5 comments about The Best of Rilke: 72 Form-True Verse Translations with Facing Originals, Commentary, and Compact Biography.

1. By far and away the best translations of the works of Rilke I have yet seen. I hope that Arndt translates more of Rilke's work, as the other translations I have found are pretty poor. While no translation is exact, Arndt retains the meter and ryhme, thus retaining the poetic form of Rilke's work. Reading "Pieta", and "The Orphan's Song" will bring tears to your eyes and an appreciation of the genius of both Rilke and Arndt.



2. The Best of Rilke is a wonderfully put together publication of his poetry. The poems are beautiful in German and English. In some of the poems, the book also offers multiple translations that each give a slightly different view on the poem. I am a student in German IB, in junior high, and I found this book very easy to use and well-translated. I would recommend this book for anyone who is interested in Rilke's works.



3. Looking to learn more about and increase my enjoyment of poetry, I was very happy to find this volume of Rilke's work. In addition to having what appears to be very masterful translations, it has the German and English text of each of his poems on facing pages. This makes this book excellent for those wishing to practice or polish their German.

   I was very happy with this purchase, and look forward to reading more of Rilke's work in the future.




4. Rilke is rapidly becoming one of the most popular poets in America -- no mean feat, considering he wrote in German! But the recognition is well deserved. Few poets can match the easy beauty of Rilke's thought, or the immediate accessibility of his poems. If you are looking to increase your appreciation of poetry (or would like to give a book to someone whom you think should), then Rilke makes a good start as any.

   So there are only two questions: what book of Rilke's poetry (he was a rather prolific chap) and what translator?

   Arndt's selection answers your first question for you. The selection is a good one, with most of the favourites (including "The Panther", "Pieta", etc.). Unfortunately, the translations leave quite a lot to be desired. Ardnt (who made a name for himself translating Pushkin and is a scholar of Russian - not German) attempts to retain the form of Rilke's poems (Rilke wrote structured, rhymed verse). He thus delivers lines of rhymed iambic pentamenter. Unfortunately, this means that while the poems sound nice and flow nicely, much of the beauty of Rilke's thoughts and words is lost to the necessity of form.

   A particularly gruesome example is the way Arndt renders one of my favorites, "Liebes-Lied" (Love Song). Rilke's wonderful ending: "O susses Lied" (O sweet song)

   ends up being translated as "O sweet the lilt", in order for it to rhyme with an earlier line ending with "tilt". Several other lines suffer along the way as well.

   So, if you really want the form retained and you're willing to sacrifice a bit for it, then go for this book. Otherwise, if you want a translation that does justice to Rilke, I would suggest Edward Snow's translations, which do not retain the form, but are elegant and very true to the original German (they are also bilingual). Go for his translation of "New Poems 1907", which includes most of the good ones from this collection, including Love Song, Pieta, The Panther, and others. Unlike Arndt, Snow is an expert on Rilke, and one quickly learns to appreciate that.




5. When you first encounter Rilke (probably in your teenage years), you marvel at the modernity of his language, a hundred years after it was written. Intrigued, you start exploring "like some watcher of the skies/ when a new planet swims into his ken". Gradually, you succumb to the incantatory sound and rhythm, the startling subject-object reversals, the transforming and redemptive effect of single lines. By this time, you probably know a number of Rilke poems by heart. As you get older, you become aware of his affectations, his mannerisms, his power to seduce and ensnare. You resist. You start poking holes in his shining armor. You realize that he is easily parodied. Eventually, you may put him aside like a youthful indulgence and concentrate on sterner stuff.
   
   But every so often - on a train ride, at an airport, in a hotel lobby, in a state of suspension or wary expectation - your memory will toss up a line or two from a Rilke poem. Has there ever been a more haunting evocation of captivity than in "The Panther"? Or of the wretched gift of prophecy than in "The Sibyl"? Or of the cruel intrusion of death on ordinary lives than in "Intimation of Reality" and "Coda"? You re-acquaint yourself with the poetry, you re-evaluate, you re-affirm.
   
