Reading Rilke

Essayist, novelist and philosopher William H. Gass reflects on the art of translation and on Rainer Maria Rilke's Duino Elegies--and gives us his own translation of Rilke's masterwork. After nearly a lifetime of reading Rilke in English, Gass undertook the task of translating him in order to get closer to the work he so deeply admired. With Gass's own background in philosophy, it seemed natural to begin with the Duino Elegies, the poems in which Rilke's ideas are most fully expressed and which are important not only as a supreme poetic achievement but also because of the way in which they came to be written--in a storm of inspiration. Gass examines the genesis of the ideas that inform the Elegies and discusses previous translations. He writes, as well, about Rilke the man: his character, his relationships, his life. Finally, his translation offers us the experience of reading Rilke with a new and fuller understanding.--From publisher description.