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senordustin's review against another edition
5.0
I gotta read more of this guy. Smart, powerful, glowing language, even in translation, even for a person who doesn't like poetry.
aeudaimonia's review against another edition
emotional
inspiring
reflective
4.0
Rilke's originals are simply divine and defy a 0-5 scale. "Whoever we are at the end..." Phenomenal.
The translation is... okay. It's like, fine. Thank God they included the German, but, even for someone who's rusty in the language, it inevitably exposes the translation's inadequacies. But it is, bare minimum, adequate. The four stars is just for the translation. Don't come for me.
The translation is... okay. It's like, fine. Thank God they included the German, but, even for someone who's rusty in the language, it inevitably exposes the translation's inadequacies. But it is, bare minimum, adequate. The four stars is just for the translation. Don't come for me.
allyem_reads's review against another edition
4.0
I absolutely loved this, it was an excellent introduction to Rilke, and I definitely will be picking up more from him. His poetry is so emotional and gripping, it feels like I'm speaking to a friend.
losethegirl's review
emotional
hopeful
reflective
slow-paced
2.0
I always think I'm going to like Rilke more than I do. Not much more to it.
lvrock's review against another edition
Beautiful and lyrical, Rilke speaks life to moments and feelings and longings hard to put into words.
barbarajean's review against another edition
challenging
emotional
reflective
slow-paced
- Plot- or character-driven? N/A
- Strong character development? N/A
- Loveable characters? N/A
- Diverse cast of characters? N/A
- Flaws of characters a main focus? N/A
3.5
pinkpxls's review against another edition
4.0
"For beauty is nothing but the onset of terror we're still just able to bear, and we admire it so because it calmly disdains to destroy us. Every angel is terrifying"
I absolutely adore Rilke. His prose is beautiful, it resonates with lyrical intensity. Smoothly elegant and unhurriedly paced.
I absolutely adore Rilke. His prose is beautiful, it resonates with lyrical intensity. Smoothly elegant and unhurriedly paced.
chon's review against another edition
So much beauty that it kind of takes your breath away and you leave not knowing if you’re at awe of the world or scared of it
dan1066's review against another edition
3.0
Seltsam,
alles, was sich bezog, so lose im Raume
flattern zu sehen. Und das Totsein ist mühsam
und voller Nachholn, daß man allmählich ein wenig
Ewigkeit spürt.—Aber Lebendige Machen
alle den Fehler, daß sie zu stark unterscheiden.
Engel (sagt man) wüßten oft nicht, ob sie unter
Lebenden gehn oder Toten.
Duino Elegies: Die Erste Elegie
Strange,
to see elements, once related, flutter
loosely in space. And being dead is toilsome,
and full of the retrieving needed if little by little
we’re to feel a bit of eternity.—Yes, but the living
are mistaken to draw these distinctions so strictly.
Angels (it’s said) often don’t know if it’s the living
they move among or the dead.
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
translated by Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann
Strange,
everything that related so loosely in space
to see flutter. And being dead is tedious
and full of catching up to do, gradually
a little Eternity feels.—But make living ones
all the fault that they are too different.
Angels (they say) often do not know whether they are under
the living go or the dead.
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
translated by Google Translate
Dear Reader: If you’re incensed because I dared give Rilke three stars, calm down. The three stars are for the translation, not for Rilke. Galway Kinnell, not fluent in German, works with Hannah Liebmann, wer spricht deutsch, to translate Rilke’s Duino Elegies and a few other selected poems spanning his career as poet. They provide the original text on the facing pages, and this helped a lot. Rilke employs rhyme schemes and repetition which are at times lost or dropped in Kinnell’s translation in favor of clarity. In the end, though, I couldn’t tell whether Kinnell was spot-on, in which case Rilke is more interesting in what he talks about than how he writes about it, or failing to properly capture the essence of reading Rilke in the original.
Take the three passages above. Aside from clarifying syntax, there’s not a whole lot of difference between Kinnell/Liebmann and a Google Translation. And I admit it: I prefer Google translation of “…being dead is tedious and full of catching up to do” to Kinnell’s “…And being dead is toilsome, and full of the retrieving needed.” In the original German, there’s also a musicality which is wholly missing from both these attempts. The mess gets much worse with Rilke’s selections from The Sonnets to Orpheus: Kinnell makes no attempt to match the prosody of the original. He wants his translations to be accurate—but we’re reading poetry here. Accuracy has little to do with this exercise.
