Rainer Maria Rilke | Letters to a Young Poet | Existentialist Philosophy & Literature
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- Опубликовано: 29 сен 2024
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In this lecture, I discuss Rainer Maria Rilke's short but very rich work, Letters to a Young Poet, a series of ten deeply reflective letters Rilke writes over a roughly 5-year period to a younger man who is entering the military profession, but who aspires to be a poet.
In the course of the Letters, Rilke articulates an understanding of personal development, advocating and describing what he calls "solitude," and cautioning against falling into "convention" or stifling one's growth by taking easy paths rather than undergoing the difficult growth that patience and time make possible. He ranges over a number of other topics, including Nature, Things, what poetry is and requires, what to make of sex, what love requires, childhood, time, and how to understand God.
2:20 - overview of the text and general themes
11:00 - the situation of Rilke as a poet, giving advice to a possible poet
21:00 - solitude, the most central theme
44:14 - development of oneself as a person, avoidance of falling into convention and easy paths
1:05:25 - Rilke on Things, God, sex and love
"The only journey is the one within." - Rainer Maria Rilke
ruclips.net/video/tdpUJ8elc9I/видео.html
This is genuinely the best video on youtube. No matter what, I always return to Rilke.
+Žan Hozjan Thanks!
ruclips.net/video/tdpUJ8elc9I/видео.html
me too, I always return to Rilke.
Why do people make such ludicrous absolute statements? As if the word "genuinely" makes it so - and as if you've seen one millionth of what's on here.
i guess because, Rilke brings us closer to ourselves.
the greatest act of love from one human being to another is hold space for another to grow into himself, and that it is not only ACCEPTABLE to be authentic, but it is our deepest NEED.
what we choose not to see and love in ourselves we can't accept in another. Rilke's work makes us feel like, to not do it would be a travesty.
Rainer Maria Rilke happens to be one of my all time favorite poets, and the fact that you did a video on him discussing his work puts a smile on my face. Definitely saving this to one of my playlist
Glad you enjoyed it so much!
I've got several other Rilke videos, including one where I discuss this work in relation to Boulud's Letters to a Young Chef with a class of young culinarians ruclips.net/video/UNa3wBopAQM/видео.html
new lecture video on Rilke in the Existentialist Philosophy and Literature series, this one a kind of companion piece to the earlier lecture Existentialism: Rainer Maria Rilke, The Notebooks of Malte Laurids Brigge
I wonder what path the young poet did take and what happened to him later in life.
Thank you Professor Sandler. Your lecture helped me understand my own questions about Rilke. Why I have this feeeling of a pervasive sadness and aloneness in his beautiful and intense poetry. I think being with Rilke had helped me be comfortable witht this vastness and distance . I am sensing that it isthe same with you.
31:11 being attentive to others, not frightening them with your doubt or joy, finding a common ground and relating to them.......this is the best way i have ever heard it said, of how NOT to be a snob....how to reach a place of calm (really meaning -being down-to-earth) within yourself......
instead of alienated , ego bloat....theres real living (as a result of knowledge, or experience of the holy)
Yes. . . Rilke was really on to something
@@GregoryBSadler he was, genuinely, simplifying life and living.
for humanity had grown so complex it couldn't fathom Truth can be simple.
Just an excellent flow of thoughts tied up neatly. Like a lot of your stuff. This one seems special. It's so universal. How could we have missed this guy growing up??? Anyway, glad I found this. After 4 years it's still good! Thank you.
Well, there's so much out there - as far as philosophy, literature, history. etc. goes - that it's impossible to run across, let alone read, everyon
ha, i love that...around 53:00 when you speak of Rilke's "not being able to live the answers"; it is very much delivering a closer approaching to truth. In this way, he is such a poet as you described: a shaper of words. Very uplifting!
That's Rilke cautioning young Mr. Kappus that, at his age, he might not be able to live the answers.
Glad you enjoyed the video, and the text
Dr. Sadler, "Letters to a Young Poet" is one of my favorite books! I read some parts of during my speech at a school where I teach ( I am a physics teacher in Brazil).