   A translator has to go through all these stages in order to arrive at an intimate understanding of the poet and his work. Arndt's commentary indicates that he has completed the cycle and is ready for the much more difficult task of rendering Rilke's poetry into another language. Readers of this volume are confronted not only with Rilke, but also with the deeper problems of interpretation and the inevitable compromise required by translation. There is bound to be some dissatisfaction; but the effort will be richly rewarded.

No comments about The Lives of Thomas Becket (Manchester Medieval Sources).

1 comments about Michael Gambon - A Life in Acting.

1. The late Mel Gussow spent an enormous amount of time getting to know the great Michael Gambon, and the result is a fascinating, thrilling book of interviews with a fascinating actor who speaks his mind about his work and the craft of acting. If you are looking for titilating details about this actor's personal life, this is not the book for you, as he is intensely private on that front. But if your interest in him is his career primarily on the stage, this book will fulfill your every expectation as he speaks deliciously about life in the theatre. My only regret is that the book ended much much too soon.

No comments about COMMANDO TO CAPTAIN-GENERALL THE LIFE OF BRIGADIER PETER YOUNG.

No comments about Eleanor Rathbone and the Politics of Conscience (Society and the Sexes in the Modern Worl).

1 comments about The Lost Writings.

1. Not too many in America recognize the name of James Connolly, but before the 1916 Uprising in Dublin he was a labor organizer here in America with the IWW. This book is a collection of writings that provide some insight into the political thought of the day. You must begin this journey with the understanding that the use of the language is a little different from now.

3 comments about Our Hidden Lives: The Everyday Diaries Of A Forgotten Britain 1945-1948.

1. This book is based on a mass observation, sociological study carried out in England immediately after WW2. It focuses on the dairy entries of 5 random individuals, 2 women and 3 men, all from different backgrounds, walks of life, parts of Country and age groups. The entries offer a fascinating insight into the life and times of Post War England, an often overlooked period in history which saw continued poverty and austerity, political disillusionment and the beginnings of radical social changes and beliefs that the war had begun and which gathered momemtum at this time, forming the foundations of the modern UK.
   Real, engaging, utterly fascinating and compelling. You love and sometimes loath the participants, B.Charles is quite a hostile, fascist and snobbish antiques dealer. My personal favourite was Maggie Joy Blunt, a modern single girl trying to make her way in the world as a writer. Really fasicinating social history.



2. This book is a selection of entries from a number of diaries kept by the Mass Observationists during the 1940s. Entries were selected to give a spread of perspectives from all contributors, and in large measure it has been successful in this. Unfortunately, it contains a disproportionately large number of grossly anti-Semitic statements, which are inflammatory and highly offensive. Everyone I know who has seen this book agrees that the offending statements do nothing to enhance the value of the book as a historical document. Had the diaries contained the same number of pornographic, rather than anti-Semitic, statements, I wonder if the editor and publisher would have been so ready to include them. However, complaints to the publishers, to the newspaper reviewer who praised the writers, and to the press, brought no response of any kind, despite the number of people who signed up to object. This lack of response by all involved is deeply disturbing.
   
   For this reason I cannot recommend this book.



3. Living in the U.S. in the 21st Century, it is hard to imagine how grim life was for ordinary people in post WWII Britain: rationing of basic staples, wearing the same clothes for years, queues, dramatic political changes. All of these are recorded in the diaries of five Britons. Yes, there are numerous anti-Semitic remarks, and they are most certainly offensive. But the entries reflect the times when people were looking to blame somebody for their difficult lives. It was also the time when Jewish freedom fighters had captured and executed two British soldiers. What is important is that these diaries accurately reflect what those people felt 60 years ago and should be considered to be historical documents.

No comments about Phoenix: Herbert Morrison: Portrait of a Politician.

1 comments about Ask Sir James: The Life of Sir James Reid, Personal Physician to.

1. This is a great book to read if want an idea on what court life was like during the last years of Queen Victoria; as well as court life during the lifetimes of King Edward VII and King George V. Also, it's interesting to note that Sir James Reid is Princess Diana's great-great uncle. Her great-grandfather (6th Earl Spencer) married Hon. Margaret Baring, sister-in-law to Sir James Reid.

No comments about Historical Dictionary of Georgia (Historical Dictionaries of Europe).