New Releases by Rainer Maria Rilke

Letters to a Young Poet , by Rainer Maria Rilke, is a profound and introspective collection of ten letters written between 1903 and 1908 to Franz Xaver Kappus, a young aspiring poet. In these letters, Rilke offers deeply personal reflections on the creative process, solitude, love, and the challenges of artistic life. Rather than providing conventional advice, he encourages Kappus to look inward, to trust in his own experiences, and to embrace uncertainty as a vital part of artistic and personal growth. Since its publication, Letters to a Young Poet has resonated with generations of readers, artists, and thinkers. Its meditative tone and timeless insights extend beyond poetry, offering guidance to anyone navigating the complexities of life and self-expression. Rilke''s emphasis on patience, authenticity, and inner development has made the book a cherished companion for those seeking meaning in their creative or emotional journeys. The enduring appeal of Letters to a Young Poet lies in its quiet wisdom and its invitation to embrace solitude as a space for transformation. Rilke''s words continue to inspire by affirming the power of introspection and the necessity of living one''s questions fully, with openness and courage.

Traduit de l’allemand par Josette Calas et Fanette Lepetit. Postface de Jérôme Vérain. « Personne ne peut vous apporter aide et conseil, personne. Il n’est qu’une seule voie. Entrez en vous-même. Recherchez au plus profond de vous-même la raison qui vous impose d’écrire. » De février 1903 à Noël 1908, Rainer Maria Rilke correspond avec le jeune Franz Xaver Kappus et l’encourage dans sa vocation de poète en devenir. Dans ces lettres, la sensibilité lyrique épouse étroitement la lucidité philosophique du grand poète autrichien.

The first-ever English translation of Rilke’s landmark poetry cycle, by Vita and Edward Sackville-West u00ad– reissued for the first time in 90 years In 1931, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press published a small run of a beautiful edition of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies, in English translation by the writers Vita and Edward Sackville-West. This marked the English debut of Rilke’s masterpiece, which would eventually be rendered in English over 20 times, influencing countless poets, musicians and artists across the English-speaking world. Published for the first time in 90 years, the Sackville-Wests’ translation is both a fascinating historical document and a magnificent blank-verse rendering of Rilke’s poetry cycle. Featuring a new introduction from critic Lesley Chamberlain, this reissue casts one of European literature’s great masterpieces in fresh light.

An intimate glimpse into the life and letters of Rainer Maria Rilke, one of the most important poets of the twentieth century. In July 1921, displaced European poet Rainer Maria Rilke sequestered himself in the chateau of Muzot, a thirteenth-century medieval tower perched in the vineyards above the town of Sierre in the Canton Valais, Switzerland. In this sun-flooded landscape of the Rhone Valley, he found beguiling echoes of Spain and his beloved Provence. Here, the Duino Elegies were famously completed and the Sonnets to Orpheus followed. During this time, Rilke''s correspondence also bloomed, and Letters around a Garden collects some of those letters together into English for the first time. One intriguing exchange from 1924 to 1926 was with a young aristocratic Swiss woman Antoinette de Bonstetten, a passionate horticulturist who had been recommended as a potential advisor for the redesign and upkeep of the Muzot rose garden. In twenty-two precious letters originally written in French, Rilke relishes the prospect of their elusive meeting, keenly discusses the plans for his garden, and wittily laments the trials of his plants. Beyond the encomium for Paul Valéry and poignant memory of place are passages of exquisite writing, in which Rilke evokes with trademark sensitivity the delicate relationship between the changing seasons and the natural world of his adopted region. We also witness the loving relationship evolve between these sometime-fugitive correspondents and how questions of solitariness and companionship impinge on one who faces unaccustomed challenges as his health tragically declines.

The Notebook of Malte Laurids Brigge is semi-autobiographical and is written in an expressionistic style, dealing with themes of alienation, unfamiliarity, death by illness, longing, childhood memories and the Parable of the Prodigal Son. It was conceptualized and written whilst Rilke lived in Paris. This amazing novel was the only work of prose of considerable length that he wrote and published.

