Rainer Maria Rilke is one of those towering giants of German-language poetry that has intimidated me for quite a while. I see the occasional phrase or stanza on Tumblr that makes me want to dig in deeper, so Pushkin Press' The Duino Elegies came at the perfect time. Thanks to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

Will I get told off by my (German) mother for reading Rilke in translation? Probably. But this translation was a great first step in that direction. In an excellent introduction by Lesley Chamberlain we get an insight into the history of translating the Duino Elegies and specifically the difficulties encountered by translators. (See, Rilke's German is hard!) Vita and Edward Sackville-West were the first to attempt Rilke's Elegies, which was published through Virginia and Leonard Woolf's Hogarth Press. That's quite some literary history there, and yet this translation is only now getting reissued for the first time in 90 years!

The Duino Elegies is made up of ten, connected elegies which Rilke began writing in 1912 but weren't published till 1923. During those 10 years Rilke worked on them sporadically, affected by severe depression and his military service during WWI. The elegies are full of religious and mystical imagery, including a number of angels, while questioning beauty and suffering. While the term 'elegy' may suggests that is it all doom and gloom, there is a fervour and a hope and a love of life that shines through every line of Rilke's poetry. I was utterly gripped by this discussion of how we as humans encounter beauty, how we engage with it alongside the suffering we also see in the everyday. He uses the angels as a symbol for this. His angels don't follow Christian theology but rather represent that fine line between horror and awe, when something is so much larger than yourself you don't know whether to fear or adore it. The Duino Elegies is a stunning work.

Each elegy is translated by either Vita or Edward and they do a beautiful job. They maintain the loftiness and complexity of Rilke's poetry without antiquating it any further. It is a joy to have this translation back in print.

Pushkin Press continues to fill my world with joy by bringing out stunning translations and editions like this. The Duino Elegies as translated by the Sackville-Wests is a treasure.

*3.5*

This was my first time reading Rilke's work and I have to say I'm very curious now to get to other poems by this author. I can't speak of the translation since I can't understand the original language in which they were written, but at the same time I felt like the poems read very smoothly and of course I recognise the great work and the beauty of this translation.

The imagery was also quite fascinating to read about, and I could see how this compositions became classics. Certainly a great read.

Firstly, I would like to thanks Netgalley and the publisher for providing me with an e-Arc in an exchange for an honest review.

Having only read Letters to a Young Poet by Rilke, I found this an absolutely breathtaking collection of elegies. Its not the easiest for me to read because I'm not familiar with poetry and I did have a difficult time reading this but I still think it was beautifully written.

This is a beautifully translated edition of Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies.
It is a Pushkin Press reissue of an English-language version by writer Vita Sackville-West and her cousin Edward. The first English translation was published in 1931.

Rilke began writing the Duino Elegies in 1912, but they weren't published until 1923. Rilke spent years sporadically writing these elegies. The elegies are all connected and they explore the themes of humanity, beauty and suffering.

There are a lot of footnotes in this book which is something a lot of readers will appreciate, and the original translator's note can be found at the end of the book.
The footnotes and the translator's note offer us a very brief insight into Rilke's life. My only complaint is the lack of explanations about Rilke's ideas and philosophy in the notes.

Thank you to NetGalley and Pushkin Press for providing me with a copy of this book in exchange for an honest review.

I believe that this is an excellent translation of the original works insomuch that I can feel the emotions of the work and what the author intended to convey. However, I am not familiar with the works in the original language at all. The difficulties in translating these poems from one language to another was discussed quite in depth at the start of the book due to the meaning and intent behind the work and making sure that it was conveyed properly for the new readers.
This is a beautiful collection of poetry and I am glad that it was translated so that myself and other readers could experience this also.

Duino Elegies, Deluxe Edition combines the famous works of Rainer Maria Rilke with the genius and name recognition of the Sackville-Wests, creating a powerful volume perfect for history buffs and collectors of all kinds.

