
The Rilke of Ruth Spiers
New Poems, Duino Elegies, Sonnets to Orpheus, and Others
Two Rivers Press
Published on 1. October 2015
Book
Paperback/Softback
188 pages
978-1-909747-12-8 (ISBN)
Description
Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) is universally recognized as among the most important twentieth-century German-language poets. Here, for the first time, are all the surviving translations of his poetry made by Ruth Speirs (1916-2000), a Latvian exile who joined the British literary community in Cairo during World War Two, becoming a close friend of Lawrence Durrell and Bernard Spencer. Though described as 'excellent' and 'the best' by J. M. Cohen on the basis of magazine and anthology appearances, copyright restrictions meant that during her lifetime, with the exception of a Cairo-published Selected Poems (1942), Speirs was never to see her work gathered between covers and in print.This volume, edited by John Pilling and Peter Robinson, brings Speirs' translations the belated recognition they deserve. Her much-revised and considered versions are a key document in the history of Rilke's Anglophone dissemination. Rhythmically alive and carefully faithful, they give a uniquely mid-century English accent to the poet's extraordinary German, and continue to bear comparison with current efforts to render his tenderly taxing voice.
More details
Language
English
Place of publication
Reading
United Kingdom
Dimensions
Height: 213 mm
Width: 139 mm
Thickness: 19 mm
Weight
248 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-909747-12-8 (9781909747128)
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Schweitzer Classification