The fifty-five Sonnets to Orpheus were written by Rilke in February 1922, in less than two weeks.
Their central themes are Orpheus and his song of praise; what is sung is "Dasein", "being- here", the presence in the world.
Rilke considered as a betrayal of his poetry any translation that would not reproduce, together with his thinking, his internal movement, his rhythm, his rhymes, his music.
The goal of the translator has been to make that orchestration "heard" as much as possible, to try and reproduce the structure, rhyme and rhythm, of Rilke's Sonnets, in order for these translations to sound as echoes of the originals.
- ISBN13 9780359819560
- Publish Date 9 September 2019 (first published 1 June 1942)
- Publish Status Active
- Publish Country US
- Imprint Lulu.com
- Format Paperback
- Pages 138
- Language English