Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke [Paperback]

Rainer Maria Rilke (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: April 22, 1981

For poetry lovers and students of literature and literary criticism, Robert Bly, the National Book Award-winning poet, brings his prowess as a translator and critic to bear on the work of one of the major German poets of the century.

Editorial Reviews

Language Notes

Text: English, German (translation) --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

About the Author

One of the most widely read modern poets, Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) first became known and respected with the publication of The Book of Hours, when he was in his twenties. He is now most famous for his Letters to a Young Poet, published during the same time, which continues to inspire generations of writers.

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Product Details

• Paperback: 240 pages
• Publisher: Harper Perennial; New edition edition (April 22, 1981)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0060907274
• ISBN-13: 978-0060907273
• Product Dimensions: 9.3 x 6.1 x 0.6 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.8 ounces (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 3.7 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (10 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #164,895 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

38 of 39 people found the following review helpful:

3.0 out of 5 stars A very personal selection, and not the best translation, March 21, 2001

By 

Boris Bangemann "boyse" (Singapore) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (Paperback)

Mr. Bly's collection includes the two most famous poems by Rilke, Der Panther ("The panther") and Herbsttag ("October Day"), but mostly it reflects the editor's personal taste. For example, he omits the Duino Elegies because, among other things, he is not convinced they belong to Rilke's best work: "There's something about them that is admirable but not likeable."

Bly has a good sense for the troubled life of Rilke and the inner strength that enabled Rilke to produce his art (a situation not unlike that of Hermann Hesse, whose poems Rilke once classified as being "on the verge of art"). Despite Rilke's neuroticism, his rootlessness, and his difficult relationships, for Bly, Rilke "stands for toughness, freedom from self-pity, ability to work, whatever one's life situation."

Bly states that he wants to be true to the sound of the poems, but his translations are quite matter-of-fact and lose a lot of the lyrical qualities of the German original. If you are looking for a translation that captures the spirit and sound of Rilke's poetry better than Bly's efforts, try Stephen Mitchell's The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke (also available in this fine electronic store).

To give you an idea of the difference in quality, let me compare the translations of the first stanza of the first of the Sonnets to Orpheus. The original in German is: Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Uebersteigung! / O Orpheus singt! O hoher Baum im Ohr! / Und alles schweigt. Doch selbst in der Verschweigung / ging neuer Anfang, Wink und Wandlung vor.

Bly translates: A tree rising. What a pure growing! / Orpheus is singing! A tree inside the ear! / Silence, silence. Yet new buildings, / signals, and changes went on in the silence. (nice try at the "s-s" sounds, but why does he drop the "tall" - a nice alliteration to "tree"? And isn't it a bit cruel to the English language to write "buildings ... went on in the silence"?)

Mitchell translates: A tree ascended there. Oh pure transcendence! / Oh Orpheus sings! Oh tall tree in the ear! / And all things hushed. Yet even in that silence / a new beginning, beckoning, change appeared.

To give you an idea of the genius of the second translation, consider the following: "stieg" means "rose", but "stieg auf" means "ascended"; "ging...vor" means "happened", but "ging...hervor" means "appeared". Mitchell probed the connotations of the German verbs, and pushed their meaning - within the limits of the German original - to achieve a more poignant, vibrating, powerful quality in the English translation. Also, his use of alliteration is much closer to the spirit of the German original. Unable to keep the alliteration of Oh-Ohr, he employs tall-tree and and-all. On a personal note, I very much admire the choice of the verb "hushed" with its "shshsh" sound as a translation for the most important noun in the first stanza: "Verschweigung" (a neologism built from "verschweigen" (to conceal, to be silent), and "Verzweigung" (branching)). The "shshsh" sound keeps the many "s" and "sch" sounds you can hear when you read the first stanza (in German) aloud, and it is just as evocative of the sound of wind in a tree as the German original. That is an amazing achievement.

