“An undisputed masterpiece by one of the greatest modern poets, translated here by a master of translation.” - Village Voice Literary Supplement “Stephen Mitchell’s translations are masterful re-creations of the original, giving both precise renderings of Rilke’s language and sensitive interpretations of his poetic intent.” - Library Journal This is a beautifully designed, elegant and spacious volume, and it is splendidly annotated.” -Michael Hofmann, The New York Times Book Review Mitchell’s versions actually enhance the original. Mitchell brought to his earlier book he also brings to this one – an eye for a strong line a sympathetic tact that allows him to supply a word from what is only suggested or to swell one of Rilke’s almost subliminal, one-word metaphors into a whole English phrase the ability to reproduce the tone of common speech in Rilke a knack for ingeniously simple versions of certain crucial Rilkean terms and the use of off-rhymes to solve the formal problems of translating these “conjugated” sonnets. Mitchell’s version, the ideal poetics and the perfect translator.” -William Arrowsmith No doubt about it, Rilke has at last found, in Mr. “Stephen Mitchell’s translation of Rilke’s most demandingly difficult and loveliest work instantly makes every other rendering obsolete.
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