I love reading but I am in no way an educated reader. I am not a poetry buff; I know nothing of metres nor blank verse so this may seem a strange choice of reading matter for me. However Rilke’s name has been cropping up regularly in books I’ve read recently so I thought it was high time I gave him a whirl.
I thought Duino Elegies was deeply absorbing and highly philosophical, but not so much that I felt out of my depth at any point. The introduction was helpful as was the background to the translations. I preferred some of the elegies to others, whether that was down to the content or the manner of the translation I can’t say, however the whole thing also flowed as one long piece of work despite being written over a long period of time.
I’ll certainly read more by Rilke.

The poems are free flowing. Each one has its own meaning and they are beautiful to read. Some of them were specifically heart touching and I'm gald I picked up this e-ARC to read.

2,75✨
Some of these poems were really beautiful! One day I will come back to this work and reread all of them. I still have to study the meaning of some lines.

I liked the book but I would not really call them poems. I understand that translations i n different languages is hard to put in poem format. I would call these "poems" short stories. They are beautiful and I like them. One thing that puts me off are the footnotes. I felt it was unnecessary and it made the book longer that what it is. Take off the footnotes and the book would be way better.

I received a free copy of the book and is voluntarily writing a review

Thank you NetGalley for the chance to read and review this!

I actually went ahead and bought the book and thought that it was well worth it! Beautiful translation!

Rilke’s Duino Elegies were first translated into English by Vita Sackville-West with her cousin Edward and it’s admirable that Pushkin Press is reissuing their translation (1931) in this centenary year of Rilke’s completion (1922) of his celebrated poem in the form of 10 elegies. Many different versions followed and the pioneering effort by the Sackville-Wests laid forgotten on dusty shelves. It was indeed the time to revive it for, to date, it’s the only version in blank verse, honoring Rilke’s preference for his elegies in metrical verse (except for the fourth and eighth), while wisely adapting the rhythm to the English idiom. I sampled a few modern translations and it still towers over them in lyrical beauty. Alas, Duino Elegies is also a philosophical work in the poetic form and unfortunately neither the Sackville-West rendition nor the current edition make it accurate and accessible to an English reader.

In a shorter introduction, Leslie Chamberlain only briefly alludes to the main themes and in passing acknowledges the problematic nature of Sackville-Wests' edition in conveying Rilkean philosophy which made Leonard Woolf, the original publisher, quickly replace it with Leishman’s version, co-written with the poet Stephen Spender. The negative reaction by the well-known Germanists in the Times Literary Supplement about its accuracy is relegated to a brief footnote citing only the TLS issue numbers where these appeared, without any substantive explanation.

The original translators’ note can be found at the end of the book which succinctly presents dilemmas involved in literary aspects of translations, so well written that it should serve as a primer. But, except for brief biographical details of the poet they clearly admire, there is no, even if brief, explanation of the ideas and metaphoric visions in the elegies except for mentioning the important “protagonist” Angel which is erroneously associated with the Christian theologist Aquinas. It is by now common knowledge that Rilke’s Angel is of his own imagination and decidedly distinct from the Christian doctrine.

Duino Elegies are enigmatic and inaccessible without good notes and commentary, and a contemporary reader would be much better served had Pushkin Press augmented this translation of historic value with explanatory annotations by a Rilke scholar. Short of it, and in the absence of the original German text on facing pages, commonly done today especially for this work, a reader unfamiliar with Rilke’s philosophical universe and/or the German language is left with an enigmatic reading rendered in a poetic verse. Given this deficiency, it is critical to supplement the reading with a well annotated modern version (as any other attempt, Stephen Mitchell’s version is far from perfect but probably justifiably popular) along with a good commentary book which I find exceptionally well done and accessible in Duinesian Elegies by Elaine Boney.

3.5/5

My thanks to Pushkin Press for an ARC via NetGalley.

Undoubtedly a masterspiece; in "Duino Elegies" Rilke underlines the distress of the human who experiences the sentiment of Otherness in a world abandoned by beauty and this particular translation serves to accentuate the poem's message.

Thanks to NetGalley for the ARC of this book. What can I say about how wonderful Rilke is that hasn't already been said? I am a diehard Rilke fan but hadn't yet read these. I liked how this version also gave context to both his life and the life of this edition's translators, particularly Vita Sackville-West.

My thanks to NetGalley and the publisher Pushkin press for an advanced copy of this translation of this poetic epic.

