Acknowledgments

This new, expanded edition of Rilke’s Book of Hours carries our wholehearted thanks to the many people who, over the last ten years, have loved these poems and taken them into their lives. Cherishing these poems as we do, nothing could be more gratifying to us than to have our rendering of them so widely welcomed and used. They have been spoken and sung in weddings and funerals, political gatherings and environmental actions. To our delight they have inspired composers, choreographers, and filmmakers. And now they have inspired this centenary publication, which happily includes the German originals.