Rating: 
Summary: This collection is more comprehensive
Review: This is one of the most beautiful books i have ever had the pleasure of reading, especially with Stephen Mitchell's translation. Rilke's "Letters to a Yound Poet" is also translated by Mr. Mitchell, and his translation is as pure as Rilke's own German. Rilke is a quiet light. I believe, he realizes, in some measure, his oneness with God. His table of quietness absorbed me. Although, i may not know what Rilke was actually experiencing when he wrote, but what I feel is the vastness and inclusiveness of God, the patience of God, the love of God, the "closer than breathing and nearer than hands and feet" of God. One day, someone, who was familiar with Rilke, saw me reading this book, and mentioned that some of Rilke's books were read at funerals. I laughed; i hadn't heard that before. Yet, i can understand why this would be so. There is a sadness in his writings. But the death of which he speaks is not the kind of death that needs an undertaker; but the kind that says to "die daily" to our claims, suggestions, fixations, and opinions of "this world." It is when we die to universal beliefs that we become the quiet light of which Rilke speaks.
Rating:
Summary: A Quiet Light
Review: This is one of the most beautiful books i have ever had the pleasure of reading, especially with Stephen Mitchell's translation. Rilke's "Letters to a Yound Poet" is also translated by Mr. Mitchell, and his translation is as pure as Rilke's own German. Rilke is a quiet light. I believe, he realizes, in some measure, his oneness with God. His table of quietness absorbed me. Although, i may not know what Rilke was actually experiencing when he wrote, but what I feel is the vastness and inclusiveness of God, the patience of God, the love of God, the "closer than breathing and nearer than hands and feet" of God. One day, someone, who was familiar with Rilke, saw me reading this book, and mentioned that some of Rilke's books were read at funerals. I laughed; i hadn't heard that before. Yet, i can understand why this would be so. There is a sadness in his writings. But the death of which he speaks is not the kind of death that needs an undertaker; but the kind that says to "die daily" to our claims, suggestions, fixations, and opinions of "this world." It is when we die to universal beliefs that we become the quiet light of which Rilke speaks.
Rating:
Summary: A Quiet Light
Review: This is one of the most beautiful books i have ever had the pleasure of reading, especially with Stephen Mitchell's translation. Rilke's "Letters to a Yound Poet" is also translated by Mr. Mitchell, and his translation is as pure as Rilke's own German. Rilke is a quiet light. I believe, he realizes, in some measure, his oneness with God. His table of quietness absorbed me. Although, i may not know what Rilke was actually experiencing when he wrote, but what I feel is the vastness and inclusiveness of God, the patience of God, the love of God, the "closer than breathing and nearer than hands and feet" of God. One day, someone, who was familiar with Rilke, saw me reading this book, and mentioned that some of Rilke's books were read at funerals. I laughed; i hadn't heard that before. Yet, i can understand why this would be so. There is a sadness in his writings. But the death of which he speaks is not the kind of death that needs an undertaker; but the kind that says to "die daily" to our claims, suggestions, fixations, and opinions of "this world." It is when we die to universal beliefs that we become the quiet light of which Rilke speaks.
Rating: 
Summary: Rilke deserves better translators
Review: To say that Mitchell's translations of Rilke are probably the best in English is to damn with faint praise. One of many examples of Mitchell having a slippery grasp on German occurs in "Evening." Mitchell translates the first line of that poem as "The sky puts on the darkening blue coat"--even though there's no German word for "sky" or "blue" in the line and though there is the German word for "slowly." This is pretty basic stuff. It would be much more accurate (and still be in iambic pentameter, and sound even better) to translate the line as follows: "The evening slowly slips into the coat." But at least Mitchell's versions are preferable to the plodding , utterly prosaic translations by Edward Snow, who knows his German but has no ear for verse.
Rating:
Summary: W/out hyperbole, one of the greatest books ever penned.
Review: Upon reading this I resolved to teach it to my students (along with "Letters to a Young Poet"). The book inspired, changed lives, and generally opened eyes to ways of perceiving self and the universe previously unglimpsed. Mitchell's translations are actually poetic recreations in English. Being a former zen monk, the translator is sensitive to the issues of solitude and self-transcendence that pervade Rilke. These poems should be considered in the same company as Homer's Odyssey, Dante's Inferno, Shakespeare's Hamlet, and Dostoevsky's Bros. Karamazov. I think they are by a growing number.
Rating:
Summary: Absolutely magnificent
Review: Very few translations of poetry manage to capture not only the content but the "feel" of the original text. Mitchell's rendering of Rilke is one of these rarities: without slavishly imitating Rilke's rhythms or attempting to pin down his sometimes elusive meanings, he's enabled the non-German-speaker to experience Rilke's poetry in spirit as well as sense. (I'm not a Rilke scholar, but I know enough German to read and appreciate the originals.) The notes are useful too -- sometimes an idea that Rilke expressed obliquely in a poem is much clearer in his correspondence! This volume contains all of Rilke's "major" poetry and selections from his prose, so it's a good, reasonably priced introduction to his work. (And the book has a good "feel" too -- heavy paper, clear type, a solid cover -- which is rare in these days of cheap computer-assisted printing!) This book belongs in the library of anyone who's serious about 20th century poetry -- and anyone who appreciates the art of translation.
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