Letters to a Young Poet

A New Translation and Commentary

By: Rainer Maria Rilke, Anita Barrows - translator, Joanna Macy - translator

Narrated by: Trevor White

A fresh perspective on a beloved classic by acclaimed translators Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy.

German poet Rainer Maria Rilke’s (1875-1926) Letters to a Young Poet has been treasured for nearly a century. Rilke’s personal reflections on the vocation of writing and the experience of living urge an aspiring poet to look inward, while also offering sage wisdom on further issues including gender, solitude, and romantic love. Barrows and Macy’s translation extends this compilation of timeless advice and wisdom to a fresh generation of readers and listeners. With a new introduction and commentary, this edition places the letters in the context of today’s world and the unique challenges we face when seeking authenticity.

©2021 Anita Barrows and Joanna Macy (P)2021 Shambhala Publications

Excellent translation and performance

I’ve loved Macy and Barrows’ translations of Rilke’s Book of Hours. Their translations are stunning, and true to the original while being free enough to capture the essence without being bogged down by an over commitment to literal translation. In this book, I feel they capture the spirit of what Rilke is trying to convey.

The text itself is indispensable for anyone on an artistic path. The advice that Rilke offers (at the young age of 27!) is as wise and poignant as his poems. I will buy a physical copy of the book at re read it often.

The narrator is superb - I couldn’t have been happier with the narration!

First time reading Rilke

Grateful for this translation, it’s delivery and overall message was greatly needed at this time of my life. Much gratitude to the translators in making it available to me.

enlightening

Rilke's notion of God is wonderfully original and moving. That's the pearl of this little book. I will definitely relisten!

definitely a book that should be experienced

I can see why Whoopi Goldberg suggests this read.

she is referenced it time and time again and I just had to experience this for myself.

I think that it's definitely something that everybody should experience at least once in their life.

a must read

Wonderful!

Love this so much. The translation and narration were good. Rilke’s letters and poems are truly timeless.

Watch out

This book has been terribly edited. Huge parts of it are missing, apparently because of censorship.

An old fave, BUTCHERED

Rilke's letters are censored! Entire chunks of text have been REMOVED because biological sex is considered offensive! Awful. Unbelievable.

Unnecessarily abridged, censored version

A new translation should do more than remove the parts the translators presumably do not agree with. Some of the contents may not strike the sensitive ear of today's reader in a pleasing way, but that does not mean those parts should be omitted, especially in such a short work.

not necessary

I found this translation to be unnecessary. There are many translations of this text, and it almost seems a little insulting to the reader to abridge it because of how short the text is. Maybe I feel this way because I was underwhelmed by the overall effect of taking out certain excerpts. It seemed a little bit arbitrary to me what the editors chose to strike. I thought Rilke's point about literary criticism is one of the more beloved parts of this collection of letters because of how timeless the remark seems. The timelessness of R's musings is an aspect of this collection that seems to give people pleasure. I also found the translator's description of what they choose to strike to not actually match up with what was struck. I think the intention stated by the translator seemed interesting to me, but I didn't think the passages that were moved to the back actually were as irrelevant or distracting as the translator said, which is why I felt like it was a little insulting. I don't trust the translator has a deep understanding of the difference between solitude, loneliness, isolation, and community, and how they interact in a writer's world based on some of their weird mental health musings that I found completely inappropriate.I'm not sure if this is too harsh of a criticism, but I don't think removing the humanness of something necessarily makes it better.