Book of Hours

A gorgeous new translation of one of the strongest inaugural works in twentieth century poetry.Long hailed as a masterwork of modern German literature, The Book of Hours (1905) marks the origin of Rainer Maria Rilkes distinctive voice and visionwhere clarity of diction meets unexpected imagery and first-person poetry discovers its full lyric possibility. In these audacious poems, a devout but candid speaker addresses an ultimately unknowable deity, passing through love, fear, guilt, anger, bewilderment, loneliness, tenderness, and exaltation in his search for meaning.In this dual-language edition, Edward Snow, the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilkes contemporary translators (Michael Dirda, Washington Post), makes Rilkes achievement accessible as never before in English. Snow retains a striking fidelity to the German text while also conveying the captivating psychological presence that animates Rilkes best poems.