full of inspiration, beauty and wisdom. They are a glorious gift, a gospel of wonderful words which I will follow all the days of my life.

Dear Reader,
If there is one thing I would say to you, it is to caution you against immoderation, against lavish and excessive language. When you write, try to say what you really feel and using the simplest language you know. Listen to the silence deep in your heart and begin th...more

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Aug 25, 2012 Riku Sayuj rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: reviews, favorites

The last book for the year. The soothing, gentle, unimposing yet wise voice of Rilke - what better way to fold up one more chapter in life and open another, with hope for more suffering and joys in apt measure. This little book has been my companion for four years now, always half-finished, and it feels strange to finally remove the bookmark and to keep it aside.

Read it with a forgiving bend. Keep in mind that Rilke never wrote them with an intention to publish, it was mostly an attempt to conve...more

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May 14, 2013 Denis rated it 5 of 5 stars

Recommended to Denis by: Britannie

Shelves: poetry

I started reading this book with the expectation that I would work my way through it quickly, but I ended up being driven through each letter by a hunger that had me finishing the whole thing in an hour. Among the many effects it had on me, I was left feeling humbled by the depth of what Rilke was able to express. He went far beyond simply addressing the concerns of how to be a true artist (though his insights in that respect were priceless), and he touched various inarticulate threads of my spi...more

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Nov 02, 2011 Evan rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, essay, __in-my-collection, my-faves, 2010-reads, philosophy, epistle-larry-approves

Sigh. Rilke answers nothing and answers everything.

He talks of our ancestors as being "murmuring blood." This book, containing the voice of his wisdom across the age, is blood that courses through us and speaks.

It offers comfort to me in the face of life's challenges, its unrequited longings. It helps me see the value of difficulties and the importance of patience.

I wish I'd read this many years ago. I think it would have given me guidance I needed, even if it didn't lead me away from mistakes....more

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May 31, 2010 AB rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Recommended to AB by: Mara Collins

Shelves: translations, letters, author-m, own, nonfiction

In which Rainer Maria Rilke, both mercilessly and mercifully, bashes me over the head with a baseball bat from the other side of the Great Whatever.

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Dec 02, 2012 Ie rated it 3 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: 2012

This book divides me, unequally.

So there's this younger me—college sophomore, terribly confused, desperate, and unconsolably depressed, who recites You Who Never Arrived during long, vespertine walks, and who sees poetry as a way to emancipate the soul: yes, that type—who sees Letters To A Young Poet as something immaculate, who might as well put the hundred-page paperback in a glass case, on top of a pedestal, and worship it every morning. He is the smaller half, perhaps fifteen, twenty percen...more

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Jan 31, 2013 midnightfaerie rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites, classics

Letters to a Young Poet by Rainer Maria Rilke was an excellent read and definitely one to put on my classics list. A short book that contains a collection of letters to a young poet, Rainer writes advice on anything from passion to love to life. The way he writes is exceptional, bringing an unusual beauty to his advice and a simplicity to his outlook on life. As you read it, you can't help but think, why this is obvious! Why didn't I think of it in this way before? An excellent read and a must f...more

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Sep 05, 2008 Ashley rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Be patient toward all that is unsolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves… do not seek the answers which cannot be given you because you would not be able to live them and the point is to live everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, live along some distant day into the answer."

I feel like this book has become a token gift for graduates, along with "Oh, the Places You'll Go!". But with good reason. Rilke's advice to his friend...more

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May 15, 2008 Michelle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I always underline in books, either for the wise quotes that teach or the pure beauty of the passage. About ten pages into this book, though, I gave up underlining as nearly every sentence was a combination of beauty and wisdom. These letters (to a young man he never even met!) are inspiring in their honesty, teaching to cherish your solitude, "to walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours... to be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grownups walked around involved with matt...more I always underline in books, either for the wise quotes that teach or the pure beauty of the passage. About ten pages into this book, though, I gave up underlining as nearly every sentence was a combination of beauty and wisdom. These letters (to a young man he never even met!) are inspiring in their honesty, teaching to cherish your solitude, "to walk inside yourself and meet no one for hours... to be solitary as you were when you were a child, when the grownups walked around involved with matters that seemed large and important because they looked so busy and because you didn't understand a thing about what they were doing."

A few gems:

"Loving does not at first mean merging, surrendering, and uniting with another person (for what would a union be of two people who are unclarified, unfinished, and still incoherent--?), it is a high inducement for the individual to ripen, to become something in himself, to become world, to become world in himself for the sake of another person; it is a great, demanding claim on him, something that chooses him and calls him to vast distances" (70).

"The future stands still, dear Mr. Kappus, but we move in infinite space" (86).

