Possibility of Being: A Selection of Poems

by Rainer Maria Rilke, J.B. Leishman (Translator)

Eighty-four verses by the modern German lyric poet have as their central concern the pursuit and achievement of being

Genres: Poetry, German Literature, Literature, Classics

122 pages, Hardcover

First published January 17, 1977

About the author

A mystic lyricism and precise imagery often marked verse of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, whose collections profoundly influenced 20th-century German literature and include The Book of Hours (1905) and The Duino Elegies (1923).

People consider him of the greatest 20th century users of the language.

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.

His two most famous sequences include the Sonnets to Orpheus , and his most famous prose works include the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge .

He also wrote more than four hundred poems in French, dedicated to the canton of Valais in Switzerland, his homeland of choice.

Reviews

[Heather Shaw · Rating 4 out of 5]

Reading Rilke makes me feel like I have a huge boulder strapped to my shoulders. Then, in little flashes of light, it rolls away and you feel lightness anew, like you've never felt it before. Those moments are worth the weight.

[Jacob Hurley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Are we really such tremblingly breakable
things as destiny tries to pretend?
(Still.the Good Remains, Sonnets to Orpheus)

[Himadri ॐ ˚꩜ · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was so so difficult to get through but there were some beautiful poems which dropped like a stone in my heart. Really tough to keep up with for me personally.
One of my favourites was-

WORLD WAS IN THE FACE OF THE BELOVED

World was in the face of the beloved—
but was poured out all of a sudden:
world is outside, can’t be comprehended.
Why did I not drink, then, when I raised it,
drink from the full face of the beloved,
world—so near, I tasted its bouquet?
Oh, I did! I drank insatiably.
Only, I was so brim-full already
with world, that when I drank I overflowed.

[Saurabh Kadam · Rating 4 out of 5]

In the beginning life was good to me;
it held me warm and gave me courage.
That this is granted all while in their youth,
how could I then have known of this.
I never knew what living was----.
But suddenly it was just year on year,
no more good, no more new, no more wonderful.
Life had been torn in two right down the middle.

That was not his fault nor mine

since both of us had nothing but patience;
but death has none.
I saw him coming (how rotten he looked),
and I watched him as he took and took:
and nothing was mine.

What, then, belonged to me; was mine, my own?
Was not even this utter wretchedness
on loan to me by fate?
Fate does not only claim your happiness,

it also wants your pain back and your tears
and buys the ruin as something useless, old.

Fate was present and acquired for a nothing
every expression my face is capable of,
even to the way I walk.
The daily diminishing of me went on
and after I was emptied fate gave me up
and left me standing there, abandoned.

[Drea · Rating 5 out of 5]

The best translations of Rilke I have read, and I have read alot of them.

[Ishan Vashishta · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of the earlier poems I didn't care as much for, but the Requiem section and the Elegies were really incredible

Being a not-really-religious person a lot of the poems which made religious references did not so much land with me, but there was sort of an underlying "transfiguration of the Other" sense to a lot of it that had some secular value as well


A few misc poems I particularly enjoyed:

-The First Elegy "even the noticing beasts are aware / that we don't feel very securely at home / in this intepreted world."
-Everything Beckons To Us "What have we learnt from living since we started, / except to find in others what we are?"
-To Music
-For Witold Hulewicz "we gaze out of every impassioned / joy at some wholly communal thing."
-The Eighth Elegy "nearing death, one perceives it no longer / and stares ahead--perhaps with large brute gaze"
- Roman Fountain "along the mossy tresses / to the last mirror, that would gently bring / its bowl's convex to smile with changefulnesses."

[Erin Boniface]

I’m trying to read a book of poetry for each month of the year. This is my very delayed January entry, which tells you how I did with it. Poetry is still challenging to me.

A poem I liked is the Ninth Elegy.

[Anna W. · Rating 3 out of 5]

Read this while on vacation in Seattle, and it was an excellent book of poetry. That being said, I only found one whole poem that actually "spoke to me"... but it was all quite beautiful. There was one other poem that had a brief excerpt I enjoyed, but overall it was beautiful but not "exactly what I needed." His letters to Kappas are much, much more relatable, I felt.

[Dave Nichols · Rating 5 out of 5]

and this bewildering will remain in us, / as in the sarcophagus, enclosed / with images of gods, rings, glasses, trappings, / there lay in slowly self-consuming wrappings / something being slowly decomposed— / till swallowed by those unknown mouths at last, / that never speak

[Laura · Rating 5 out of 5]

Simple, sensual poetic goodness.

