Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies

By Rainer Maria Rilke

The cycle of 55 sonnets that comprise Rainer Maria Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpheus" were written in a period of three weeks during 1922, a time which the poet himself described as a "savage creative storm." Inspired by the death of his daughter's friend, Wera Knoop, Rilke commenced to the production of "Sonnets to Orpheus," a work filled with mythological and biblical allusions. During the same burst of creative energy he set to working on the completion of the "Duino Elegies," a work begun some ten years earlier but set aside due to Rilke's own emotional distress over the tragic events of World War I and his conscription into the Austro-Hungarian army. He wrote in a letter to the deceased girl's mother that Wera's ghost was "commanding and impelling" him to write. The results of this "savage creative storm" are generally considered as Rilke's masterpieces. "Duino Elegies" is an intensely spiritual group of verses that ponders the beauty and existential suffering of life. Together these works exhibit why Rilke is widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense of all German-language poets.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Digireads.com Publishing
• Release date: Jan 1, 2014
• ISBN: 9781420950298

Rainer Maria Rilke

Rainer Maria Rilke (1975-1926) was born in Prague and traveled throughout Europe, returning frequently to Paris, where he wrote his finest works: the two volumes of New Poems and the great modernist novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. He lived the last years of his life in Switzerland, where he completed his two poetic masterworks, the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus. Joel Agee has translated Elias Canetti, Friedrich Dürenmatt, and Gottfried Benn. He won the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his work on Heinrich von Kleist's verse play Penthesilea. He is the author of Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany.

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SONNETS TO ORPHEUS AND DUINO ELEGIES

BY RAINER MARIA RILKE

TRANSLATED BY JESSIE LEMONT

Print ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5028-1

eBook ISBN 13: 978-1-4209-5029-8

This edition copyright © 2014

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CONTENTS

INTRODUCTION

SONNETS TO ORPHEUS

FIRST PART

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

SECOND PART

I

II

III

IV

V

VI

VII

VIII

IX

X

XI

XII

XIII

XIV

XV

XVI

XVII

XVIII

XIX

XX

XXI

XXII

XXIII

XXIV

XXV

XXVI

XXVII

XXVIII

XXIX

DUINO ELEGIES

FIRST ELEGY

SECOND ELEGY

THIRD ELEGY

FOURTH ELEGY

FIFTH ELEGY

SIXTH ELEGY

SEVENTH ELEGY

EIGHTH ELEGY

NINTH ELEGY

TENTH ELEGY

FROM THE BOOK OF HOURS

(Translated by Jessie Lemont)

Extinguish my eyes, I still can see you.

Close my ears, I can hear your footsteps fall.

And without feet I still can follow you,

And without voice I still can to you call.

Break off my arms, and I can embrace you,

Enfold you with my heart as with a hand.

Hold my heart, my brain will take fire of you

As flax ignites from a lit fire-brand—

And flame will sweep in a swift rushing flood

Through all the singing currents of my blood.

Rainer Maria Rilke

INTRODUCTION

A translation is a window artfully made to conceal itself and so more clearly reveal what lies beyond. Even the most up-to-date window may be expected to have some slight frame, thereby affording a decent line of demarcation between a world about us, for the moment alien to our interests, and the view through the window. The following words of introduction are, then, a slender frame to give becoming setting for the radiant world, the jewelled splendor, which this small book reveals.

Rainer Maria Rilke is universally acknowledged as one of the most inspired poetic minds of the last half century. Within those particular realms which he chose for his own he reigns in a serene and undisputed supremacy over his contemporaries. He was a far voyager. As a young man he left his own fatherland, then Austria, now Czechoslovakia, to reside in all parts of Europe, especially in Italy, Spain, Russia, Scandinavia, England, and longest in Paris, in which city he was for many years secretary to Auguste Rodin. His insatiable quest of wisdom and of art led him also into many and far fields of history, acquainting him with the myths and poetry of Europe, Egypt, and the East. As art critic, inspired thinker, and lyric poet he has had few peers. Within the last quarter of a century his works have become so well known in all continents as to be many times translated into the chief languages. The more spacious and sociologically significant domains of literature, such as drama or epic narrative, to be sure, he neglected in favor of his lyric art. But this art he perfected in a wide range from relatively simple songs to the most highly wrought metaphysical verse. Many of his clearest, simplest and most attractive lyrics belong to his earlier years, when life held for him and for the world less acute perplexities than after the first decade of our own tempestuous century. Whether his poetry materially improved with years doubtless remains a matter of taste and therefore disputable; certainly his art became steadily more enriched, complex, and philosophical. Those of his poems to which the epithet profound is most commonly applied are represented by the present volume, containing the most successful of his metaphysical and meditative verses, his Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies. In them the poet in Rilke happily meets the seer; lyric power is never sacrificed to reflective power nor thoughts to lyricism; both are found in perfect ripeness and harmony.

The two sequences of poems are so intimately associated in art and doctrine as very properly to constitute one volume, Rilke's final testament as a major philosophical poet and seriously inspired singer. However difficult these works may be, they are in no sense products of eccentricity, nor of morbidity. They cannot be likened to the chief works of James Joyce or T. S. Eliot. Here we find an orphic wisdom as visioned through the eyes of the poet's age. And while in their somewhat tremulous tone they reflect the singularly troubled decades of European history which saw their birth, they also share amply in that breadth of vision and wide historical perspective which were the final fruits of the nineteenth century. In some of his earlier poems Rilke may possibly come closer to the spirit of Greek poetry and art than here, but here he unquestionably harkens to the lessons of Greek philosophy. And he collects

Reviews for Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies

[poetontheone · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Rilke, in this comprehensive translation of two major works, crafts powerful yet elegant poetic odes to the majesty of the human experience and its relationship to the external world. A realm in which the human being exists in quandary and struggle. The translation is quite readable and often beautiful, but sometimes a little uneven. I would like to compare it to other translations.

[arctic1stranger · Rating: 5 out of 5 stars]

For my taste this is not the best translation, but I do like certain parts. These are two of Rilke's major works (The third being the Book of Hours). I would not use this as my primary translation, but if you are looking for a second copy, this is more than adequate.

[chellerystick · Rating: 4 out of 5 stars]

Obviously we should all read all of Rilke's poems... but the Sonnets to Orpheus would be the second work I would buy, right after the Book of Hours. I like having the parallel translations--I can sound out just enough German to appreciate some of the sonic work.