The Dragon Slayer

«Who are you really, Rainer? Not German, although – a whole Germany! Not Czech, although you were born in Czechia (NB! in a country that did not yet exist – that fits!), not Austrian, because Austria existed, and you –... will be! Isn't it wonderful? You have no homeland!» – wrote Marina Tsvetaeva to Rainer Maria Rilke. But the poet did have a homeland: not only that unspeakable and eternal realm of being to which poetry has aspired since ancient times, but also the fading old Europe, where «all the color, all the decay of Empires» converged. In love with Russia, tender, broken, and passionate, Rainer Maria Rilke became one of the most important poets of the 20th century. The collection «German Classics in Translations by Vladimir Letuchiy» opens with a collection of Rilke's brilliant prose – from the novel «Notes on Malte Laurids Brigge» to prose poems and the sorrowful parables of «Stories about the Beloved God».