The Duino Elegies are quoted throughout The Hungry Tide and that spurred me into reading it. My version has the German on the left page, the French translation on the right. I feel the English translation quoted in The Hungry Tide was more moving and poetic than the one I am reading. Oh well...
Photo of Duino Castle from Wikipedia
#NationalPoetryMonth Day 18: In his Washington Post column, Robert Hass says of Rilke, “No one emerges from reading Rilke entirely unchanged. He aims to go deep, to speak to our deepest and most fugitive sense of the possibilities and limitations of our lives...“ The Duino Elegies were composed over a decade & were pub. the same yr as Sonnets to Orpheus which were composed in less than a month. Serious contender for best yr of 20th century poetry
pickI lived with this book for a few months & I don't know how to describe what Rilke means to me. I read one poem a week every morning & night (& at times during the day), somewhat like a prayer, from the Duino Elegies & I feel like he saved my (inner) life. It's philosophical & transcendent, but also vivid, impressionistic, & spiritual. The foreword & notes by translator Stephen Mitchell are illuminating. In a letter to a friend, Rilke writes:
pickRilke is my absolute favorite poet and this is saying a lot considering that I have a degree on English Lit. His poetry means a lot to me but the thing that makes this book my most beloved poetry book is Stephen Mitchell's translation which is the best compared to the others. Don't miss out!
The Duino Elegies & The Sonnets to Orpheus: A Dual Language Edition | 
