After my father passed away, 10 weeks after I witnessed the attacks of 9/11 (and unrelated to it), I collected and translated poet Rainer Maria Rilke's letters of condolence. 17 years later I published Rilke's The Dark Interval: Letters on Loss, Grief and Transformation. The book helped me get through a very dark period of loss and grief. It might be of help to others. I am humbled to be the translator of the great poet Rilke, whose words have sustained me for a long time. And I am honored that singer/songwriter Rosanne Cash, a great lover of poetry and Rilke, recorded this book as an audio book. I hope others might also find solace in these words -- though Rilke warns us that there is no consolation, but that even death, this unexplained and terrible event, "presses us...more evenly and more deeply into life and places the utmost obligations on our slowly growing strenghts."