God bless you!
Felipe
I have to say that it is among my favorites as well -- such a rich work!
👍 I received this book for being "a big help." Little did I know, this relatively thin book is a psychological "bar of gold."
Good way to put it!
Firstly, I want to thank you for taking your time to make these videos. Secondly, the reason I googled Rainer Maria Rilke was that I found catching the idea that a peruvian poet, who was obssessed with Rilke, Jorge Eduardo Eielson used to read and even quoting Rilke in his poems which are also worth reading. Wanting to know more about this poet, I watched your video, thank you so much
The passion that you have towards Rilke and teaching in general is just inspiring, and I hope to see more teachers like you in the world. Thank you so much!
You're very welcome!
thank you.
I hope I am fated to be wise.
Well, for Rilke, that's something you need to determine in the depths of your solitude
Thank you so much for this channel and taking time to teach others. I tripped across one of you videos on existentialism and I loved your speaking and teaching style. Now in this video I see we have some things in common such as growing up in a latchkey type home where we explored the woods and swung on vines till mom would call. I was also a bit uncomfortable that my interest would be ridiculed by my peers. I love this channel, you have opened up the world of philosophy for me in a way that makes learning fun. Thanks!
I'm glad you enjoy the videos. Yes, that would be something we -- and really many of the people in our generation -- would have in common.
Worried that an interest in philosophy would get you made fun of by your peers -- I suppose that's a good thing in a way. It means that your peers actually have some vague idea about what "philosophy" means, which is not something one can actually take for granted! I've had so many people hear "psychology" in place of "philosophy". . . .
I can't thank you enough for making multiple videos about Rainer Rilke. So far I love his work from the beginning, and the reason behind that is because of the philosophical undertone and the fact that one can easily recognize oneself in it. I've noticed many new insights because of your videos that I didn't notice whilst reading Rilke.
Currently I'm writing an article for school which is about melancholy and besides thinkers like Augustinus, Kierkegaard, Guardini etc. I'm planning to write a little about Rilke too, duo to the fact that he fits with melancholy in the modern sense of the word (medieval scholastics, not the interpretation of ancient greeks).
I found a lot of information in his works as of articles and videos (like yours) to make my article, but I was wondered if you could help me by giving me a short version of what you think is important to mention when writing about rilke concerning
melancholy.
There's topics like love, death, personal contact, solitutde, child-hood nostalgia etc. but I'm worried that it's too much to handle when clearing them out... Like one can only come close to understand him if one reads the actual books and poems.
anyhow, thanks again, if you don't find the time/will, that's perfectly understandable.
Rilke's a lifesaver. He was my first enjoyable experience in Western literature. I've read his translated works (to English), which is a language that is self-taught. Thank you for giving an academic explanation of his "backbone". really clears up a lot of things that were confusing me. Subscribed and will 100% watch more of your videos.
Keep it up!
+Abdulaziz Aleissa You're very welcome. I do need to get back to shooting more on Rilke. . .
Dr Sadler, Great Video. I dropped out of a Philosophy Degree a Couple of Years ago... But, Between you & a few others on RUclips I have a Definite Rekindling for the Subject... This Video Is by far one of the best things I've Seen in My RUclips History... & I'll be ordering a copy of Letters to a young Poet for sure after this... Though I do Find it Ironic that a device meant to chip away at one's Solitude can also Teach the Importance of it...
Take it easy...
Yes -- that concept of solitude turns out to be pretty complex, when we dig into it in Rilke's work, isn't it?
Glad you enjoyed the video. If you really like it, share it
Have really loved learning about Rilke through the videos you've posted. Somehow I missed him on my prior existentialism binges. Ive always lived in solitude and really liked learning what it means to develop as a person of solitude. Thank you again for all your effort on this channel Professor Sadler.
Justin Minichiello You're very welcome
I first read this at school in Germany when I was 15 and have re-read it multiple times since.
It's definitely a work one could reread over the course of one's life
Great lecture!
