eBookBilingual edition, Revised (Bilingual edition, Revised)
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Overview
Now substantially revised by Edward Snow, whom Denise Levertov once called "far and away Rilke's best translator," this bilingual edition of The Book of Images contains a number of the great poet's previously untranslated pieces. Also included are several of Rilke's best-loved lyrics, such as "Autumn," "Childhood," "Lament," "Evening," and "Entrance."
Product Details
| ISBN-13: | 9781466872615 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Farrar, Straus and Giroux |
| Publication date: | 06/03/2014 |
| Sold by: | Macmillan |
| Format: | eBook |
| Pages: | 280 |
| File size: | 383 KB |
About the Author
Edward Snow has received the Harold Morton Landon Translation Award and the PEN Award for Poetry in Translation for his many renderings of Rilke. The author of A Study of Vermeer and Inside Breughel, he teaches at Rice University.
Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 and traveled throughout Europe for much of his adult life, returning frequently to Paris. There he came under the influence of the sculptor Auguste Rodin and produced much of his finest verse, most notably the two volumes of New Poems as well as the great modernist novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. Among his other books of poems are The Book of Images and The Book of Hours. He lived the last years of his life in Switzerland, where he completed his two poetic masterworks, the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus. He died of leukemia in December 1926.
Edward Snow is a professor of English at Rice University. He is the recipient of an Academy of Arts and Letters Award for his Rainer Maria Rilke translations and has twice received the Academy of American Poets' Harold Morton Landon Translation Award. He is the author of A Study of Vermeer and Inside Bruegel.
Read an Excerpt
CHAPTER 1
EINGANG
Wer du auch seist: am Abend tritt hinaus aus deiner Stube, drin du alles weißt;
ENTRANCE
Whoever you are: in the evening step out of your room, where you know everything;
AUS EINEM APRIL
Wieder duftet der Wald.
Dann wird es still. Sogar der Regen geht leiser
FROM AN APRIL
Again the woods smell sweet.
The soaring larks lift up with them the sky, which to our shoulders was so heavy;
Then it grows still. Even the rain runs more softly over the stones' quietly darkening gleam.
ZWEI GEDICHTE ZU HANS THOMAS SECHZIGSTEM GEBURTSTAGE
MONDNACHT
Süddeutsche Nacht, ganz breit im reifen Monde,
RITTER
Reitet der Ritter in schwarzem Stahl hinaus in die rauschende Welt.
Und draußen ist Alles: der Tag und das Tal und der Freund und der Feind und das Mahl im Saal und der Mai und die Maid und der Wald und der Gral,
Doch in dem Panzer des Ritters drinnen,
TWO POEMS TO HANS THOMAS ON HIS SIXTIETH BIRTHDAY
MOONLIGHT
South German night, bathed in August moonlight,
From the turret many hours fall heavily down into their depth as into the sea, —
KNIGHT
The knight rides forth in jet-black steel into the rushing, turbulent world.
And outside is everything: the day and the vale and the friend and the foe and the feast in the hall and May and the maid and the woods and the Grail and God himself set thousandfold on every street.
Yet just inside the knight's armor,
MÄDCHENMELANCHOLIE
Mir fällt ein junger Ritter ein fast wie ein alter Spruch.
Der kam. So kommt manchmal im Hain der große Sturm und hüllt dich ein.
Mir fällt ein junger Ritter ein,
Sein Lächeln war so weich und fein:
GIRL'S MELANCHOLY
A young knight comes to mind almost like an old saying.
He came. Thus sometimes in the grove the great storm comes and wraps around you.
A young knight comes to mind,
His smile was so soft and fine:
VON DEN MÄDCHEN
I
Andere müssen auf langen Wegen zu den dunklen Dichtern gehn;
Aus ihrem Leben geht jede Türe in einen Dichter und in die Welt.
II
Mädchen, Dichter sind, die von euch lernen das zu sagen, was ihr einsam seid;
Keine darf sich je dem Dichter schenken,
Laßt ihn einsam sein in seinem Garten,
Geht! ... es dunkelt. Seine Sinne suchen eure Stimme und Gestalt nicht mehr.
... Eure Stimmen hört er ferne gehn
GIRLS
I
Others must travel long paths to reach the dark poets;
From their lives every door opens onto a poet and onto the world.
II
Girls, there are poets who learn from you to say, what you, in your aloneness, are;
None may ever give herself to a poet,
Let him be alone in his garden,
Go! ... it grows dark. His senses seek your voices and shapes no longer.
... Your voices he hears move far off
DAS LIED DER BILDSÄULE
Wer ist es, wer mich so liebt, daß er sein liebes Leben verstößt?
Ich sehne mich so nach dem rauschenden Blut;
Und werd ich einmal im Leben sein,
-------------------
so werd ich allein weinen, weinen nach meinem Stein.
THE SONG OF THE STATUE
Who is there who so loves me, that he will throw away his own dear life?
If someone will die for me in the ocean,
How I long for blood's rushing;
And if I once more find myself in life,
-------------------
then I will weep alone, weep for my stone.
DER WAHNSINN
Sie muß immer sinnen: Ich bin ... ich bin ...
Sie muß immer weinen: Ich war ... ich war ...
Und wurdest aus einem solchen Kind eine Fürstin, vor der man kniet?
So haben die Dinge dich groß gemacht,
MADNESS
She must always brood: I am ... I am ...
She must always weep: I was ... I was ...
And there has grown from such a child a princess, to whom one kneels?
So the things have made you great,
DIE LIEBENDE
Ja ich sehne mich nach dir. Ich gleite mich verlierend selbst mir aus der Hand,
... jene Zeiten: O wie war ich Eines,
Aber jetzt in diesen Frühlingswochen hat mich etwas langsam abgebrochen von dem unbewußten dunkeln Jahr.
