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When I Go: Selected French Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke
Rilke's French poetry appears here for the first time in readable, musical versions. Largely unknown and rarely collected, these poems were written during the euphoria Rilke felt after having completed his greatest German works, the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus. At the same time, Rilke was growing increasingly ill with a rare, undiagnosed form of leukemia. He died just four short years into the production of these poems, and death appears in them as "a kindly, unfamiliar figure" to be faced with courage and surrender. Five series of poems are featured: Roses, Windows, Affectionate Tribute to France, Valaisian Quatrains, and Orchards.
"Near the end of his life, and after the crowning achievements of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke began writing poems in French, hundreds of them, and in these astonishing translations by Susanne Petermann we have almost a new Rilke, a poet enticed by the textures and nuances of the French language to explore new tones . . . Susanne Petermann has rendered Rilke's French into a supple and finely tuned English that captures the freshness and lucidity of Rilke's vision. This is an essential book for all readers of Rainer Maria Rilke."
--Joseph Stroud, recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement
"Petermann's translations of Rilke create a lovely and often astonishing intimacy, as though they are in a relationship with the French poem on the page: a deep, romantic friendship, where one has come to know the other in the rhythms of their breath, but is still surprised and delighted by their singular gestures. 'I see no difference,' Paul Celan once wrote, 'between a poem and a handshake.' These translations hold Rilke's poems as though they are holding hands through the languages that separate them, not in imitation, but in the more true fidelity of friendship, of accompaniment. Not original and copy, but dear friends who know each other well."
--Rebecca Reilly, The New School, author of Repetition
"Petermann's sensitive synching with and contemporary interpretations of the iconic Rilke's French poems make an impressive contribution to the great poet's canon."
--Priscilla Hunter, Southern Oregon University
"Rilke's French poems, deceptively simple, are subtle and delicate works, and Susanne Petermann's new translation does them full justice. In poem after poem, she perfectly captures his voice as it shades from erotic desire to rapture, from joy in the things of nature (so many birds, so many roses!) to the melancholy of life. She respects and understands Rilke's formal choices too, and her English is always a remarkably detailed analogue to his French. Admirers of Rilke will be delighted with When I Go."
--Raymond N. MacKenzie, translator of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Barbey d'Aurevilly's Diaboliques
Susanne Petermann is a poet, editor, and personal organizer. She lives in Southern Oregon.
"Near the end of his life, and after the crowning achievements of the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke began writing poems in French, hundreds of them, and in these astonishing translations by Susanne Petermann we have almost a new Rilke, a poet enticed by the textures and nuances of the French language to explore new tones . . . Susanne Petermann has rendered Rilke's French into a supple and finely tuned English that captures the freshness and lucidity of Rilke's vision. This is an essential book for all readers of Rainer Maria Rilke."
--Joseph Stroud, recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for Lifetime Achievement
"Petermann's translations of Rilke create a lovely and often astonishing intimacy, as though they are in a relationship with the French poem on the page: a deep, romantic friendship, where one has come to know the other in the rhythms of their breath, but is still surprised and delighted by their singular gestures. 'I see no difference,' Paul Celan once wrote, 'between a poem and a handshake.' These translations hold Rilke's poems as though they are holding hands through the languages that separate them, not in imitation, but in the more true fidelity of friendship, of accompaniment. Not original and copy, but dear friends who know each other well."
--Rebecca Reilly, The New School, author of Repetition
"Petermann's sensitive synching with and contemporary interpretations of the iconic Rilke's French poems make an impressive contribution to the great poet's canon."
--Priscilla Hunter, Southern Oregon University
"Rilke's French poems, deceptively simple, are subtle and delicate works, and Susanne Petermann's new translation does them full justice. In poem after poem, she perfectly captures his voice as it shades from erotic desire to rapture, from joy in the things of nature (so many birds, so many roses!) to the melancholy of life. She respects and understands Rilke's formal choices too, and her English is always a remarkably detailed analogue to his French. Admirers of Rilke will be delighted with When I Go."
--Raymond N. MacKenzie, translator of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and Barbey d'Aurevilly's Diaboliques
Susanne Petermann is a poet, editor, and personal organizer. She lives in Southern Oregon.
- GenresPoetry
165 pages, Kindle Edition
Published September 15, 2017
2 people are currently reading
19 people want to read
About the author
Rainer Maria Rilke
1,834 books6,996 followersA 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.
