Raymond N. MacKenzie

When I Go

Arts & Literature

“Rilke’s French poems, deceptively simple, are subtle and delicate works, and Susanne Petermann’s new translation does them full justice. In poem after poem, she perfectly captures his voice as it shades from erotic desire to rapture, from joy in the things of nature (so many birds, so many roses!) to the melancholy of life. She respects and understands Rilke’s formal choices too, and her English is always a remarkably detailed analogue to his French. Admirers of Rilke will be delighted with When I Go.”