Rilke: New Poems - Hardcover

Rilke, Rainer Maria

4.16

749 ratings by Goodreads

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 1556594240 ISBN 13: 9781556594243

Publisher: Copper Canyon Press, 2014

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Essential for all poetry collections Originally published in 1907 and 1908 in two volumes, the 200 poems contained in this bilingual single volume represent a period of intense creativity in the poet’s career. Translator Joseph Cadora renders a beautiful new edition complete with commentary on each poem at the end, based on Rilke’s letters, numerous biographies, and related works as well as an introduction outlining his approach to the translation..” Library Journal, starred review

[The] renderings of the canonical poems, such as The Panther,” Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes,” and Archaic Torso of Apollo” (to name a few), are worthwhile additions to the enormous body of Rilke’s work already translated by others. Cadora’s willingness to translate nearly two hundred poems is admirable, since many themes recur and develop.” Booklist

"Through him resounds the music of the universe." Herman Hesse

Rainer Maria Rilke is one of the world's best-selling poets, and New Poems contains many of his most iconic pieces. Throughout, Rilke he is obsessed with shapes and different layers of physical containment from an image held in a panther's eye to a cathedral window. Translator Joseph Cadora has created the definitive English-language version through meticulous faithfulness to Rilke's German and insightful commentary on each of the four hundred-plus poems. As Cadora said in an interview, "I tried to stay true to the vision of Rilke that would invite the reader into his world, not mine." Bilingual, with an introduction by Robert Hass.

The Panther:

From endless passing of the bars his gazehas wearied there is no more it can hold. There seem to be a thousand bars always, and past those thousand bars there is no world.

The soft pad of his brawny, rippling paceturns itself in a tightening circle till, like a mighty dance around a tiny space, it centers a numb but still enormous will.

But at times the shades of his pupils rise,grasping an image he cannot resist; through his tense, unmoving limbs it flies, and within his heart it ceases to exist.

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 1926) is one of the world's most beloved poets. Working at the cusp of the century, Rilke bridged the gap between traditional and modernist poetics. Born in Prague, Rilke traveled widely across Europe and Egypt, and lived for many years in Paris.

Joseph Cadora is a guitarist, writer, and translator. He lives in Berkeley, California.

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About the Author:

Rainer Maria Rilke: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is one of the world's most beloved poets. Working at the cusp of the century, Rilke bridged the gap between traditional and modernist poetics. Born in Prague, Rilke traveled widely across Europe and Egypt, living for a substantial amount of time in Paris.

Joseph Cadora: Joseph Cadora is a guitarist, writer, and translator whose fiction and non-fiction have been published in Southern Humanities Review, The Montserrat Review, and the San Francisco Chronicle. His collection of short stories, The Millennial Fictions, won the 2009 Eisner Prize for Prose.

Poet and translator Robert Hass served as the United States Poet Laureate from 1995 to 1997. He has been honored with a MacArthur Genius” Fellowship, the National Book Award, a Pulitzer Prize, and the National Book Critics' Circle Award. Mr. Hass is a professor of English at University of California, Berkeley.

From Booklist:

There have been many distinguished translators of Rilke; so many, in fact, that there is even an excellent book by novelist and critic William Gass: Reading Rilke: Reflections on the Problems of Translation (1999). Cadora—guitarist, writer, and translator, whose collection The Millennial Fictions (2009) won the Eisner Prize for Prose—is the latest. In his introduction, Cadora states, “I am convinced that, without the rhyme schemes, Rilke would not be Rilke, and I have endeavored to keep them exact where I could.” This decision shapes the book. Many of the poems are sonnets, and while Rilke’s immense creativity within formal constraints is apparent, English is not as rhyme rich and some of Cadora’s versions sound like tongue twisters. His renderings of the canonical poems, such as “The Panther,” “Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes,” and “Archaic Torso of Apollo” (to name a few), are worthwhile additions to the enormous body of Rilke’s work already translated by others. Cadora’s willingness to translate more than four hundred poems is admirable, since many themes recur and develop. This is an uneven but worthwhile volume. --Michael Autrey

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