Used price: $12.61
Rilke, who longed for a place of solitude in the country, arrived at the fortress-like Castle Duino, high above the Adriatic, near Trieste, in December 1911. His hostess was Princess Marie von Thurn und Taxis-Hohenlohe, who had invited Rilke to translate Dante's Vita Nuova with her. Princess Marie, however, soon left for more sociable climes and Rilke was left alone on the stormy, wind-swept cliffs of Duino. Rilke, at this time of his life, was known to commit himself to a strict regimen of work. Nevertheless, his poems, he has written, always seemed to burst upon him suddenly, like a thunderstorm on a hot summer's afternoon. And, one afternoon at Duino, the opening line of the first elegy burst upon Rilke like a flash of lightening.
There is no problem with the Duino Elegies...if one reads and comprehends German. If one doesn't, however, the problems of translation can be enormous. Translation, always a fragile task, becomes even more so when it involves poetry, and reaches its zenith with a work as sublime as Rilke's Duino Elegies. So many versions of these gorgeous poems exist (at least twenty), that the Elegies are certainly suffering from a case of "translation overkill."
In the original German, the Duino Elegies are the most sublime expressions of awe, of terror, of love, of splendor, of Life, that have ever been set down by the hand of man. In hands other than Rilke's, however, they can seem clumsy and more than a bit melodramatic. Rilke wrote delicately-calibrated poetry, without excess words and, the dread of all translators, the hyphenated word. But, all that aside, reading the Elegies in translation, any translation, is better than not reading them at all.
No matter how "angelic" these poems may seem, never doubt that they are expression of life in the here and now. As Rilke, himself, tells us, "the world exists nowhere but within us." These gorgeous poems are about the difficulties of living in this world, of not being heard by the angels, and of the tragedy that can so easily befall us. They are about Rilke's desire for solitude and his desire to escape it, i.e., the need and the utter impossibility of understanding and being understood completely in this life.
Although many of the translations are flawed, as translation by its very nature must be, the Duino Elegies remain the epitome of poetry. They are a cry of terror, of awe, of joy, of splendor at the lonely and solitary condition of man.
The Duino Elegies are quite possibly the greatest work of Rainer Maria Rilke, himself one of the greatest poets, German language or otherwise, of all time. The elegies, writen in the cold vast chambers of Duino Castle, deal with all the greatest issues of human existence: love, death, tragedy, God, and life's very meaning. Their language reflects their origin: like the Castle's empty stone hallways, the words are perfectly formed; they are fragile and beautiful; weightless and profound. Rilke's first elegy begins with a reflection on the awesome, terrifying power of beauty. He longs to experience it, but knows that it would destroy him. As he writes on, the reader grows to understand and feel not only Rilke's longing, but his fear. The terrible beauty, looming behind all the elegies, is present in the text. The poems inspire wonder, raise profound quetions with ineffable answers, and fills us with awe as it calmly disdains to destroy us.
The German text is perfect, but MacIntyre's translation is splendid and best conveys the work's haunting and desolate undertones. While it seems to me that everyone should own and cherish the Duino Elegies, it is an absolute requirement for anyone seeking to construct a serious collection of great poetry.
List price: $10.00 (that's 20% off!)
Used price: $6.85
Buy one from zShops for: $6.64
Used price: $0.60
Collectible price: $10.00
Buy one from zShops for: $0.60
Used price: $5.00
List price: $17.50 (that's 30% off!)
Used price: $12.01
Buy one from zShops for: $11.00
List price: $18.00 (that's 47% off!)
List price: $34.95 (that's 30% off!)
I found The Work a little slippery to understand the first time I heard of it (it's been spreading through word of mouth for years). How can asking myself some questions make any difference? But after I did it, I was blown away! Loving What Is makes learning this process fairly simple, through detailed instructional material, humorous anecdotes (Katie is famous for her sense of humor), and dozens of powerful examples of The Work in action. Co-author Stephen Mitchell's intelligence and precision are evident in the book's seamless structure, and in how naturally Katie's clarity and warmth make it to the page. This book still requires "active" reading-and you have to do The Work yourself in order to really get it-but for those who are willing to try something new, Loving What Is really could change your life. It changed mine. (I highly recommend the audiobook as well.)