"We have no reason to harbor any mistrust against our world, for it is not against us. If it has terrors, they are our terrors; if it has abysses, these abysses belong to us; if there are dangers, we must try to love them. And if only we arrange our life in accordance with the principle which tells us that we must always trust in the difficult, when what now appears to us as the most alien will become our most intimate and trusted experience. How could we forget those ancient myths that stand at the beginning of all races, the myths about dragons that at the last moment are transofmred into princesses? Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love" (92). (less)

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Sep 05, 2007 Lani Barcenas rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone who seeks self-understanding and self-awareness

I was first acquainted with this book through an excerpt I heard in the tape of Beauty and the Beast, Love and Hope. It goes: "How should we be able to forget those ancient myths, those myths about dragons that at thelast moment turn into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses,who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrble is, in its deepest being, something helpless that wants help from us. So you must not be frightened when a sadnes...more I was first acquainted with this book through an excerpt I heard in the tape of Beauty and the Beast, Love and Hope. It goes: "How should we be able to forget those ancient myths, those myths about dragons that at thelast moment turn into princesses. Perhaps all the dragons of our lives are princesses,who are only waiting to see us once beautiful and brave. Perhaps everything terrble is, in its deepest being, something helpless that wants help from us. So you must not be frightened when a sadness rises up before you larger than any you have ever seen. Or a restiveness, like light and cloud shadows passes over your hand, and over all you do. You must think that life has not forgotten you. That it holds you in its hands. It will not let you fall."

That was one of my favorites in the tape, but that time I didn't know who wrote it. I would spend several hours poring over poetry books in bookstores to find out who wrote those beautiful and uplifting words. Then, I heard that excerpt again in a priest's sermon, one time when I was attending mass. The priest was talking about despair and darkness and he quoted those same words, saying it was written by Rainier Maria Rilke, one of Pope John Paul II's favorite poets. I found him in a church!

I eventually found Letters to a Young Poet and read the entire book straight. Reading it felt like being thirsty for so long and finally able to drink. You just want to drink and drink and drink. Most of what he wrote echoed what I have thought before, but was never sure whether those thoughts were right, or if they made sense in the real world. I especially like the part about the joys and pains of solitude, which I totally agree with. Others, I still did not understand, due to my own inexperience in life then. I was at the point of my life where I was starting to be independent, and was figuring out the direction I wanted to take.

From that time on, when I felt confused or sad or depressed about things, I would read Letters and find a profound consolation. Reading somebody's thoughts which almost echoes one's own, makes one feel less alone.

As I grew older and wiser, everytime I read Letters, it was like opening different doors of understanding. The words are the same, but it seems like he speaks to you in different ways, depending on your level of consciousness and comprehension. What is consistent, though, is the gentle comfort his words bring. (less)

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Mar 09, 2008 Katherine rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is so wonderful I just want to swallow its pages whole and die.

This is a collection of Rilke's letters/life lessons to a very young poet who worked up the courage to send him a few samples. The letters are profoundly wise, sincere and loving.

If you are a young poet, you should find a nice couch on which to swoon while reading them.

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Sep 27, 2012 Gene Ruyle rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone interested in writing

Shelves: literature

Rainer Maria Rilke's letters to a young poet written at the beginning of the 20th Century

In 1903, by choosing to answer a letter and some poems sent him by the nineteen-year-old Mr. Kappus, Rilke, who was then twenty-seven, initiated a five-year intermittent exchange of letters that became one of the most famous in world literature. The two men began by acknowledging solitude as both a burden and a gift, but even more as the foundation without which no genuine poetic work could ever emerge -- t...more
Rainer Maria Rilke's letters to a young poet written at the beginning of the 20th Century

In 1903, by choosing to answer a letter and some poems sent him by the nineteen-year-old Mr. Kappus, Rilke, who was then twenty-seven, initiated a five-year intermittent exchange of letters that became one of the most famous in world literature. The two men began by acknowledging solitude as both a burden and a gift, but even more as the foundation without which no genuine poetic work could ever emerge -- this solitude being the center around which their letters and their lives revolved and to which their discussions returned again and again.

Both men wrote out of that particular reality each was facing and dealing with at the time: Kappus, revealing himself to another human being as never before, out of his confusion and need for help; and Rilke, now with wife and child, starting to see for the first time how terribly great a distance was there both within and around him because of the individual at core he was. He feared it greatly and longed to be freed of the suffering it brought; he even touched on it in these letters, but though he finally came to see the kind of relating that would transcend it, he could not manage to arrive there.

The powerful themes of creativity and love arise, and insights are found here regarding both of these as profound as any to be found anywhere. As Pascal observed: "The ones we love the most are not those who give us something we did not have before, but those who show us the richness of what we already possess." That is certainly what Rilke was doing for Kappus: showing him the richness -- as well as the cost -- of fully acquiring that which he already possessed. And in doing that, Rilke was also speaking to himself as well.