Reissued after 90 years this version of the classic work the Duino Elegies by the poet Rainer Maria Rilke, was the first to appear in English. Translated by Vita and, her brother, Edward Sackville-West, and published by Hogarth Press, a company owned by Virginia and Leonard Woolf, in a very small press run. Considered controversial, both for the use of blank verse, and the choice in translations, the book was allowed to lapse, as other numerous translations soon filled the marketplace, some magisterial, some just acceptable.

Presented in blank verse these poems even in translation still have the power to stun the reader with their themes and with their beauty. Life, death, meanings, love hate. All of this is covered as if two fellow deities were discussing the human condition. Even so many years later the questions asked, and answered still have a meaning. Maybe more now in these times of chaos.

The introduction goes into the controversies, the choice of blank verse, the translation history, started by Vita Sackville-West and her girlfriend at the time, then with her brother who had spent time in Germany, and had learned the language. This is a fine translation, and well worth reading, and Pushkin Press has done us all a service by doing this. A beautiful collection of a beautiful work.

Pushkin Press’s reissue of an English-language version of Rilke’s Duino Elegies by writer Vita Sackville-West and her cousin Edward, published in 1931 but out of print ever since. Vita initially attempted a translation of Rilke’s elegies in 1928, together with one of her many lovers Margaret Voight, an American living in Berlin, but both the affair and the project came to nothing. Vita resumed this work in collaboration with Edward who’d also been living in Berlin. As a gay man he found Weimar Berlin a refreshing space, intensely liberating in contrast to a more repressive English culture. His time there also enabled him to develop sufficient German skills to collaborate with Vita on Rilke’s verses. And together they produced the first ever English-language edition of the Duino Elegies.

It was printed in a limited edition distributed by Leonard Woolf, a long-time admirer of Rilke, via the Woolfs’ Hogarth Press, as a personal favour to Vita and Edward. At first the translation was well received, in part because it was the only time the verses had appeared in English. But the Sackville-Wests’ interpretation turned out to be highly controversial, not least their decision to render the cycle entirely in blank verse – only one of the ten elegies that formed the piece was originally written using this structure. It seems there was a heated series of debates and letters flying around from outraged experts in poetry and/or German literature criticising every aspect of the Sackville-Wests’ decisions. The Woolfs’ eventually supported a joint translation by poet Stephen Spender and German academic J. B. Leishman, and the Sackville-West attempt sank without a trace.

The use of blank verse here does seem to lend this a certain Shakespearian grandeur and resonance, particularly when read aloud, but I felt the structure and ornate style also made Rilke’s verses more arcane and inaccessible than they needed to be. Although they do retain some of Rilke’s marvellous imagery and, to be fair, the cycle’s notoriously difficult to translate into English without losing or compromising some aspect of Rilke’s intense vision. Since the Sackville-Wests’ effort there’ve been a slew of English translations, some more literal, some paraphrases. The cycle itself has become world famous, inspiring writers, poets, composers and philosophers from John Ashbery, Wittgenstein, and Amitav Ghosh to Thomas Pynchon. It’s a fascinating meditation on human existence, the fragility of life, the certainty of death. It’s also easily misinterpreted, it features, for example, numerous references to an angel and the angelic easily mistaken for Christian symbolism but actually standing for something far more abstract in nature.

This republication’s exciting and fascinating as a historical document and it comes with a comprehensive introduction and overview, as well as the original comments by the Sackville-Wests on their project and choices. All of which makes it worth reading if you’re a Sackville-West fan or someone already interested in Rilke. But for anyone looking for a way into Rilke’s elegies, it might be useful to compare this with a more reader-friendly version, accompanied by background notes on Rilke’s text and ideas.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Pushkin Press for an arc

big thanks to netgalley for the arc!

i'm not super comfortable with reviewing poetry since i've only recently started reading it on purpose. i can tell you that i was absolutely blown away by this series of poems. i hesitate to even call it a series because the themes were so intertwined that it really read like one long poem.
the imagery was just mind-blowing, and i deeply enjoyed the philosophical nature of the poems. it was just an incredibly passionate exploration of life, love, and beauty juxtaposed with existentialism and human suffering.

there was a section at the end of the book where the translator explained his methods for translating this work, which i thought was really fascinating. since it's just about impossible to accurately translate a poem and keep the form of the poem intact, he says that he decided on blank verse early on to preserve all of the original meaning and word usage as possible. definitely a smart move in my opinion as it would have been a travesty to lose the depth and meaning of this work.
but, as i have not read any other translations of this work, i can't say whether this is the "best" one or not. i just know that i enjoyed in very much.

