Although one strives to escape one's self as if wrapped in some loathsome pit, it is actually one of the world's great wonders: I sense it: ALL LIFE WILL BE LIVED. Who lives it, then? In The Voices, Rilke presents a series of portraits of pariahs, outcasts, the down-and-outs, turning his often inward gaze toward The Other in a way that pleasantly undermines our notions of his poetic interests. In this new translation, Kristofor Minta breathes new life into these poems, which exude a kind of heat, if only enough to warm your hands by. Includes the original German on facing pages. This book was produced in collaboration with Lamplight Editions. Rainer Maria Rilke was born in Prague in 1875 and died of leukemia in Switzerland in 1926. Never in doubt about his vocation as poet, his work was the product of a tireless growth—work which may accurately be seen as the bridge leading from fin de siècle literature into Modernism. Kristofor Minta is a poet and translator. He has twice been a finalist in the National Poetry Series, is a graduate of Syracuse University's Creative Writing program, and was lucky enough to study with poet Philip Levine as an undergraduate. His translations (with Herbert Pföstl) of Hans Jürgen von der Wense have been published asA Shelter for Bells (Epidote Press, 2020).