The original English translation of Rilke’s landmark poetry cycle, by Vita and Edward Sackville-West – reissued for the first time in 90 years
‘The deepest mysteries of existence embodied in the most delicate and precise images. For me, the greatest poetry of the 20th century’ Philip Pullman
In 1931, Virginia and Leonard Woolf’s Hogarth Press published a small run of a beautiful edition of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies, in English translation by the writers Vita and Edward Sackville-West. This marked the English debut of Rilke’s masterpiece, which would eventually be rendered in English over 20 times, influencing countless poets, musicians and artists across the English-speaking world.
Published for the first time in 90 years, the Sackville-Wests’ translation is both a fascinating historical document and a magnificent blank-verse rendering of Rilke’s poetry cycle. Featuring a new introduction from critic Lesley Chamberlain, this reissue casts one of European literature’s great masterpieces in fresh light.
About the author
Lesley Chamberlain is a British writer and critic who has written extensively on German and Russian literature and published three novels. Her books include The Philosophy Steamer: Lenin and the Exile of the Intelligentsia, The Secret Artist: A Close Reading of Sigmund Freud and Motherland: a Philosophical History of Russia. Nietzsche in Turin is also available from Pushkin Press.
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