What the two found is seen in what they wrote. Their efforts were rewarded. Will yours be in reading of theirs? What you will find, depends on whether you bring to the reading of their words that same fullness of living from your life that they brought to the writing of theirs. But there is, perhaps, a way of getting at least an inkling of whether reading the book would be worth your time. Try reading this:

"And if it frightens and torments you to think of childhood and of the simplicity and silence that accompanies it, because you can no longer believe in God, who appears in it everywhere, then ask yourself, dear Mr. Kappus, whether you have really lost God. Isn't it much truer to say that you have never yet possessed him? For when could that have been? Do you think that a child can hold him, him whom grown men bear only with great effort and whose weight crushes the old? Do you suppose that someone who really has him could lose him like a little stone? . . . But if you realize that he did not exist in your childhood, and did not exist previously, if you suspect that Christ was deluded by his yearning and Muhammad deceived by his pride -- and if you are terrified to feel that even now he does not exist, even at this moment when we are talking about him -- what justifies you then, if he never existed, in missing him like someone who has passed away and in searching for him as though he were lost?

"Why don't you think of him as the one who is coming, who has been approaching from all eternity, the one who will someday arrive . . . What keeps you from projecting his birth into the ages that are coming into existence, and living your life as a painful and lovely day in the history of a great pregnancy? Don't you see how everything that happens is again and again a beginning, and couldn't it be His beginning, since, in itself, starting is always so beautiful?"

Remember, this is only his prose. We've yet to cover the poetry that critics pro and con acknowledge extended the range of the whole German language, bringing forth melodies and a use of imagery in it that wasn't found there before. But if you find no such promise there as this, then I suggest you pass this book by and go on to other things that strike and stir you instead.

Of the numerous translations of Rilke's book into English, Stephen Mitchell's is the one I most prefer. For me, his comes closest to the common tongue, and has such a natural elegance to it that it lets Rilke's own shine through. Rilke's book speaks for itself, and Mitchell has the humility to let it. Enough said. (less)

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Sep 19, 2008 Rebecca rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: lovers of poetry and language

Shelves: classics, nonfiction

There are works that surface time and time again in cultural circles: film, literature, music, etc. One of these is Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. The young poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, is unremarkable in this set of letters as we never see the poems he sent to Rilke, nor do we see his end of the correspondence. Yet, what Kappus realizes, and so too the reader, is that his offerings are absolutely unnecessary because we see them through Rilke's eyes. Rilke readily assumes the mantle...more There are works that surface time and time again in cultural circles: film, literature, music, etc. One of these is Rainer Maria Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet. The young poet, Franz Xaver Kappus, is unremarkable in this set of letters as we never see the poems he sent to Rilke, nor do we see his end of the correspondence. Yet, what Kappus realizes, and so too the reader, is that his offerings are absolutely unnecessary because we see them through Rilke's eyes. Rilke readily assumes the mantle of humble mentor, dispensing pearls of wisdom in a language that teaches the young Kappus that not all poetry is written in stanzas.

One wonders if Rilke was indeed writing to the world. His replies to Kappus are lofty but sincere, and filled with passages that seem destined for quotation:

"Do not search now for the answers which cannot be given you because you could not live them. It is a matter of living everything. Live the questions now. Perhaps you will then gradually, without noticing it, one distant day live right into the answer."

For Rilke, bite-size gifts of mature sophistry (in the Classical sense of the word) will not suffice. In these letters to Kappus, Rilke seizes the opportunity to work out his own philosophy through provocative and probing questions. We learn that Kappus, during the course of his military service, has lost faith in God, and Rilke asks him, "Is it not much rather the case that you have never yet possessed him? ... Do you believe a child can hold him, him whom men bear only with difficulty, whose weight bows down on the aged?" Rilke is ready to be not only a literary mentor, but a theological counselor.

No subject is taboo for Rilke, who quite readily addresses sexual intimacy as he does some rather unconventional thoughts about women:

"Surely women, in whom life tarries and dwells more immediately, fruitfully and confidently, must have become fundamentally more mature human beings, more human human beings, than light man, whom the weight of no body's fruit pulls down beneath the surface of life, who, conceited and rash as he is, underrates what he thinks he loves."

