Sonnets to Orpheus
Breathing, you invisible poem!
World-space in pure continuous interchange
with my own being. Equipose
in which I rhythmically transpire.
Written only four years before Rilke's death, this sequence of sonnets, varied in form yet consistently structured, stands as the poet's final masterwork. In these meditations on the constant flux of our world and the ephemerality of experience, Rilke envisions death not only as one among many of life's transformations but also as an ideally receptive state of being. Because Orpheus has visited the realm of death and returned to the living, his lyre, a unifying presence in these poems, is an emblem of fluidity and musical transcendence. And Eurydice, condemned to Hades as a result of Orpheus's backward glance, becomes in Rilke's universe a mythical figure of consolation and hope.
Edward Snow, in his translations of New Poems, The Book of Images, Uncollected Poems, and Duino Elegies, has emerged as Rilke's most able English-language interpreter. Adhering faithfully to the intent of Rilke's German while constructing nuanced, colloquial poems in English, Snow's Sonnets to Orpheus should serve as the authoritative translation for years to come.
PoetryEuropeanGermanSonnets
RELEASED2005
PUBLISHERMacmillan
LENGTH144
LANGUAGEEN
Rainer Maria Rilke (* 4. Dezember 1875 in Prag, Österreich-Ungarn; † 29. Dezember 1926 im Sanatorium Valmont bei Montreux, Schweiz; eigentlich René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke) war ein österreichischer Lyriker deutscher und französischer Sprache. 1905 erschien sein Stundenbuch mit nachdenklichen, nicht selten religiösen Gedichten, wodurch er bald eine große Popularität erreichte. Die zumeist eingängigen, teils ekstatischen, teils melancholischen Verse prägten das Bild vom prophetischen Dichter Rilke nachhaltig. In seinem Buch der Bilder führte er seine Lyrik, die Reflexionen über Transzendenz und Existenz miteinschloss, fort und vollendete gerade in den Abschiedsgedichten den Ausdruck impressionistischer Lyrik. Mit seiner in den Neuen Gedichten vollendeten, von der bildenden Kunst beeinflussten Dinglyrik gilt er als einer der bedeutendsten Dichter der literarischen Moderne. In seinem Spätwerk führte er die Gattung Elegie in seinen Duineser Elegien nach der Weimarer Klassik und Friedrich Hölderlin auf ihren letzten Höhepunkt in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. ---------- René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language.[1] His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence.
Sonnets to Orpheus
Breathing, you invisible poem!
World-space in pure continuous interchange
with my own being. Equipose
in which I rhythmically transpire.
Written only four years before Rilke's death, this sequence of sonnets, varied in form yet consistently structured, stands as the poet's final masterwork. In these meditations on the constant flux of our world and the ephemerality of experience, Rilke envisions death not only as one among many of life's transformations but also as an ideally receptive state of being. Because Orpheus has visited the realm of death and returned to the living, his lyre, a unifying presence in these poems, is an emblem of fluidity and musical transcendence. And Eurydice, condemned to Hades as a result of Orpheus's backward glance, becomes in Rilke's universe a mythical figure of consolation and hope.
Edward Snow, in his translations of New Poems, The Book of Images, Uncollected Poems, and Duino Elegies, has emerged as Rilke's most able English-language interpreter. Adhering faithfully to the intent of Rilke's German while constructing nuanced, colloquial poems in English, Snow's Sonnets to Orpheus should serve as the authoritative translation for years to come.
PoetryEuropeanGermanSonnets
RELEASED2005
PUBLISHERMacmillan
LENGTH144
LANGUAGEEN
Rainer Maria Rilke (* 4. Dezember 1875 in Prag, Österreich-Ungarn; † 29. Dezember 1926 im Sanatorium Valmont bei Montreux, Schweiz; eigentlich René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke) war ein österreichischer Lyriker deutscher und französischer Sprache. 1905 erschien sein Stundenbuch mit nachdenklichen, nicht selten religiösen Gedichten, wodurch er bald eine große Popularität erreichte. Die zumeist eingängigen, teils ekstatischen, teils melancholischen Verse prägten das Bild vom prophetischen Dichter Rilke nachhaltig. In seinem Buch der Bilder führte er seine Lyrik, die Reflexionen über Transzendenz und Existenz miteinschloss, fort und vollendete gerade in den Abschiedsgedichten den Ausdruck impressionistischer Lyrik. Mit seiner in den Neuen Gedichten vollendeten, von der bildenden Kunst beeinflussten Dinglyrik gilt er als einer der bedeutendsten Dichter der literarischen Moderne. In seinem Spätwerk führte er die Gattung Elegie in seinen Duineser Elegien nach der Weimarer Klassik und Friedrich Hölderlin auf ihren letzten Höhepunkt in der deutschsprachigen Literatur. ---------- René Karl Wilhelm Johann Josef Maria Rilke (4 December 1875 – 29 December 1926), known as Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. Acclaimed as an idiosyncratic and expressive poet, he is widely recognized as a significant writer in the German language.[1] His work is viewed by critics and scholars as possessing undertones of mysticism, exploring themes of subjective experience and disbelief. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence.
