Sonnets to Orpheus (English and German Edition)

Sonnets to Orpheus (English and German Edition) by Rainer Maria Rilke. hardcover edition. ISBN: 9780865476110.

Breathing, you invisible poem! World-space in pure continuous interchange with my own being. Equipose in which I rhythmically transpire. Written only four years before Rilkes death, this sequence of sonnets, varied in form yet consistently structured, stands as the poets final masterwork. In these meditations on the constant flux of our world and the ephemerality of experience, Rilke envisions death not only as one among many of lifes transformations but also as an ideally receptive state of being. Because Orpheus has visited the realm of death and returned to the living, his lyre, a unifying presence in these poems, is an emblem of fluidity and musical transcendence. And Eurydice, condemned to Hades as a result of Orpheuss backward glance, becomes in Rilkes universe a mythical figure of consolation and hope. Edward Snow, in his translations of New Poems, The Book of Images, Uncollected Poems, and Duino Elegies, has emerged as Rilkes most able English-language interpreter. Adhering faithfully to the intent of Rilkes German while constructing nuanced, colloquial poems in English, Snows Sonnets to Orpheus should serve as the authoritative translation for years to come.