Even in his criticisms of Kappus (both of his work and his character) he is ever gentle, crafting his words with the care of both poet and teacher. He is self-effacing, but sure in his prose. He tells the young Kappus: "And your doubt can become a good quality if you train it. It must become aware, it must become criticism." However, in the four year gap between the letter that contained those words and what would be his last letter to Kappus, we see that his final offering is tinged by reality and somewhat removed from the more romantic musings of his earlier letters:

"Art too is only a way of living, and one can prepare for it, living somehow, without knowing it; in everything real one is a closer, nearer neighbour to it than in the unreal semi-artistic professions which, while they make show of a relatedness to art, in practice deny and attack the existence of all art, as for instance the whole of journalism does, and almost all criticism and three quarters of what calls itself and likes to be called literature. I am glad, in a word, that you have overcome the danger of ending up there, and remain solitary and courageous somewhere in a raw reality."

As the translator comments, Kappus did indeed end up "there," publishing several "cheap popular novels." But in the end, the debt to Kappus is greater than his debt to, or at least reverence for, Rilke. The letters capture the spirit of a man, not yet old, but weathered by experience. In Kappus' military station Rilke saw much of himself, having been pressured to enter a military academy at a young age. We get a sense that Rilke is writing to a younger version of himself, encouraging the hope and youth that inspired him to write in his poem, "To Celebrate Myself":

I long to be a garden at whose fountains
my thronging dreams would pluck themselves new blooms.

A reader of Rilke's letters will indeed be ready to grasp a garden full of blooms.(less)

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Sep 03, 2010 Abailart rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I have a nice 1950 hardback version given to me. I read and liked the goodread reviews. A few of my own favourite extracts:

"...read as few aesthetic-critical things as possible - they are either partisan opinion become hardened and meaningless in their lifeless petrification or else they are a skilful play upon words, in which one view is uppermost today and its opposite tomorrow." (Letter III)

"One must in general be so careful with names; it is so often the name of a misdeed upon which a life i...more

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Feb 19, 2013 Nick rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Having just read and written the review for the book Steal Like an Artist, it’s funny to write the review for this, Rilke’s version. The difference? One writer is a nice, smart guy who quotes geniuses, and one writer is a genius. Rilke’s empathy, humility, and passion are palpable on every page. Rilke cares about art—not as some “fun” thing you do in your spare time, but as a MISSION, as the more important thing you could possibly do with yourself. He’s trying to change lives with his art—and tr...more

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Jul 24, 2011 Cynthia . rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: favorites

This book is my lifebuoy.

Rainer Maria Rilke's letters to Franz Kappus, an aspiring poet confined in a military academy, served as my motivation to writing and to moving forward in life.

His 7th letter made a great impact on my understanding about love and relationships. This is an excerpt:

It is also good to love: because love is difficult.

For one human being to love another human being: that is perhaps the most difficult task that has been entrusted to us, the ultimate task, the final test and...more

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Sep 11, 2009 Angie rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: previously-read, university, poetry

There are some books for which reviews are pointless. These books, instead of the reader selecting them from the shelf and listening to them as they unfold along their merry or unmerry way as they have before and always will, select the reader, at the right time, in the right place, like an old or a new friend who shows up just as the reader is on the verge of losing all hope and faith, pinned underneath the great questions of our times and battling their own monsters which threaten to swallow t...more

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Feb 26, 2008 May rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

rainer maria rilke is a name i've been admiring for years without ever attempting to even pronounce it. "rainer maria rilke", i don't know why but all these letters placed together look perfect to me. a small poem in itself. as when neil wrote "two sun nine".
briefly about the letters:
something i wish i had read when i was fifteen or so, not that his advices are not pertinent anymore, but that it would have been quite beneficial at the time to hear them, reassuring, motivating, enlightening.
als...more rainer maria rilke is a name i've been admiring for years without ever attempting to even pronounce it. "rainer maria rilke", i don't know why but all these letters placed together look perfect to me. a small poem in itself. as when neil wrote "two sun nine".
briefly about the letters:
something i wish i had read when i was fifteen or so, not that his advices are not pertinent anymore, but that it would have been quite beneficial at the time to hear them, reassuring, motivating, enlightening.
also that at times i could hardly focus on the reading because my brain was too stimulated by what i had just read, and wandered on to thinking about future projects. very inspiring in this way.

here are two of my favorite passages:
"But please, ask yourself whether these large sadnesses haven't rather gone right through you. Perhaps many things inside you have been transformed; perhaps somewhere, deep inside your being, you have undergone important changes while you were sad. The only sadnesses that are dangerous and unhealthy are the ones that we carry around in public in order to drown them out with the noise; like diseases that are treated superficially and foolishly, they just withdraw and after a short interval break out again all the more terribly; and gather inside us and are life, are life that is unlived, rejected, lost, life that we can die of. If only it were possible for us to see farther than our knowledge reaches, and even a little beyond the outworks of our presentiment, perhaps we would bear our sadnesses with greater trust than we have in our joys. For they are the moments when something new has entered us, something unknown; our feelings grow mute in shy embarrassment, everything in us withdraws, a silence arises, and the new experience, which no one knows, stands in the midst of it all and says nothing."

