Books by Rainer Maria Rilke

Stephen Mitchell's acclaimed translations of Rainer Maria Rilke have won praise for their impeccable adherence to the poet's lyrical verse and complexity of thought. This volume contains the renowned Duino Elegies; passages from his novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge; and The Sonnets to Orpheus.

Walter Arndt employs a principle of "form-true" translations in these selections from Rilke's finest rhymed poems. Arndt is an Emeritus Professor of Humanities and Russian Language and Literature from Dartmouth College, and he won the Bollingen Prize for his translation of Pushkin's "Eugene Onegin".

Provides a bilingual collection of work comprised of such important works as "The Book of the Monkish Life," "The Book of Pilgrimage," and "The Book of Poverty and Death." Reprint.

Now substantially revised by translator Edward Snow, this bilingual edition of The Book of Images contains a number of Rilke's previously untranslated poems, as well as many of his best -loved lyrics.

This volume brings together the over 400 French poems of Rilke along with some never-before-published Dedications and Fragments, most of which were composed after Rilke's masterpieces of 1922: the "Duino Elegies" and the "Sonnets to Orpheus".

In April 1898 Rainer Maria Rilke, not yet twenty-three, began a diary of his Florence visit. It was to record, in the form of an imaginary dialogue with his mentor and then-lover, Lou Andreas-Salome, his firsthand experiences of early Renaissance art. The project quickly expanded to include not only thoughts on life, history, and artistic genius, but also unguarded moments of revulsion, self-doubt, and manic expectation. The result is an intimate glimpse into the young Rilke, already experimenting brilliantly with language and metaphor.

'It's hard to imagine the Elegies first written in English, Rilke has sealed them in German, which is part of their essential mystery and foreignness, just as I suppose a Frenchman or German would find Wordsworth's English language one of his properties and excellences in a way none of us could.

Are dolls inanimate? Do dolls have souls? These three classic essays investigate the lives of marionettes, puppets, and dolls in search of the answers.

Pulitzer Prize-winning poet Kinnell and co-translator Liebmann offer new insight into the most important poems of German Poet Maria Rilke (including "Duino Elegies") with newly translated sections and an informative Introduction.

German poet Rainer Maria Rilke(1875-1926) enjoys ever-increasing popularity.? His Duino Elegies is considered on of the greatest long poems of the twentieth century.? Yet translations from his native German have always presented challenges: the elusiveness of Rilke's imagery, the playful way he both distorts and subverts his own language, and the depth and complexity of his poetry make it difficult for translators to preserve the beauty and meaning of the original text.? In his stunning bilingual selection that includes the entire Duino Elegies as well as a number of favorite and less familiar shorter poems, Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann manage to retain power and grace of Rilke's words.? Throughout his poetry, Rilke addresses questions of how to live in and relate to a world in a voice? that is simultaneoulsy prophetic and intensely personel.? These translations offer new insight into this enigmatic German poet whose work will continue to be read and admired throughout the world.

A new translation of two key works by the renowned twentieth-century poet includes Sonnets to Orpheus, a reflection of the writer's deep reverence for nature; and Duino Elegies, a meditation on human impermanence and its link to all life and times.

Describes the experiences of a young cavalry officer, whose courage is challenged in battle.

Rilke's death ended this famous four-month correspondence between major 20th-century innovative poets Boris Pasternak, Rainer Maria Rilke, and Marina Tsvetaeva. Most of the 50-odd epistles here are from or to Tsvetaeva, but the poetic insight of each is amply displayed. Notes on the poems discussed in the letters are included.

These letters from Rilke to his wife chronicle a series of visits to an exhibit of Cézanne's work in the fall of 1907--and of the profound effect the paintings had on him and on his work.

Gathers letters between the German poet and his lover in which he talks about the conflict of life and art, and the superiority of divine love over personal love.

Presents a definitive translation of a series of ten letters penned by Rilke from 1903 to 1908, which encompass his words of advice and encouragement to an aspiring young writer.

Relatively early in Rilke's literary career, these letters began as advice addressed to a young student who had solicited it by sending Rilke some poems. The two authors never met, but over the course of several years a correspondence developed in which Rilke composed astoundingly elegant and eloquent characterizations of the craft and discipline of poetry--and life. Subsequently, these letters have come to embody a seminal 20th-century statement on the artistic temperament, spirituality, and creativity.

New Poems (1907-1908) represented a departure for Rilke from the traditional German lyric poetry of which he was then considered a master. Apparent in these poems is the influence of Rodin -- for whom Rilke had worked -- as well as other visual artists, including Hokusai, Cezanne, Van Gogh, and Picasso. In this collection, Rilke forced his language to extremes of subtlety and refinement that only now, in Stephen Cohn's translations, is being captured properly in English.

Rilke's move to Paris in 1902 and his close association with Rodin led him in a new direction in his poetry. between 1906 and 1908 he produced a torrent of brilliant work that he published in two volumes under the title 'New Poem.'

Rilke's association with Rodin in 1902 inspired in him a new poetic method. 'Somehow, ' he wrote, 'I too must come to make things... realities that emerge from handiwork. Somehow I too must discover the smallest basic element, the cell of my art, the tangible immaterial means of representation for everything.' Until this work, Rilke's voice had come from the interior, expressing feelings and moods. New Poems represented a turning point, an intoxication with the materiality of the world.

Living in Paris as he attempts to write a novel, Brigge, a young Danish aristocrat and poet obsessed with death, muses on his family, his background, and his observations of Parisian life.

The journal of Brigge, a young nobleman and poet obsessed with death and with the reality that lurks behind appearances.

