German · New Poems: The Other Part

Der Abenteurer I, II

The Adventurer I, II

49 lines · 39 notes

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When he stepped in among those who had been,
Wennwhenwenn · subordinating conjunctiondepends on trat
erheer · pronoun, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on trat
unteramongunter · prepositiondepends on trat
jenethosejener · pronoun, accusative, pluraldepends on unter
welchewhowelcher · pronoun, nominative, pluraldepends on waren
warenhad beensein · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, third-person, pluraldepends on jene
GrammarDemonstrative standing on its own jene here is a demonstrative pronoun standing alone, 'those', not an article before a noun. welche waren, 'who were, who had been', uses welche as a formal alternative to die.
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trat: the sudden one, who seemed to shine,
GrammarVerb held over a line trat is the simple past of treten, 'to step'. The clause Wenn er … trat, 'When he stepped in', is split across the line break. der Plötzliche, 'the sudden one', is an adjective made into a noun.
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there was a gleam as if of dangers
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in the space left clear around him,
WordLeft clear, an empty gap Past participle of aussparen, 'to leave out, leave open, reserve as a gap'. der ausgesparte Raum names an empty zone. The dative in dem … Raum marks location.
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which he crossed, smiling, in order for a
GrammarPurpose clause split over lines um … aufzuheben, 'in order to pick up', is the um … zu construction of purpose, with the infinitive aufzuheben landing two lines later, after einer Herzogin, dative, and den Fächer, accusative.
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duchess to pick the fan back up:
GrammarDative marks who benefits Herzogin, 'duchess', stands in the dative, einer Herzogin, marking the person for whom the fan is retrieved, a dative of advantage. aufheben is a separable verb, 'to pick up'.
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this warm fan, the one he had just now
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wanted to see fall. And when no one
GrammarThree verbs chain together wollte, past of wollen, 'wanted', governs sehen, 'to see', which governs fallen, 'to fall', a double infinitive: 'wanted to see it fall'. All three verbs share one subject, er, 'he'.
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entered with him into the window recess
GrammarA separable verb kept whole eintreten, 'to enter', is separable; in a finite past its particle usually splits to the clause end, but inside this subordinate clause, wenn keiner mit ihm eintrat, the whole verb stays together.
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(where the gardens at once into the dreamlike
GrammarAdjective turned into a noun das Träumerische, 'the dreamlike, the reverie', is an adjective turned into a neuter abstract noun, capitalized. ins, from in das, with the accusative gives direction.
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rose up, if he so much as pointed at them),
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he went casually over to the card tables
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and won. And did not fail
WordTo fail to, to omit Simple past of unterlassen, 'to refrain from, omit, fail to do'. It is completed in the next stanza: unterließ nicht, die Blicke … zu behalten, 'did not fail to keep every glance'.
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to hold on to all the glances,
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that struck him doubtingly or tenderly,
GrammarPresent participle used as adverb zweifelnd, 'doubting, doubtingly', is the present participle of zweifeln, used here as an adverb alongside the adjective zärtlich, 'tenderly', describing how the glances trafen, 'struck', him.
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and those that fell into mirrors counted too.
WordPast tense of gelten Past of gelten, 'to be valid, to count, to hold good'. die in Spiegel fielen, galten means the glances reflected in mirrors 'counted' too. The verb sits at the clause's end.
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He resolved not to sleep tonight either,
WordAn older spelling Simple past of beschließen, 'to decide, resolve'. The ß in beschloß reflects pre-1996 spelling; today it is written beschloss, since a short vowel takes ss.
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as on the last long night, and bent
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a glance with his own ruthless one,
WordWithout regard for others rücksichtslos means 'inconsiderate, reckless, ruthless', literally 'without Rücksicht', regard or consideration. The bare ending seinem rücksichtslosen leaves Blick understood, dative after mit: 'with his ruthless one'.
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which was as if he had, from roses,
GrammarSubjunctive marks a comparison als hätte er … Kinder, 'as though he had children', is an unreal comparison: als, 'as though', plus the subjunctive II hätte of haben. After als the verb comes immediately, with no ob.
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children that were being raised somewhere.
GrammarImpersonal man as a passive man is the impersonal pronoun, 'one, people, they', here best rendered with an English passive: die man … erzog, 'children that one was raising'. erzog is the past of erziehen, 'to bring up'.
II
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In the days—(no, there were none),
GrammarA mid-sentence correction In den Tagen means 'In the days'; nein, es waren keine means 'no, there were none'. keine negates keine Tage, 'no days', the plural noun understood from the line before.
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when the flood his lowest dungeon
GrammarDa meaning when, not because Here da is a temporal conjunction, 'when, at the time that', not causal 'because' and not the adverb 'there'. It opens a subordinate clause whose verbs, bestritt and stieß, wait at the ends of the next lines.
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disputed with him, as if it were not his own,
WordTo dispute, to contest Past of bestreiten, 'to contest, dispute, deny'. With the dative ihm it means the flood 'disputed the dungeon to him'. das seine is the possessive pronoun standing for sein Verlies.
