Overview

Rainer Maria Rilke wrote many short lyric poems of remarkable beauty and intensity. In honor of Rilke's 150th birthday, Donald Mace Williams has selected some of the best and brought these works of one of the 20th century's most influential poets to English-speaking audiences. Williams's translations capture the eloquence and character of Rilke's own words while preserving the metrical verse of the original poems, which are presented side-by-side with the English translations. Williams's translation of The Girl Grown Up, included in this collection, was selected as the winner of the 2024 Der Hovanessian Translation Prize by the New England Poetry Club.

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9781965766347

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Reviews

We always need more Rilke translations to keep this astonishing poet alive. Donald Mace Williams' work is confident in its own voice, almost hauntingly poignant at times, and of an eloquence that rivals Rilke's own without ever simply copying the original poet. It will speak to you and invite you to respond. --Dr. Christophe Fricker, poet and translator, Associate Professor of German and Translation, University of Bristol ""The Girl Grown Up"" is an exquisitely beautiful rendering of Rilke's great poem. It gets both the meditative, calmly unfurling tonal profundity of Rilke's thought while all the while maintaining the strict exigencies of the form, respectful of both the rhyme and the meter. . . . I love the unforced, utterly natural way that this rendering does what the best translations do: it reads like a poem in English."" --Professor George Kalogeris, Suffolk University, Boston, author of Winthropos: Poems

""We always need more Rilke translations to keep this astonishing poet alive. Donald Mace Williams’ work is confident in its own voice, almost hauntingly poignant at times, and of an eloquence that rivals Rilke’s own without ever simply copying the original poet. It will speak to you and invite you to respond."" —Dr. Christophe Fricker, poet and translator, Associate Professor of German and Translation, University of Bristol. ""The Girl Grown Up is an exquisitely beautiful rendering of Rilke’s great poem. It gets both the meditative, calmly unfurling tonal profundity of Rilke’s thought while all the while maintaining the strict exigencies of the form, respectful of both the rhyme and the meter. . . . I love the unforced, utterly natural way that this rendering does what the best translations do: it reads like a poem in English."" —Professor George Kalogeris, Suffolk University, Boston, author of Winthropos: Poems.

Author Information

Donald Mace Williams is a former writing coach for The Wichita Eagle and reporter and editor for papers that include Newsday, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, and the Amarillo Globe-News. He has taught English and journalism at West Texas State and Baylor Universities. Williams holds a doctorate in English from the University of Texas. He lives in Austin, Texas, and his poetry has been published widely in journals in the U.S. and was collected in The Nectar Dancer. He is the author of Interlude in Umbarger: Italian POWs and a Texas Church, and the novels Black Tuesday’s Child and The Sparrow and the Hall. His epic poem Wolfe and his memoir Being Ninety were published as a single edition in February 2023 and his translation Beowulf: For Fireside and Schoolroom was published in 2024.

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