The Dragon Slayer

«Who are you, Rainer? Not a German, although – the whole of Germany! Not a Czech, although you were born in the Czech Republic (NB! in a country that did not yet exist – that fits!), not an Austrian, because Austria existed, and you – will exist! Isn't it wonderful? You have no homeland!» – Marina Tsvetaeva wrote to Rainer. But the poet did have a homeland: not only that ineffable and eternal realm of being, which poetry has strived to comprehend since ancient times, but also the fading old Europe, where «all the color, all the rot 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 of Malte Laurids Brigge» to prose poems and sad parables reminiscent of «Stories of the Beloved God».