The Duino Elegies stand as the capstone of Rilke’s literary career. They are also among the most demanding of his poems. With this new translation, as Chris Wiman observes, Burrows has “found his way in—has lived and listened his way in—to a new understanding of these beautiful, demanding, transcendent poems.” This is the first English translation to draw on the new German critical edition of this collection, restoring many of the poet’s idiosyncratic flourishes that had been “corrected” or ignored in earlier versions. As Rilke scholar Stephanie Dowrick notes, “We finally have the English rendering of these sublime poems that they have long deserved. Mark S. Burrows is undoubtedly our finest Rilke translator into English. It is more than his bilingual skills—which so many translators lack. It is his deep and authentic understanding of the ‘innerness’ that only a true poet himself can illuminate for all readers.”
Order this book through your local bookstore, or at amazon.com
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"I love beginnings, despite the fear and uncertainty they bring. When I have won for myself a joy or reward, or when I wish that something had not happened, when I want to deny an experience the right to remain in my past--in such moments, I begin. And what do I do? I simply begin. I've already begun a thousand lives like this. I feel as though a whole generation must come to fulfill all these lives so that they won't remain unfinished."
Rainer Maria Rilke, cited in "To Be a Beginner"
from You Are the Future: Living the Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke
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*** "FROM LAMENT TO PRAISE: EXPLORING RILKE'S DUINO ELEGIES. Tuesday, Nov. 17, 8 - 9:30 pm EDT. Online.
Join the online "Mythica" community as I explore Rilke's great Duino Elegies, featuring my newly published translation. These poems, which are the capstone of his writing career, are a poetic cycle that chronicles a profound existential journey. The Elegies engage human suffering as a threshold for a passionate affirmation of existence. The event is free; donations are gladly accepted. For more information and to register, click here.
***"READING RILKE TODAY": a free Zoom event offered through The Poets Corner, with Padraig O Tuama and Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer; Sunday, Dec. 13, 4 - 5:30 pm EDT.
Join us as we explore Rilke's poetry and writings and their relevance for our lives today. The event is free, but requires registration. For more information and to register, click here.
*** RILKE RETREAT - IN SEARSPORT, MAINE: "HEART-WORK": RILKE & THE SOUL'S JOURNEY INTO WISDOM, Dec. 4 - 6, 2026. Held at Limina Renewal Center in Searsport/Belfast, Maine. This retreat has one open room due to a late cancellation. THE RETREAT BEGINS ON WHAT WOULD HAVE BEEN RILKE'S 151st BIRTHDAY (Dec. 4, 1875)...
Experience an inspiring in-person weekend retreat (Friday afternoon, Dec. 4 through lunch on Sunday, Dec. 6), exploring "heart-work" with the writings of Rainer Maria Rilke. We'll explore a selection of Rilke's poems that beckon us into life's depths and call forth our shared wisdom. Located in a gorgeous seaside retreat center, this is a gathering for all who love poetry, crave quiet conversation, and treasure soulful journeys. Join us for a unique chance to enjoy a spacious weekend in a gorgeous setting - in an intimate setting, with a circle of soulful seekers. The rooms for this retreat are currently fully booked; there are a few slots available for commuters. For more information and to register, click here.
*** "NEW RHYMES": RAINER MARIA RILKE & THREE LUMINOUS WOMEN *** ON SITE IN ROCKPORT, MAINE -- Thursdays, 6 - 8 pm, from Jan. 21 - Feb. 11, 2027
This four-week course examines Rilke’s relationship with three luminous women whose lives were shaped by his presence. The first, Lou Andreas-Salome, was a lifelong friend and mentor, inspiring his poetry and evoking a correspondence that charts the power of poetry in shaping life. The last two never met him directly but were profoundly shaped by his influence: Etty Hillesum found his writings as a bulwark and guide during the last two turbulent years of her short life; Marina Tsvetaeva came to know him through an intense correspondence during Rilke’s final year of life, writing a memorable elegy for him shortly after his death in 1926. Join us as we probe Rilke’s writings and his soul-companioning of these women as a model for our lives. For more information and to register, click here.
*** FINDING WHOLENESS IN THE MIDST OF EVERYTHING WITH JULIAN OF NORWICH: a retreat at Genesis Spiritual Life and Conference Center (Westfield, MA), Nov. 20 - 22, 2026
We all long to be gladdened by what Julian of Norwich imagined as the inner music of love in our lives. She knew that the melodies that shape us—some in the major key, some in a jarring, discordant minor—are part of a larger symphony, if we learn to listen deeply enough. Julian described this as the “marvelous melody of endless love.” We long to experience the resonance of this love in the depths of our lives, an energy that grounds our hearts and lifts our souls. For this love gathers us in communion and holds us—and all beings—everlastingly. It reminds us, as Julian put it, that despite the turbulence in this world and the troubles we face, “all shall be well. . .and all manner of thing shall be well.” Precisely here is where we discover that we are God’s “unending delight,” as Julian put it. This is where our healing begins, and it is here that the melody of God’s love “happens” in and through us. For more information and to register, click here.
