Conversations with Rilke

I owe Betz infinite gratitude...a first-rate poet, a creative spirit, and a friend to all creative spirits...an ornament to literary France...an artist with words, lovable and worthy of love...

MAURICE BETZ (1898-1946), as well as writing poetry and novels, was a prolific translator of Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann. He worked closely with Rilke on the French translations of his works while Rilke was alive, and continued translating the poet into French in the decades following his death. He fought in both World Wars and was made a prisoner in the Second. Shortly after the war, he was found dead in a hotel room in Tours, having asked to be called early. WILL STONE is a poet, essayist and literary translator of French, Franco-Belgian and German literature. His previous translations include Rilke in Paris, also by Maurice Betz, several works by Stefan Zweig, and poems by Georg Trakl and Rainer Maria Rilke, all available from Pushkin Press.

Introduction Translators Note On the Discovery of Rilke Chapter I. The Book of Images, Civilisation, 500,000 shells Chapter II. Dada, Malraux, Cocteau, Harden Chapter III. First Letters from Muzot Chapter IV. Paris, the French language, Berg-sur Irchel Chapter V. mile-Paul, Jaloux, Benveniste Chapter VI. Les Cahiers du mois, Sternheim, Valry Chapter VII. The Luxembourg, the Htel Biron, Muzot Chapter VIII. Mornings Working on the Notebooks of Malte Chapter IX. The Lost Pages of the Notebooks of Malte Chapter X. In the Environs of the Princess Chapter XI. Lou Andreas-Salom, Gorki, Tolstoy Chapter XII. Rodin, de Max, Isadora Duncan Chapter XIII. Roses, Cats and Dogs Chapter XIV. Bettina von Arnim, Lina Poletti and Eleonora Duse Chapter XV. Giraudoux, Gide, Max Picard Chapter XVI. Spain, Provence, Venice Chapter XVII. Fate has these holes where we disappear Chapter XVIII. Malte, Vergers, Reconnaissance Rilke Chapter XIX. The Last Summer of Rainer Maria Rilke Rilke Alive Maurice BetzA Poet and Literary Translator in Paris Translators Acknowledgments Notes on the text