Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God

It is pity that ZenPoet's review comes up on the page selling Stevie Krayer's translation of Rilke's Book of Hours (Salzburg, 1995), because his/her review is of the Annemarie Kidder translation. Krayer passes the test of ZenPoet's justified complaints about the Kidder translation. Stevie Krayer's translation of the Book of Hours is the best that is possible to do in English. She inevitably loses rhythm and rhyme in staying close to Rilke's words and heart for his subject-matter. But the thread of the poems follows right through the three volumes within the Book of Hours. This translation is at the opposite end of the spectrum from the appauling Barrows/Macey translation, which is sadly a best-seller, and which turns Rilke into an American New Ager. The Stevie Krayer translation really allows the English reader to *study* Rilke's Book of Hours.

Any translation is by default interpretation. Kidder, eloquent and lucid, gives Rilke life to the postmodern reader. Congratulations.

The number of poems that Deutsch thought would bear translation from the German is heartbreakingly small. Still, one is too glad she translated any to be more than fleetingly greedy. I was also happy to see the German versions of the poems, even though my German's a little too rusty to read for anything but pure meaning. Some sentences stand out-- "ALLES LEBEN WIRD GELEBT". Indeed. On my book list-- more Rilke.

I am a poet myself and have found This collection of poems by Rilke beautiful, inspiring and thought provoking. A few years ago when i was first introduced to this book I was so taken by it that I bought paper back copies of it as a gift to a special education class i was trying to help in some way, plus I have found that Much of my own work today has been strongly influneced bY This edition of Rilke's book oF hours. It is the only edition I know about. As a poet I can say that it is not always neccessary to conform to ryhme and meter in a poem for it to be good. Rhyme and meter are generally forgotten by the reader while the images and emotions that are provoked can stay with a person for years.In these poems considered as private prayers by the author as well as in other translations of different work by Rilke the language just flows and is beautiful. It touches and speaks to us about the internal questions all human beings have about creation and existence. one need not be religious to love these poems and even a atheist would love them.When You consider poetry a verbal expression of emotions ,thoughts and experineces and not just a intellectual exersize and if you love language in general you can appreciate these poems. Only a person who is void of a soul and human feelings and lacks sensativity wouldnt like these poems. I found thembreath taking and deep as if the poet were comtemplating the meaning of life while he wrote them.

From glancing at others' reviews, it seems that these translations inspire a love-or-hate response! I'm not surprised....I've been a lover of Rilke's creations since 1984, when I first encountered Stephen Mitchell's brilliant translations. To my eye, no other translator (into English, at least) "gets" the core spirit of Rilke's longing like Mitchell. At the same time, "Love Poems to God" somehow carves its way to the *embodied* essence of Rilke's cries to his God. These poems resonate so deeply within me; I pore over them often. They speak immediately to my own spiritual longings; they are simple, heartfelt, open -- like the cries of a child. Others' translations appeal to my mind more -- to my desire to understand our mystical urges and our perpetual tussles with the Divine....These translations evoke pure feeling, as if Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy are speaking to the *body* of Rilke's thoughts. They're pure prayer -- stark, begging, pleading, grateful, confused, wondering and calling from the naked soul. I experience them as direct conversations between myself and God. They are also, as far as I'm aware, the only English (or any?) translations by women. That alone makes them worth cherishing. Thank you, Anita and Joanna, for such a beautiful gift.