# Auswanderer-Schiff · Emigrant Ship

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems: The Other Part

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/rilke/auswanderer-schiff. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/rilke/auswanderer-schiff.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/rilke/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Denk, daß einer heiß und glühend flüchte,  
Imagine someone fled hot and glowing,
> Imperative opens a hypothetical: Denk is the bare imperative of denken, 'to think', here meaning 'imagine'. Denk, daß means 'Imagine that'. daß is the older spelling of dass, 'that', and as a subordinating conjunction it sends its verb, flüchte, to the end of the clause.
> Subjunctive for an imagined scene: flüchte is Konjunktiv I, present subjunctive, of flüchten, 'to flee', not the plain present flüchtet. German uses this mood for something merely imagined rather than asserted as fact, so the fugitive and the pursuit are held up as supposition.

**2** und die Sieger wären hinterher,  
and the victors were close behind,
> Were, subjunctive of sein: wären is Konjunktiv II of sein, 'to be', meaning 'were, would be'. It continues the supposition begun with Denk, daß, so the pursuers are imagined, not stated as fact. hinterher means 'behind, in pursuit'.

**3** und auf einmal machte der  
and all at once the
> Fixed phrase split by a break: auf einmal is a fixed phrase meaning 'all at once, suddenly'. The line breaks in the middle of the sentence: machte der dangles here, its subject Flüchtende held back to the start of the next line.

**4** Flüchtende kurz, unerwartet, Kehr  
fugitive, sharp and sudden, wheeled about
> Present participle used as a noun: der Flüchtende, 'the fleeing one, the fugitive', is the present participle of flüchten used as a noun, declined like an adjective. It is the subject of machte from the line before, stranded here by the line break.
> Idiom for wheeling about: Kehr, from kehren, 'to turn', is the turn itself. Kehr machen, more usually kehrtmachen, means 'to wheel about, turn on one's heels'. kurz and unerwartet mean 'sharp' and 'sudden', describing how the fugitive turns.

**5** gegen Hunderte–: so sehr  
to face the hundreds—: so hard
> Gegen takes the accusative: gegen, 'against, facing', always takes the accusative. Hunderte is the plural noun 'hundreds', so gegen Hunderte means 'against the hundreds', the fugitive turning to face the whole pursuing crowd.

**6** warf sich das Erglühende der Früchte  
the glowing of the fruit kept flinging itself
> Participle made into a noun: erglühen means 'to flare up, begin to glow'; its prefix er- marks the coming into glow. The present participle is capitalized into a neuter noun, das Erglühende, 'that which glows'. der Früchte, 'of the fruit', gives the subject 'the glowing of the fruit'.
> Sich werfen with inverted order: sich werfen means 'to throw, fling oneself'. warf, 'flung', stands before its subject das Erglühende because the long daß-clause filled the first position, forcing subject and verb to invert.

**7** immer wieder an das blaue Meer,  
again and again against the blue sea,
> An with accusative for motion: an takes the accusative when there is motion up against something, and the dative for rest. The accusative an das blaue Meer, 'against the blue sea', gives the fruit's motion a forward thrust. immer wieder means 'again and again'.


**8** als das langsame Orangenboot  
as the slow orange-boat
> Temporal conjunction, when: als here is the temporal conjunction 'as, when', introducing the scene the earlier simile was building toward. It sends its verb, vorübertrug in the next line, to the end of the clause. Do not confuse this with comparative als, 'than'.
> A compound built from two nouns: Orangenboot welds Orangen, 'oranges', to Boot, 'boat': a boat laden with oranges. German fuses nouns into one word, the last noun carrying the gender and number. The fruit glowing earlier turns out to be a cargo of oranges.

**9** sie vorübertrug bis an das große  
carried them past, up to the great
> Separable prefix stays fused: vorübertragen, 'to carry past', has the separable prefix vorüber-, 'past, by'. As the verb of the als-clause it sits at the clause's end and stays whole. sie means 'them', the oranges.

**10** graue Schiff, zu dem, von Stoß zu Stoße,  
grey ship, to which, from jolt to jolt,
> Archaic dative ending -e: Stoß means 'a push, jolt, knock'. The phrase von zu uses the dative on both sides; the second, Stoße, keeps the archaic dative -e that older German added to many masculine and neuter nouns. von Stoß zu Stoße means 'from jolt to jolt'.

**11** andre Boote Fische hoben, Brot,–  
other boats hoisted up fish, and bread—
> Verb-final in a relative clause: This is the relative clause opened by zu dem, 'to which', in the line before, so its verb hoben, 'hoisted', past of heben, comes last, after both subject and object. In plain order: andre Boote hoben Fische, Brot.

**12** während es voll Flohn in seinem Schöße  
while it, full of fleas in its lap,
> An older plural for fleas: Floh means 'flea'; Flohn is an older, dialect-flavored form standing in for the standard plural Flöhe, 'fleas', chosen here for the rhyme. voll Flohn means 'full of fleas', a detail of squalor aboard the ship.
> Lap or womb, archaic ending: Schoß means 'lap' or 'womb', and figuratively the sheltering inside of something. With the archaic dative ending -e and an umlaut for the rhyme, in seinem Schöße means 'in its lap', here the ship's hold.

**13** Kohlen aufnahm, offen wie der Tod.  
took on coal, open like death.
> Separable verb aufnehmen: aufnehmen means 'to take in, take on, receive' and is separable, prefix auf-. As the verb of the während clause it closes it, während es Kohlen aufnahm, 'while it took on coal'. offen wie der Tod means 'open like death'.

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Source text: public domain (Rainer Maria Rilke, died 1926; Neue Gedichte published 1907 and 1908), from Wikisource. English translation and notes: © 2026 1732 Studios, LLC. Narration: synthesized for this edition.