Rainer Maria Rilke, was an Austrian poet and novelist. He is widely recognized as one of the most lyrically intense German-language poets. He wrote both verse and highly lyrical prose. His writings include one novel, several collections of poetry and several volumes of correspondence in which he invokes images that focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude and anxiety. These themes position him as a transitional figure between traditional and modernist writers. 1. Poems (Translated by Jessie Lamont) 2. Auguste Rodin (Rendered into English by Jessie Lemont) 3. Letter To A Young Poet (Translated by Jessie Lemont and Hans Trausil)

A collection of haunting, mystical poems of the night by the great Rainer Maria Rilke - most of which have never before been translated into English One night I held between my hands your face. The moon fell upon it. In 1916, Rainer Maria Rilke presented the writer Rudolf Kassner with a notebook, containing twenty-two poems, meticulously copied out in his own hand, which bore the title "Poems to Night." This cycle of poems which came about in an almost clandestine manner, are now thought to represent one of the key stages of this master poet''s development. Never before translated into English, this collection brings together all Rilke''s significant night poems in one volume.

Rilke’s French poetry appears here for the first time in readable, musical versions. Largely unknown and rarely collected, these poems were written during the euphoria Rilke felt after having completed his greatest German works, the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus. At the same time, Rilke was growing increasingly ill with a rare, undiagnosed form of leukemia. He died just four short years into the production of these poems, and death appears in them as “a kindly, unfamiliar figure” to be faced with courage and surrender. Five series of poems are featured: Roses, Windows, Affectionate Tribute to France, Valaisian Quatrains, and Orchards.

The definitive bilingual version of Rilke''s New Poems--faithful to the original German, with insightful commentary on every poem. Essential.

The Sonnets of Orpheus I by Rainer Maria Rilke Translated by Joshua Jennings- A ShortWorks Publication ShortWorks is an independent publishing group that compiles short, compelling works, from arts, music and literature to social criticism and history to science and technology. www.shortworks.co

Possibility of Being is a selection of poems by one of the most moving and original writers of this century, Rainer Maria Rilke (1857-l926). The title (taken from one of the Sonnets to Orpheus, ''''Ibis is the Creature") reflects the central concern of both Rilke''s life and art: the achievement of "being,” which this most spiritual yet least doctrinaire of modern German poets defined as "the experiencing of the completest possible inner intensity.'''' The eighty-four poems included in this small volume will serve as a sound and inviting introduction to Rilke''s strategies in the pursuit of "being." And just as the unicorn in "This Is the Creature" has an eternal "possibility of being" but only becomes visible in the mirror held by a virgin, so can our own possibilities become manifest in the mirror held by the sensitive artist. The poems are chosen from The Book of Hours (1899-1903), The Book of Images (1902 and 1906), New Poems (1907 and 1908), Requiem (1909), Duino Elegies (1923), Sonnets to Orpheus (1923), and the posthumous Poems 1906-26. This selection was made by Professor Theodore Ziolkowski of Princeton University, who drew from the various New Directions volumes of Rilke''s work translated by J. B. Leishman.

This representative selection from Rilke''s large and extraordinary correspondence provides a kind of spiritual autobiography of the poet. The period here covered reflects all the great experiences of Rilke''s early adult life: his difficult beginnings, his relationships with Lou Andreas-Salome and with his wife Clara, his two journeys to Russia, his contact with the Worpswede artists, the influence of Paris, the revelation of Cezanne. Many of the letters are psychologically revealing; many touch upon characteristic themes, or freshly transcribe experience that sooner or later passes into the poetry.

"Immensely readable...a significant piece of scholarship."—Fred Volkmer, New York Sun He would become one of the most important poets of the twentieth century; she a muse of Europe''s fin-de-siècle thinkers and artists. In this collection of letters, a finalist for the PEN USA translation award, the poet Rainer Maria Rilke and Lou Andreas-Salomé, a writer and intellectual fourteen years his senior, pen a relationship that spans thirty years and shifting boundaries: as lovers, as mentor and protégé, and as deep personal and literary allies.