(remember this below was written in 1904)
"...Women, in whom life lingers and dwells more immediately , more fruitfully, and more confidently, must surely have become riper and more human in their depths than light, easygoing man, who is not pulled down beneath the surface of life by the weight of any bodily fruit and who, arrogant and hasty, undervalues what he thinks he loves. This humanity of woman, carried in her womb through all her suffering and humiliation, will come to light when she has stripped off the conventions of mere femaleness in the transformations of her outward status, and those men who do not yet feel it approaching will be astonished by it. Someday (and even now, especially in the countries of northern Europe, trustworthy signs are already speaking and shining), someday there will be girls and women whose name will no longer mean the mere opposite of the male, but something in itself, something that makes one think not of any complement and limit, but only of life and reality: the female human being.

This advance (at first very much against the will of the outdistanced men) will transform the love experience, which is now filled with error, will change it from the ground up, and reshape it into a relationship that is meant to be between one human being and another, no longer one that flows from man to woman. And this more human love (which will fulfill itself with infinite consideration and gentleness, and kindness and clarity in binding and releasing) will resemble what we are now preparing painfully and with great struggle: the love that consists in this: that two solitudes protect and border and greet each other."(less)

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May 12, 2007 Matthew Kiel rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Letters to A Young Poet is a correspondence between Rainer Maria Rilke (German lyrical poet) and Franz Xaver Kappus (A young struggling student). I was given this book by a good friend while I was teaching English in Belmead, TX (a small urban community north of Waco). This book came to me in a time when I was struggling with life and needed some encouragement to show me that what I was doing was needed and necessary. This book gave me that and more.

The dialogue between these two men is incredi...more

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Oct 15, 2007 Daniel rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: everyone

Irony: Don't let yourself be controlled by it, especially during uncreative moments. When you are fully creative, try to use it, as one more way to take hold of life. Used purely, it too is pure, and one needn't be ashamed of it; but if you feel yourself becoming too familiar with it, if you are afraid of this growing familiarity, then turn to great and serious objects, in front of which it becomes small and helpless. Search into the depths of Things: there, irony never descends - and when you a...more

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May 03, 2013 Ingrid Joselyne rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

"Las cosas no son tan comprensibles y descriptibles como generalmente se nos quiere hacer creer. La mayor parte de los acontecimientos son indecibles; se consuman en un ámbito en el que jamás ha penetrado palabra alguna, y más indecibles que todo son las obras de arte, existencias misteriosas cuya vida perdura, al contrario de la nuestra, que pasa".

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Mar 31, 2008 Mary Katherine McMullen rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

What I liked the most about this book is that in nearly every letter to the young poet, Rilke promotes the poet to search himself and thrive in his own solitude. Rilke's letters of honesty to the young poet resound with me because he advises the poet but does not demand that his young protege do anything other than embrace all that solitude brings to him, to understand the difficulty of solitude, and to realize that the difficult is more fulfilling than any other endevour the young poet could po...more

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May 29, 2007 Sarah rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition Recommends it for: anyone and everyone, even if you aren't an aspiring poet

"have patience with everything unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves, as if they were locked rooms or books written in a very foreign language. don't search for the answers, which could not be given to you now, because you would not be able to live them. and the point is to live everything. live the question now. perhaps then, some day far in the future, you will gradually, without even noticing it, live your way into the answer."

I can find inspiration on every page....more

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Nov 13, 2011 Kasem Kharsa rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

I was inspired to read this because of an article at the 99% website about Rilke's letters. The book is a collection of ten letters he wrote to a young aspiring poet who was at a crossroads in his life, trying to choose between the uncertainty of a poet's life and a military career. His letters are compassionate and inspiring, highlighting the trials and tribulations of being an artist but also the intrinsic rewards of staying the course. The fact he took the time over the course of ten years to...more

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Apr 21, 2013 jeremy rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Shelves: poetry, translation

composed while in his late 20s, the ten letters that make up letters to a young poet were likely never considered by rilke for publication. his epistolary companion, franz kappus, a young aspiring poet torn between military service and the pursuit of a literary career, published these missives a few years following rilke's death. probably amongst the most read (and quoted) of rilke's work, letters offers candid counsel that still seems relevant today (especially, perhaps, for those young enough...more composed while in his late 20s, the ten letters that make up letters to a young poet were likely never considered by rilke for publication. his epistolary companion, franz kappus, a young aspiring poet torn between military service and the pursuit of a literary career, published these missives a few years following rilke's death. probably amongst the most read (and quoted) of rilke's work, letters offers candid counsel that still seems relevant today (especially, perhaps, for those young enough to be confronting angst and existential dread for the very first time). writing about solitude, creativity, sadness, love, relationships, loneliness, god, poetry, and the pitfalls of criticism, rilke offers words of comfort, insight, wisdom, and hard truth to his young admirer. one needn't be longing for a career in the poetic arts to find value in this slim volume, however.

