Rainer Maria Rilke

"Though they were written specifically to a young poet, Rilke's words apply to everyone - especially to those who are attempting to do anything creative in their lives." - Marc Allen, author of A Visionary Life The ten letters that form this beautiful little book are some of the most famous letters ever written. They range freely over a variety of subjects, from the dangers of an ironic worldview to the value of faith. The reason they have proved to be so popular over the years is that they are the work of a great soul; an expansive and inspiring spirit pervades them. For almost a hundred years, the voice that reached out to the aspiring artist with the most clarity and consolation was that of Rainer Maria Rilke. How is it that such a slim book, written so long ago in a time very different from our own, still speaks to us with such authority today? The answer lies in the simple fact that these letters are the result of a unique conjunction of circumstances that created an almost magical alchemy of thought and feeling. Because of their depth of sentiment and sense of wise detachment, readers often assume that they are the work of an older man looking back on the struggles of youth. But, in fact, these letters were written between Rilke's twenty-eighth and thirty-third years - during which he was struggling to find himself artistically. However, it is the great, overarching shadow of the French sculptor Rodin that helps lift Rilke's insights from the profound observations of a sensitive and talented young man to the status of timeless utterances about the mysteries of life and the creative process. This book makes a perfect gift for the writer, artist, or thinker.

He would become one of the most important poets of the twentieth century; she a muse of Europe's fin-de-siècle thinkers and artists. In this collection of letters, a finalist for the PEN USA translation award, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé, a writer and intellectual fourteen years his senior, pen a relationship that spans thirty years and shifting boundaries: as lovers, as mentor and protégé, and as deep personal and literary allies.

Sculptor Auguste Rodin was fortunate to have his secretary Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most sensitive poets of our time. These two pieces discussing Rodin's work and development as an artist are as revealing of Rilke as they are of his subject. Written in 1902 and 1907, these essays mark the entry of the poet into the world of letters. Rilke's description of Rodin reveals the profound psychic connection between the two great artists, both masters of giving visible life to the invisible. Michael Eastman's evocative photographs of Rodin's sculptures shed light on both Rodin's art and Rilke's thoughts and catapult them into the 21st century.

Rainer Maria Rilken Duinon elegiat lukeutuu saksankielisen kirjallisuuden merkittävimpiin teoksiin. Kymmenen vuotta kestänyt repaleinen kirjoitustyö johti lopulta vuonna 1922 teoksen myrskymäisen nopeaan viimeistelyyn Château de Muzot'n linnassa. Teoksen kymmenen elegiaa merkitsevät modernistisen kirjallisuuden romanttisen juonteen huippupistettä, romantiikan projektin myöhäistä leimahdusta. Runot etsivät yhteisen aluetta, suurempaa yhteyttä omaan sisimpäämme ja sieltä kaikkeuteen; ne piirtävät epätoivoisesti kuvaa ihmisestä tuon etsinnän sielua riipivämmässä hetkessä. Rilke luotaa rajapintoja, joissa kahtiajako hälvenee ja voi tavoittaa kokonaisuuden, jossa jopa elämä ja kuolema ovat yhtä ja samaa olemista. Elegiat ovat antaneet aihetta lukemattomiin tulkintoihin ja tutkimuksiin, joiden joukkoon jokainen niistä tehty käännös osallistuu omalla lukusuunnallaan. Poesia julkaisee suomentaja Arja Meskin suomennoksen korjatun laitoksen Rilken kuolinvuoden kunniaksi.

Long hailed as a masterwork of modern German literature, The Book of Hours (1905) marks the origin of Rainer Maria Rilke's distinctive voice and vision--where clarity of diction meets unexpected imagery and first-person poetry discovers its full lyric possibility. In these audacious poems, a devout but candid speaker addresses an ultimately unknowable deity, passing through love, fear, guilt, anger, bewilderment, loneliness, tenderness, and exaltation in his search for meaning. In this dual-language edition, Edward Snow, "the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilke's contemporary translators" (Michael Dirda, Washington Post), makes Rilke's achievement accessible as never before in English. Snow retains a striking fidelity to the German text while also conveying the captivating psychological presence that animates Rilke's best poems.