Customer Reviews

Poems from the Book of Hours (New Directions Paperbook) (English and German Edition)

5 star:		(4)
4 star:		(1)
3 star:		(1)
2 star:		(0)
1 star:		(0)

 

 

I have bought copies of this for many people and I keep a paperback copy to lend in addition to my first edition hardcover. Some of the writing is so lovely that if I read very many of the poems at once, I feel intoxicated. I would recommend this to most anyone.

Some years ago I acquired the version of Rilkes book of hours translated by Joanna Macy and Anita Barrows and loved them so much ( please see review I wrote for this particular translation). I was hoping to find one poem from the book of hours that was included in the Macy/Barrows translation and even earlier on a audio cassette of poetry that featured several of Rilkes poems and an excerpt from Letters to a young poet,needless to say I am disappointed not to find this poem in this edition of the book of hours. That is why I Give it only four stars and not five. Aside from not finding this poem in this book I did find that the ones that were included here were beautiful and some how the translator has managed to bring more poetic fluency and even rhyme to these poems that were not in later editions of it which I appreciated. For those of you who would like to know the poem of which I speak of here I will copy it below as best as my memory knows it for you: You darkness of whom I born I love you more than all the fires that fense in the world. For the fire creates a circle of light for everyone and then no one learns of you. But the darkness takes in everything shapes and shadows creatures and me people, nations- just as they are. It let's me imagine a great presence stirring beside me. I believe in the night.

The number of poems that Deutsch thought would bear translation from the German is heartbreakingly small. Still, one is too glad she translated any to be more than fleetingly greedy. I was also happy to see the German versions of the poems, even though my German's a little too rusty to read for anything but pure meaning.

Some sentences stand out-- "ALLES LEBEN WIRD GELEBT". Indeed.

On my book list-- more Rilke.

This is a little Rilke gem if you'd like to carry his thoughts with you however I was surprised at the size and how small it is for the price.

I found this book to be a beautiful companion for morning coffee. Especially enjoyable if you can read the original German. Fans of poetry and the struggle between desiring to know God and his seeming far off will find the book of hours a faithful companion.

Such a small book. That so few German poems, with English translations made by Babette Deutsch and first published in 1941, are still available in a cover that matches what I bought years ago bears witness to the power of the poems included here. With so little to skip through, this book made me want to examine the German for clues about how few words could mean so much. The best clue is in the first line of the last poem in this book. "Sie sagen: mein."