it is unfortunate that kappus's own correspondences are not included (if in fact rilke ever even kept them), as it would have provided some context to rilke's replies. from what we can infer, young kappus almost seems like he could have been a pre-adulthood incarnation of one of fernando pessoa's heteronymic creations (maybe bernardo soares or ricardo reis).

the future stands still, dear mr. kappus, but we move in infinite space.

~

perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.

~

we must accept our reality as vastly as we possibly can; everything, even the unprecedented, must be possible within it. this is in the end the only kind of courage that is required of us: the courage to face the strangest, most unusual, most inexplicable experiences that can meet us... but the fear of the inexplicable has not only impoverished the reality of the individual; it has also narrowed the relationship between one human being and another, which has as it were been lifted out of the riverbed of infinite possibilities and set down in a fallow place on the bank, where nothing happens. for it is not only indolence that causes human relationships to be repeated from case to case with such unspeakable monotony and boredom; it is timidity before any new, inconceivable experience, which we don't think we can deal with. but only someone who is ready for everything, who doesn't exclude any experience, even the most incomprehensible, will live the relationship with another person as something alive and will himself sound the depths of his own being.

*translated from the german by the great stephen mitchell.

(less)

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jeremy i think i've read that about pevear. it is quite frustrating indeed when it seems a translator is without a fluid, extensive understanding of english....more
May 06, 2013 01:21pm

Peter Marie re subway series and both parks: yes! while i'm there, the most convenient games (read: not extra-slow espn games) are yanks-mets and mets-yanks, so i...more
May 21, 2013 04:56pm

Apr 14, 2013 Sudhang Shankar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

This is the sort of book that proud self-described cynics would retch at, if they would consider the blurb: the young poet of the title, unsure of his footing, calls upon an accomplished master for advice, which he obtains in the form of 10 letters. Sounds sentimental and boring.

As it turns out, the accomplished master isn't much older, and being from similar circumstances (both were in military academies that they didn't fit into well), is able to offer some heartfelt insight applicable to not...more

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Apr 14, 2013 Sudhang Shankar rated it 4 of 5 stars · review of another edition

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Mar 29, 2013 Darpan Sah rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

यूरोप के विएना शहर की सन्‌ 1888 के पतझड़ की एक शाम।

बलूत के पेड़ तले झड़ती पत्तियों के बीच एक कमजोर और दुबला सा लड़का उदास बैठा हुआ था। अपने कुल तेरह साल के जीवन के धूसर से रंगों के बीच उलझा, हताश। अपने ही अनबुझ सवालों से परेशान, कि आखिर जिंदगी उससे चाहती क्या है? वो अपनी जिंदगी से क्या चाहता है? ..और उसके माँ-बाप क्या चाहते हैं उससे? पिता, जो फ़ौज की नौकरी पूरी लगन से करने के बावजूद कोई खास ओहदा हासिल नही कर पाये थे, अपने बेटे को फ़ौज का बहुत बड़ा ऑफ़िसर बनाना चाहते थे। वहीं अभिजात्य संस्कारों वाली माँ...more यूरोप के विएना शहर की सन्‌ 1888 के पतझड़ की एक शाम।

बलूत के पेड़ तले झड़ती पत्तियों के बीच एक कमजोर और दुबला सा लड़का उदास बैठा हुआ था। अपने कुल तेरह साल के जीवन के धूसर से रंगों के बीच उलझा, हताश। अपने ही अनबुझ सवालों से परेशान, कि आखिर जिंदगी उससे चाहती क्या है? वो अपनी जिंदगी से क्या चाहता है? ..और उसके माँ-बाप क्या चाहते हैं उससे? पिता, जो फ़ौज की नौकरी पूरी लगन से करने के बावजूद कोई खास ओहदा हासिल नही कर पाये थे, अपने बेटे को फ़ौज का बहुत बड़ा ऑफ़िसर बनाना चाहते थे। वहीं अभिजात्य संस्कारों वाली माँ अपनी पहली संतान जो कि बेटी थी, के असमय गुजर जाने से इतना व्यथित रहती थीं, कि अपने बेटे को एक लड़की की तरह रखती थीं। यहाँ तक कि उसका बचपन लड़कियों वाले पहनावों और लड़कियों वाले नामों के साथ बीता था

