Reviews
Beautiful beautiful beautiful. I close this book as someone who has gained much wisdom from ten letters. I believe this is my introduction to poetry and Rilke, which was challenging at first, but I really enjoyed it. I am so glad I gave this a go.
bellos consejos
Not a big fan of living but maybe I DO want to live after the influence of th following passage:
"Do you recall, from your childhood on, how very much this life of yours has longed for greatness? I see it now, how from the vantage point of greatness it longs for even greater greatness. That is why it does not let up being difficult, but that is also why it will not cease to grow."
"We must accept our existence to the greatest extent possible; everything, the unprecen-dented also, needs to be accepted. That is basically the only case of courage required of us: to be courageous in the face of the strangest, the most whimsical and unexplainable thing that we could encounter."
“It is also good to love: because love is difficult. For one human being to love another is perhaps the most difficult task.”
was incredibly well written, full of truths I didn’t know I needed
on one hand, I am that type of person that HATES when somebody tells me what to do, how to live my life and how to feel. so of course this was not the most comfortable read. I am still a teenager, still feel some kind of rebellion towards an authority that wants to teach me the ways of life (and an authority only 8 years older than me, for that matter? oh I will rebel even more) on the other hand, I can see why this is a great piece of literature. I understand (most of) the points that he makes, I even tabbed quite a lot of thoughts of his. but I feel like I'm still quite young to truly appreciate this. I am, however, interested to see my reactions to this book in five, ten years' time. the letter from a young worker was way more interesting to me. the points he makes are similar to my thoughts, it is written rather beautifully and I didn't feel like my whole life was being bellitled by it :D
beautiful and endearing
Didn’t want to mark the book as read as I kept coming back ;)
Not sure how to feel about this one. I thought parts were really insightful and true but overall it didn’t do much for me. I was also a little put off by the translation that I read — maybe I shouldn’t have read the commentary as I went but I thought the translators had sort of a weird presence and perspective. I wish they didn’t take portions out of the main letters. 3.5 because apparently every rating has to have a half star.
If you are a poet/ a writer / artist / admirer of art / or even see art as something just passing, book a date with these letters.
3.5 stars — this would be life-changing for me if i had read this at 15. nevertheless, i’d probably still think about these letters from time to time.
loved the gentleness of the letters and of course it is filled with rich thoughts. enjoyed reading them and needed to hear some of them at present
It got good ideas and stuff I second with, a tiny bit inspiring. But half of the book is just pretty words I don't really care about tbh. 3.5
like a warm hug 🤍
If you want to squeeze in some light but thought-provoking reading to your day, maybe at a coffee shop or a flight away from home, it needs to be this book.
Letters to a Young Poet is a book I wish I had read when I myself was a young poet trying to rhyme words, balancing white space and phrases, often sacrificing my ideas in favor of what I thought was the correct way of writing poems.
Rilke's wisdom poured into me, ready to patiently fill my cup with notes on connection, solitude, on seeking intrinsically to answer the question — must i write?
I don't usually read self-help books but I imagine a really good one must make me feel this way.
I love him so much I feel sick
so good. one of the kindest things i've read in a while with such a positive and helpful outlook on life
Very insightful, relevant, and heartfelt. One for the books.
everything seems to tie with solitary in Rilke's mind from the cumulated letters between him and Kappus; that delved into many aspects of their lives and their philosophical thoughts; from love and self-doubt, to fear and sadness, and what it means to be solitary.
12/2023 reread
rilke the only acceptable white man of the 20th century
I love seeing ppl love art :(
i probably have to reread this because it's so loved but i just was beyond bored
second time reading this great little pocketbook. a combination of 10 letters to an aspiring poet that inspires me and makes me fall more and more in love with literature and writing
Nota ao próprio: Diria que: (1) Compra a versão física do livro, pois seria interessante conhecer outra tradução que não a de Stephen Mitchell e em Português; (2) Lê-o como um marco na tua vida que, quando te sentes perdido e disjungido do mundo, as suas palavras te relembrem a beleza que a vida pode ter - e ser. Ouve a Natureza e compreende a sua pureza, percebe que a arte é uma experiência maior do que qualquer crítica pode conceber, ... Ainda não terminei o livro, pelo que termino por aqui. Mas os sentimentos que me permitiu reviver... não tenho palavras para isso. [20 de Agosto de 2019] É belo o modo como Rilke escreve cada palavra com uma atenção, amizade, ternura, que também nos fazem chorar pela seu cuidado e por nos fazer perceber que apenas nos resta a sua arte. Que ela continue a ser bem apreciada e mantenha vivos o seu espírito e as suas sábias palavras. Quero lê-las sempre. Fico feliz por ser o meu segundo livro. E que fico feliz por Rilke ser o meu amor platónico... Mas, falando a sério, as suas palavras são, como disse, de uma ternura e lucidez brilhantes. Adorava que ambos se tivessem encontrado e se conhecessem pessoalmente - ah, e que soubessemos o conteúdo das suas cartas. Ainda não sei qual o propósito de ter divulgado a correspondência, mas o mundo agradece. Não posso comparar Rilke a outros artistas, por diferentes razões, e nem por isso o quero, pelo que apenas me permito imaginar que felizmente mais cartas de igual sabedoria são trocadas pelo mundo. Posso apenas dizer que o lado negativo do livro foi eu querer que as cartas terminassem depressa. A celeridade com que queria terminar o livro não me permitiu usufruir ao máximo do seu conteúdo, pelo que quero voltar a este livro no futuro.