I love Rilke's exposition on the bodily delight as a resource of infinite learning, but its being muddied in its clarity, or made more of a stimulant in excess in attempting to alleviate what he called "the tired places of most people's lives". It's the perversion of simple, natural needs. The solitary man as being the one who hears the silence of "Things". I think this is what he meant by the mystery of being... to take heavily what most take lightly of the little things in life. Indeed, most don't realize just how terrible the burden really is in paying it no mind. This is where the gulf between the isolated person who, while close to others, nonetheless feels worlds apart from them. It's a personal growth, a vastness, that must unfortunately be, at bottom, traveled alone.
Yes, that part about bodily pleasure is an excellent way of putting it, on his part, isn't it? -- something, unfortunately, that I didn't end up getting to talk about much as I shot the video
Thank you so much for such an in-Depth analysis of one of the most underrated masterpieces of all times!
You're very welcome!
One of my favourite Rilke poems: abromley91.wordpress.com/2016/08/17/go-to-the-limits-of-your-longing/
Dr. Sadler, sir, thank you for another great lecture. I studied philosophy in college and loved it, but I feel that I get more out of your lectures than when I was in college. Keep up the good work. Out of curiosity, are you going to do a lecture on Ortega? It's unfortunate that he's more obscure or less known than other thinkers in the western canon of philosophical literature. I recently read his "Revolt of the Masses" and "Man and Crisis". I found both of these reads to be very important and relative given our current cultural convulsions. Again, thanks for all you do!
You're very welcome. I do plan to do some lectures on Ortega, as part of the existentialism series, yes
Thank you very much for sharing your lecture. It means a lot :-)
I'm glad to read that. You're very welcome
As a poet who has been writing for 33 years, I agree with Rilke that you should not read literary criticism. I rarely do it, unless it's about literature I'm truly interested in. I'll read other poets, but I consciously don't try to write like them...
dr. sadlar, thank you for this wonderful video. i have never read any rilke before but was vaguely interested. having watched the first 10minutes of your lecture i decided to continue watching it. i thought it was brilliant and will be purchasing a copy of the letters shortly to read for myself. thank you!
You're very welcome. Always glad to hear that the videos get people going to the text itself!
I had to watch this right after your lecture on Nietzsche and the Genealogy of Morals. I had to stop listening to that one short. Do you believe that life is all really the Will to Power? Or is it rather that as Jung said: Where love rules, there is no will to power. (?)
Dm.A.A.
Dmitry Andreyev As with nearly all of my lecture videos, I tend to keep my own views in the background. My task is to present the thinker and the text.
Good. I figured. Dm.
Fantastic lecture, I return to this book with renewed zeal (in solitude of course ;-).
It is a great work. I routinely include it in my philosophy classes, particularly with my students at Milwaukee Institute of Art and Design
I was born in Czech Republic so Rilke is my countryman. I picked up a thin worn-out 1962 M. D. Herter Norton edition of Rilke's Letters to a Young Poet in a second-hand book store some time ago and have been on and off it since then. I can relate to everything Rilke conveys that I stay off this work as it overwhelms me sometimes but then I run back to it to find some sense of reassurance in life. Your lecture is very inspiring .. thank you.
Glad you enjoyed it. It was one of my favorite to produce
I love your channel! It is an amazing treasure chest of knowledge and ideas. I am a classicist so much of your material is right down my alley I am subscribing ..... thank you.
You're very welcome!
If you love Rilke so much - how come you always wrongly spell his name? Ranier instead of Rainer. C'mon mate. :-)
+ShorkGamer I'm a consistently bad speller. Now, that said, anything relevant about the content of the video?
I am just wachting the video at the moment. But I already finished watching your lecture about Rilkes Brigge, and you really nailed it. Luckly I can fluently speak german, thus I can read the original text; and in the english translation Rilke really sounds dull and without a soul. It's impressive that this still does not seem to reduce his effect on the reader. I guess the same feeling do people have that can read the original Proust or Dostojewskij for example, if they compare the translation and the original. Pls upload more Rilke. :-)
ShorkGamer Down the line I will create and upload more Rilke videos. At present, I'm pretty busy with a lot of other projects, including the Half Hour Hegel series, which is projected to take another 3 years of work.