अपने पिता की प्रछन्न महत्वाकाँक्षा के बोझ तले वह ग्यारह साल की उम्र मे ही घर से बहुत दूर वियेना की उस मिलिट्री अकादमी मे पहुँचा दिया गया था, जो कि अपनी कठिन जीवन-शैली और कठोर अनुशासन के लिये प्रख्यात था। मगर उसके कच्चे मन की मिट्टी सैन्य-प्रशिक्षण की दहकती भट्ठी मे तप कर एक आर्मी ऑफ़िसर मे ढल जाने के लिये नही बनी थी। उसका संवेदनशील मन तो तितलियों के सतरंगे परों, सुबह के शर्माये गालों की लाली या घास की नोक पर उनींदी पड़ी ओस के दिवास्वप्नों मे ही रमा रहता था। नतीजन अकादमी का कठोर अनुशासन उसके कृशकाय शरीर और उससे भी नाजुक मन को चक्की सा पीसे डाल रहा था। अपनी दमतोड़ कोशिशों के बावजूद भी वह शारीरिक कार्य-कलापों, खेल-कूद, कसरत जैसे विषयों मे हर बार फ़िसड्डी रहता था। गुस्सैल शिक्षकों की निरंतर डाँट-फटकार और खिल्ली उड़ाते साथियों के बीच वह बहुत एकाकी होता जा रहा था, खुद के भीतर गुम (हाँ, और यह ’तारे जमीं पर’ से करीब सवा सौ साल पहले की बात है)। और ऐसे दमघोंटू माहौल मे उसे बस एक चीज का सहारा मिला, कविता का। उदासी के गहन क्षणों मे उसकी कापियों के पिछले पन्ने तमाम अनगढ़ और कच्ची कविताओं से भर जाते थे। उसके सारे सुख-दुःख, अनगिन शिकायतें, सारा अवसाद, तमाम अकेलेपन के आँसू शब्दों मे ढल कर कविता के रास्ते बहने लगते थे। और अकादमी के कठोर प्रशिक्षण की जितनी असफ़लता, जितनी उपेक्षा और निराशा उसके शरीर को बीमार और जिंदगी को तकलीफ़देह बनाती जाती थी, उतना ही उसका मन साहित्य और किताबों मे रमता जाता था।

खैर, अकादमी के पाँच कष्टकर सालों की असफ़लता और उसकी खराब होती तबियत के बीच जब पिता को यह समझ आ गया कि उसका बेटा फ़ौज की कठोर जिंदगी के काबिल नही है, तब हार कर उन्होने उसे अकादमी से निकाल लिया। आगे की पढ़ाई करते हुए अगले कुछ सालों मे वह तमाम यूरोप की खाक छानता रहा। अपनी जिंदगी के उन्ही सवालों की तलाश मे, कि आ्खिर उसका प्रारब्ध कहाँ है! मगर जिंदगी तो उस सवाल का जवाब पहले ही चुन चुकी थी। साँझ के उस टिमटिमा्ते तारे को बीसवी सदी के साहित्यिक आकाश के सबसे चमकदार सितारों मे से एक होना था।

यहाँ हम बात कर रहे हैं रेनर मारिया रिल्के की, जो जर्मन भाषा के सबसे प्रतिभाशाली और विख्यात साहित्यकारों मे माने जाते हैं। एक ऐसा कवि जो अपने साहित्य मे, अपनी कविताओं मे जीता था, अपनी कविताओं के लिये जीता था। एक कवि जिसमे कविताएँ जीती थीं, साँस लेती थीं। रिल्के अबुझ मानवीय संवेदनाओं के ऐसे कुशल चितेरे थे, जिनकी कविताएँ हमारे अंतर्मन के सबसे गहरे धरातल को स्पर्श करती हैं, मन के सबसे अँधेरे कोनों मे रोशनी करती हैं। उनकी कविताएँ एक उत्सुक बच्चे की तरह आस-पास की हर चीज के बारे मे सवाल करती हैं, दुनिया के बारे मे, प्रकृति के बारे मे, ईश्वर के बारे मे, हमारे होने के बारे मे। मगर कविूताओं के केंद्र मे सृष्टि का सबसे मूलभूत भाव होता है, प्रेम। एक सूफ़ियाना किस्म का प्रेम, जिसमे से यह सृष्टि आकार लेती है और उसी मे विलीन हो जाती है।

