Rainer Maria Rilke’s fifteen-part poetic cycle Das Marien-Leben stands as his most eloquent meditation on Mary, the mother of Jesus, whose name he shares. Rilke composed these verses in 1912, and ten years later, Paul Hindemith chose to heighten their rhetoric in an expansive song cycle for soprano and piano, the music revised in 1948. The present edition offers a fresh translation of the texts by Christopher Anderson alongside the sensitive artwork of Nishiki Sugawara-Beda, who has fashioned her concept particularly around Hindemith’s music. Supporting essays by translator and artist further situate the work in historical and contemporary contexts. Here is a poetic treasure, less known but no less significant in Rilke’s oeuvre, made accessible to English readers in a unique frame.