“You have to live life to the limit, not according to each day but by plumbing its depth.”
–RAINER MARIA RILKE

In this treasury of uncommon wisdom and spiritual insight, the best writings and personal philosophies of one of the twentieth century’s greatest poets, Rainer Maria Rilke, are gleaned by Ulrich Baer from thousands of pages of never-before translated correspondence.

The result is a profound vision of how the human drive to create and understand can guide us in every facet of life. Arranged by theme–from everyday existence with others to the exhilarations of love and the experience of loss, from dealing with adversity to the nature of inspiration, here are Rilke’s thoughts on how to live life in a meaningful way:

Life and Living: “How good life is. How fair, how incorruptible, how impossible to deceive: not even by strength, not even by willpower, and not even by courage. How everything remains what it is and has only this choice: to come true, or to exaggerate and push too far.”

Art: “The work of art is adjustment, balance, reassurance. It can be neither gloomy nor full of rosy hopes, for its essence consists of justice.”

Faith: “I personally feel a greater affinity to all those religions in which the middleman is less essential or almost entirely suppressed.”

Love: “To be loved means to be ablaze. To love is: to shine with inexhaustible oil. To be loved is to pass away; to love is to last.”

Intimate, stylistically masterful, brilliantly translated, and brimming with the wonder and passion of Rilke, The Poet’s Guide to Life is comparable to the best works of wisdom in all of literature and a perfect book for all occasions.

Eighty-four verses by the modern German lyric poet have as their central concern the pursuit and achievement of being.

These poems, selected from "Das Buch der Bilder" and "Neue Gedichte," were written in Rilke's less mystical period (1900-1908) and show Rilke's deep concern with sculpture and painting.

The Everyman's Library Pocket Poets hardcover series is popular for its compact size and reasonable price which does not compromise content. Poems: Rilke contains poems from The Book of Images; New Poems; Requiem for a Friend; Poems, 1906-1926; French Poems; The Life of Mary; Sonnets to Orpheus; The Duino Elegies; Letters to a Young Poet; and an index of first lines.

Gathers the correspondence between Rilke and a young Viennese concert pianist who admired his poetry.

This anthology of poetry, letters, and prose, with commentary and essays by John J. L. Mood, illustrates the ways that Rilke understood and spiritually transformed the most profound difficulties in life including wisdom, sexual love, growth and transformation, and death.

At the beginning of this century, a young German poet returned from a journey to Russia, where he had immersed himself in the spirituality he discovered there. He "received" a series of poems about which he did not speak for a long time - he considered them sacred, and different from anything else he ever had done and ever would do again. This poet saw the coming darkness of the century, and saw the struggle we would have in our relationship to the divine. The poet was Rainer Maria Rilke, and these love poems to God make up his Book of Hours.

A special anniversary edition featuring the complete English and German texts, this collection of poetry, based on the Book of Hours--psalms and prayers for various times throughout the day--used by monks, offers prayers and songs that address such concerns as spirituality in the modern age and the sufferings of war, poverty, and disease. Reprint.

Generally regarded as the greatest lyric poet of modern Germany, Rainer Maria Rilke has long been one of America's most popular foreign-language authors. This book is a selection of 60 poems taken from one of Rilke's best-known works, the two-volume "New Poems", written from 1903 to 1908. Each poem is printed in English translation opposite the original German version and is illustrated with a delicate pencil sketch by Ferris Cook that echoes the imagery of the poem. 60 illustrations.

For poetry lovers and students of literature and literary criticism, a 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.

Concentrates on Rilke's lesser-known poems, including poems left in manuscript and some of Rilke's occasional verse, in this dual-language collection.

This book brings together, in addition to many other poems, selections from The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Duino Elegies, The Sonnets to Orpheus, and The Book of Hours.

Rilke's poems, in the original German and English translation, show his concern with romantic transformations and spiritual quests.

Rainer Maria Rilke felt that the world and all its joys most truly belonged to the young, and in 'Stories of God' he captured for them the magic, charm and wisdom of fairy and folk tales.

Selections from such works by the German lyric poet as Advent, New Poems, and The Book of Pictures are presented in the original German as well as in English translation.

Two Stories of Prague signifies the maturation of a poet and of a people. Most readers know Rainer Maria Rilke as a mature, cosmopolitan poet prominent among Continental literati of the early 20th century. But the protagonists in "King Bohush" and "The Siblings", who strongly echo elements of Rilke's own youth, sketch a different picture. Here we can discern a young writer self-consciously exploring his development as a man and his emergence as an artist. The result, Angela Esterhammer writes in her introduction, is that in symbolic, stylistic, and biographical terms these two stories "record the process by which Rilke fashions himself into an independent, empowered individual". But the stories contribute more than insight into Rilke's personal and artistic maturation. "The more explicit subject is the city of Prague itself", Esterhammer asserts. For woven into these two tales is a keen awareness of the political, social, and cultural currents swirling through Rilke's native city. Seething tensions between Germans and Czechs, the influence of Czech nationalism on art, and the isolation and artificiality of Prague German culture are themes underlying Rilke's exploration of a milieu that had driven him into a self-imposed exile by 1899, when he wrote these stories. Glimpsed through these early works, the story of Rilke's youth is not only a record of one man's artistic evolution but also, Esterhammer concludes, "a story of domestic, social, and political tensions in a city imbued with a consciousness of religion, superstition, and grand but often tragic history".

This body of uncollected work written between 1908 and 1926 exceeds five hundred pieces: finished poems of great poise and brilliance, headlong statements that hurtle through their subjects, haunting fragments, and short bursts that arc into the unpursuable. Many of them must be counted among Rilke's finest poems.

Representative essays, notes and letters reflecting modernist writer's dedication to solace and inner life and experience and the struggle for intense communication including selections from Dream-Book and Rodin Book.