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The greatly admired essayist, novelist, and philosopher, author of Cartesian Sonata, Finding a Form, and The Tunnel, 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, William Gass undertook the task of translating Rilke's writing in order to see if he could, in that way, 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 as a group are important not only as one of the supreme poetic achievements of the West 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 extraordinary translation of the Duino Elegies offers us the experience of reading Rilke with a new and fuller understanding.
After nearly a lifetime of reading Rilke in English, William Gass undertook the task of translating Rilke's writing in order to see if he could, in that way, 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 as a group are important not only as one of the supreme poetic achievements of the West 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 extraordinary translation of the Duino Elegies offers us the experience of reading Rilke with a new and fuller understanding.
3 Reviews
2.5
Vivian Blais
Created almost 6 years agoShare
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Robert
Created almost 7 years agoShare
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“I have long had a problem appreciating the German poet Rainer Maria Rilke. I have read a handful of biographies, “Duino Elegies,” “Sonnets to Orpheus,” and various other poems. And I have come away empty, puzzled at his reputation as the finest German poet since Goethe. I just don’t “get” him. I don’t read him the original German, and I often worry that it’s the translations that are at least partly to blame.
Unfortunately, Gass’s book did not help much. The book does three things. It provides a sketchy biography of Rilke, it attempts to explain Rilke’s poetry, and it looks at some of the difficulties inherent in translating poetry. None of the three sections, in my opinions, achieves its goals. The biography is too patchy and too quirky. The explanations of the poetry are as vague and wooly as the poems themselves. The thoughts on translation are sometimes interesting but too often self-congratulatory and smug.”
Cliff A
Created about 8 years agoShare
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About William H. Gass
William H. Gass—essayist, novelist, literary critic—was born in Fargo, North Dakota. He is the author of seven works of fiction and nine books of essays, including Life Sentences, A Temple of Texts, and Tests of Time, and was a professor of philosophy at Washington University. He died in 2017.
Other books by William H. Gass
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