Worldliness & Translation

The Selected Poetry of Rainer Maria Rilke has been crafted in the German language and then translated into the English. The author has written poetry of such high quality that many critics would like it to be able to read the poetry, thus translations are made. This includes English. The editors have been especially conscientious and helpful in this particular case because they have chosen to include German copies of the text and also English versions. While for those who read only one of these two languages it may seem like wasted space, but for those who care about what has been gained or lost through translation, this is a Godsend - a great boon.

Rilke's poetry emerged on Continental Europe. Here, German is just one of the many languages spoken. French was a major international language for centuries. However, during the 20th century it began to...