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ctgt's review against another edition
4.0
With all its eyes the natural world looks out
into the Open. Only our eyes are turned
backward, and surround plant, animal, child
like traps, as they emerge into their freedom.
We know what is really out there only from
the animal's gaze; for we take the very young
child and force it around, so that it sees
objects-not the Open, which is so
deep in the animals' faces. Free from death.
We, only, can see death; the free animal
has its decline in back of it, forever,
and God in front, and when it moves, it moves
already in eternity, like the fountain.
-O Earth: invisible!
What, if not transformation, is your urgent
command?
Earth, my dearest, I will. Oh believe me,
you no longer
need your springtimes to win me
over-one of them,
ah, even one, is already too much
for my blood.
Unspeakably I have belonged to you, from
the first.
All Things want to fly. Only we are
weighed down by desire,
caught in ourselves and enthralled with
our heaviness.
Oh what consuming, negative teachers we are
for them, while eternal childhood fills
them with grace.
dickh's review
5.0
I should not admit this, but I do not think I have read any poetry for 40 years but this is incredible.
hilaritas's review
5.0
This is probably the best translation of Rilke into English. Mitchell doesn't keep the rhyme scheme in the Sonnets, but he captures the tone better than anyone. On re-reading these for the nth time, the Elegies spoke to me more. Rilke's ecstatic annihilation of the space between life and death, and his passion for mystical union with the immense void, are in line with my own current place in life. It's that metaphysical yearning that can consume a person and subsume all other realities to the roaring void of pure being. The Sonnets, while beautiful, don't have that same wild ecstasy.
kxowledge's review
4.0
My review is incredibly influenced by the fact that just before this, I read Averno. Louise Glück’s poetry has a special place in my heart, so my judgement suffers terribly from this. Rilke’s poetry is great, but it didn’t make me feel as Averno did.
ilaeria's review
4.0
Another one I picked up for my 2017 Book Riot Read Harder Challenge. I don't remember the last time I voluntarily read poetry. I forgot that I do actually enjoy it. This collection was translated from German and the edition I read was a bilingual one, so it was interesting to see how much of the German I could read (answer: not much). Translating poetry is always difficult - there's a kind of spectrum from keeping the technical characteristics of the poem intact to keeping its meaning and tone. This translation was at the "meaning and tone" end of the scale. The original poems are sonnets and follow various sonnet rhyme schemes, while the translation follows no sonnet rules other than the 4-4-3-3 stanzas. I liked it though because it made the poetry feel natural and impressionistic instead of forced.
The poems are a memorial for a friend of Rilke's daughter, who died around 19 years old, so they can at times be morbid and dreary. But the beautiful imagery inspired by Orpheus keeps them from being too depressing. Overall a moving and lovely collection and a natural translation.
The poems are a memorial for a friend of Rilke's daughter, who died around 19 years old, so they can at times be morbid and dreary. But the beautiful imagery inspired by Orpheus keeps them from being too depressing. Overall a moving and lovely collection and a natural translation.
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