I feel that some commentary must be put here to counter the dreadful review offered by "jaguarwoman" below. Here is a quote from the review - "Granted, I did not read every word in the book, and perhaps she addresses this at some point, but after an hour of perusing this book....". How on Earth does this person think that an hours worth of shallow skimming and no practice qualify her to write a review? If "jaguarwoman" had bothered to study the book in detail she would see that Byron Katie says that her Work is not for everyone.
Astonishingly ignorant reviews aside, the best judge of this book will be you *after* trying the practice!
This is what it comes down to: Nothing *ever* bothers you except your thoughts. It's not the fact that you lost your job that makes you miserable, it's the thoughts running through your head, like "I'm incompetent," "I didn't deserve that job," "I'll never get a job like that again." Who would you be, newly unemployed, without those thoughts? (Question #4.) The questions help you see with your own eyes that your suffering is *always* over a painful thought that's running through your head, and this firsthand knowledge eventually leads you to automatically drop that thought. Your suffering has nothing to do with reality. Katie likes to say, "The worst thing that could happen is a story."
On another note, one reviewer below says that Katie and Stephen Mitchell aren't married, since Katie talks in her tapes about her husband being uninterested in spiritual matters. I recently attended the School for the Work, and they are certainly married. She explained that her previous husband was not very happy living with her after her transformation, and she eventually decided that the kindest thing she could do would be to spare him from "that woman" that he thought she had become. She and Stephen met when he was assigned to write an article on her, and the rest is history.
This is the single most transformative book I've ever read. It contains the very essence of wisdom as I understand it, and I never felt I had to make myself believe anything or translate her words into something resembling reality, as I do with some authors, because she was already there. Simply incredible.
Used price: $5.49
Collectible price: $12.95
Buy one from zShops for: $5.95
Imagine you're a devout Christian, and someone has read a particularly beautiful, but misleading and inaccurate, translation of the Bible. Suppose you complain that Christ's message has been garbled and distorted by the "translation" -- by someone who knows no Hebrew, Aramaic, or Greek -- and this person replies: "It's pretty irrelevant to me whether this is a 'proper translation' of the Bible. If a piece of art, writing or performance touches you to the core of your being then all criticism is really obsolete," etc.
Okay, quick quiz: Who of you think it would be right for someone to misinterpret the Bible into having Jehova or Christ saying things They didn't say, and then defend that interpretation because it is relevant to them? Well, you might say, it's their right to see the Bible that way, but it's certainly not Judaism or Christianity, now is it?
Just as Mitchell's so-called "translation" is _not_ Taoism. No ifs, ands, or buts about it. Of course New Agers simply don't care; if it makes them happy, "moves" them, and reifies beliefs they already have, who cares about us cynics complaining about the inaccuracies of the text itself? Just accuse us of being obsessed with textual criticism, languages, and with our petty, close-minded insistence on understanding Taoism and not twisting the Tao Te Ching for its easier but uninsightful digestion by Westerners with little or no concern about actually expanding their understanding of othr belief systems.
But this is *not* a good introduction to Taoism or the Tao Te Ching. What it is is a highly personal, biased, American Zen interpretation of the Tao Te Ching.
As such, it does work in its own way, though I found the notes garbled, unhelpful, and sometimes misleading, and I've seen more poetic translations. But as a good, bias-free introduction to *Taoism*, it's a miserable failure. The reader is *not* being given straight Taoism here. That's especially disturbing because it's the most popular translation in print. For an equally elegant, more accurate (that is, Taoist) rendering, check out Henricks' translation.
I repeat: You may like the poetry, you may like the ideas and the philosophy, but it's impossible to like the Taoism, because it simply isn't there.
BUT.... if you choose 2 or 3, this should definantly be among them :)
It is also the best for introducing a Westerner not familiar with Taoist thought to Taoism.
There have been complaints by many Taoists about this translation, and I understand their complaints, BUT some people are not interested in Taoism as a Dogma or "religion" or a history lesson.... but in the *WISDOM* of the Tao, which is what this book conveys perfectly.