WOMAN IN LOVE
Yes I long for you. I glide,
... back then: O how complete I was,
But now in these spring weeks something has slowly broken me off from the dark unconscious year.
DIE BRAUT
Ruf mich, Geliebter, ruf mich laut!
Und kommst du mich nicht in das nächtliche Haus mit deiner Stimme verschließen,
DIE BRAUT
Ruf mich, Geliebter, ruf mich laut!
Und kommst du mich nicht in das nächtliche Haus mit deiner Stimme verschließen,
DIE STILLE
Hörst du, Geliebte, ich hebe die Hände —
Der Abdruck meiner kleinsten Bewegung bleibt in der seidenen Stille sichtbar;
THE SILENCE
Listen, love, I lift my hands —
The imprint of my smallest motion remains visible in the silken silence;
MUSIK
Was spielst du, Knabe? Durch die Gärten gings wie viele Schritte, flüsternde Befehle.
Was lockst du sie? Der Klang ist wie ein Kerker,
Gieb ihr ein Schweigen, daß die Seele leise heimkehre in das Flutende und Viele,
Wie sie schon matter mit den Flügeln schlägt:
MUSIC
What do you play, boy? It went through the gardens like many footsteps, like whispering commands.
Why do you lure it? The sound is like a prison in which it languishes and pines away;
Give it a silence, that the soul may lightly turn home into the flooding and fullness in which it lived, growing, wise and spacious,
How it already beats its wings more faintly:
DIE ENGEL
Sie haben alle müde Münde und helle Seelen ohne Saum.
Fast gleichen sie einander alle;
Nur wenn sie ihre Flügel breiten,
THE ANGELS
They all have tired mouths and bright seamless souls.
They are almost all alike;
Only when they spread their wings are they wakers of a wind:
(Continues…)
Excerpted from "The Book of Images"
by .
Copyright © 2014 Rainer Maria Rilke.
Excerpted by permission of Farrar, Straus and Giroux.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.
Table of Contents
Title Page,
Copyright Notice,
Introduction,
The First Book, Part One,
Eingang / Entrance,
Aus Einem April / From an April,
Zwei Gedichte Zu Hans Thomas Sechzigstem Geburtstage / Two Poems to Hans Thomas on his Sixtieth,
Birthday,
Mondnacht / Moonlight,
Ritter / Knight,
Mädchenmelancholie / Girl's Melancholy,
Von Den Mädchen / Girls,
Das Lied Der Bildsäule / The Song of the Statue,
Der Wahnsinn / Madness*,
Die Liebende / Woman in Love*,
Die Braut / The Bride,
Die Stille / The Silence,
Musik / Music,
Die Engel / The Angels,
Der Schutzengel / The Guardian Angel,
Martyrinnen / Martyrs,
Die Heilige / The Saint*,
Kindheit / Childhood*,
Aus Einer Kindheit / From a Childhood,
Der Knabe / The Boy*,
Die Konfirmanden / The Confirmed*,
Das Abendmahl / The Last Supper*,
The First Book, Part Two,
Initiale / Initial,
Zum Einschlafen Zu Sagen / To Say Before Going to Sleep,
Menschen Bei Nacht / Human Beings at Night,
Der Nachbar / The Neighbor*,
Pont Du Carrousel / Pont Du Carrousel*,
Der Einsame / The Solitary*,
Die Aschanti / The Ashanti*,
Der Letzte / The Last of his Line,
Bangnis / Apprehension,
Klage / Lament,
Einsamkeit / Solitude*,
Herbsttag / Autumn Day*,
Erinnerung / Memory*,
Ende Des Herbstes / End of Autumn*,
Herbst / Autumn*,
Am Rande Der Nacht / On the Edge of Night,
Gebet / Prayer,
Fortschritt / Progress,
Vorgefühl / Presentiment*,
Sturm / Storm*,
Abend in Skåne / Evening in Skåne*,
Abend / Evening*,
Ernste Stunde / Solemn Hour,
Strophen / Strophes,
The Second Book, Part One,
Initiale / Initial,
Verkündigung / Annunciation,
Die Heiligen Drei Könige / The Three Holy Kings,
In Der Certosa / In the Certosa,
Das Jüngste Gericht / The Last Judgment,
Karl Der Zwölfte Von Schweden Reitet in Der Ukraine / Charles the Twelfth of Sweden Rides in the Ukraine,
Der Sohn / The Son,
Die Zaren / The Tsars*,
Der Sänger Singt Vor Einem Fürstenkind / The Singer Sings Before a Child of Princes,
Die Aus Dem Hause Colonna / Those of the House of Colonna*,
The Second Book, Part Two,
Fragmente Aus Verlorenen Tagen / Fragments From Lost Days,
Die Stimmen / The Voices: Nine Leaves with a Title Leaf*,
Titelblatt / Title Leaf,
Das Lied Des Bettlers / The Song of the Beggar,
Das Lied Des Blinden / The Song of the Blind Man,
Das Lied Des Trinkers / The Song of the Drunkard,
Das Lied Des Selbstmörders / The Song of the Suicide,
Das Lied Der Witwe / The Song of the Widow,
Das Lied Des Idioten / The Song of the Idiot,
Das Lied Der Waise / The Song of the Orphan Girl,
Das Lied Des Zwerges / The Song of the Dwarf,
Das Lied Des Aussätzigen / The Song of the Leper,
Von Den Fontänen / About Fountains,
Der Lesende / The Man Reading,
Der Schauende / The Man Watching,
Aus Einer Sturmnacht / From a Stormy Night,
Titelblatt / Title Leaf,
Die Blinde / The Blind Woman,
Requiem / Requiem,
Schluszstück / Closing Piece,
Notes,
Also by Edward Snow,
Copyright,