*** "HeartWork": Rilke's Call to Live the Questions in Fraught Times. A retreat held at the Trinity Conference Center in Pine Knoll Shores, North Carolina, March 12 - 14, 2027
In this retreat, we’ll probe a selection of Rilke’s writings from his poems and letters to explore what he called “heartwork.” Come prepared to “desire the change,” as he once put it (Sonnets to Orpheus II, 12), as we explore the wisdom of his poetic vision. Along the way we’ll find ourselves lured by “the kind of speech where silence reigns” (Rilke), leading us into what he described as “those gentle, mysterious, trembling transformations” of love. Our approach will welcome newcomers to Rilke’s poetry as well as those more familiar with his writings. Space for this retreat, sponsored by "Inner Ground," is limited; a few rooms are still open. For information and to register, click here.
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* TO LISTEN TO THE RECENT "READING RILKE TODAY" CONVERSATION (December 7, 2025), WITH PADRAIG O TUAMA & KAYLEEN ASBO, click here.
* TO LISTEN TO "READING RILKE TODAY" (2024) WITH PADRAIG O TUAMA & KRISTA TIPPETT, click here.
TO LISTEN TO MY RECENT CONVERSATION about my new books, The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin and Meister Eckhart's Book of Darkness and Light, WITH LISA DELAY ("SPARK MY MUSE" PODCAST), click here.
* * TO LISTEN TO THE RECENT "POETS CORNER" CONVERSATION (April 2, 2023) ON The Wandering Radiance, with Marion Tauschwitz, Christopher Nelson, and Hilary Davies, click here.
*** TO LISTEN TO THE RECENT PODCAST ("OUT OF THE FOG" WITH KAREN HAGER) FEATURING JON SWEENEY AND ME ON OUR NEW ECKHART BOOK, click here.
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You Are the Future is the recipient of a Silver Medal by the Nautilus Book Awards.
To order this book from goodreads.com, click here,
or from amazon.com, click here.
For a short video introduction to this book, click here.
Recently distinguished as one of the "Best Spiritual Books of 2024" by Spirituality and Practice, and listed as a Finalist in Poetry by the Next Generation Indie Book Awards.
J. B. Leishman, who published the first translation of this collection in 1936, wrote that "I feel, in reading [these sonnets], that we have come round the spiral to another 'dawn of consciousness,' where language is in the making, and where myth and symbol must often supply the place of not yet thinkable thoughts. No other writer is so full of the future; no other gives us such thrilling intimations of that inheritance on whose threshold we are standing, and which our civilization may be about to enter, if it does not perish through its own destructive forces."
To order from goodreads.com, click here, or from amazon.com, click here.
To hear Mark's interview on the impossible, joyful journey of translating Rilke the "Emerging Form" podcast, with Rosemerry Wahtola Trommer and Christie Asch, click here.
To order this book, click here.
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Received a "Gold Medal" by the Nautilus Book Awards in 2024.
Published on March 1, 2023: the third of our Eckhart books, re-voicing the startling wisdom of Meister Eckhart in short, meditative poems. To preorder, click here.
What readers are saying about it:
"Sweeney and Burrows, in poems that are as elegant as they are scholarly, revoice Meister Eckhart’s grounding and expansive instructions to 'seek the light that shines / out of the darkness.'" —Pádraig Ó Tuama, poet and host of Poetry Unbound, from On Being Studios
"Meister Eckhart is one of the greatest of Christian mystics, but because of his depth he can be challenging to read. Jon M. Sweeney and Mark S. Burrows unlock the poetry in his words to allow his light to shine. What Coleman Barks has done for Rumi, they have done for Eckhart—making his insight accessible and his wisdom sing.” —Carl McColman, author of The New Big Book of Christian Mysticism and Eternal Heart
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Published in 2023:
"Burrows has succeeded in carrying the radiant power of Domin's poems over to the shoreline of his native tongue. This is an enrichment for all who long to be stirred by the courage and resilience she embodied as a Jewish writer who said of herself, upon returning to Germany following decades in exile: 'I stepped out into the air, and it carried me.'" --Vera-Sabine Winkler, author of Leise Bekenntnisse. Die Bedeutung der Poesie für die Sprache der Liturgie am Beispiel von Hilde Domin
"These shimmering poems by Hilde Domin lodge in the heart and blaze in the mind as they trace the journey of a deep soul through exile and self-realization. I would recommend these vivid poems to anyone who ares about the transformative power of great poetry." --Jay Parini, poet, biographer, screen-writer, and author of Why Poetry Matters
This new translation marks the first full collection of Hilde Domin's poems in English; to order this volume directly from Green Linden Press, click here. For a short endorsement by CAConrad, click here.
A SAMPLE OF RECENT BOOKS
Mark S. Burrows, The Chance of Home. Poems (2018); to order, click here (Paraclete) or here (amazon.com).
Meister Eckhart's Book of Secrets, with Jon M. Sweeney (2019); to order, click here.
Meister Eckhart's Book of the Heart, with Jon M. Sweeney; poems revoicing the wisdom of Meister Eckhart; to order, click here.
Also available: revised paperback edition of Rainer Maria Rilke, Prayers of a Young Poet (Paraclete Press, 2016). Heralded by Bill Moyers as "a powerful alchemy of the heart." To order, click here.
SAID, 99 Psalms, translated by Mark S. Burrows (Paraclete Press, 2013); to order, click here.
The Paraclete Poetry Anthology. Selected and New Poems, 2015 - 2016, edited by Mark S. Burrows (2016). To oder, click here.