Dansite Reading Journal

Cover of Letters to a Young Poet
Cover by Stephan Klenner-Otto
Letters to a Young Poet
by Rainer Maria Rilke • translated by Charlie Louth
Read January 19, 2025

Publication Details

Type: Book
Publisher: Penguin Classics
Published: 1929
Translated From: German

Reading Details

Pages: 84
Location: Lawrence, KS (US)

Content & Notes

First Paragraph:

Dear Sir,
Your letter only reached me a few days ago. Let me thank you for the great and endearing trust it shows. There is little more I can do. I cannot go into the nature of your verses, for any critical intention is too remote from me. There is nothing less apt to touch a work of art than critical words: all we end up with there is more or less felicitous misunderstandings. Things are not all as graspable and sayable as on the whole we are led to believe; most events are unsayable, occur in a space that no word has ever penetrated, and most unsayable of all are works of art, mysterious existences whose life endures alongside ours, which passes away.

Tags

Classic Literature Non-Fiction