रिल्के के मिलिट्री अकादमी के वक्त के करीब बारह वर्षों के बाद 1902 मे फिर एक बार अकादमी के उसी बलूत के पेड़ के नीचे एक लड़का उदास सा बैठा है। हाथ मे अपनी कविताएँ लिये, जो कि पत्रिकाओं से खारिज हो कर वापस आ गयी थी। उसके सामने भी भविष्य की यही उलझन है, कि क्या वो फ़ौज का सम्मानित और ओहदेदार भविष्य चुने, जिसके लिये वह अकादमी मे भर्ती हुआ है, या फिर कविता का रास्ता चुने, जो उसके मन के लिये अधिक तुष्टिदायक और आत्मा के करीब है? और ऐसे मे अपने प्रोफ़ेसर के द्वारा उसे पता चलता है रिल्के का नाम, जो कि पंद्रह वर्ष पहले इसी जगह पर इन्ही परिस्थितियों और सवालों से गुजर चुके थे। बस फिर फ़्रैंज कापुस नाम का वह लड़का अपनी सारी उलझनें ख़त मे लिख कर और अपनी कुछ कविताओं के साथ रिल्के को भेज देता है। उस ख़त को पढ़ कर रिल्के को उस लड़के मे अपना पंद्रह साल पहले का अक्स नजर आता है। निराशा और अनिश्चितता के गहरे भँवर मे फ़ँसे लड़के का मार्गदर्शन करना उनको अपना दायित्व महसूस होता है। और वे अपना स्नेहपूर्ण मगर ईमानदार प्रत्युत्तर उसको भेज देते हैं। फिर तो ख़तो-क़िताबत का यह सिलसिला चल निकलता है। और नतीजन सामने आती है रिल्के के दस अविस्मरणीय पत्रों की वह अद्भुत श्रंखला, जो रिल्के के निधन के बाद उसी फ़्रैंज कापुस के प्रयासों से पुस्तकाकार रूप मे प्रकाशित हुए, ’लेटर्स टु ए यंग पोएट’ नाम से।

यह दस पत्र विश्व-साहित्य की वह अनमोल धरोहर हैं, जिनकी प्रासंगिकता इनके लिखे जाने के एक सदी बाद भी और ज्यादा बढ़ती ही गयी है। साहित्य, कला, प्रेम, एकाकीपन, आस्तिकता, दर्शन, जीविका जैसे तमाम जरूरी विषय हर वक्त की पीढ़ी के लिये उतने ही प्रासंगिक होते हैं। इसीलिये जिंदगी के ऐसे तमाम पहलुओं पर रोशनी डालते हुए यह पत्र सौ सालों के बाद भी उतने ही प्रेरणाप्रद, उतने ही मार्गदर्शक हैं, जितने कि कभी फ़्रैंज कापुस के लिये रहे होंगे। इन्हे पढ़ते हुए हम खुद अपनी जिंदगी के तमाम मुश्किल सवालों के जवाब इन ख़तों के जरिये तलाश पाते हैं। इन ख़तों के बहाने इस जीनियस के विचारों को पढ़ते वक्त यह यकीं कर पाना मुश्किल होता है कि यह एक सिर्फ़ सत्ताइस साल के युवा कवि के विचार हैं।

इसका अंग्रेजी अनुवाद जॉन बुर्न्हम ने किया था, रिल्के का यह ख़त एक नवोदित कवि-मन की उलझन ही नही वरन्‌ आज के युवा की कैरियर संबंधी तमाम दुविधाओं को सुलझाने मे भी मदद करता है।(less)

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Feb 24, 2013 Kate rated it 5 of 5 stars · review of another edition

Rilke's short series of letters to the young aspiring poet Kappus are a series of reflections on universal human themes: love, sorrow, solitude. He advises Kappus to accept and become acquainted with his own solitude and sorrow,

“Why do you want to shut out of your life any uneasiness, any misery, any depression, since after all you don't know what work these conditions are doing inside you? Why do you want to persecute yourself with the question of where all this is coming from and where it is...more

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About Rainer Maria Rilke

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

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Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

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Quotes from Letters to a Young Poet

“Perhaps all the dragons in our lives are princesses who are only waiting to see us act, just once, with beauty and courage. Perhaps everything that frightens us is, in its deepest essence, something helpless that wants our love.” — 7,205 people liked it

“Therefore, dear Sir, love your solitude and try to sing out with the pain it causes you. For those who are near you are far away... and this shows that the space around you is beginning to grow vast.... be happy about your growth, in which of course you can't take anyone with you, and be gentle with those who stay behind; be confident and calm in front of them and don't torment them with your doubts and don't frighten them with your faith or joy, which they wouldn't be able to comprehend. Seek out some simple and true feeling of what you have in common with them, which doesn't necessarily have to alter when you yourself change again and again; when you see them, love life in a form that is not your own and be indulgent toward those who are growing old, who are afraid of the aloneness that you trust.... and don't expect any understanding; but believe in a love that is being stored up for you like an inheritance, and have faith that in this love there is a strength and a blessing so large that you can travel as far as you wish without having to step outside it.” — 887 people liked it

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