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Sonnets To Orpheus and Letters To a Young Poet

Rainer Maria Rilke

Translated by Stephen Cohn

Cover Picture of Sonnets To Orpheus and Letters To a Young Poet
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Categories: 20th Century, German, Translation
Imprint: Fyfield Books
Publisher: Carcanet Press
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(Pub. Jul 2012)
9781847775627
£12.95 £11.65
Paperback (160 pages)
(Pub. Mar 2000)
9781857544565
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  • 'They are perhaps most mysterious, even to me,' wrote Rainer Maria Rilke of the Sonnets to Orpheus, 'in the manner in which they arrived and imposed themselves on me - the most puzzling dictation I have ever received and taken down.'

    Rilke, born in Prague in 1875, died at Valmont near Montreux in the last days of 1926. His Sonnets to Orpheus may appear comparatively simple, even casual, at first reading, but they are crammed with content which resonates far beyond the familiar legend of Orpheus and Eurydice. The Sonnets have an astonishing range which takes in the Singing God and his beloved Eurydice; 'legend' in general, along with 'time', 'flight' and 'change; architecture, music and dance; animals, plants, flowers and fruits. They ask to be read by the ear and by the inner eye as much as by the intellect.

    The Sonnets were 'taken down' during a very few weeks in 1922 - weeks in which the poet also brought his Duino Elegies to completion. In them, Rilke partly identifies himself with Orpheus. The young dancer Vera, for whom the Sonnets are inscribed, taken so young into the Underworld, becomes Eurydice.

    A tension which adds life to Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus comes through a paradox. Rilke's was a deeply inward, introspective nature, but in the Sonnets he succeeds brilliantly in looking out from his isolation: in making poetry from material which lies in an important sense 'outside'.

    Rilke's ten letters to the young officer-cadet Franz Xavier Kappus, written between 1903 and 1908, were later published as Letters to a Young Poet. By now the letters have become a part of literary folklore. They contain insights which are as profound today as when they were written, almost a century ago.

    For more information on Rilke and Cohn, go to rainermariarilke.net.


    Table of Contents

                Introduction

                Sonnets Part One

                Sonnets Part Two


                Bibliography

                Notes Part One

                Notes Part Two

      Letters to a Young Poet

                Introduction - Peter Porter

                Preface - Franz Zaver Kappus

                  The Letters

                Rainer Maria Rilke, Franz Xaver Kappus

                Chronology 1903-1909

    Rainer Maria Rilke
    RAINER MARIA RILKE was born in Prague in 1875. Following an unhappy period spent at military academies, he studied a variety of subjects at the universities of Prague, Munich, and Berlin. It was in Munich that he first met Lou Andreas-Salomé, with whom he travelled to Russia in 1899 and 1900. ... read more
    Stephen Cohn
    Stephen Cohn was a sculptor, painter and printmaker. His translations of Rilke for Carcanet include the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus . For more information on Rilke and Cohn, go to rainermariarilke.net . ... read more
    Praise for Rainer Maria Rilke 'Cohn has added a natural eloquence of his own which makes his version of the Elegies the most flowing and organic of those I have read.' - Peter Porter 'The reader with no German can enjoy this volume from beginning to end.' - Stephen Spender 'Rilke has never "moved" so naturally into another language as he seems to do in Stephen Cohn's renderings of these poems.' - John Bayley 'Cohn has added a natural eloquence of his own which makes his version of the Elegies the most flowing and organic of those I have read.' - Peter Porter 'Rilke has never "moved" so naturally into another language as he seems to do in Stephen Cohn's renderings of these poems.' - John Bayley 'The reader with no German can enjoy this volume from beginning to end.' - Stephen Spender
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