Stories of God: Rainer Maria Rilkes Geschichten vom lieben Gott (English Edition) [Kindle-editie] beoordelingen het boek quotes

Rainer Maria Rilke (1875 - 1926) is considered one of the German language’s greatest poets. His most famous works are the “Sonnets to Orpheus” and the “Duino Elegies.” Rilke wrote Stories of God in 1899 at the age of 23 in seven nights. He later wrote that the stories were a “youthful” attempt bring God into “direct and daily experiencing.”At least two English translations of these stories - excepting "A letter from lame Ewald" - exist, the very differences between those two volumes helped inspire an idea to have a different translator work on each story as well as to provide an essay on how each approached the various translation problems contained therein. The work we hope will be of interest to students and practitioners of the art of translation, everyday students of German, as well as to devotees of Rilke and, of course, the spiritual themes at the heart of the work.The stories themselves total fourteen. I won’t here take away any of the joy you might find in reading them but you might want to have some idea of what each story is about – that is, in addition to God. Here is such an attempt, in the briefest form possible."By Way of Introduction: The Tale of God’s Hands" introduces the framework of the book, as well as the storyteller and his neighbor, a woman, a mother. The framework is that the storyteller will tell stories to various people in the town and they each in turn will tell the stories to the children. The first story is, as you would expect, a tale about God and His hands. St. Nicholas also makes a brief appearance."The Stranger" is another critical episode concerning God and His hands, related to a stranger.In "Why the benevolent God wants there to be poor people," we meet a teacher and we are given an answer to the question posed in the title while told of an encounter between God and a sculptor.In "How betrayal came to Russia," we meet Ewald, the storyteller’s lame neighbor. The tale the storyteller tells Ewald is set in Russia in the time of Czar Ivan the Terrible and it also answers the question posed in its title."How old Timofej died singing" is set in the Russian Ukraine in the time of the Czars and Ewald is told of an old singer of epic songs and fairy tales as it also answers the question posed in its title."The Song of Justice" is set in the Ukraine while it was ruled by Polish noblemen and at civil war with the Cossacks; in the tale told to Ewald, we again meet an ancient singer, a singer of a song of justice."A Scene from the Venetian Ghetto" is told to a Mr. Baum, a civic leader; set loosely in Renaissance Venice, it tells of an old Jewish goldsmith ‘confined’ to his ghetto, of his grand-daughter, Esther, of her child and of the sea.In "About One Who Eavesdrops On The Stones," Ewald learns something about Michelangelo."How the thimble came to be God" is told to a group of evening clouds, both young and old, impertinent and wise; they, and we, we hear a tale of seven children and discover the answer to the question posed in its title.In "A Tale of Death and a Strange Postscript to It," our storyteller has a long walk with a gravedigger and tells of death and this strange postscript."An Organization Called Forth by an Urgent Need" tells of a young ‘musician’ on a ‘civic’ errand on behalf of Mr. Baum, is instead related a tale of three painters."The Beggar and the Proud Maiden" is set in Renaissance Florence and is told to the teacher who we met previously, and tells of an encounter outside a church."A Tale told to the Dark," tells of one man’s search for meaning and his encounter with his long-lost and only childhood friend."Addendum: A letter from lame Ewald" is written to our storyteller, Rilke, from his ‘dear and distant friend’, a joyous lament, of sorts.The inclusion of this last story, the 14 essays on the art of translation and the original work in German make this collection unique in the English language.