Rilke, Red Snakes and The Mount of Ancient Song

Repairing misremembered objects

The debate over translation of Rilke is its own subject. For good reason, as a less then thoughtful translation performs a tragic disservice to the emotional punchline of a poem. Rilke is almost all emotional punchlines. There are many I have enjoyed, but comfortably my favourite is Robert Bly’s. He and Stephen Mitchel both translate the infamous line f…