Breath, You Invisible Poem: Orpheus (2006)

This chapter discusses Paterson’s fifth collection, Orpheus, translated versions after the German of Rainer Maria Rilke’s Die Sonette an Orpheus (1923). It argues that the book’s hallmark lies in its attempts to fully uncover the poetic utility of the sonnet – Paterson translates Rilke as a means of evincing his sense of the form as an inevitable necessity. This is discussed in relation to the book’s central themes: the existential concept of ‘the double realm’ of human consciousness, and how this manifests itself in what Paterson views as the ‘uniquely human business’ of song. The chapter argues that Orpheus finds Paterson granting himself licence to be both prophetic and more explicitly philosophical, developing his sense of poetry as a means of intellectual inquiry. It also draws on Stephen Mitchell’s translations of Rilke’s Sonnets by way of illuminating contrast.