"This miracle of a book, perhaps the most beautiful group of poetic translations this century has ever produced," (Chicago Tribune) should stand as the definitive English language version.

Influenced by the masters of Antiquity, the genius of Michelangelo and Baroque sculpture, particularly of Bernini, Auguste Rodin (1840-1917) is one of the most renowned artists in history. Though Rodin is considered a founder of modern sculpture, he did not set out to critique past classical traditions. Many of his sculptures were criticised and considered controversial because of their sensuality or hyperrealist qualities. His most original works departed from traditional themes of mythology and allegory, and embraced the human body, celebrating individualism and physicality. This book uncovers the life and career of this highly acclaimed artist by exploring his most famous works of art, such as the Gates of Hell, The Thinker and the infamous The Kiss.

Tout à la fois influencé par les maîtres de l’Antiquité, le génie de Michel-Ange et la sculpture baroque, Auguste Rodin est l’un des artistes les plus reconnus de l’histoire. Bien qu’il soit considéré comme l’un des fondateurs de la sculpture moderne, Rodin n’a jamais critiqué la tradition classique. Nombre de ses sculptures furent critiquées et controversées en raison de leur sensualité ou de leur réalité crue. Ses œuvres les plus originales se détachaient des traditionnels thèmes mythologiques ou allégoriques pour étreindre le corps humain, célébrer l’individualisme et la matérialité. Ce livre dévoile la vie et la carrière de cet artiste en explorant ses œuvres majeures telles que La Porte de l’Enfer, Le Penseur et le fameux Baiser.

"The Book of hours, written in three bursts between 1899-1903, is Rilke''s most formative work, covering a crucial period in his rapid ascent from fin-de-siecle epigone to distinctive modern voice. The poems are crucial documents of Rilke''s development, from his tour around Russia with Lou Andreas-Salome, through his hasty marriage to Clara Westhoff in the artists'' community of Worpswede, to his turn toward the urban modernity of Paris. Rilke assumes the persona of an artist-monk undertaking the Romantics'' journey into the self, speaking to God as part transcendent deity, part needy neighbor. Echoes of his juvenile style persist, yet by the end of the book the influence of the sculptor Rodin is discernible in the distinctive idiom of urbanity, in the terminology of "things," and in Rilke''s turn to the everyday world around him."--Jacket flap.

Rainer Maria Rilke was one of the twentieth century''s great lyric poets. Born in Prague in 1875, he was educated in Germany and later in his life moved to Switzerland, where he wrote his two last works, the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus, both published in 1923. For poets, Orpheus represents the ultimate journey into life and death - the mythical poet who could enchant any living thing - even the beasts and the trees. In this, his fifth collection of poems, Don Paterson, himself a master of the sonnet form, offers a radiant and at times distressing version of the great work. Since his work was translated by J. B. Leishman and Stephen Spender in the 1930s, Rainer Maria Rilke(1875-1926) has never lost his significance for English-speaking poets. In their various acts of translation, poets such as Auden, Lowell and Randall Jarrell or - more recently - Jo Shapcott, Michael Hofmann and Seamus Heaney, have all testified to Rilke''s continuing and primary importance. Don Paterson now joins this company with an entirely new complete translation of the Sonnets to Orpheus. Published in 1923, near the end of his life, the 55 Sonnets to Orpheus were completed in less than a month and famously described by Rilke as ''perhaps the most mysterious - in the way they arrived and entrusted themselves to me - the most enigmatic dictation I have ever received: the whole first part was taken down in a single breathless act of obedience, between the 2nd and 5th of February 1922, without one word being in doubt or having to be changed''. The result was both a masterpiece of German literature and a landmark of modern poetry, pondering the dismembered fate of Orpheus in a belated world - the mythical poet and son of Apollo who could enchant beasts and birds and spirits with his song, and who might have brought his Eurydice back from the dead, had he not turned to look before she set foot in the world of the living. Don Paterson''s translation is an act of intensely sustained creative attention, which has produced new poems of remarkable independence. At the same time - and for the first time - the lucidity of this great sequence has been honoured, as well as Rilke''s intuition that ''it was the task of transforming the sonnet, of picking it up and, as it were, taking it along on the run, without destroying it, that was in this instance my particular problem and my project''.