I haven't found any translations of Rilke that I'm super-happy with - I read German as well -- but having been a translator (from French and Latin), and knowing how hard that work is, I'm inclined to go easy on them
Wow, then you are one of the lucky ones who can enjoy Proust (and all the other great frensh writes of course) in all his (there) glory! I can't wait for your new Rilke videos. :-D
ShorkGamer Yes, I could potentially enjoy Proust. But, given the many other people available to read, and the limited time, I don't spend it on him.
Thank you! You have inspired me to read Rilke. :)
+shraddha That's great to hear!
Hi Gregory, thank you for this fine lecture, appreciate it.
You're welcome!
That is quite a Wisconsin accent...
Yep, but at least it's a SE Wisconsin accent!
Gregory B. Sadler I don't hear any Wisconsin accent. My relatives are all from upper Wisconsin (Superior area), and they sound almost Canadian. Or, actually, they sound like the characters in Fargo, the Coen brothers movie. My relatives have a Wisconsin accent. (Or Minnesotan. Both sound similar to me. And Superior/Duluth are the twin cities.) Love Rilke. His Letter Number 8 in Letters to a Young Poet is sublime.
There's really two different Wisconsin accents (unless you count really odd, "just in this town", kind of things). SE Wisconsin has a dialect that actually runs across the Midwest (though very shallow in IN) into NY. And then there's the whole rest of the state -- "Ya der hey" country.
You can hear the accent best in my open A sounds -- and if I say Milwaukee -- "Muwaukee"
There is ONLY one solitude, and its vast heavy difficult to bear.
Part of what it means to be human being. We are All alone.
Bar Mayerovitcz Yes, but as he goes on, in that passage, he notes that most human beings conceal this from themselves
He doesn't contest that it's painful, that for certain. . .
Einsamkeit can be rendered as being alone, solitude, or as loneliness in English
Gregory B. Sadler True.
Thank you for this video.
What a great lecture! Ill check out others. So good. Are you on twitter?? Gonna look today...
I am indeed -- as @philosopher70
Book of hours is the best especially the book of poverty and death chapter
You are great sir! This type lecture reminds me how great internet can be. Thank you so much
Pyry-Pekka Jaala you’re very welcome!
Professor Sadler, Rilke being the giant that he is, unparalleled in what he could evoke through his words, because where they came from within him.
Your introduction drove home an understanding in me, which i hadn't happened to fully, until now -
we humans have mastered DISTANCE - we have scales/units from Angstrom to Galaxies and black holes; we are yet to know CLOSENESS. the closer something is to our heart, the more speech-less it becomes because words become auxiliary, almost like a means so redundant and inept in conveying the simplicity and depth of its resonance. this is the SILENCE Rilke was talking about - so eloquent, to word it would be to warp it, however subtly.
and yet he conveyed it unlike another, before or since.
Well, there's also interior distance
Thank you for this fabulous lecture. Your deep analysis and discussion are captivating and enlightening. What a treat!!
You’re very welcome
You may find interesting this contrasting view of nature as shown in Rilke’s poetry and in Post WWII Polish poet Herbert. Herbert liked references and illusions in his poetry, so I don’t think it’s a coincidence that Herbert’s words echo Rilke, albeit with an important twist that illustrates a change in world view. Nature is important to both poets, but man’s relationship to it has changed. (Warning: Herbert leaves out punctuation).
Rilke: Duino Elegy I:
“Yes, the Spring-times needed you deeply. Many a star
must have been there for you so you might feel it. A wave
lifted towards you out of the past, or, as you walked
past an open window, a violin
gave of itself. All this was their mission.”
Zbigniew Herbert: Last Message from Mr. Cogito::
“beware of dryness of heart love the morning spring
the bird with an unknown name the winter oak
light on a wall the splendour of the sky
they don't need your warm breath
they are there to say: no one will console you”
I'll have to take a look at Herbert sometime --it's a matter of finding the time!
