Long hailed as a masterwork of modern German literature, emThe Book of Hoursem 1905 marks the origin of Rainer Maria Rilke's distinctive voice and vision--where clarity of diction meets unexpected imagery, where first-person poetry discovers its full lyric possibility. In these audacious poems, a devout but intimately candid speaker addresses an ultimately unknowable deity. What will you do, God, when I die Rilke's speaker asks, passing through love, fear, guilt, anger, bewilderment, loneliness, tenderness, and exaltation in his search for meaning. pIn this dual-language edition, Edward Snow, the most trustworthy and exhilarating of Rilke's contemporary translators Michael Dirda, emWashington Postem, makes Rilke's achievement accessible as never before in English. Snow combines striking fidelity to the German text with an uncanny ability to convey not just its tones and cadences but the captivating psychological presence that animates Rilke's best poems. Mystical and moving, emThe Book