Things are not as easily understood nor as expressible as people usually would like us to believe. They always result in more or less unfortunate misunderstandings. There is nothing that manages to influence a work of art less than critical words. I cannot comment on the style of your verses critical intent is too far removed from my nature. I want to thank you for the deep and loving trust it revealed. Rilke's timeless letters about poetry, sensitive observation, and the complicated workings of the human heart.Your letter reached me just a few days ago. Those letters, still a fresh source of inspiration and insight, are accompanied here by a chronicle of Rilke's life that shows what he was experiencing in his own relationship to life and work when he wrote them.
From 1903 to 1908 Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young, would-be poet on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world. Drawn by some sympathetic note in his poems, young people often wrote to Rilke with their problems and hopes. At the same time, this collection, in Stephen Mitchell's definitive translation, reveals the thoughts and feelings of one of the greatest poets and most distinctive sensibilities of the twentieth century.ĭrawn by some sympathetic note in one of his poems, young people often wrote to Rilke with their problems and hopes.įrom 1903 to 1908 Rilke wrote a series of remarkable responses to a young would-be poet, on poetry and on surviving as a sensitive observer in a harsh world.Īccompanying the letters is a chronicle of Rilke's life showing what he was experiencing in his own relationship to life and work when he wrote these letters.īorn in 1875, the great German lyric poet Rainer Maria Rilke published his first collection of poems in 1898 and went on to become renowned for his delicate depiction of the workings of the human heart. Eloquent and personal, Rilke's meditations on the creative process, the nature of love, the wisdom of children, and the importance of solitude offer a wealth of spiritual and practical guidance for anyone.
The two never met, but over a period of several years Rilke wrote him these ten letters, which have been cherished by hundreds of thousands of readers for what Stephen Mitchell calls in his Foreword that "vibrant and deeply felt experience of life" that informs them.
Written when the poet was himself still a young man, with most of his greatest work before him, they were addressed to a student who had sent Rilke some of his own writing, asking for advice on becoming a writer. Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet are arguably the most famous and beloved letters of the twentieth century.
0 kommentar(er)
