An annotated translation of Rainer Maria Rilke's Sonnets to Orpheus

242 Pages·2006·8.74 MB·English

by  Siegler, Karl H

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SO-S TO ORPEEUS, PART I
2
Li.( Honours), Simon Fraser ~ d v e r s i t ~19,6 9
in the Department
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SIMON FRASER UNIVERSITY,
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'HI rights reserved. theais nay not be
reproduced i n whole or in part, bj photocopy
or ot$er means, without peraission of the
aithor.
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APPROVAL
Degree: Master of Arts
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Title of Thesis: Translations of Rilke's "Sonnets to Orpfieust'
With P ~ t i n e n tC ritical and Textual Commentary
T e r a l d Zaslove
Senior Supervisor
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April 13, 1974
Date Approved:
I hereby grant t o ~ imon-~rase&r iversity t h e right to lend - -
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thesis or dissertation (the title of which is shown below) to users
the Simon Fraser university Library, and t o make partial or single
'eo pies only for such users or in response to a request from the liBrary
. a
of any other univers$$ or other educational institution, on its own
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behalf
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multiple copying of this thesis for scholarly purposes may be granted
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by me or the Dean of ~raduateS tbdies. It is understood that copying
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or publication of this thesis for financial gain shall not be allowed
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without my written permissf on.
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Title of ~ h eiss /~issetrq tidn:
and Textual Contment ary
Author:
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(date)
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Abstract
This thesis presents not only a translation of the twenty-six
sonnets comprising the first part of Rilke's Sonnets To Orpheus,
but also a detailed explication of the poetic methodology of the
translations by way of extensive annotations on specific issues
confronting the translator.
The methods used to translate this sequence generally are
derived from a study of modern American poetry. Ezra Pound and
H.D. practised translation in their studies of poetic craft at the
beginning of the century, and maintained a working interest in this
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activity throughout their lives the emphasis of the activity
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shifting to an expressed need to "make it new" the ontology of
poetic form and content. These concerns can be seen to culminate
in Jack Spicer's After Lorca, where the task becomes not only to
bring over the form and content of the Spanish, but also to follow
the transformations of the elements of Lorca's landscapes as they
are brought into the poet-translator's own cosmology or vision of
things.
It should be mentioned here that the absence of rhyme schemes
in the English translations of this thesis is quite deliberate,
and is grounded in issues of poetics which have developed since the
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turn of the century summed up by T. S. Eliot with the statement :
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"No vers is libre for the man who wmts t o do a good job. Those
instances where RJlke's rhymes either change, modity, or add to-the
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p r ~ ~ e s s i oofn meanSngorAmw- i nA he-gcma bepcnh~~rep~s~4&1~
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doubt, I have attempted t o retain the effect by substituting English
rhymes i n their original place ; by, the creation of a different rhyme
structure 'designed t o accomplish a similar f'unction; or i n one
several alternately imagistic, alliterative, or onomatopoeic ways.
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Acknowledgment
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I should like to thank support
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for, and assistance in, the idea this thesis embodiee; and the graduate
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studies committee and the supervisory committee for granting.th0j.r
permission for the execution *of ,a thesis of t h e nature.
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Table of Contents
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1) Preliminary pages I vii
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3) Sonnet I 1
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4) Sonnet. I 2
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5) Sonnet I 3
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10) Sonnet I 8
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11) Sonnet I 9
12) Sonnet I - 10' - 80
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13) Sonnet I 11
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14) Sonnet 12
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15) Sonnet I 13
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16) Sonnet 1 14
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17) sonnet'I 15
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18j Sonnet I 16
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19) Sonnet I 17
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20) Sonnet I 18
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21) Sonnet I I9
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23) Sonnet I 21
Sonnet
sonnet
Sonn- e~ t-
Sonnet
Sonnet -1
Bibliography
INTRODUCTION -
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These transla%ionsa nd the -a- n-n- o -ta t-i o-n s -w- h ich -ac c-o - m-p-a -n y- -t hem- a-r- e -
meant to offer the reader (as no doubt the original intended) a path
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which,he or she may follow. a path on which a world is discovered by
way of a building construct of song. Since the spaces 6r distancee
tha-t these poems create remainleternally open, no attempt has been
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made on my part to delineate, i n an introduction, Rilkets appa~ent
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Weltanschauung. The concern here is not so much Weltanschauung as
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Weltentdeckung. Thus the reader may find, both i n the 'translationb and
i n the accornpitny2ng notes, issues raised which are not elaborated on
immediately, but clarified much later on i n the sequence, Those issues
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the reader must keep suspended as elements of the metric of the process
of his discovery. The attempt of this thesis is not merely to present
s tramlation of the first part of the Sonnets To Orpheus, but to
simultanekly leave g record and explication of the methodology
employed i n that endeavour, This thesis has been undertaken i n spite
of, or perhaps becauise or* the failure of previous critical modes to
deal with the major issues involved i n a reading, and henceaa transla-'
tion of Rilke's work. The most prevalent of these modes has been the
philosophical -- i n particular, the existential:
Wir verstpben die geiateegeschlchtliohe Stellung Rilkes am besten,
wean wir 3.hn i n denselben Zusammenhang einordnen, der philosophisch
i n der EristenapIiilosophie, zum Ausdruck gekommezr ist. Das sol1
ni,chtt bedmxten, xtass-m ir~ gen&~-~d~=~mmsrfgerrhtrsrntne~ang--
nit der als Existe~~~philosopbheizee lchneten philosophiscben -
S h m m n g- gesbmbn- haette --dazcist&c~annn~~ht-m~8g3;jlcb,
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weil -d eren entscheidende Werke erst nach seinem Tode erschienen
sind er verwendet darueber hinaus aueh nicht den Begriff der
IGxistenz i n besondern Sinn der moderaen Existenzphi~oso~hieu,n d
e r sprichtlauch sonst nicht die Schulsprache der Existen%philoso- -
phen, Wir verwenden den Begriff der-Existemphilosophie i n einem
sehr vie1 weitern Sim, naemlich als Mamen .fuer sine grosse umfas-
sende Beweguag, die i n diesen Jahren das gesamte geistige Leben