German · New Poems: The Other Part

Dame auf einem Balkon

Lady on a Balcony

12 lines · 13 notes

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1
Suddenly she steps out, wrapped in the wind,
PlötzlichSuddenlyplötzlich · adverbdepends on tritt
trittsteps outtreten · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
sieshesie · pronoun, nominative, feminine, singulardepends on tritt
ininin · prepositiondepends on gehüllt
dentheder · determiner, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on Wind
WindwindWind · noun, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on in
gehülltwrappedhüllen · verb, participledepends on tritt
Grammarhüllen in plus accusative hüllen means 'to wrap, to swathe'; the past participle gehüllt describes her passively, 'wrapped, enveloped'. The verb takes in plus the accusative, den Wind, the case of motion into something, so in den Wind gehüllt means 'wrapped in the wind'.
2
bright into brightness, as if singled out,
WordA separable verb for singling out herausgreifen means 'to pick, single out from among others'; it is separable, heraus plus greifen, 'to reach out and seize'. The past participle herausgegriffen wedges the prefix before the stem, describing her as picked out of the light.
3
while now the room, as if cut and polished,
Worddie Stube and a jeweler's verb die Stube is an old, homely word for a 'parlour, living room'. schleifen means 'to grind, cut, polish', as a gem is cut; geschliffen is its past participle, giving the dim room behind her a worked, faceted look.
GrammarA conjunction holding its verb während means 'while, as' and sends its verb to the end of the clause. The finite verb füllt does not arrive until the next line, so the clause während jetzt die Stube ... die Türe füllt is held open across the stanza break.
4
fills the doorway behind her
5
dark as the ground of a cameo
WordA cameo's dark ground eine Kamee is a 'cameo', a gem or shell carved in relief, its pale figure standing against a darker layer. der Grund here means the 'ground, background'. The comparison recasts the scene as carved jewellery, with her as the raised figure.
6
that lets a shimmer pass through at its edges;
GrammarA separable verb inside a relative clause durchlassen means 'to let through, to let pass'; it is separable, durch plus lassen. Here the prefix stays attached because the verb sits inside a relative clause introduced by die, which pushes the verb to the end: die ... durchläßt means 'which lets through'.
WordRand and its plural der Rand means 'edge, rim, margin'; its plural takes an umlaut, die Ränder. durch die Ränder means 'through the edges', the accusative plural object of durch.
7
and you feel the evening did not exist before
GrammarA literary word for before ehe is a literary conjunction meaning 'before'; everyday German prefers bevor. It opens a subordinate clause whose verb, sie heraustrat, is held back to the next stanza: 'the evening did not exist before she stepped out'.
8
she stepped out, in order, on the railing,
GrammarA separable verb held to the end heraustreten means 'to step out, to emerge'; it is separable, heraus plus treten. In this subordinate clause after ehe the prefix stays joined and the whole verb falls to the end. The line also opens an um ... zu purpose clause completed two lines later.
9
to lay a little more of herself aside,
GrammarA purpose clause finishing here This completes the um ... zu purpose construction begun in the previous stanza: 'in order to lay aside'. fortlegen, 'to lay away, set aside', is separable, and in the zu-infinitive the zu slips between prefix and stem, fort-zu-legen.
10
her hands as well,—to be entirely light:
GrammarA second purpose clause A fresh um ... zu clause states the aim of the gesture: um ganz leicht zu sein means 'in order to be entirely light'. ganz is an adverb modifying the adjective leicht, 'light'.
11
as if held out to the sky by the rows of houses,
WordRows of houses, clipped for meter die Häuserreihen, here shortened to Häuserreihn for the meter, means 'the rows of houses', from Haus plus Reihe, 'row'. dem Himmel is dative, 'to the sky', the object of hingereicht in the next line.
12
passed up, to be stirred by anything at all.
Wordhinreichen, to hand over hinreichen means 'to hand, pass something over to'; hingereicht is its past participle, 'handed over, held out'. von allem zu bewegen, 'to be moved by anything at all', leaves her so weightless the faintest stir of air could sway her.

The particulars

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