Presents a selection of observations and reflections on the topics of illness and death, dreams and religion, language and art, love and happiness, work and ambition, and childhood and old age.

Rilke is one of the most widely read poets of the 20th century. In his poetry, Rilke addresses the problems of death, God, and "destructive time," and attempts to overcome and transform these problems into an indestructive inner world.

These poems, selected from Das Buch der Bilder and the two parts of Neue Gedichte, show Rilke''s deep concern with sculpture and painting. Written in his less mystical period (1900-1908), the poems exhibit Rilke''s particular artistic and poetic power. Rainer Maria Rilke was one of Germany''s most important poets. His influences include the paintings of the Worpswedders and the French Impressionists, the sculpture of Rodin (to whom he was both friend and secretary), and the poetry of Baudelaire, Verlaine, Mallarm , and other symbolists. His poetry is innovative, enigmatic, and entertainingly idiosyncratic. C.F. MacIntyre''s translations are both true to the original and poetic in their own right, and in each book he includes an introduction and notes. German text faces the English translation.

Between the New poems of 1907 and 1908 and his death in 1926, Rilke published only two major volumes of poetry, both in 1923. But during this period he wrote poetry continually, often prolifically--in letters, in guest books, in presentation copies, and chiefly in the pocket-books he always carried with him. The body of this uncollected work in German exceeds five hundred pieces. Included here are more than a hundred of them.

Rilke''s haunting images focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety. Rainer Maria Rilke felt that the world and all its joys most truly belonged to the young, and in Stories of God he captured for them the magic, charm and wisdom of fairy and folk tales.

Rilke entre 1898 et 1900. Le ##Journal florentin## écrit pour Lou Andreas-Salomé parle de l''art de la Renaissance. Les deux journaux suivants sont alimentés par deux éléments nouveaux qui vont assurer la maturation de Rilke: deux voyages en Russie en compagnie de Lou à la fois maîtresse, amie et mère, et la découverte de Worpswede, petit village près de Brême où vit une petite colonie de peintres (cf. la préface de Jaccottet, p. I-II).

Rilke''s prayerful responses to the french master''s beseeching art "For a long time nothing, and then suddenly one has the right eyes." Virtually every day in the fall of 1907, Rainer Maria Rilke returned to a Paris gallery to view a Cezanne exhibition. Nearly as frequently, he wrote dense and joyful letters to his wife, Clara Westhoff, expressing his dismay before the paintings and his ensuing revelations about art and life. Rilke was knowledgeable about art and had even published monographs, including a famous study of Rodin that inspired his "New Poems," But Cezanne''s impact on him could not be conveyed in a traditional essay. Rilke''s sense of kinship with Cezanne provides a powerful and prescient undercurrent in these letters -- passages from them appear verbatim in Rilke''s great modernist novel, "The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge," "Letters on Cezanne" is a collection of meaningfully private responses to a radically new art.

For poetry lovers and students of literature and literary criticism, Robert Bly, the National Book Award-winning poet, brings his prowess as a translator and critic to bear on the work of one of the major German poets of the century.

This volume of Rilke''s letters covers the years from the completion of The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge to Rilke''s death in December 1926, nearly five years after he had written the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, his last major works. There are important letters here to Muzot, Lou Andreas-Salome, to Princess Marie of Thurn and Taxis Hohenlohe, and many others. The most significant of the Wartime Letters: 1914-1921 are also included. An Introduction briefly traces the development of Rilke''s work during these years; the Notes provide the necessary framework of biographical details and point up significant references to the poetry.