4.0
Letters to a Young Poet
ByPublisher Description
A fresh perspective on a beloved classic by acclaimed translators Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s (1875–1926) Letters to a Young Poet has been treasured by readers for nearly a century. Rilke’s personal reflections on the vocation of writing and the experience of living urge an aspiring poet to look inward, while also offering sage wisdom on further issues including gender, solitude, and romantic love. Barrows and Macy’s translation extends this compilation of timeless advice and wisdom to a fresh generation of readers. With a new introduction and commentary, this edition places the letters in the context of today’s world and the unique challenges we face when seeking authenticity.
German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s (1875–1926) Letters to a Young Poet has been treasured by readers for nearly a century. Rilke’s personal reflections on the vocation of writing and the experience of living urge an aspiring poet to look inward, while also offering sage wisdom on further issues including gender, solitude, and romantic love. Barrows and Macy’s translation extends this compilation of timeless advice and wisdom to a fresh generation of readers. With a new introduction and commentary, this edition places the letters in the context of today’s world and the unique challenges we face when seeking authenticity.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesLetters to a Young Poet Reviews
4.0
Abi
Created 27 days agoShare
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jackie claire
Created 30 days agoShare
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“Brought this to the park and finished it in one sitting. Brought it to Emerald the next night and the guy next to me was so stoked to see me reading it. I’m excited to come back to it again.”
robin birb
Created 2 months agoShare
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“I adore Anita Barrows' and Joanna Macy's translation of Rilke's Book of Hours, so I was excited to read their translation of Letters to a Young Poet. I've read and enjoyed other translations of these letters, but I expected theirs to become an instant, standout favorite.
Unfortunately, the reality did not live up to my expectations. To my unpleasant surprise, Barrows and Macy chose to redact passages from some of Rilke's letters. While the removed passages can be found in the "Translators' Commentary" section at the back of the book—along with their justifications for removal—their choice to editorialize the text to that degree left a sour taste in my mouth. I was not convinced by their justifications for removing the passages, and indeed found their reasoning to be borderline insulting, to both the reader and to Rilke.
Their reasoning includes claims such as, "The passages excerpted are irrelevant to the contemporary reader;" and, "We have abridged [this paragraph] because it seemed pontificating," etc. etc. The common thread woven through each redaction is that Barrows and Macy don't trust their readers' ability to engage with the text as it is. We apparently cannot be trusted to parse the text and engage with its meanings beyond and through the passages they find objectionable. They feel the need to make the text more palatable to "the contemporary reader," as though we're incapable of understanding that letters written 120 years ago might contain some outdated thinking. For example, in the tenth letter, they redacted its final paragraph because Rilke had criticized modern journalists, and the translators "couldn't bear to include such an opinionated dismissal of journalism." So, according to Barrows and Macy, readers need to be protected from the fact that Rilke, in a private letter written in 1908, failed to anticipate American conservative attacks on journalistic integrity in the 2010s and 2020s. I am simply baffled by this reasoning. This example speaks to the broader posture that Barrows and Macy take towards the text and towards their readers. I did not come to this translation for a trimmed down version of Rilke's letters that coddle "contemporary" sensibilities. I came to this translation hoping it would clarify, celebrate, and open up the original text to new readers.
I do understand that translation is challenging, and that it requires a degree of creative/editorial license... but the challenges of translation don't account for the baffling decision to redact entire passages of Rilke's letters as though readers don't have the critical thinking skills to engage with the letters as written.
It pains me to say this, because I love Barrows' and Macy's translations of Rilke's poetry, but: I don't recommend this translation, and certainly not if it's your first time reading Letters to a Young Poet. To date, Sören Filipski's translation has been my favorite, so I would recommend that instead—it's linguistically beautiful and it does not treat its readers like children.”
Danielle McBarron
Created 3 months agoShare
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Ananyaa
Created 4 months agoShare
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About Rainer Maria Rilke
RAINER MARIA RILKE (1875-1926) is widely regarded as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century. His works include Duino Elegies, The Sonnets to Orpheus, and Letters to a Young Poet.
ANITA BARROWS is a prize-winning poet and a clinical psychologist. She is the author of four books of her own poetry and the recipient of an NEA grant as well as the Quarterly Review of Literature's Contemporary Poetry Award. She has been a professional translator for more than thirty years. She is the translator of Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God. She was featured on Krista Tippet's On Being and writes and has taught at colleges and universities around the country.
JOANNA MACY, PhD, teacher and author, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, Macy has created a ground-breaking framework for personal and social change that brings a new way of seeing the world as our larger body. Her many books include World as Lover, World as Self; Widening Circles, A Memoir; Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy; and Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects. Macy received a BA from Wellesley College in 1950 and a PhD in Religion from Syracuse University in 1978. She continues to write and teach in Berkeley, California, with two new books in press, including A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Times (ed. Stephanie Kaza). To learn more, visit www.joannamacy.net.
ANITA BARROWS is a prize-winning poet and a clinical psychologist. She is the author of four books of her own poetry and the recipient of an NEA grant as well as the Quarterly Review of Literature's Contemporary Poetry Award. She has been a professional translator for more than thirty years. She is the translator of Rilke's Book of Hours: Love Poems to God. She was featured on Krista Tippet's On Being and writes and has taught at colleges and universities around the country.
JOANNA MACY, PhD, teacher and author, is a scholar of Buddhism, systems thinking and deep ecology. As the root teacher of the Work That Reconnects, Macy has created a ground-breaking framework for personal and social change that brings a new way of seeing the world as our larger body. Her many books include World as Lover, World as Self; Widening Circles, A Memoir; Active Hope: How to Face the Mess We’re in without Going Crazy; and Coming Back to Life: The Updated Guide to the Work That Reconnects. Macy received a BA from Wellesley College in 1950 and a PhD in Religion from Syracuse University in 1978. She continues to write and teach in Berkeley, California, with two new books in press, including A Wild Love for the World: Joanna Macy and the Work of Our Times (ed. Stephanie Kaza). To learn more, visit www.joannamacy.net.
Other books by Rainer Maria Rilke
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