Description
By (author) Rilke, Rainer Maria; Translated by Stone Will
:
In 1916, Rainer Maria Rilke presented his friend Rudolf Kassner with a notebook, containing twenty-two poems meticulously inscribed in his own hand and bearing the title Poems to Night. This evocative sequence of poems, which echoes some of the great themes of German romanticism, is now thought to represent one of the key stages in the creative breakthrough and spiritual evolution of the preeminent European poet of the twentieth century.This translation was the first to bring all the poems together in English and is enhanced by the translator”s valuable introduction and a rich selection of further poems Rilke dedicated to night at various stages of his life.
Table of contents:
List of Poems 9
Acknowledgements 13
Introduction 15
Poems to Night 29
Poems to Night: Drafts 59
Further Poems and Sketches around the Theme of Night 69
Biographical Notes 87
Review quote:
[A] gorgeous collection of odes to the night and darkness
Review quote:
An excellent introduction to Rilke in English, and Will Stone has executed his task with admirable aplomb
Biographical note:
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is considered one of the greatest German-language writers to have ever lived. He published his first collection of verse, Leben und Lieder (Life and Songs), in 1894, while he was still at school, and continued to write poetry and prose throughout his life, becoming a master of both. He is perhaps best known for his Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Rilke died in Switzerland in 1926, after being diagnosed with leukaemia, and was buried in the churchyard of Raron. His chosen epitaph was ”Rose, oh pure contradiction, to be no-one”s sleep under so many lids.”
Excerpt:
O now we have, with what whimpering
caressed ourselves, shoulders and eyelids.
And night has withdrawn into the rooms
like a wounded beast, in pain through us.
Were you elected from all for me,
was the sister not sufficient?
Lovely as a valley to me was your essence,
and now too, from the prow of the heavens
it bows down an unfailing apparition
and he takes possession. Where to go?
Alas, with the gesture of mourning
you incline towards me, un-consoled.
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