In Praise of Mortality: Selections from Duino Elegies & Sonnets to Orpheus
May 2025 · Echo Point+ORM
Ebook
174
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About this ebook
Rainer Maria Rilke's poetry offers a rare combination of insight, beauty, and accessibility that has delighted readers for generations. Beloved for its unique lyrical style and musical language, his work stands as some of the most remarkable poetry of the past one hundred years. In Praise of Mortality is an artfully curated selection of poems from Sonnets to Orpheus and Duino Elegies that investigate the emotional and psychological impact of the industrial revolution, and meditate on themes of impermanence and the steady passage of time. Barrows, an award-winning poet herself, and Macy, a well-known spiritual teacher, bring to their translations a striking sensitivity to the subtle currents of the work, approaching the poems with a fresh perspective that highlights the delicacy of their craft and beauty. With a deep reverence for nature and a singular ability to embody the tenuous connection between the spiritual and material, Rilke's sonnets and elegies are a thoughtful antidote to the distractions, noise, and ever-increasing pace of the modern world.
About the author
Rainer Maria Rilke (1975-1926) was born in Prague and traveled throughout Europe, returning frequently to Paris, where he wrote his finest works: the two volumes of New Poems and the great modernist novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge. He lived the last years of his life in Switzerland, where he completed his two poetic masterworks, the Duino Elegies and Sonnets to Orpheus.
Joel Agee has translated Elias Canetti, Friedrich Dürenmatt, and Gottfried Benn. He won the Helen and Kurt Wolff Translator's Prize for his work on Heinrich von Kleist's verse play Penthesilea. He is the author of Twelve Years: An American Boyhood in East Germany.
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