Customer Reviews

The Essential Rilke

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I thoroughly disagree with the reader from Pennsylvania. I can read German -- in fact, I teach German language and literature at the university level -- and I find not only that Kinnell does full justice to Rilke's language and imagery, but also that his translation itself constitutes excellent, readable poetry.

Kinnell and Liebmann's translations are spare and honest, hewing closely to the German and intelligently handling the less easily translatable passages, of which there are many. This volume brings you closer to Rilke's original thought than others, such as Mitchell, whose tone at times might be closer to Rilke's but who strays too far from Rilke's actual words. I only wish they'd translated more of the poems!

What makes Rilke such a memorable poet? What is it that distinctly defines his art? In his letters Rilke writes, "Art is childhood. Art means to be oblivious to the fact that the world already exists and to create one. Not to destroy what one encounters but simply not to find anything. Countless possibilitieS countless wishes.And suddenly to be fulfillment, to be summer, to have sun."

Rilke has a metaphorical language all his own which seems to open a new word of perceiving the world. He has a reflective richness which seems to suddenly reveal to us new and profound meanings in life and art. To read his work is to be drawn into a world profound and suggestive which always seems to be hinting that in the deepest fullness of our apprehension of each object of everyday life there is a transcendent beauty.

Kinnell is a good poet, but his translations do not exceed those that have preceded him - Mitchell, Snow, Young, Bly, Franz Wright. He lets the German dictate to him too much and doesn't assert his own poetic talent to the degree that we might have expected. A lackluster performance.

rilke is one of my favorite poets, but the translation of this edition does his imagery little justice. fortunately, it comes with the german on one side of the page, the english on the other. i can't read german, but anyone who does can translate these poems for themselves.