Rilke, Rainer Maria. (1875 - 1926). Sonette an Orpheus. Leipzig: Insel. 1923. First edition. Octavo, 63pp. First edition, one of 300 copies of the deluxe issue, printed by Drugulin on Buttenpapier. Only the first 100 copies of the 300 were bound in full calf, the present being number 7, and one of them. A fine copy of this elegant production, housed in a custom clamshell box.
"Tree arising! O pure ascendance! / Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear! / Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance: / seeds of change and new beginnings near." [Opening stanza, translation by Robert Hunter]
One of Rilke's two greatest poetical works, the summation of his mature world-view and the apex of his formidable craft. The cycle was composed in an intense two-week period - his mensis mirabilis (February, 1922) - during which Rilke also completed the last five Duino Elegies. The work is composed of two linked cycles of fifty-five sonnets, which Rilke dedicated as a memorial ("Grab-Mal") to Vera Knoop (1902–1921), his daughter's childhood playmate whom he scarcely knew.
In these poems, Rilke pushes at the boundaries of the sonnet form and in a letter to Katharina Klippenberg, wrote that "To modify the sonnet, to raise it, to carry it so to speak while running without destroying it, was in this case a peculiar test and task which, by the way, I hardly had to decide. It was posed that way and bore the solution within it'" (quoted in Freedman,"Rilke," p. 482). Blossiming in the paradoxical task he sets for himself, Rilke writes in the final sonnet of part II: "Was ist deine leidendste Erfahrung? | Ist dir Trinken bitter, werde Wein ... Und wenn dich das Irdische vergass, | zu der stillen Erde Sag: Ich rinne.| Zu dem raschen Wasser sprich: Ich bin." (What is the deepest loss you have suffered? | If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine ... And if the earthly no longer knows your name, | whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing. | To the flashing water say: I am." (Translation by Stephen Mitchell).
"Tree arising! O pure ascendance! / Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear! / Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance: / seeds of change and new beginnings near." [Opening stanza, translation by Robert Hunter]
One of Rilke's two greatest poetical works, the summation of his mature world-view and the apex of his formidable craft. The cycle was composed in an intense two-week period - his mensis mirabilis (February, 1922) - during which Rilke also completed the last five Duino Elegies. The work is composed of two linked cycles of fifty-five sonnets, which Rilke dedicated as a memorial ("Grab-Mal") to Vera Knoop (1902–1921), his daughter's childhood playmate whom he scarcely knew.
In these poems, Rilke pushes at the boundaries of the sonnet form and in a letter to Katharina Klippenberg, wrote that "To modify the sonnet, to raise it, to carry it so to speak while running without destroying it, was in this case a peculiar test and task which, by the way, I hardly had to decide. It was posed that way and bore the solution within it'" (quoted in Freedman,"Rilke," p. 482). Blossiming in the paradoxical task he sets for himself, Rilke writes in the final sonnet of part II: "Was ist deine leidendste Erfahrung? | Ist dir Trinken bitter, werde Wein ... Und wenn dich das Irdische vergass, | zu der stillen Erde Sag: Ich rinne.| Zu dem raschen Wasser sprich: Ich bin." (What is the deepest loss you have suffered? | If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine ... And if the earthly no longer knows your name, | whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing. | To the flashing water say: I am." (Translation by Stephen Mitchell).
Rilke, Rainer Maria. (1875 - 1926). Sonette an Orpheus. Leipzig: Insel. 1923. First edition. Octavo, 63pp. First edition, one of 300 copies of the deluxe issue, printed by Drugulin on Buttenpapier. Only the first 100 copies of the 300 were bound in full calf, the present being number 7, and one of them. A fine copy of this elegant production, housed in a custom clamshell box.
"Tree arising! O pure ascendance! / Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear! / Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance: / seeds of change and new beginnings near." [Opening stanza, translation by Robert Hunter]
One of Rilke's two greatest poetical works, the summation of his mature world-view and the apex of his formidable craft. The cycle was composed in an intense two-week period - his mensis mirabilis (February, 1922) - during which Rilke also completed the last five Duino Elegies. The work is composed of two linked cycles of fifty-five sonnets, which Rilke dedicated as a memorial ("Grab-Mal") to Vera Knoop (1902–1921), his daughter's childhood playmate whom he scarcely knew.
In these poems, Rilke pushes at the boundaries of the sonnet form and in a letter to Katharina Klippenberg, wrote that "To modify the sonnet, to raise it, to carry it so to speak while running without destroying it, was in this case a peculiar test and task which, by the way, I hardly had to decide. It was posed that way and bore the solution within it'" (quoted in Freedman,"Rilke," p. 482). Blossiming in the paradoxical task he sets for himself, Rilke writes in the final sonnet of part II: "Was ist deine leidendste Erfahrung? | Ist dir Trinken bitter, werde Wein ... Und wenn dich das Irdische vergass, | zu der stillen Erde Sag: Ich rinne.| Zu dem raschen Wasser sprich: Ich bin." (What is the deepest loss you have suffered? | If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine ... And if the earthly no longer knows your name, | whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing. | To the flashing water say: I am." (Translation by Stephen Mitchell).
"Tree arising! O pure ascendance! / Orpheus Sings! Towering tree within the ear! / Everywhere stillness, yet in this abeyance: / seeds of change and new beginnings near." [Opening stanza, translation by Robert Hunter]
One of Rilke's two greatest poetical works, the summation of his mature world-view and the apex of his formidable craft. The cycle was composed in an intense two-week period - his mensis mirabilis (February, 1922) - during which Rilke also completed the last five Duino Elegies. The work is composed of two linked cycles of fifty-five sonnets, which Rilke dedicated as a memorial ("Grab-Mal") to Vera Knoop (1902–1921), his daughter's childhood playmate whom he scarcely knew.
In these poems, Rilke pushes at the boundaries of the sonnet form and in a letter to Katharina Klippenberg, wrote that "To modify the sonnet, to raise it, to carry it so to speak while running without destroying it, was in this case a peculiar test and task which, by the way, I hardly had to decide. It was posed that way and bore the solution within it'" (quoted in Freedman,"Rilke," p. 482). Blossiming in the paradoxical task he sets for himself, Rilke writes in the final sonnet of part II: "Was ist deine leidendste Erfahrung? | Ist dir Trinken bitter, werde Wein ... Und wenn dich das Irdische vergass, | zu der stillen Erde Sag: Ich rinne.| Zu dem raschen Wasser sprich: Ich bin." (What is the deepest loss you have suffered? | If drinking is bitter, change yourself to wine ... And if the earthly no longer knows your name, | whisper to the silent earth: I'm flowing. | To the flashing water say: I am." (Translation by Stephen Mitchell).