15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Finally, a way in to Rilke, November 14, 2001

By A Customer

This review is from: Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (Paperback)

Unable to read German, I had always found Rilke's poetry inaccessible and vaguely repellent until I found this translation. Stephen Mitchell's much-vaunted translation left me cold. Perhaps Mitchell captures the sonority of the poems better than does Bly, but he strains so hard to do so that the life goes out of the verse. It does not quite read like living English. Each poem seems to be wearing a mask that says, "This is what I really look like!" You never get to look the poem directly in the face. Bly's translation, by contrast, while perhaps excessively plain-spoken (which is why I give it 4 stars and not 5), has a transparency and vivacity that has allowed me finally to glimpse what all the fuss is about. I am not sure that Rilke stands in the front rank of great poets - he is too resolutely, narrowly interior for that - but he definitely belongs among them and I am very glad to have made his acquaintance at last. Especially helpful is Bly's interspersed commentary, intelligently and sensitively relating the poetry to Rilke's life with perceptions that could only come from a master poet who feels himself in some way a kindred spirit. Perhaps that, in the end, is why Bly's translation is more satisfying to me than Mitchell's. Bly's seems to proceed from human fellow-feeling, an engagement of the heart that is both playful and serious. Mitchell's seems to be more in the spirit of Service to Art, an altogether stiffer and stuffier affair. If you want a good example of Mitchell's genius, try his Book of Job. If you want to find a way in to Rilke's genius, buy this book.

7 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Important if not precise translation, October 25, 2002

By A Customer

This review is from: Selected Poems of Rainer Maria Rilke (Paperback)

Many of the complaints about Bly's translations are justified. Even as one who does not read or write German, I can look over at the original german text and see that the translations lack a good deal of precision. It would be easy to conclude from this that Bly takes too many liberties, or as some have assumed, that he had too poor an understanding of the German language

I have read most of Bly's writing (poetry, prose, and translations), and I certainly believe that he has contributed immeasurably to the existence of poetry in the English language. He has championed many important poets (many non-Americans) and revealed them to those like myself who are sadly the victims of typically American multi-linguistic laziness. If not his translating ability, I definitly complement his taste.

But there is more to Bly's seemingly "bad" translations then most reviewers have touched upon. The first thing that should be known is that Bly's taste for language differs from that of many poets. It probably differs a good deal from Rilke's sense of poetic language. Bly likes simple words and relatively straight forward talk, language that could be spoken "on the farm", as it were, wisdom that is not dressed up in philosophical, intellectual, or academic language, something "downhome." It is probably a good thing, because his prose is generally vague, suggestive rather than demonstrative, and prone to metahporical "leaps" that can and have frequently left readers saying, "Huh?" If his prose was academic on top of this it would be nearly unreadable.

This preference for downhome language is not precise for translation or true to Rilke's original. Rather, it is true to Robert Bly's "Blyness," a quality which his readers, love it or hate it, must adapt to should they care to keep reading. Yes, the Blyness can be irksome, but I have a healthy amount of respect for it, because, although he is sometimes a cranky old geezer, Bly does seem to me one of the truly "wise" Americans of our time. I trust his wisdom to locate and understand the resonance of meaning in the poems of Rilke, who strikes me also as wise in the same kind of way Bly does. In fact, I trust Bly to "understand" Rilke better than I trust anyone else to. So, Bly becomes less a translator and more an interpretor of Rilke, crystalizing his meanings and associations. He stands more on the side of the truth of such meanings and intentions than on the side of the beauty and artistry of Rilke's poetics.

Obviously, Bly has been greatly influenced and changed by his "experience" of Rilke's poetry. So, what we are getting with this book is a portrait of Rilke cast in the fleshed out colors of Bly. This endangers the reader in the swampland that comingles the two, but it is not specifically a bad thing. Rilke, in Bly's translation, often becomes more clear to the American mind. Bly does not betray the spirit of Rilke. I beleive he honors it by consuming it into his own being and allowing it to be channeled through him.

This may not be the best translation, but I still found the poems deeply moving and Rilke's grasp of the unconscious, of God, and of the human psyche to be overflowing with genuine vision. The translation did not disfigure for me the place Rilke deserves in the Pantheon of the earth's greatest poets. Bly's translation is not a bad place to start with Rilke's writing, nor is it a bad place to finish. Ultimately, it is illuminating, and for that reason, I think of it as successful. But read other translations as well, if these poems intrigue you. Rilke has endless riches to bestow to any reader ready to listen.