Friday, December 01, 2006

Rilke's last poem

Over at the Open University blog, Richard Stern offers his own translation of Rilke's last poem, "Komm du, du Letzer." Check it out.

Stern notes that "Rilke managed to write [the poem] two weeks before the unmitigated agony of his leukemia killed him. ('I want my own death, not a doctor's,' was his response to those who urged him to take morphine.)"

--Marshal Zeringue