(Rainer Maria Rilke/Fulcrum Press) Sonnets to Orpheus: Orpheus. Eurydice, Hermes

[By] Rainer Maria Rilke. Translated from the German by Patricia Holburd Heidenheimer. Collagraph images handprinted by Patricia Holburd Heidenheimer. The Fulcrum Press. MMI. (2001.) Accordion fold. 14” x 5.75”. Text letterpress-printed in Monotype Bembo Semibold by Maureen Cummins onto Hiromi Shiramine. Collagraphs in purple overlaid with white to allow the black printed text to be clearly visible. The text above the flowing illustration is in grey. Grey endpapers and spine, with the final fold easily movable out of a slot on the back board, enabling the book to be viewed in one continuous piece. Dark blue cloth boards with a repeat of the collagraph in lighter blue along the top of the front board. Matching blue slipcase with title on spine and profile illustration on the front. One in an edition of 25 numbered copies, signed by P. Holburd Heidenheimer. Fine.

The sonnets included are from Die Sonette an Orpheus are Part I: 1-11, 14, 26 and Part II: 13, 29.

“Poetry goes through the ear. In these translations of selected poems by Rainer Maria Rilke, both sound and flow, no less than fidelity to the sense of the original German, is a central focus. Fifteen of the poems are drawn from the Sonnets to Orpheus, written toward the end of Rilke’s lifework. Accompanying them is the narrative poem Orpheus, Eurydice, Hermes from an earlier life period. The sonnets and narrative connect in spirit with one another, affording greater illumination and depth of feeling to each.

“The connection between sonnet and narrative is further enhanced by the book’s physical format and imagery. Below is the dark wine-colored landscape of the Underworld where Eurydice is ‘already root’, even as Orpheus attempts to lead her back into life. The path they and her escort, Hermes, follow through the Underworld bears the legend of their journey. Floating like clouds above this landscape are the sonnets addressed to Orpheus, inhabitant of the ‘dual kingdoms’ of life and death. A panoramic view of the total landscape is afforded by book pages which can be either opened out or turned.” - Holburd Heidenheimer.

A wonderful translation of Rilke’s great poetry.

$800