As languages go I think German is relatively easy to pick through as an English speaker. If you have facing-page versions and a dictionary you can figure out what's going on more or less. The game-changer is the way German, as an inflected language, is very flexible with word-order, so where words are relative to each other sets off all sorts of resonances that Rilke especially I think works to the max. In English we keep adding extra stuff to make up the difference, as Michael points out. Thank you for reading!
I agree, I have a very strong bias for Snow, I initially reacted badly to Mitchell's, but over the years, guess whose version seems to work all of a sudden.
I think I was always put off by this vatic bent— the Tao, the Old Testament, Rumi, Whitman, Homer, even Neruda!—and this cheerful embrace of so many traditions that one person could not possibly know well made it hard for me to look at the lines with a clear eye, but MR makes a convincing case!
I love Rilke and worship him. Everything about him interests me, his letters, his life, his intense friendships, Malte, his writing on art and artists, the way he had of experiencing life events. I know German well enough to read him with a dictionary. I seem never to become fluent, but it doesn't matter. Somewhere in a letter Rilke says we should cherish our first few steps in a language, so all good! I have no opinion about translations, having grown up on the Mitchell and love-hated it. This was a fun, irreverent take. I think Rilke needs to be taken out of the Rilke shrine and into the world of the dating app if it's not too late (saw an ad on the subway claiming dating apps were over)! He did have a subtle sense of humor, I'm convinced.
I love the granular specificity of these readings. I haven't (and can't) read Rilke in the German but MR's review makes me feel like I could.
As languages go I think German is relatively easy to pick through as an English speaker. If you have facing-page versions and a dictionary you can figure out what's going on more or less. The game-changer is the way German, as an inflected language, is very flexible with word-order, so where words are relative to each other sets off all sorts of resonances that Rilke especially I think works to the max. In English we keep adding extra stuff to make up the difference, as Michael points out. Thank you for reading!
Loved this piece. Thank you.
Thank you for reading, and writing!
I agree, I have a very strong bias for Snow, I initially reacted badly to Mitchell's, but over the years, guess whose version seems to work all of a sudden.
I think I was always put off by this vatic bent— the Tao, the Old Testament, Rumi, Whitman, Homer, even Neruda!—and this cheerful embrace of so many traditions that one person could not possibly know well made it hard for me to look at the lines with a clear eye, but MR makes a convincing case!
I love Rilke and worship him. Everything about him interests me, his letters, his life, his intense friendships, Malte, his writing on art and artists, the way he had of experiencing life events. I know German well enough to read him with a dictionary. I seem never to become fluent, but it doesn't matter. Somewhere in a letter Rilke says we should cherish our first few steps in a language, so all good! I have no opinion about translations, having grown up on the Mitchell and love-hated it. This was a fun, irreverent take. I think Rilke needs to be taken out of the Rilke shrine and into the world of the dating app if it's not too late (saw an ad on the subway claiming dating apps were over)! He did have a subtle sense of humor, I'm convinced.