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.
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Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews
January 12, 2026
What is a rose doing here,
where fate exhausts us?
roses, windows, orchards, and death. and french hills. reading Rilke is the closest I’ll ever come to feeling like an electric vehicle when it’s fully charged.
where fate exhausts us?
roses, windows, orchards, and death. and french hills. reading Rilke is the closest I’ll ever come to feeling like an electric vehicle when it’s fully charged.
October 17, 2024
Trečias draugas atnešė rožių. Rožės irgi verkia.
Read
October 17, 2024Trečias draugas atnešė rožių. Rožės irgi verkė.
February 21, 2022
The translator wrote introductions to several chapters here that I now know new things about Rilke:
1. He died of leukemia.
2. He disliked the military (although he got in it when younger) and fled Germany after WWI. He then chose to stay in Switzerland until his demise.
3. He could speak French; all of his poems here were written in French. All original copies were kept by the translators here.
4. He once worked for Rodin.
5. He was married, had a child, and later separated on good terms.
6. He encountered Buddhism through a book given by his by-then-already-separated wife but did not meddle with it.
The first chapter consists of poems with a rose theme. The second one uses windows; Susanne discussed that "...the window serves as an ironic gift: limitless possibilities within a limited framework, like poetry contained within rhyme and meter." Then the third and fourth ones he wrote about metaphors relating his inner landscape with the interior of a home, scenery on the hills, doe's eyes... the last one was him thinking about his death.
Last poem on this book:
Good-Bye
I've said my goodbyes. Since childhood,
countless departures have gradually honed me.
But I return, I begin again,
which is what sets my attention free.
All I can do now is fill my gaze.
All I can do, without holding back,
is feel the joy of having loved what reminds me
of all the losses that move us.
1. He died of leukemia.
2. He disliked the military (although he got in it when younger) and fled Germany after WWI. He then chose to stay in Switzerland until his demise.
3. He could speak French; all of his poems here were written in French. All original copies were kept by the translators here.
4. He once worked for Rodin.
5. He was married, had a child, and later separated on good terms.
6. He encountered Buddhism through a book given by his by-then-already-separated wife but did not meddle with it.
The first chapter consists of poems with a rose theme. The second one uses windows; Susanne discussed that "...the window serves as an ironic gift: limitless possibilities within a limited framework, like poetry contained within rhyme and meter." Then the third and fourth ones he wrote about metaphors relating his inner landscape with the interior of a home, scenery on the hills, doe's eyes... the last one was him thinking about his death.
Last poem on this book:
Good-Bye
I've said my goodbyes. Since childhood,
countless departures have gradually honed me.
But I return, I begin again,
which is what sets my attention free.
All I can do now is fill my gaze.
All I can do, without holding back,
is feel the joy of having loved what reminds me
of all the losses that move us.
May 18, 2023
4.5 ⭐️
Although this book is a collection of poems, I really felt like I experienced a full plot that made me tear up as it ended. Nevertheless, it did feel boring until the 50% mark with occasional magnificent poems. After that, it really did level up and there was no redundancy at all. Rilke’s poems need to be read mor than once; often leaving you staring at a wall pondering what you just read. The last chapter of this book really does make it. It is raw yet beautiful. Honestly worth the read.
Although this book is a collection of poems, I really felt like I experienced a full plot that made me tear up as it ended. Nevertheless, it did feel boring until the 50% mark with occasional magnificent poems. After that, it really did level up and there was no redundancy at all. Rilke’s poems need to be read mor than once; often leaving you staring at a wall pondering what you just read. The last chapter of this book really does make it. It is raw yet beautiful. Honestly worth the read.
April 14, 2025
Mixed bag for me. Most of the poems were really underwhelming, especially since I've heard Rilke referenced so frequently. Perhaps the experience would be different if I was reading the poems in their original language. I enjoyed the poems from "Windows" and "Orchards," and the translator's introductions did help greatly. The poems from "Roses" annoyed me a bit, but again, I think something is lost from French to English. Give it a read if you're a really big fan of Rilke, I guess.
March 12, 2019
that last section went off hard. i also loved the tiny introductions to each sections: you can feel the love of the translator for rilke. it's beautiful.
February 18, 2021
Some lovely pieces, if mostly not memorable for me. I will need to dig deeper with him.
Displaying 1 - 8 of 8 reviews