ÒThere are 35 pages of later poems from RilkeÕs last five years. ItÕs like new Rilke, amazing. On the strength of these later poems alone, I would recommend this book. But the meat and potatoes É of translating Rilke is obviously in the Sonnets and Elegies. To see how Good fares, I got down my copies of Rilke from the shelf and compared them. Well, hands down, Good is better.Ó
Kemeny Babineau, Word: CanadaÕs Magazine for Readers and Writers, 12.5-6 (May/June 2006) pp. 14-15
ÒThe work is lucid and accessible, its lambent language as if Rilke had written the poems today. ÉGood provides a readable and smooth translation in straightforward language. É GoodÕs sensitive and insightful translations make it possible for the reader to more easily understand the intent of RilkeÕs difficult work. É It is a book for everyone.Ó
Kuldip Gill, Pacific Rim Review of Books (Spring 2005) pp.10-11.
ÒGraham GoodÕs versions of Rilke are high quality
translations with useful commentaryÉ GoodÕs translation [of The Sonnets to Orpheus] reads very
well: as clear in imagery, as dexterous in syntax and as smooth and sharp in
rhythm as one could hope, and
GoodÕs work is particularly to be commended for its use of rhyme and part rhyme
and for its integrity of tone—perhaps the two greatest challenges of
translating Rilke. É One must ask if there is a legitimate poetic experience in
reading poems in a second language. GoodÕs book shows that there is: a reading
leaves you with the same reaction as that of a reader of any good
literature—wonder and longing.Ó
Geoffrey Cook, Canadian Notes and Queries 73 (Spring/Summer 2008) pp. 72-78.
ÒGraham GoodÕs translations of Rilke read like fresh original poemsÉ he offers to restore us, as Rilke would restore us, through the poise and passion of his language.Ó
Robert Fagles, Professor Emeritus of Comparative Literature at Princeton University, and translator of Homer, Vergil, Aeschylus and Sophocles.
ÒGraham GoodÕs translations are quiet and careful, with an ear, especially, for the shimmering experiences behind the words.Ó
Norman Fischer, poet and former abbot of San Francisco Zen Center
ÒElegant and vigorous, these translations give us the Rilke we know, anew.Ó
Stephanie Bolster, winner of Governor GeneralÕs award for poetry.
ÒIt might be a little dramatic to say
that Graham Good's translations of Rilke's Late Poetry affected me as strongly as Keats'
first look into Chapman's Homer, but only a little. This book has been my
constant companion since I bought my first copy four years ago, and it is
awash with jottings and underlinings. It has become my favorite avenue to
these poems, and I feel, as does Good, that the poems following the Sonnets and the Elegies constitute a work equally
important.Ó
Dan Gerber, Poet and
novelist