To keep me from posting too much about this great poet, I shall do this here. I should be editing it continuously as I get more volumes and learn more, see more videos, see more articles online etc.
To begin, I share here the documentary I mentioned in previous post, see how the short curly haired guy reads, perfectly! Overall this gives a nice overview, Tolstoy telling him that poetry was useless, and I can just imagine Rainer saying to himself "Ooooh-kay, so glad we met Mr. Tolstoy!!"
Video doesn't show up for SW, just type in Rainer Maria Rilke in Youtube and there'll be a 41 minute documentary there.
December 4, 1875 -- December 29, 1926
1st off I proudly mention that I bought for real cheap an eBook of most of his poetry and prose in German!!
Gesammelte Werke: Gedichte + Erzählungen + Roman + Dramen + Schriften zu Kunst und Literatur: 845 Titel in einem Buch: Briefe an einen jungen Dichter + ... + Duineser Elegien Requiem… (German Edition) (2588 pages)
His early writings he discarded, and are scantily represented in English translations, but some are there, and I will be getting them. His real brilliance first burst forth with
The Book of Hours -- in 3 parts composed 1899, 1901, and 1903 -- I have 2 complete translations 1) Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy (218 pages) and 2) Edward Snow (203 pages)
In 1899 I also have Stories of God from Kindle Unlimited with a variety of translators with an essay by each following each story. (284 pages)
In 1903 he wrote his study of Auguste Rodin translated by Daniel Slager (129 pages)
The Book of Images from 1902 - 1906 -- with Snow translating (283 pages)
New Poems -- 1907 Snow -- (351 pages)
In 1910 he wrote his only novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge which I have Michael Hulse (204 pages) and Edward Snow (241 pages)
It was only till 1922 when his poetic prowess returned with The Duino Elegies & Sonnets to Orpheus, there are a number of translations of these i've acquired so far, and i'm just beginning, they are as follows:
for both works there are full translations by Stephen Mitchell and Edward Snow in their 2 anthologies Ahead of All Parting -- Mitchell (635 pages) which has selections of other poetic and prose works, plus Mitchell in a volume of just the 2 works with plenty of footnotes and stuff. The Poetry of Rilke Edward Snow's anthology (717 pages) .... then for Duino there are translations from Vita and Edward Sackville West (113 pages) and Martyn Crucefix (80 pages). For Sonnets there is also the best one for that according to a reddit member the one by Christiane Marks (130 pages)
Uncollected Poems -- Edward Snow (292 pages) -- it is unclear to me if these are his French poems, but even if they are, there's other translations of them I am looking forward to adding to my collection.
Letters
These are the slender Letter collections I've gotten so far, I shan't take any pains with page count as they're all around 90 pages and Will Stone translating most if not all of them.
Letters to a Young Poet -- Stephen Mitchell The Dark Interval Rilke and Andreas-Salome: A Love Story in Letters Letters Around a Garden Letters on Cezanne Letters on Life Rilke in Paris
Diaries of a Young Poet -- Edward Snow (335 pages)
Biographies
You Alone Are Real To Me by Lou Andreas-Salome translated by Angela von der Lippe Rilke, A Soul History by Daniel Polikoff (897 pages) -- this takes a Jungian psychological view of his life and work, very interesting, makes me want to get his early works which i've been reading about in this volume.
Reading Rilke by William H. Gass (258 pages) -- Gass also tried here to translate Duino Elegies, and from what I've heard his job is a let down.
This is another Kindle Unlimited book -- Rilke's Art of Metric Melody, Volume I: Form-Faithful Translations with Dialogic Verse Replies (223 pages)
This post was initially posted on May 16, 2025 at a quarter after 8 in the evening, there is much more to share as I learn and enjoy more of this remarkable person who made the German language his own.
@GemApelJeff I remember being told back in college in the late-60s I should read him but I didn't get it until the Selected Poems, translated by Stephen Mitchell, was published in 1982. I bought everything he translated as it was being published. The only one I own now is the 1995 Modern Library hardback, Ahead of All Parting.
