This is Episode 90 of Poems for the Speed of Life.

Today's poem is "I love the dark hours of my being" by Rainer Maria Rilke.

Rainer Maria Rilke was a poet who came from the old Austro-Hungarian empire which existed until the end of World War I. This is the second piece by Rilke to feature in this podcast. You can find "Go to the Limits of Your Longing" in Episode 41.

One of the interesting things about Rilke’s work — and, very likely, in the work of all writers who write primarily in a different language to English — is the way translations contrast with each other so vividly. It is not a case, I think, that the translator tries to capture the original word for word. Instead, the translation is itself a standalone piece. This translation is by Mark S Burrows. Burrows is a writer, teacher and historian of medieval Christianity based in Maine in the US. He has taught at universities in Europe and America, and facilitates poetry retreats and workshops on both sides of the Atlantic Ocean.

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