I honestly chose to read this book for two reasons. Firstly, that Vita Sackville-West is a translator, and secondly I wanted to add more poetry into my reading life.

Having previously read some of Vita's writing, I had hoped a translation by her would involve some of her flair and humour.

Unfortunately, they decided to translate this very closely to the original material. But they explain their reasoning so well in the translator's note that I cannot disagree it was the best choice at the time.

Rainer Maria Rilke is a German poet who has compiled the Duino Elegy from 10 poems that were written over eleven years. The First World War and bouts of depression very valid delays to it's final composition,

His poetry is very "complex and arcane" states Vita (and her cousin Edward) and I cannot help but agree. They suggest the poetry will not fully reveal itself on a first reading as it deals mostly in abstract ideas.

I feel a single reading is not enough for me to have grasped all the imagery and even much of the meaning. It is dense and requires some knowledge of his life and contemporary experiences to fully comprehend. I found a more modern and paraphrased translation online but even then some of the concepts were too thick for me to combat easily. This I blame entirely on my own intelligence, not the poet.

My single change to this book would be to place Vita and Edwards note at the beginning, their introduction is (in my opinion) far more accessible and less excessively academic than the current one. I felt better having read their note about how challenging I found this read. Their wit and approachable attitude is what makes Vita a must-read author for me. It is a shame to relegate that to the back of the book.

An absolute delight! I was unfamiliar with Rilke's works but it gripped me since line one and I won't be able to forget his words for a long time. I will be definitely checking his other books in the future. This edition adds a necessary introduction with context about the authors writing process and the translation to English throughout the years. Highly recommend.

“If I cried out/who would hear me up there among the angelic orders?”

This was the first line of Rilke’s poetry I ever read. I opened the Duino Elegies translated by David Young while sitting on the pink granite cliffs of Acadia National Park in Maine, gulls circling in the blue skies above, the ocean and trawlers checking lobster traps below. Yes, I had chills. It was 1979 and I was twenty-seven-years old.

I have read other translations of the Elegies since then, including Stephen Mitchell’s The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke, and The Rilke of Ruth Speirs. I was curious to read the first ever English translation, published in 1931.

“In the history of Rilke translation no version has proved entirely satisfactory to bilingual critics,” Lesley Chamberlain notes in the Introduction. Vita and Edward Sackville-West translated the poems into blank verse, which “straight away…carries the narrative forward,” while later translations were in free verse. I did feel this while reading the poems out loud.

Who would give ear, among the angelic host,
Were I to cry aloud? And even if one
Amongst them took me swiftly to his heart
I should dissolve before his strength of being.
For beauty’s nothing but the birth of terror,
Which we endure but barely, and enduring,
Must wonder at it, in that it disdains
To compass our destruction.

I liked the rhythm of these poems: “which we endure but barely,” compared to “beauty is only/the first touch of terror/we can still bear” in Young’s translation or “which we are just able to endure” in Mitchell’s.

Other times, I just did not care for the translation, such as the end of my favorite Elegy, the Eighth:

Who turned us then around in such a wise,
That we are always in that attitude,
Do what we may, of one who takes his leave?
As one on the last hill, from which he sees
His vale outspread once more, turns, stops, and lingers
–So do we live, and ever bid farewell.

It feels wordy to me, and lacks the emotion I always associate with these lines. Compare it to Mitchell’s “who has twisted us around like this, so that/no matter what we do, we are in the posture of someone going away.” Or Young’s ending, “that’s how we live/always/saying goodbye.”

I don’t read German. I literally flunked out of German I as a freshman in high school. I wish I had been adept at languages and could read Rilke in the original. I think each translation aids my understanding of these poems. And, it is so interesting to see how English the speaking world first encountered Rilke’s greatest work.

I received a free egalley from the publisher through NetGalley. My review is fair and unbiased.