The Best of Rilke: 72 Form-True Verse Translations with Facing Originals, Commentary, and Compact Biography

by Rainer Maria Rilke

Book Overview

Rainer Maria Rilke's best poems are finally available in translations so faithful yet free flowing that a reader forgets they were not originally written in English. Applying the same principle of "form-true" rendering that earned him the Bollingen Prize for his translation of Pushkin's Eugene Onegin, poet-translator Walter Arndt boldly claims to reproduce in English for the first time the prosodic identity of Rilke's finest rhymed poems.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0874514614
• ISBN13: 9780874514612
• Release Date: May 1989
• Publisher: University Press of New England
• Length: 213 Pages
• Weight: 0.73 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.5" x 9.0"

Customer Reviews

On first looking into Arndt's Rilke

When you first encounter Rilke (probably in your teenage years), you marvel at the modernity of his language, a hundred years after it was written. Intrigued, you start exploring "like some watcher of the skies/ when a new planet swims into his ken". Gradually, you succumb to the incantatory sound and rhythm, the startling subject-object reversals, the transforming and redemptive effect of single lines. By this time, you probably know a number of Rilke poems by heart. As you get older, you become aware of his affectations, his mannerisms, his power to seduce and ensnare. You resist. You start poking holes in his shining armor. You realize that he is easily parodied. Eventually, you may put him aside like a youthful indulgence and concentrate on sterner stuff.But every so often - on a train ride, at an airport, in a hotel lobby, in a state of suspension or wary expectation - your memory will toss up a line or two from a Rilke poem. Has there ever been a more haunting evocation of captivity than in "The Panther"? Or of the wretched gift of prophecy than in "The Sibyl"? Or of the cruel intrusion of death on ordinary lives than in "Intimation of Reality" and "Coda"? You re-acquaint yourself with the poetry, you re-evaluate, you re-affirm.A translator has to go through all these stages in order to arrive at an intimate understanding of the poet and his work. Arndt's commentary indicates that he has completed the cycle and is ready for the much more difficult task of rendering Rilke's poetry into another language. Readers of this volume are confronted not only with Rilke, but also with the deeper problems of interpretation and the inevitable compromise required by translation. There is bound to be some dissatisfaction; but the effort will be richly rewarded.

Great introduction to Rilke!

Looking to learn more about and increase my enjoyment of poetry, I was very happy to find this volume of Rilke's work. In addition to having what appears to be very masterful translations, it has the German and English text of each of his poems on facing pages. This makes this book excellent for those wishing to practice or polish their German.I was very happy with this purchase, and look forward to reading more of Rilke's work in the future.

The Best of Rilke

The Best of Rilke is a wonderfully put together publication of his poetry. The poems are beautiful in German and English. In some of the poems, the book also offers multiple translations that each give a slightly different view on the poem. I am a student in German IB, in junior high, and I found this book very easy to use and well-translated. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Rilke's works.

No other translations come close

By far and away the best translations of the works of Rilke I have yet seen. I hope that Arndt translates more of Rilke's work, as the other translations I have found are pretty poor. While no translation is exact, Arndt retains the meter and ryhme, thus retaining the poetic form of Rilke's work. Reading "Pieta", and "The Orphan's Song" will bring tears to your eyes and an appreciation of the genius of both Rilke and Arndt.