A new translation of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Letters to a Young Poet has been released in a world in which his voice and vision feel as resonant as ever before. In ten letters to a young person in 1903, Rilke touched on the enduring dramas of creating our lives — prophetic musings about solitude and relationship, humanity and the natural world, even gender and human wholeness. And what a joy it is to delve into Rilke’s voice, freshly rendered, with the translators. Krista, Anita and Joanna have communed with Rainer Maria Rilke across time and space and their conversation is infused with friendship as much as ideas.
Find the transcript for this show at onbeing.org.
Joanna Macy is a philosopher of ecology and Buddhist teacher, and the root teacher of The Work That Reconnects. She’s the author of many books. Our previous On Being episode with her is “A Wild Love for the World.” That’s also the title of a lovely book of homage to her published in 2020.
Anita Barrows has translated three books of Rilke’s writing with Joanna, in addition to Letters to a Young Poet: Rilke’s Book of Hours: Love Poems to God; In Praise of Mortality; and A Year with Rilke. Anita is a psychologist and poet. She was a voice in the On Being episode, “The Soul in Depression.” Her most recent poetry collection is Testimony.
[Unedited] Alex Elle with Liliana Maria Percy Ruiz
Nicholas Christakis — How We’re Wired for Goodness
[Unedited] Nicholas Christakis with Krista Tippett
Robert Macfarlane — The Worlds Beneath Our Feet
[Unedited] Robert Macfarlane with Krista Tippett
Tracy K. Smith and Michael Kleber-Diggs — ‘History is upon us... its hand against our back.’
[Unedited] Tracy K. Smith and Michael Kleber-Diggs with Krista Tippett
Jill Tarter — 'It Takes a Cosmos to Make a Human'
[Unedited] Jill Tarter with Krista Tippett
Joy Harjo — The Whole of Time
[Extended] Joy Harjo with Krista Tippett
Daniel Kahneman – Why We Contradict Ourselves and Confound Each Other
[Unedited] Daniel Kahneman with Krista Tippett
Living the Questions — We’ve been enmeshed with our technologies. Tech Shabbat for everyone?
Hanif Abdurraqib — Moments of Shared Witnessing
[Unedited] Hanif Abdurraqib with Pádraig Ó Tuama
Layli Long Soldier — The Freedom of Real Apologies
[Unedited] Layli Long Soldier with Krista Tippett
Resmaa Menakem — ‘Notice the Rage; Notice the Silence’
[Unedited] Resmaa Menakem with Krista Tippett
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