Rilke on love and other difficulties. Translations and considerations of Rainer Maria Rilke by John J.L. Mood.

Rilke, Rainer Maria, 1875-1926

ISBN 10: 0393310981 / ISBN 13: 9780393310986

Published by Norton, New York, 2004

About this Item

PAPERBACK, cover price $12.95, near fine, covers lightly curled. RILKE, RAINER MARIA. Rilke on love and other difficulties. Translations and considerations of Rainer Maria Rilke by John J.L. Mood. New York: Norton, 2004, reissued as Norton paperback, 117pp., . Cover design by Martin Ogolter for studio ormus. German and English on facing pages for the poetry. - This book was compiled by a Rilke lover for Rilke lovers. John Mood has chosen selections from Rilke and combined them with his own writings and commentary. Included are Rilke's letters on love; poems on love and other difficulties, translated by Mood; shorter selections from Rilke's work; and an essay by Mood. The letters on love present Rilke's exploration of the deepest levels of what love is. His working toward love at these depths was poetic, profound, and thoroughly radical. His language is sensual; his deep spirituality is rooted in the senses. The letters are of crucial importance for those who have passed from puritanism to promiscuity without ever having experienced genuine love. The love poems were written during the period of Rilke's most mature work. They are sensual and explicitly sexual-but they are also tough-minded. The poems reflect great passion and gentle care; his unique joining of the masculine and the feminine is profoundly portrayed. There is also a selection from Rilke's later poems, which many feel are his most significant works. All but a few have appeared in translation only once before. The poems deal with the fundamental difficulty of living-dying, though with greater subtlety, density, and depth than before. The book concludes with a passage from Rilke on the difficulty of writing poetry and of living life; a letter containing an affirmation of life; and Mood's essay on dying, based on Rilke's self-composed epitaph. - CONTENTS: I. Prologue -- II. Letters of Love -- III. Poems of Love -- IV. Poems on Other Difficulties -- V. Blood-Remembering -- VI. The Dragon-Princess -- VII. The Difficulty of Dying: Rilke's Self-Composed Epitaph -- VIII. Epilogue. 9780393310986 ISBN 0393310981 5.50.

Seller Inventory # 501015

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Rilke on love and other difficulties. Translations and considerations of Rainer Maria Rilke by John J.L. Mood.
• Publisher: Norton, New York
• Publication Date: 2004
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0393310981
• ISBN 13: 9780393310986
• Binding: paperback
• Condition: Near Fine
• Weight: 5.5 ounces
• Seller catalogs:
  • Rilke

About this title

Synopsis

An anthology of Rilke's strongest poetry and prose for both aficionados and new readers.

Here is a mini-anthology of poetry and prose for both aficionados and those readers discovering Rainer Maria Rilke for the first time. John J. L. Mood has assembled a collection of Rilke's strongest work, presenting commentary along with the selections. Mood links into an essay passages from letters that show Rilke's profound understanding of men and women and his ardent spirituality, rooted in the senses.

Combining passion and sensitivity, the poems on love presented here are often not only sensual but sexual as well. Others pursue perennial themes in his work―death and life, growth and transformation. The book concludes with Rilke's reflections on wisdom and openness to experience, on grasping what is most difficult and turning what is most alien into that which we can most trust.

About the Author

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875–1926), the author of Sonnets to Orpheus and Letters to a Young Poet, was one of the greatest poets of the German language.