Rating: 
Summary: One of my favorite books EVER.
Review: This book of poetry absolutely glows. I remember when I discovered _Letters to a Young Poet_, how the language and perception transported me, made me feel as though Rilke could look right into my soul and advise me personally. This book of poems affects me the same way -- he has written about God in ways that I wasn't even aware that I felt until I read them! I've used quotes from these poems in sermons, and as email signature lines. The book can be read as a breathtaking whole, but also as a collection of beautiful poems, lines, images, single words. Though I can not speak as someone who does not believe in God, I think these poems could also be powerful for those who are not actively practicing any religion. There are poems that do not mention God directly, but which refer to the mighty presence of a creator and bestower of grace, as in these lines: "I love you, gentlest of Ways, who ripened us as we wrestled with you. You, the great homesickness we could never shake off, you, the forest that always surrounded us..." If you are a lover of Rilke, a lover of poetry, especially a lover of GOOD religious poetry, this book is not to be missed.
Rating:
Summary: I love this book.
Review: This is not a literal translation, but translations never can be. Authors do a fine job of honoring the mystical core in Rilke's work.
Rating: 
Summary: Translations
Review: To those who criticize this translation, so what?
1) What survives translation is the poetry and 2) You say that the German is so much better, where is your proof?
You deny those, who don't read German, a way into Rilke's mind. You frighten them off with distinctions they might never understand because in you're arrogance you demand they must.
Rating: 
Summary: A failure to seriously TRY to translate, really...
Review: Weak and floppy. For people who want poetry--and probably everything in life--to be easy.
Rating: 
Summary: Political correctness destroys the effect.
Review: While the intro should have alerted me to potential disappointment, the poetry drew me in and I found Rilke's voice to be wonderful. AND THEN I read the translators' commentary -- their explanations for not including a poem or the rest of a poem or the middle of one; their justifications for "keeping the sense while changing the words" in order to make it more palatible to late 20th century readers. Most of their justification for exclusion and change lies in what seems to be politically correct to feminism. Truly a destruction of what started out as a mystically sensitive English language version of Rilke's work.
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