Tuesday, July 28, 2015

First Rilke Post

     First of all, here is the edition I am reading: http://stephenmitchellbooks.com/translations-adaptations/the-selected-poetry-of-rainer-maria-rilke/

    Sadly, I saved nothing from the Rilke seminar I took at University of California-Irvine in 1977 from visiting professor Egon Schwarz of Washington University in St., Louis, Missouri. At the time I was not writing poetry and was preparing to attend seminary in St. Louis. I did reconnect with Dr. Schawarz, a very pleasant Viennese gentleman who left before the Holocaust.

     Recently I picked up the Mitchell book and became re-acquainted with Rilke's background. I do use some of his Orpheus sonnets in my high school Mythology class. He wrote all 55 in over a month, as he finished the Duino Elegies. That is simply amazing!

     I am going to make a comment or two about "Herbtstag" form the "Stundenbuch"/ ""Autumn Day" from "The Book of Hours".

   http://stephenmitchellbooks.com/translations-adaptations/the-selected-poetry-of-rainer-maria-rilke/

Pinter;s English translation is the one I like here; it captures the original as much as any translation could. What I like is the rhyme scheme and the sense of transition. It is not melancholy, merely factual.


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