2025 marks the 150th anniversary of Rainer Maria Rilke‘s birth (1875–1926). A renowned poet and writer during his lifetime, Rilke’s influence has only grown in the years since his death. His work continues to captivate readers, particularly through his famous Letters to a Young Poet, in which he famously urged, “Live the questions.” This advice is central to his poetry, from his early work Book of Hours (1905) to his final collections, The Sonnets to Orpheus and The Duino Elegies (1923).
Rilke’s poems invite readers to embrace uncertainty and to live with questions rather than seek immediate answers. He encouraged an engagement with the “Open”—the present moment—and a focus on the simple mysteries that surround us. Through his work, Rilke explores how we belong to the “Whole,” urging us to cherish the intimate experiences of life.
To mark this occasion, join award-winning poet, translator, and Rilke scholar Mark S. Burrows for an exploration of Rilke’s work. Burrows, a professor emeritus at the University of Applied Sciences in Bochum, Germany, will discuss a selection of Rilke’s poems and writings. He will also be available to sign copies of his latest books: Sonnets to Orpheus: A New Translation and You Are the Future: Living the Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke, both published in 2024.
Event Details: Sun, March 2, 2025, at 4:00 PM
Mark S. Burrows is a poet, scholar, and teacher who has dedicated much of his career to translating and interpreting Rilke’s poetry. His recent works include Meister Eckhart’s Book of Darkness and Light (2023), a collection of poems inspired by the German mystic, and The Wandering Radiance: Selected Poems of Hilde Domin (2023), a bilingual German-English edition of the work of the German-Jewish poet. In addition to his translations of Rilke, including Prayers of a Young Poet (which forms the first section of The Book of Hours), Burrows has released a new translation of Rilke’s Sonnets to Orpheus (2024). In October 2024, he co-authored You Are the Future: Living Your Deepest Questions with Rainer Maria Rilke with Stephanie Dowrick. Burrows lives in Camden, ME.
