Sonnets to Orpheus

Translated by Martyn Crucefix


In 55 sonnets Rainer Maria Rilke plays an astonishing

set of philosophical and sensual variations on the 

Orpheus myth. 'Praising, that's it!' he declares; nature, 

art, love, time, childhood, technology, poverty, justice - 

all are encompassed in poems that spark with insight

and invention, among the most joyful and light-footed 

that Rilke ever wrote.


'All poetry resists translation, and one poem may have many different versions in another language; what I look for first is clarity, and this version supplies that generously. With the presence of the German text and Crucefix's helpful notes, the English-speaking reader with little or no German will find in this version a welcoming entrance to the path which leads eventually to a full understanding - if a full understanding of this mysterious poetry is ever possible. Crucefix's translation will have, and keep, a place on my shelves where all the poetry lives.'

Philip Pullman