Rainer Maria Rilke

As an Austrian without formal US education I sometimes wonder how the poems of Rainer Maria Rilke appear at most unexpected moments – at event, in seminars, at readings. With so many amazing English and American poets, there must be a secret longing that draws to Rilkes work that is so hard to translate and mostly causes suffering when read - at least to me. I need to talk to the natives - preferable natives who understand German about their experience. Despite best intentions (and you know how dangerous these are), the language of Rilke does not lend itself to translation. And reading Rilkealoud  is again a special craft - one that I will only undertake alone.

Paul Celan is even harder to translate – only I rarely see references to his work in English. Maybe it is taught less in college.

For Rilke, (1875 – 1926) I let the great Oskar Werner speak – and I found German versions with English translations. Please forgive those who put together the videos for the sometimes atrocious image material. They tried hard - and unfortunately it shows. If you understand German, close your eyes, if you need the English text, try not to see the images.

Find some poems by Rilke here.