German · New Poems

Abschied

Parting

12 lines · 17 notes

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1
How I have felt that thing called parting.
WieHowwie · adverbdepends on gefühlt
habhavehaben · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
ichIich · pronoun, nominative, singulardepends on hab
dasthatder · pronoun, accusative, neuter, singulardepends on gefühlt
gefühltfeltfühlen · verb, participledepends on hab
waswhatwas · pronoun, nominative, neuter, singulardepends on heißt
AbschiedpartingAbschied · noun, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on heißt
heißtis calledheißen · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the relative clause
Grammarheißen meaning to be called heißen here means 'to be called, to be named', not 'to be called out'. was Abschied heißt means 'that which is called parting', with was as the subject of heißt and Abschied as what it names.
2
How I still know it: a dark, unhealed,
GrammarA colloquial contraction of ich es ichs contracts ich es, 'I it', a colloquial fusion common in spoken and poetic German. weiß ichs noch means 'I still know it', with weiß as the first-person present of wissen, 'to know'.
WordA shortened negated past participle unverwundnes is a shortened form of unverwundenes, the negated past participle of verwinden, 'to get over, overcome'. It means 'unhealed, not gotten over', describing a wound of feeling rather than a physical injury.
3
cruel Something that holds a beautifully-bound thing
Grammarein dunkles... Etwas Etwas, capitalized, is used here as a noun meaning 'a Something', an unnamed force. grausames Etwas means 'cruel Something', with grausames agreeing with the neuter noun in the nominative, and das introducing a relative clause describing it.
WordA coined compound noun Schönverbundnes is a coined compound noun from schön, 'beautiful', and verbunden, the past participle of verbinden, 'to bind, join together'. It means 'a beautifully-bound thing', naming what the cruel Something holds and then tears apart.
4
once more, shows it and holds it out and tears it apart.
WordHolding something out hinhalten means 'to hold something out, extend it toward someone'. hinhält is its present-tense, third-person form, one of three verbs, one of three verbs (zeigt, hinhält, zerreißt) describing the same cruel Something acting on the beautifully-bound thing.
5
How defenseless I was, watching it,
WordWithout any defense die Wehr means 'defense, resistance'. ohne Wehr means 'without defense, defenseless', with ohne taking the accusative. It describes the speaker's state while watching what happens next.
GrammarAn infinitive for watching it zuschauen means 'to watch, look on'; zu is inserted before the verb stem to form the infinitive, zuzuschauen. dem, dative, refers back to the scene just described, so dem zuzuschauen means 'to watch it, watching that'.
6
which, as it, calling me, calling, let me go,
Grammarda, causal 'as, since' da here means 'as, since', introducing the reason for what follows, not a place. da es mich... gehen ließ means 'as it let me go', with es as the subject and gehen ließ, 'let go', as its verb, split by the parenthetical mich rufend.
GrammarA participle inserted mid-clause rufend is the present participle of rufen, 'to call'; mich, 'me', is its object. mich rufend means 'calling me', inserted as an aside between es and gehen ließ, describing how it acted even as it let the speaker go.
7
stayed behind, as if it were all women
GrammarA contraction, they were wärens contracts wären es, 'they were'. so als wärens alle Frauen means 'as though it were all women', using Subjunctive II with a plural verb, wären, because the intended sense is plural, 'all women', even though es itself is singular.
8
and yet small and white and nothing but this:
WordNothing but this nichts als means 'nothing but, only'. nichts als dies means 'nothing but this', with dies, 'this', as the pronoun that closes the sentence after a list of what remains: klein und weiß, 'small and white'.
9
A wave of the hand, already no longer meant for me,
WordAn infinitive turned into a wave Winken is the infinitive of winken, 'to wave', used here as a neuter noun: 'a waving, a wave [of the hand]'. It is the subject of the sentence, described further by the participle bezogen two words later.
WordDirected at, meant for bezogen is the past participle of beziehen, used here to mean 'directed at, meant for'. auf mich bezogen means 'directed at me, meant for me', describing the wave as no longer aimed at the speaker.
10
a softly going-on-waving thing—, already scarcely
GrammarA coined noun for an ongoing wave Weiterwinkendes is the present participle of weiterwinken, 'to go on waving', turned into a neuter noun: 'a still-waving thing'. Rilke coins it here, alongside leise, 'softly', to describe a gesture fading into something no longer quite a wave.
11
explicable any more: a plum tree, perhaps,
WordScarcely explicable any longer erklärbar means 'explicable, able to be explained', from erklären, 'to explain'. kaum... mehr means 'scarcely... any longer'. kaum erklärbar mehr means 'scarcely explicable any longer', describing the wave from the line before.
12
from which a cuckoo has hastily flown off.
GrammarPast participle of flying off abgeflogen is the past participle of abfliegen, 'to fly off, take off', with the prefix ab-, 'away'. von dem ein Kuckuck... abgeflogen means 'from which a cuckoo has flown off', with dem as a relative pronoun referring to Pflaumenbaum, 'plum tree'.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems.
Reading aloud: Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
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