Where the Paths Do Not Go

Book excerpt: Poetry. Translated from the German by Burton Pike. One of the most influential poets of the 20th century, Rainer Maria Rilke has left an indelible mark on world literature. In this groundbreaking bilingual edition, award-winning translator Burton Pike captures the music, power, and unerring precision of some of Rilke's best-known poems. These renderings offer bold new insights that redefine our understanding of one of modern literature's most celebrated voices. "With these beautifully inventive and sensitive versions of some of Rilke's most complex and important poems, Burton Pike has given us a very special gift."--Breon Mitchell "Burton Pike captures the sonorousness, lyricism, and expressive intensity of Rilke's verse with astonishing facility, while preserving the succession of ideas and images and rendering the rhythm, tone, and diction with mastery and ingenuity."--Ross Benjamin