I have reservations regarding translated modern poetry; I believe it isn't possible. Yet, this thin volume is an excellent introduction to Rilke, providing the entire Duino Elegies as well as the fascinating poems “The Panther,” “Requiem for a Friend” and “The Quieting of Mary with the Resurrected One.” I’m going to search other translations, compare, ruminate. This thin volume has sparked my resolve to delve more deeply in Rilke’s work and to stop dismissing “non-English poets of the 20th and 21st centuries” because translations cannot replicate the experience of the original. After all,
Nicht sind die Leiden erkannt,
nicht ist die Liebe gelernt,
und was im Tod uns entfernt,
Ist nicht entschleiert.
Einzig das Lied überm Land
heiligt und feiert.
Suffering has not been understood,
love has not been learned,
and what goes from us in death
is not revealed.
Over the land song alone
hallows and celebrates.
alles, was sich bezog, so lose im Raume
flattern zu sehen. Und das Totsein ist mühsam
und voller Nachholn, daß man allmählich ein wenig
Ewigkeit spürt.—Aber Lebendige Machen
alle den Fehler, daß sie zu stark unterscheiden.
Engel (sagt man) wüßten oft nicht, ob sie unter
Lebenden gehn oder Toten.
Duino Elegies: Die Erste Elegie
Strange,
to see elements, once related, flutter
loosely in space. And being dead is toilsome,
and full of the retrieving needed if little by little
we’re to feel a bit of eternity.—Yes, but the living
are mistaken to draw these distinctions so strictly.
Angels (it’s said) often don’t know if it’s the living
they move among or the dead.
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
translated by Galway Kinnell and Hannah Liebmann
Strange,
everything that related so loosely in space
to see flutter. And being dead is tedious
and full of catching up to do, gradually
a little Eternity feels.—But make living ones
all the fault that they are too different.
Angels (they say) often do not know whether they are under
the living go or the dead.
Duino Elegies: The First Elegy
translated by Google Translate
Dear Reader: If you’re incensed because I dared give Rilke three stars, calm down. The three stars are for the translation, not for Rilke. Galway Kinnell, not fluent in German, works with Hannah Liebmann, wer spricht deutsch, to translate Rilke’s Duino Elegies and a few other selected poems spanning his career as poet. They provide the original text on the facing pages, and this helped a lot. Rilke employs rhyme schemes and repetition which are at times lost or dropped in Kinnell’s translation in favor of clarity. In the end, though, I couldn’t tell whether Kinnell was spot-on, in which case Rilke is more interesting in what he talks about than how he writes about it, or failing to properly capture the essence of reading Rilke in the original.
Take the three passages above. Aside from clarifying syntax, there’s not a whole lot of difference between Kinnell/Liebmann and a Google Translation. And I admit it: I prefer Google translation of “…being dead is tedious and full of catching up to do” to Kinnell’s “…And being dead is toilsome, and full of the retrieving needed.” In the original German, there’s also a musicality which is wholly missing from both these attempts. The mess gets much worse with Rilke’s selections from The Sonnets to Orpheus: Kinnell makes no attempt to match the prosody of the original. He wants his translations to be accurate—but we’re reading poetry here. Accuracy has little to do with this exercise.
I have reservations regarding translated modern poetry; I believe it isn't possible. Yet, this thin volume is an excellent introduction to Rilke, providing the entire Duino Elegies as well as the fascinating poems “The Panther,” “Requiem for a Friend” and “The Quieting of Mary with the Resurrected One.” I’m going to search other translations, compare, ruminate. This thin volume has sparked my resolve to delve more deeply in Rilke’s work and to stop dismissing “non-English poets of the 20th and 21st centuries” because translations cannot replicate the experience of the original. After all,
Nicht sind die Leiden erkannt,
nicht ist die Liebe gelernt,
und was im Tod uns entfernt,
Ist nicht entschleiert.
Einzig das Lied überm Land
heiligt und feiert.
Suffering has not been understood,
love has not been learned,
and what goes from us in death
is not revealed.
Over the land song alone
hallows and celebrates.