Pure Contradiction: Selected Poems

Rainer Rilke, Rainer Maria Rilke, Ian Crockett, Ian Crockett, Ian Crockatt

• Publisher: Arc Publications
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN: 9781906570224
• eBook ISBN: 9781908376947
• Topic: Literature
• Subtopic: Poetry
• Index: Literature

"Not a poet, but the embodiment of poetry."

Maria TsvetaevaRainer Maria Rilke's work spans the divide between the decadence of early 20th-century Europe and the modernist revolution that followed the First World War – always struggling to develop, to seek and reach beyond itself.This selection brings together poems from throughout Rilke's career, placing poems of similar themes close to one another, making bed-fellows of poems rarely seen together, and catching Rilke's blend of crafted sensuality and spiritual searching.

"Along with Charles Baudelaire, Rilke is the foremost poet of the erotic from the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. But there is much more to Rilke's poetry than eroticism... Rilke was nothing if not ambitious with his poetic vision."
Raymond Humphreys

"New translations of Rainer Maria Rilke must always be welcome... The power of this poetry is to a great extent in its new angles, but, more important routes to new depths."
Stella Stocker, Weyfarers Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926) witnessed the radical new art emerging in Paris before the First World War, meeting Rodin, Picasso and Tolstoy and many other artistic giants of the time. Together with letters and his novel The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge, Rilke's poetry constitutes one of the great literary achievements of the 20th century. Ian Crockatt is a Scottish poet. His Original Myths (Cruachan, 2000) was shortlisted for the Saltire Society's Scottish Book of the Year Award in 2000.

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CONTENTS

Introduction

...

Le Ruban	•	The Ribbon
Ich liebe meines Wesens Dunkelstunden	•	I Love my Nature’s Darkest Hours
Eingang	•	Entrance
Früher Apollo	•	Early Apollo
La Fontaine	•	The Fountain
Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!	•	A Tree Rose Up. – O Pure Transcendence!
Die Gazelle	•	The Gazelle
Spanische Tänzerin	•	Spanish Dancer
Geburt der Venus	•	Birth of Venus
Ausgesetzt auf den Bergen des Herzens	•	Exposed on the Mountains of the Heart

Table of contents

• Contents
• Introduction
• Le Ruban
• The Ribbon
• Ich liebe meines Wesens Dunkelstunden
• I Love my Nature’s Darkest Hours
• Eingang
• Entrance
• Früher Apollo
• Early Apollo
• La Fontaine
• The Fountain
• Da stieg ein Baum. O reine Übersteigung!
• A Tree Rose Up – O Pure Transcendence!
• Die Gazelle
• The Gazelle
• Spanische Tänzerin
• Spanish Dancer
• Geburt der Venus
• Birth of Venus
• Ausgesetzt auf den Bergen des Herzens
• Exposed on the Mountains of the Heart
• ‘Man muss sterben weil man sie kennt’
• ‘We must die because we know them’
• Dich, die ich kannte wie eine Blume
• You, Whom I Knew Like a Flower
• Leichen-wäsche
• Washing the Corpse
• Requiem für eine Freundin
• from Requiem for a Friend
• Der Tod
• Death
• Klage
• Lament
• Und fast ein Mädchen wars
• And It Was a Girl, Almost
• Orpheus. Eurydike. Hermes.
• Orpheus. Eurydice. Hermes.
• Der Turm
• The Tower
• Begegnung in der Kastanien Allee
• Encounter in the Chestnut Avenue
• O dieses ist das Tier
• O This is the Animal That Cannot Be
• Du, Nimmergekommene
• You, Never-arriving One
• Liebes-Lied
• Love Song
• Die Entführung
• The Abduction
• Leda
• Leda
• Abschied
• Parting
• Die Genesende
• The Convalescent
• Christi Höllenfahrt
• Christ’s Descent into Hell
• Duisener Elegien: Die Erste Elegie
• Duino Elegies: First Elegy
• Am Rande der Nacht
• On the Verge of Night
• An die Musik
• To Music
• Gong
• Gong
• Ein Gott vermags. Wie aber, sag mir, soll
• A God Can Do It, But You Tell Me How
• Der Einsame
• The Solitary
• Du siehst, Ich will viel
• You See, I Want a Lot
• Bildnis
• Portrait
• Duineser Elegien: Die Vierte Elegie
• Duino Elegies: The Fourth Elegy
• Irre im Garten
• The Asylum Garden
• Siehe die Blumen
• Look at the Flowers
• Ô Lacrimosa
• O Lacrimosa
• Sei allem Abschied voran
• Be Ahead of All Parting
• Le Foulard Rouge
• The Red Scarf
• Notes
• Biographical Notes