“Therefore save yourself from these general themes and seek those which your own everyday life offers you; describe your sorrows and desires, passing thoughts and the belief in some sort of beauty—describe all these with loving, quiet, humble sincerity, and use, to express yourself, the things in your environment, the images from your dreams, and the objects of your memory. If your daily life seems poor, do not blame it; blame yourself, tell yourself that you are not poet enough to call forth its riches; for to the creator there is no poverty and no poor indifferent place.” during an especially rough season this year, a friend read an excerpt of this small book aloud to me. it feels so different to read it for myself now, months later. as we hover on the cusp of the new year, i’m full of anticipation. i want to follow rilke’s advice and create art and write things from whatever heart i can offer, gleaning wonder and beauty from every corner of my life. it used to be so dark; i’m thankful for the light breaking through.
Highlights
It is good to be alone, for solitude is difficult; that something is difficult should be one more reason to do it. To love is also good, for love is hard.
What goes on in your innermost being is worth all your love, this is what you must work on however you can and not waste too much time and too much energy on clarifying your attitude to other people.
Take pleasure in your growth, in which no one can accompany you, and be kind-hearted towards those you leave behind, and be assured and gentle with them and do not plague them with your doubts or frighten them with your confidence or your joyfulness, which they cannot understand. Look for some kind of simple and loyal way of being together with them which does not necessarily have to alter however much you may change; love in them a form of life different from your own and show understanding for the older ones who fear precisely the solitude in which you trust. Avoid providing material for the drama which always spans between parents and their children; it saps much of the children's strength and consumes that parental love which works and warms even when it does not comprehend. Ask no advice of them and reckon with no understanding; but believe in a love which is stored up for you like an inheritance, and trust that in this love there is a strength and a benediction out of whose sphere you do not need to issue even if your journey is a long one.
Love your solitude and bear the pain it causes you with melody wrought with lament.
If you hold close to nature, to what is simple in it, to the small things people hardly see and which all of a sudden can become great and immeasurable; if you have this love for what is slight, and quite unassumingly, as a servant, seek to win the confidence of what seems poor - then everything will grow easier, more unified and somehow more conciliatory, not perhaps in the intellect, which, amazed, remains a step behind, but in your deepest consciousness, watchfulness and knowledge.
Artistic experience lies so incredibly close to sexual experience, to its pains and pleasures, that both phenomena are really just different forms of one and the same desire and felicity.
To be an artist means: not to calculate and count; to grow and ripen like a tree which does not hurry the flow of its sap and stands at ease in the spring gales without fearing that no summer may follow. It will come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are simply there in their vast, quiet tranquillity, as if eternity lay before them. It is a lesson I learn every day amid hardships I am thankful for: patience is all!
Works of art are infinitely solitary and nothing is less likely to reach them than criticism. Only love can grasp them and hold them and do them justice.
Seek out the depths of things: irony will never reach down there - and if in so doing you come up against something truly great, inquire whether this way of relating to things originates in a necessary part of your being.
For he who creates must be a world of his own and find everything within himself and in the natural world that he has elected to follow.
Art too is only a way of living
But your solitude, even in the midst of quite foreign circumstances, will be a hold and a home for you, and leading from it you will find all the paths you need.
And if what is close is far, then the space around you is wide indeed and already among the stars; take pleasure in your growth, in which no one can accompany you, and be kind-hearted towards those you leave behind, and be assured and gentle with them and do not plague them with your doubts or frighten them with your confidence or your joyfulness, which they cannot understand.
And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now. Perhaps then you will gradually, without noticing it, live your way into the answer, one distant day in the future.
To be an artist means: not to calculate and count; to grow and ripen like a tree which does not hurry the flow of its sap and stands at ease in the spring gales without fearing that no summer may follow. It will come. But it comes only to those who are patient, who are simply there in their vast, quiet tranquillity, as if eternity lay before them.
For he who creates must be a world of his own and find everything within himself and in the natural world that he has elected to follow.
You are looking to the outside, and that above all you should not be doing now. Nobody can advise you and help you, nobody. There is only one way. Go into yourself.
One day there will be girls and women whose name will no longer just signify the opposite of the male but something in their own right, something which does not make one think of any supplement or limit but only of life and existence: the female human being.
What goes on in your innermost being is worth all your love, this is what you must work on however you can and not waste too much time and too much energy on clarifying your attitude to other people.
But your solitude, even in the midst of quite foreign circumstances, will be a hold and a home for you, and leading from it you will find all the paths you need.
You are so young, all still lies ahead of you, and I should like to ask you, as best I can, dear Sir, to be patient towards all that is unresolved in your heart and try to love the questions themselves like locked rooms, like books written in a foreign tongue. Do not now strive to uncover answers: they cannot be given you because you have not been able to live them. And what matters is to live everything. Live the questions for now.
Allow your verdicts their own quiet untroubled development which like all progress must come from deep within and cannot be forced or accelerated. Everything must be carried to term before it is born.
Don't write love poems; avoid at first those forms which are too familiar and habitual: they are the hardest, for you need great maturity and strength to produce something of your own in a domain where good and sometimes brilliant examples have been handed down to us in abundance.
Go into yourself. Examine the reason that bids you to write check wheter it reches its roots into the deepest region of your heart, admit to yourself wheterh you would die if it should be denied you to write. This above all: ask yourself in your night's quietest hour: musit I write? dig down into yourself for a deep answer.