Being Here Is Glorious: On Rilke, Poetry, and Philosophy

by James D. Reid

With a new translation of the Duino Elegies

“Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels’/orders?” Rainer Maria Rilke’s Duino Elegies opens with one of the most powerful poetic expressions of the search for meaning in the modern world. Published in 1923, the Elegies would influence important philosophers on the Continent, including Heidegger. But with a few exceptions, Rilke’s poetry has not had an impact on philosophy in the Anglo-American world. In Being Here Is Glorious, James D. Reid offers a fresh translation of the Elegies, which hews to the form of the original and provides his own meditation on the place of poetry in philosophy. Reid makes a convincing case that poetry and philosophy can address the problem of finding things significant and worth affirming in light of various reasons to doubt the value of the world in which we find ourselves cast.

Genres: Philosophy

184 pages, Paperback

First published July 31, 2015

Reviews

[Victor Pierce · Rating 5 out of 5]

As someone who is committed to the power of poetry in my personal inquiry and it's use in the classroom this will be a book I won't ever truly finish. I loved the format of the text and how Reid made constant reference to specific poems and lines and explicated these lines with a deep understanding of philosophy.

[Ron Kastner · Rating 4 out of 5]

Rainer Maria Rilke is a seminal Austrian poet of the early 20th century. He needs to be read and savored by all poetry-loving readers. James Reid, a philosophy professor, has done yeoman-service to English readers whose German is not up to the task of studying Rilke's works in the original language. He provides a beautiful translation of Rilke's greatest work, the Duino Elegies, along with a contextualizing series of prefatory essays.

The introductory essays are, I will say, not for the intellectually faint of heart. They range over much of Western intellectual history from the pre-Socratics and Plato to Nietzsche and Martin Heidegger interspersed with numerous literary stops along the way. Cumulatively though they provide numerous mental entry points into the elusive Duino Elegies, which constitute the second half of this volume in Dr. Reid's translation.

Well worth the effort!

[Lori Tian Sailiata · Rating 5 out of 5]

"[Reid's] argument, then, runs toward the conclusion that Rilke's poetry is responsive to Platonic problems in a way that poses a serious threat to certain Platonic aspirations; that Rilke's poetry also embodies something of the Platonic aspiration still; and that Plato's own work gives evidence of the poet's lasting role in lending significance to life." (P. 11)

In other words, Reid examines Rilke's Duino Elegies in an extremely targeted fashion. He first points out the inconsistencies in Plato's view of poetry. (Hint for non-philosophers: poets are banned from Plato's Utopian Republic). Then, Reid introduces Rilke generally, before he homes in on the Elegies in particular.

Bonus: The final half of the book offers Reid's own translation next to the original German.

Rilke is the type of author that one needs to read in multiple translations to get a feel for the scope of what is being presented.

I believe Mitchell is still considered the gold standard in translations.