Conversations with Rilke

Maurice Betz (1898-1946) was a writer and prolific translator of Friedrich Nietzsche, Stefan Zweig and Thomas Mann. He worked closely with Rilke on the French translations of his works while Rilke was alive, and continued translating the poet into French in the decades following his death.

Introduction
Translator’s Note
On the Discovery of Rilke
Chapter I. The Book of Images, Civilisation, 500,000 shells
Chapter II. Dada, Malraux, Cocteau, Harden
Chapter III. First Letters from Muzot
Chapter IV. Paris, the French language, Berg-sur Irchel
Chapter V. Émile-Paul, Jaloux, Benveniste
Chapter VI. Les Cahiers du mois, Sternheim, Valéry
Chapter VII. The Luxembourg, the Hôtel Biron, Muzot
Chapter VIII. Mornings Working on the Notebooks of Malte
Chapter IX. The Lost Pages of the Notebooks of Malte
Chapter X. In the Environs of the Princess
Chapter XI. Lou Andreas-Salomé, Gorki, Tolstoy
Chapter XII. Rodin, de Max, Isadora Duncan
Chapter XIII. Roses, Cats and Dogs
Chapter XIV. Bettina von Arnim, Lina Poletti and Eleonora Duse
Chapter XV. Giraudoux, Gide, Max Picard
Chapter XVI. Spain, Provence, Venice
Chapter XVII. “Fate has these holes where we disappear”
Chapter XVIII. Malte, Vergers, Reconnaissance à Rilke
Chapter XIX. The Last Summer of Rainer Maria Rilke
Rilke Alive
Maurice Betz—A Poet and Literary Translator in Paris
Translator’s Acknowledgments
Notes on the text