Ahead of All Parting: The Selected Poetry and Prose of Rainer Maria RilkeThe reputation of Rainer Maria Rilke has grown steadily since his death in 1926; today he is widely considered to be the greatest poet of the twentieth century. This Modern Library edition presents Stephen Mitchell’s acclaimed translations of Rilke, which have won praise for their re-creation of the poet’s rich formal music and depth of thought. “If Rilke had written in English,” Denis Donoghue wrote in The New York Times Book Review, “he would have written in this English.” Ahead of All Parting is an abundant selection of Rilke’s lifework. It contains representative poems from his early collections The Book of Hours and The Book of Pictures; many selections from the revolutionary New Poems, which drew inspiration from Rodin and Cezanne; the hitherto little-known “Requiem for a Friend”; and a generous selection of the late uncollected poems, which constitute some of his finest work. Included too are passages from Rilke’s influential novel, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, and nine of his brilliant uncollected prose pieces. Finally, the book presents the poet’s two greatest masterpieces in their entirety: the Duino Elegies and The Sonnets to Orpheus. “Rilke’s voice, with its extraordinary combination of formality, power, speed and lightness, can be heard in Mr. Mitchell’s versions more clearly than in any others,” said W. S. Merwin. “His work is masterful.” |
Contents
I live my life in widening rings | 5 |
Lament | 13 |
The Blindmans Song | 19 |
The Dwarfs Song | 25 |
The Panther | 31 |
Going Blind | 39 |
Portrait of My Father as a Young | 45 |
Tombs of the Hetaerae | 51 |
Now it is time that gods came walking out | 193 |
Gong | 199 |
For Veronika Erdmann | 205 |
Dove that ventured outside | 211 |
SECOND PART | 217 |
Faces | 245 |
Fears | 251 |
Ibsen | 258 |
Orpheus Eurydice Hermes | 55 |
Alcestis | 61 |
Archaic Torso of Apollo | 67 |
The Flamingos | 73 |
Requiem for a Friend | 79 |
To Lou AndreasSalomé | 97 |
The Spanish Trilogy | 103 |
Ariel | 109 |
Ignorant before the heavens of my life | 115 |
Behind the innocent trees | 121 |
Turningpoint | 127 |
We Must Die Because We Have Known Them | 133 |
Again and again however we know the landscape of love | 139 |
You you only exist | 145 |
We in the struggling nights | 151 |
Imaginary Career | 157 |
For Max Picard | 163 |
As once the wingèd energy of delight | 169 |
Duration of Childhood | 175 |
Palm | 181 |
O Lacrimosa | 187 |
Neighbors | 266 |
The Prodigal Son | 272 |
The Lion Cage | 281 |
Acrobats | 288 |
Primal Sound | 299 |
The Young Workmans Letter | 308 |
DUINO ELEGIES 1923 | 329 |
The Second Elegy | 339 |
The Third Elegy | 345 |
The Fourth Elegy | 351 |
The Fifth Elegy | 357 |
The Sixth Elegy | 365 |
The Eighth Elegy | 377 |
The Ninth Elegy | 383 |
The Tenth Elegy | 389 |
Fragment of an Elegy | 399 |
Antistrophes | 405 |
IV | 541 |
ACKNOWLEDGMENTS | 599 |
609 | |
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Common terms and phrases
Admetus already andern angels Antlitz Auguste Rodin Balthus birds Blick dark Dasein daß death Ding Duino Duino Elegies earth einmal Elegies Engel Erde Ernst Křenek erst everything exist eyes face fate February 2/5 February 9 feel forever front Gaspara Stampa gaze Gefühl gehn geht Gesicht glance Gott groß hand Hans Carossa happened heart Herz Herzens infinite inner inside jetzt kind lament Leben leicht Liebe Liebende longer look Lou Andreas-Salomé Mädchen manchmal mirror Mitsou moved Muzot Nacht never night Nikolai Kuzmitch once Orpheus Paris perhaps plötzlich poem poet pure Rainer Maria Rilke Raum rein Rilke's Schicksal schon seemed sein Sieh silent smile someone song Sonnets Sonnets to Orpheus space stand stars steht stood strange suddenly Things transformation turned unendlich viel vielleicht voll walk weiß Welt wenig whole wieder wind young