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and, rising, drove him against the stones
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of the vault long used to it,
GrammarA fixed verb plus preposition sich an etwas gewöhnen means 'to get used to something'; the participle gewöhnt, 'accustomed', keeps that an, compacted into daran, 'to it'. der … Wölbung is genitive.
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one of the names suddenly came back to him
GrammarA separable verb, to occur jemandem fällt etwas ein means 'something occurs to someone, comes back to mind'. The separable einfallen splits: fiel ihm … einer … wieder ein, with the particle ein on the next line.
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again, that he had borne in former times.
WordIn former times A set phrase, 'long ago, in former times, of old'. er trug is the past of tragen, here meaning 'to bear, carry a name', with die, 'that', as its accusative object.
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And he knew again: lives would come,
WordAn older spelling of wusste Simple past of wissen, 'to know'. The ß in wußte is pre-1996 spelling; modern German writes wusste. Leben here is plural, 'lives', the subject of kamen, 'came', in the same line.
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when he beckoned; as if in flight
WordTo lure, to entice Past of locken, 'to lure, entice, beckon'. wenn er lockte means 'whenever he lured them'. wie im Flug means 'as though in flight, in a flash'.
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they came: lives of the dead still warm,
GrammarGenitive plural without an article Toter is the genitive plural of the substantivized adjective der Tote, 'the dead person': Leben Toter, 'lives of the dead'. With no article the genitive ending alone carries the case.
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which he, more impatient, more imperiled,
GrammarComparatives set off by commas Both words are comparatives: ungeduldiger, 'more impatient', and bedrohter, 'more threatened, more imperiled'. Set off by commas, they describe er, 'he', the subject of weiterlebte in the next line.
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went on living, right in their midst;
GrammarA separable verb, to live on weiterleben, 'to live on, go on living', is separable, weiter plus leben; in the past it stays joined as weiterlebte at the end of this relative clause, die er … weiterlebte.
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or else the lives not lived out,
WordNever lived to the end Participle of ausleben, 'to live out fully, to exhaust'. die nicht ausgelebten Leben are the lives that were never lived to their end, interrupted, unfinished existences.
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and he knew how to lift them up,
GrammarTo know how to do wissen with a zu-infinitive means 'to know how to do' something: er wußte sie hinaufzuheben, 'he knew how to lift them up'. hinaufheben is separable, so zu tucks inside: hinaufzuheben.
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and they had meaning again.
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Often no place on him was secure,
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and he trembled: I am ––
GrammarAn unfinished sentence Ich bin, 'I am', breaks off into a double dash. The verb sein wants a complement, I am who, what, but the sentence stops there.
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yet in the very next moment he resembled
GrammarThe verb gleichen takes dative gleichen, 'to resemble, to be like', governs the dative, not the accusative: glich er dem Geliebten einer Königin, 'he resembled the beloved of a queen'. glich is the past of gleichen.
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the beloved of a queen.
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Again and again a being was to be had:
GrammarBeing as a noun das Sein is the infinitive sein, 'to be', turned into a noun, 'a being, an existence'. war zu haben is the sein plus zu construction expressing possibility: 'was to be had'.
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the fates of boys begun,
GrammarA shortened participle for meter angefangner is angefangener, the participle of anfangen, 'to begin', with the middle -e- dropped for the meter. die Geschicke angefangner Knaben is genitive plural: 'the fates of boys who were begun'.
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which, as if one had not dared them,
GrammarAnother unreal comparison Another als plus subjunctive II clause: als hätte man sie nicht gewagt, 'as though one had not dared them'. wagen means 'to dare, to risk'; man is the impersonal pronoun.
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had been broken off, called off,
WordTwo participles, a state passive Two participles of separable verbs: abbrechen, 'to break off, abort', and absagen, 'to cancel, call off'. abgebrochen waren is a state passive: 'were broken off, called off'.
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he took up and swept into himself;
GrammarTwo separable verbs at once aufnehmen, 'to take up, take in', and hinreißen, 'to sweep, carry away', are both separable; their particles auf and hin land at the clause's end. riß is the past of reißen, 'to tear'.
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for he had only once to walk through the crypt
WordAn older spelling of musste Past of müssen, 'to have to'. mußte is the pre-1996 spelling of modern musste. einmal nur means 'just once'; die Gruft is a crypt or burial vault.
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of such abandoned ones to walk through,
GrammarA participle used as a noun der Aufgegebene is the participle of aufgeben, 'to give up, abandon', made into a noun, 'the abandoned one'. Genitive plural solcher Aufgegebener means 'of such abandoned ones'.
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and the scents of their possibilities
WordThe word for possibilities Plural of die Möglichkeit, 'possibility, potential'. die Düfte ihrer Möglichkeiten means 'the scents of their possibilities', with Düfte, the plural of Duft, 'scent', as the subject of lagen.
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hung in the air once more.
GrammarLiegen takes the dative liegen, 'to lie', is a stative verb of position and takes the dative for location: in der Luft, 'in the air'. lagen is its plural past.

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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