Can u explain the concept of the angels??
Let me know what you think of my most recent two posts. They are my most personal recently (perhaps, if I can venture such an estimate). I wonder if they resonate with you. I am personally trying to see if I am truly living an Authentic Life, and of course I'll have to be the one to make the final call on that, but feedback would be nice, too.
Dmitry.
Right now, my time is pretty tight. I've got a radio show tonight, another one Saturday, classes to teach, videos to produce, conference and invited talks to give . . . .
Why don't you send me an email in about a week, reminding me to take a look at your recent blog posts -- I'll be at the St. Anselm conference, but will actually have a bit more free time, strangely enough. . . . greg@reasonio.com
I appreciate you for making these videos. Could we possibly get some baudrillard or Borges or more camus?
Perhaps when I have the time available. Camus I'll get to as I continue the Existentialism series. Borges is someone I'd like to discuss when I start doing literature. Baudriallard will get some videos after some other "continental" figures do, like Lacan, Foucualt, Battaille. But that may be quite a while. I'm starting Hegel's Phenomenology this month
I haven't read much poetry, but I will have to definitely check Rilke out. Great video!
He's one of the best!
Thanks for the lecture - but the name is "Rainer Maria Rilke" not Ranier....
Ranier is the french version of the german name Rainer.
Thought I'd corrected that a while back -- must have been on the other video
Question- Rilke said it's possible to miss ones destiny, isn't this the same as saying it should of been different? How can we actually know what is true in this? Maybe your destiny wasn't what you thought, it's a huge claim to "know" your destiny
+Gustav Adamas Well, I guess you've stumped Rilke there.
Or, you'll find the answers by reading through his works
HI Professor Sadler, I was wondering which translation of the letters you are using here. thanks
The Stephen Mitchell one
By far too many "poets" writing by far too much "poetry" in 2020.
Quite true
The poet is eternity protruding into time (Erich Heller in essay on Rilke and Nietszche)
It's certainly Rilke's project, that's for certain
You do a wonderful job Dr. Sadler, not much more to say. Grateful for you and what you do!
Thanks!
Thank you for much for this video, and your right about rereading these letters again! Man old man!
You're very welcome. Yes, those Letters are really excellent, aren't they?
Fab. ♡
Thanks!
Thank you for taking the time to make this lecture, I will certainly read these letters. In a search to understand Heidegger's philosophy of art, I stumbled over Rilke's work, so I have no insight in who does Rilke justice. Hence, who do you believe are the best translators of his work?
Ole-Tobias Torrissen I'm a bad person to ask about translations, since I read German -- when I suspect that there might be more going on in a translation than what is coming through, I just go to the original. So, I'm rather lazy in that respect. . .
Gregory B. Sadler I see, well thanks for the quick reply
Thanks for your work
You're welcome!
This is the bread and milk of life.
Yes, it is some really rich and nourishing stuff
Thank you so much , Professor
You're very welcome!
Thank you so much.
+Ran Livneh You're very welcome!
Thats why I pay internet for
For what?
Pleas please please more Rilke !!
+Gustav Adamas Down the line, I'll definitely do more Rilke.
thank you for sharing.
You're welcome
This, up there with your lectures on Shestov, is probably one of your best lectures I have watched so far. I've been trying to get my old copy of Letters from an old friend but we had a falling-out. I only hope he reads it eventually. Reading Rilke helped me a good deal.
Thanks! I really enjoyed filming it. Rilke helped me as well. . .
life is art is play
is not a sentence
Gratitude❤️
Glad you enjoyed it
Rilke found me in the hills of Mendocino while in the midst of a horrible break up, I'm working on narrating book of hours with haunting music in the back ground if anyone wants it please let me know
+Hafiz Rilke sonds interesting!
What's your email, I will send them to you
Brilliant lecture my friend....my email is dannyross555@gmail.com. The book of poverty and death is finished
+Hafiz Rilke You can send it to greg@reasonio.com
Did you get it?
51:20.
Not sure what you want to say about that. . . .
Oh, sorry. It was a great moment.