The Inner Sky: Poems, Notes, Dreams

by Rainer Maria Rilke, Damion Searls (Translator)

A new selection of poems and prose by the great poet Rainer Maria Rilke, set with the original text and a facing page translation, and including more than a dozen works that have never before appeared in English. The translations, by the NEA and PEN-award-winning author and translator Damion Searls, are lively, moving, and appealing, and they give a new voice for Rilke in mystical but concrete.
Searls’ selection of texts revolves around related images and ideas―birds and trees, giving and receiving, working and waiting, girlhood and gardens―and presents a coherent vision of how we relate to the outer world and inner world of the imagination. Great for scholars and students and the perfect introduction for those just getting to know this master poet.

Genres: Poetry, Nonfiction

190 pages, Paperback

First published October 15, 2009

About the author

A mystic lyricism and precise imagery often marked verse of German poet Rainer Maria Rilke, whose collections profoundly influenced 20th-century German literature and include The Book of Hours (1905) and The Duino Elegies (1923).

People consider him of the greatest 20th century users of the language.

His haunting images tend to focus on the difficulty of communion with the ineffable in an age of disbelief, solitude, and profound anxiety — themes that tend to position him as a transitional figure between the traditional and the modernist poets.

His two most famous sequences include the Sonnets to Orpheus , and his most famous prose works include the Letters to a Young Poet and the semi-autobiographical The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge .

He also wrote more than four hundred poems in French, dedicated to the canton of Valais in Switzerland, his homeland of choice.

Reviews

[Garret Macko · Rating 5 out of 5]

“That’s how it always is. People would sooner weave their dreams deep into the linens than let them grow up next to them into a life without enough sun for them to ripen. When you near your end, you leave your dreams behind in small and seemingly worthless, old-fashioned things, which betray no secrets before they perish in turn. And not because they keep quiet, but because they sing their sentimental songs in a language which no one left alive can understand, for which there is no dictionary and no teacher.”

...

[Catherine]

"Notes on Birds.

I've figured it out, something that was never clear to me before - how all creation transposes itself out of the world deeper and deeper into our inner world, and why birds cast such a spell on this path into us. The bird's nest is, in effect, an outer womb given by nature; the bird only furnishes it and covers it rather than containing the whole thing inside itself. As a result, birds are the animals whose feelings have a very special, intimate familiarity with the outer world; they know that they share with nature their innermost mystery. This is why the bird sings its songs into the world as though it were singing into its inner self. That's why we take a birdsong into our own inner selves so easily, it seems to us that we translate it fully, with no remainder, into our feeling; a birdsong can even, for a moment, make the whole world into a sky within us, because we feel that the bird does not distinguish between it's heart and the world's."

[Cymru Roberts · Rating 4 out of 5]

Fantastically edited. Great sample of prose and poetry from the sensitive German. Rilke has that soothing way of calming the nerves with tender aphorisms, of reminding me of what inspires, but his writing is never and end in itself. After reading, and taking a breath, one still has to put his books down and say, Yes, I'll go out into this world again.

[Evelyn · Rating 3 out of 5]

I haven't read much of Rilke's work, but after reading this collection, I think I like his poetry more than his longer, dream-like pieces. Some of those longer pieces—the letters(?), dreams, songs, etc.—sometimes became a bit tedious and boring to read. If this collection had been just dreams or just poems or songs or whatever, it would've worked better because everything would've been of the same length and tone.
Although this collection wasn't necessarily my favorite, I would definitely like to read more from Rilke in the future.

[Majestativa]

I sink softly into your sleep and kiss you
on the eyelids from inside.

[Kelsey Brown · Rating 2 out of 5]

I think it was more the translation I didn't like. It almost read like it had been put through Google Translator, and I really hope that's not how the author writes.

[Shahd · Rating 4 out of 5]

“Note on Birds” was the most delicate reflection I’ve read on these celestial beings :’)

[Mark · Rating 5 out of 5]

A unique selection. Translated and annotated, with care and wonderment.

[Godine Publisher & Black Sparrow Press · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Translating Rilke means entering quite an established literary tradition, one that is not lost on translator Damion Searls. Searls dedicates The Inner Sky to poet Anne Carson and previous Rilke translators and well-known literati Stephen Mitchell and Edward Snow. Winner of PEN and Fulbright awards, Searls endeavors to translate with "vigor and mysterious simplicity"; his rendering is as unconventional as it is enjoyable. His English, as he describes it in the collection's thoughtful afterword, highlights its Germanic ties to Rilke's "tongue-twistingly assonant" original language, oftentimes with an unusual twist in the English. No matter their level of familiarity with Rilke, The Inner Sky belongs on the bookshelf of any literature lover, thanks largely to Searls' deft translation and grouping of Rilke's work. This nontraditional collection predates prose poetry and short-short fiction, yet speaks to these contemporary styles of new craft."
— Rachel Mennies, ForeWord Magazine

[James Klagge · Rating 3 out of 5]

Back at Rilke. I have a sort of compulsion to keep trying with him, and feel like I may learn something by a sort of osmosis (even if I don't consciously feel like I'm getting it). I didn't (consciously) get much out of this except for:
-A few paragraphs of "Interiors" where he writes about "small towns and tiny villages" of his Czech homeland. This somehow stirred something old in me.
-"Morning Prayer," where he addresses the difficulties of life.
-"Introduction to a poetry reading," where he speaks straight to the reader/listener in a way that I can hear.
Enough to keep me coming back again.

[Stephen · Rating 3 out of 5]

Didn't care much for this translation. If you can work your way through the German (on facing pages) it obviously pays off, but Searls' "updating" of Rilke into colloquial, contemporary American English I just thought fell flat. Kind of dumbed-down Rilke. Look for Stephen Mitchell and William H. Gass' versions.

This is an amazing selection of lesser-known poetry and prose, some of it originally in French, but honestly I would have abandoned it in English if this was a blind taste test and I didn't know it was Rilke I was sipping on.

[Elizabeth · Rating 2 out of 5]

Rilke is my favorite author but I found this almost unreadable. From what I can tell this is not a great translation, and this is essentially a collection of pieces in which Rilke indulges all the nonsense about young girls that he hints at in his other work but which he normally has the sense to leave out.
There are a couple of poems worth reading, as well as the short prose piece "Morning Prayer," but my guess is that these are probably available for free online. Save your money & time.

[Carol · Rating 5 out of 5]

Amazing translation--wonderful selection. magnificent.

[jamie · Rating 5 out of 5]

Gorgeous - like a lost, never read from an old friend.