Susanne Petermann is a poet, editor, and personal organizer. She lives in Southern Oregon.
"Near the end of his life, and after the crowning achievements of
the Duino Elegies and the Sonnets to Orpheus, Rainer Maria Rilke
began writing poems in French, hundreds of them, and in these
astonishing translations by Susanne Petermann we have almost a new
Rilke, a poet enticed by the textures and nuances of the French
language to explore new tones . . . Susanne Petermann has rendered
Rilke's French into a supple and finely tuned English that captures
the freshness and lucidity of Rilke's vision. This is an essential
book for all readers of Rainer Maria Rilke."
--Joseph Stroud, recipient of the Lannan Literary Award for
Lifetime Achievement
"Petermann's translations of Rilke create a lovely and often
astonishing intimacy, as though they are in a relationship with the
French poem on the page: a deep, romantic friendship, where one has
come to know the other in the rhythms of their breath, but is still
surprised and delighted by their singular gestures. 'I see no
difference, ' Paul Celan once wrote, 'between a poem and a
handshake.' These translations hold Rilke's poems as though they
are holding hands through the languages that separate them, not in
imitation, but in the more true fidelity of friendship, of
accompaniment. Not original and copy, but dear friends who know
each other well."
--Rebecca Reilly, The New School, author of Repetition
"Petermann's sensitive synching with and contemporary
interpretations of the iconic Rilke's French poems make an
impressive contribution to the great poet's canon."
--Priscilla Hunter, Southern Oregon University
"Rilke's French poems, deceptively simple, are subtle and delicate
works, and Susanne Petermann's new translation does them full
justice. In poem after poem, she perfectly captures his voice as it
shades from erotic desire to rapture, from joy in the things of
nature (so many birds, so many roses!) to the melancholy of life.
She respects and understands Rilke's formal choices too, and her
English is always a remarkably detailed analogue to his French.
Admirers of Rilke will be delighted with When I Go."
--Raymond N. MacKenzie, translator of Flaubert's Madame Bovary and
Barbey d'Aurevilly's Diaboliques
|
Ask a Question About this Product More... |
|
