Sonnets to Orpheus
Contributors: Rick Anthony Furtak (Translator)
Publisher: University of Scranton Press
Published: January 15, 2008
Language: eng
Format: Hardcover
Number of pages: 100
ISBN-13: 9781589661608
Subjects: Philosophy; Works by individual poets: from c 1900 -; Continental European; Poetry / General; General; Poetry; Orpheus (Greek mythology)
Description: "Hailed by critics as one of the greatest poets of the twentieth century, Rainer Maria Rilke is also widely regarded as a significant philosophical thinker. His Sonnets to Orpheus are a haunting sequence of poems exploring the deepest questions of existential philosophy." "Rick Anthony Furtak's translation of Rilke's magnum opus is the first English-language edition to place these remarkable poems in a philosophical context, explaining why the sonnet form is appropriate for an author dealing with such themes as love, death, creativity, and meaning. By faithfully recreating the metrical and musical qualities of the original German, Furtak allows Rilke's authentic voice to be heard in all of its lyrical intensity." "Rainer Maria Rilke's Die Sonette an Orpheus first appeared in German in 1923. Furtak's translations skillfully evoke the mysterious and enigmatic nature of these poems and his introductory philosophical essay guides the reader through the abundant mystical and spiritual insights that Rilke's verse contains. This new edition of a literary masterpiece is essential reading for anyone interested in the philosophical implications of poetry."--book jacket.