Bly chooses poems from a number of Rilke's books, prefacing the poems with a brief background of where Rilke was (physically and emotionally) when he wrote each book. The original German is displayed opposite Bly's translations; you can get a sense of what got "lost in translation" even if, like myself, you don't speak a word of German.Bly's ruthless honesty shines through every page of the book. Though his translations are incredibly luminous, he clearly admits their limits:"...Rilke's elaborate and thoroughgoing labor on sound cannot be conveyed. In English his poems sound colorless. I've tried for ten years to get the last three lines of "October Day" right, with their lonely sound of blowing leaves and their pride in solitude, but I can't do it..."If this fragment doesn't sell the book to you, I don't know what will!