Dear Alison

This may not be relevant, but while
in Albury NSW on Sunday I bought
The Penguin Book of German Poetry.
It was only on returning to Melbourne
that my partner pointed out all the poems
are in German.

Once I went to a Russian poetry reading
in Dickens Street, Elwood, and had a similar
experience. Though Russians are so filled
with passion, it matters a bit less whether
you follow the lingo.

There's a restaurant in Chapel Street called
'Borscht, Vodka and Tears' which sounds
pretty hunky dory.

prost!

Hugh Tolhurst


----- Original Message -----
From: <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Friday, August 25, 2000 7:41 AM
Subject: Re: Rodin's advice to Rilke


> Alison wrote:
>
> >One of the things that fascinated
> >me was the attention he gives to the direction of energies (I mean,
> >banally, up, down, around, forward, back): and also how densely he packs
> >language, while simultaneously creating gaps, even chasms, in how he
> >leaps from idea to idea.  The whole poem might be seen as a massive flood
> >of feeling, full of currents and eddies and whirlpools with centres of
> >stillness, grasping at anything in its path.
> >
> >By which clumsy attempt at description I mean, he could not have written
> >them without, paradoxically, an unusual sense of control over his medium,
> >which the idea of inspiration tends to gloss.  The Elegies are totally
> >astounding poems.
>
>     Nice to know that somebody who recognizes and responds to Rilke's
> technical virtuosity has been translating the Elegies! He's so often
> vaunted and revered for what I can't help but think of as "the softer
> side of poetry" (the visionary, the grand or sublime, the sheer beauty
> of the language), which is all very well, but Rilke's tremendous
> intelligence with words, sounds, pages need not be overlooked for the
> sake of those high-poetic qualities. He doesn't get enough credit for
> being a sort of _physicist_, I've always thought, and what you said,
> Alison, about his attention to the "direction of energies" captures
> it--the care, the fine-motor-skilled precision, the _interest_ in
> such forces and trajectories that his poetry manifests--very well.
>
> Thanks--Candice
>
>



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