[KaiAnn Wei · Rating 5 out of 5]

88. "Why, when this span of life might be fleeted away
as laurel, a little darker than all
the surrounding green, with tiny waves on the border
of every leaf (like the smile of a wind) - oh, why
have to be human, and, shunning Destiny,
long for Destiny? . . .
Not because happiness really
exists, that precipitate profit of imminent loss.
Not out of curiosity, not just to practice the heart,
that could still be there in laurel . . . . .
But because being here is much, and because all this
that's here, so fleeting, seems to require us
and strangely
concern us. Us the most fleeting of all. Just once,
everything, only for once. Once and no more.
And we, too,
once. And never again. But this
having been once, though only once,
having been once on earth - can it ever be cancelled?"
- The Ninth Elegy

[Patrick Howard · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rilke’s “For a Friend” is singular. The longest entry of this collection and the first written in free verse, it evoked one of the strongest aesthetic emotional engagements I’ve experienced in a while, probably the single strongest I’ve ever had with a poem. I was mesmerized, hanging on every word, and felt myself ensconced in the reminiscence of a relationship I knew nothing of.

Unfortunately, I’m not very fond of many of the other lyrical selections included. There were certainly a few standouts, such as “The Reader,” “You Mustn’t Be Afraid, God,” “Everything Beckons To Us To Perceive It,” and “World Was In The Face Of The Beloved”. I’d recommend the collection off the strength of these poems, in which Rilke’s verse reaches synthesis with compelling metaphysical or emotional conceptions, but imagine there must be stronger collections in his oeuvre.

[Amy Adrian · Rating 3 out of 5]

“For they're very clear with us, we that don't know our feeling's shape, but only that which forms it from outside. Who's not sat tense before his own heart's curtain? Up it would go: the scenery was Parting.”
…
“This, though: death, the whole of death, before life's start, to hold it so gently and so free from all resentment, transcends description.”
…
“Louder than storms, than oceans, the human voice
has cried…. What infinite overbalance of stillness
there must be in cosmic space, since the
grasshopper's shrillness stayed audible over our cries, and the stars appear silently there in the ether above our shrieking!”
…
“ROSE, OH THE PURE CONTRADICTION,
DELIGHT, OF BEING NO ONE'S SLEEP UNDER SO MANY LIDS.”

[Janine Cousins · Rating 2 out of 5]

I read this primarily after a lyric in musical theatre song. "Anyway" from Tales from the bad years.

"Do you remember how we used to read
Rilke, Joyce?
And we barely understood it,
But it gave us a voice"

Additionally Rilke was referenced in the film Jojo Rabbit with a quote from him at the end;

"Let everything happen to you: beauty and terror. Just keep going. No feeling is final"

Sadly I just didn't 'get' this collection of poems.
Some ones did resonate with me but not many...

[Katie R. · Rating 4 out of 5]

I really enjoyed a lot of his poems, and like his style a lot. Some of his longer pieces were a bit harder to get through, I thought, however. Three poems that stuck with me were: “Autumn Day,” “The Mountain,” and “Spanish Dancer.” I also liked the poem about the blind woman, but I don't remember which it was...

[Alicia Aringdale · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some very beautiful poems but many felt like Rilke was just doing too much. I felt a lot of mental load while reading these poems, which isn't always a bad thing, but definitely a book you have to think about.

[Audrey · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was another Rilke that I found in the library. I believe it was a sampling of poetry from various other works by Rainer Maria Rilke, but I would have to read the titles referenced to say for sure. An incohesive mix, but I do enjoy his poetry.

[H. Givens · Rating 3 out of 5]

I was mostly bored, possibly because of the translation, but there were still a few affecting poems. I would've liked more context, but that'd probably defeat the purpose of this small collection.

[John Fredrickson · Rating 2 out of 5]

If I ever figure out what these poems are communicating, I will write about it here.

[GreyAtlas · Rating 2 out of 5]

One or two touching poems but the rest just didn't stand out.

[Abigail · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like Rilke, but not this translation!
For those who want to read the Duino Elegies, Requiem might be a good start. Really, that's like a simpler version of the elegies.

[James (Jimmie) Price · Rating 2 out of 5]

This rating has nothing to do with the poet, whose work I typically enjoy, and everything to do with the collection, which was lacking in its translation and selections from Rilke’s body of work.

[Rhiley Jade · Rating 4 out of 5]

4.5 stars.
So many good books this month!!

[Sabrina Keck]

I hope to learn to appreciate poetry!!

[Cameron Jenkins · Rating 3 out of 5]

For a Friend is one of the best poems I’ve read in a bit

[sofia bessette · Rating 5 out of 5]

my new favorite poet

[Mary Mulliken · Rating 1 out of 5]

I hate to say it because I'm a pretty big fan of Rilke's soul poetry but this one was a doozy. With a rare few exceptions, I was bored and moreover, had a hard time paying attention to these poems. Good to know we all get better with age...?

[Bryony]

I read a poem from this book here and there, when I feel like it. I like taking it in small doses and letting a poem roll around in my mind for a bit!

[SJ L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Let's see the poems I loved back in the day from this book. Lots. Tons of underlining. He's into sex this guy.

[Amy]

Love Rilke, did NOT love the selection.