Take a photo of a barcode or cover
lilith89ibz 's review for:
The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke: Bilingual Edition
by Rainer Maria Rilke
This was my first foray into Rilke's actual work, other than his [b:Letters to a Young Poet|46199|Letters to a Young Poet|Rainer Maria Rilke|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1321994947l/46199._SY75_.jpg|1208289], and while I find some of his poems quite obscure, Robert Hass' introduction is immensely helpful in giving them context. The Notes section in the back also contains a lot of valuable reference information.
Most of my poetry reading is done with no context whatsoever, and what I get out of it has to do with my own experiences, but oftentimes, to understand anything about specific poems, you need to know what the author was talking about and what the symbolism stood for. Rilke is one of those poets that need a little bit of an explanation. There are several gems in this selection, and I look forward to reading more of his complete works.
My one gripe with Mitchell's translation is his insistence upon translating "Gedärme" as "bowels" and "Eingeweide" as "intestines", instead of translating them as "guts", or "entrails", which evoke a slightly more poetic picture. Translating poetry is an impossible task, so I won't fault him for anything else, but I would have made different choices from time to time.
Most of my poetry reading is done with no context whatsoever, and what I get out of it has to do with my own experiences, but oftentimes, to understand anything about specific poems, you need to know what the author was talking about and what the symbolism stood for. Rilke is one of those poets that need a little bit of an explanation. There are several gems in this selection, and I look forward to reading more of his complete works.
My one gripe with Mitchell's translation is his insistence upon translating "Gedärme" as "bowels" and "Eingeweide" as "intestines", instead of translating them as "guts", or "entrails", which evoke a slightly more poetic picture. Translating poetry is an impossible task, so I won't fault him for anything else, but I would have made different choices from time to time.