Though it is not literal I do not find it to be in any way inconsistant with the spirit or wisdom of Lao Tzu's teaching.
The language, poetry, and insight in this book as well as the utter simplicity make it a WONDERFUL read... and the "liberties" help make Taoism more accessable to those not accustomed to interpreting the meaning of the literal translation and giving it modern application.
This is one of 2 Tao Te Ching translations I know by heart, I highly recomend it.
List price: $49.95 (that's 60% off!)
By far and away best are the 2 chapters on Data Manipulation and Presentation, although these are let down by poor editing - in the form of a few missing source code listings. Another good chapter is the one on code-behind ("Separating Code from Content"). Also very good is the one on XML ("Using XML"). Although a single chapter on XML is not going to be sufficient for anyone, you will be happy to know that the writer of this chapter (Dan Wahlin) has published a worthwhile book of his own. There are also some rather useful chapters on areas that are usually left out of books of this type, and they deal with Error Handling ("ASP.NET Error Handling") and state management ("Managing State").
The chapters that are really awful and could do worse than being re-written are: "Web Services" and "Application-Level Programming" simply because they simply do not have enough in the way of quality code. One thing that I find quite curious is the chaper on "Enabling Better Browser Support" - which doesn't really have a place in .NET, which aims to reproduce uniform browser behaviour.
All code samples are in VB.NET with some consideration for the C# public, but certainly the source-code is not eqally bi-lingual- which I hope gets addressed in the future.
Overall a good book, although be prepared for some ups and downs in quality.
A mistake was made, by giving the framework sdk in the cd instead of the sample code, wich you can find in a million zip files in the web.
They also failed in telling the sample code is intended to follow your progress in the book. That means you won't see quality code untill chapter 16 (separating code form presentation). I think they made a good desicion, so if your looking for a source of sample code this is the wrong place (Go to the web).
I don't think this will become a reference book for me. As soon as you become proficient in the platform the book becomes shallow but this is the first time i'm happy with a book since i bought "Hitchhiker's guide to visual basic and SQL". This book succeds in having all the Tips, Tutorials and Code you need to get serious into ASP.NET today!!!!!!!!!!!!!.
I have found the SAMS Teach Yourself series very useful in spite of their beginner level content. This book is part of a newer series from SAMS (blue spines with glossy photos of the galaxy) that are intended as in-depth resources for professionals. SO far the six that I have rank with the very best professional series from Apress and seem a bit beyond the always timely and usually useful WROX books.
For example, Rilke was a genius at enjambment; that is, he was a master at placing his most important words at the very end or very beginning of a line, in order to highlight them. Think of the first line, which ends with "Engel," splitting it from the first word of the next line, "Ordnungen." (Young merely gives these words together, as "angelic orders," at the end of the third line.) By divorcing the angels from their orders in the poem's very first line, Rilke sets the tone that not all is right in the heavens.
And Rilke's line breaks are even more important than those of other poets, because they are few and far between, since his lines are nice and fat, often more than 13 syllables. Young's lines, on the other hand, are broken up into tiny 2- to 8-syllable, bite-sized chunks. This changes not only the rhythm of Rilke's verse--which obviously would have changed anyway, in translation--but its compositional emphases, as the structure of the most important lines is simply whisked away. And that is a tragedy.
Young's excuse for this unfortunate decision? He happened, while he was working on the translation, "to re-read some of William Carlos Williams' late poetry," and he liked Williams' stubbier, tri-partite lines. Rilke, however, is not William Carlos Williams, and Young's rendering of Rilke as Williams suffers because of this incongruity. (Oddly enough, though, Williams is another poet for whom every line break bears an awful lot of weight; too bad Young didn't carry that respect for enjambment into his work on the "Duino Elegies.")
Those interested in Rilke should do themselves a favor and pick up Mitchell's translation. I simply can't recommend this edition. It gets three stars because, despite the muddle, there are SOME beautifully rendered lines, and some of the power of Rilke manages to squeeze through. And that's always a wonderful thing.