German · New Poems

Der Marmorkarren

The Marble Cart

14 lines · 16 notes

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1
Shared out across horses, seven of them pulling,
Aufacrossauf · prepositiondepends on verteilt
PferdehorsesPferd · noun, accusative, neuter, pluraldepends on Auf
siebensevensieben · numeraldepends on ziehende
ziehendepullingziehend · adjective, accusative, neuter, pluraldepends on Pferde
verteiltshared outverteilen · verb, participlemain verb of the sentence
GrammarParticiple opens the sentence verteilt is the past participle of verteilen, 'to distribute' or 'share out'. It opens the sentence in place of the subject, which is Niebewegtes, arriving only in the next line.
GrammarPresent participle as adjective ziehende is the present participle of ziehen, 'to pull' or 'haul', used here as an adjective before Pferde. German forms this kind of modifier with -end plus the normal adjective ending, here weak -e after sieben.
2
the never-moved transforms itself into steps;
WordA coined compound noun Niebewegtes fuses nie, 'never', with bewegt, 'moved', and turns the whole into a capitalized noun meaning 'the never-moved'. Nominalizing an adjective this way is ordinary in German, but this compound is coined for the line.
GrammarReflexive sich verwandeln sich verwandeln in means 'to transform' or 'change into'. The reflexive sich is separated from the verb by the subject Niebewegtes, and in takes the accusative Schritte because it marks a change of state.
3
for what, in its arrogance, at the marble's center
GrammarGenitive fronted again des Marmors Mitte means 'the marble's center'. The genitive des Marmors precedes Mitte instead of following it, an older word order; ordinary prose would write die Mitte des Marmors.
4
lingers in age, resistance, and all-being,
Wordverweilen, to linger verweilen means 'to tarry' or 'dwell', a more literary verb than bleiben, 'to stay'. It governs an plus the dative, so an Alter, Widerstand und All means 'it lingers in age, resistance, and totality'.
5
shows itself among men. Behold: not
Grammardas resumes the subject The pronoun das, 'that', picks up the long subject built across the previous lines and finally gives it a verb: das zeigt sich, 'that shows itself'. sich zeigen means 'to appear' or 'show oneself'.
6
unrecognizable, under some name or other,
Wordirgendein, some or other irgendein means 'some indefinite one', used when the specific choice does not matter. irgendeinem Namen is dative after unter, here meaning 'under the heading of', so the phrase reads 'under some name or other'.
7
no: as the hero, in the dramas, the urgency
WordInfinitive used as a noun das Drängen is the infinitive drängen, 'to press' or 'push forward', used as a neuter noun meaning 'pressure' or 'urgency'. It is the direct object of macht … sichtbar, 'makes visible', two lines later.
8
first makes visible and abruptly cuts short:
Grammarunterbrechen stays fused unterbrechen, 'to interrupt', is inseparable: its prefix unter- never detaches, so the present tense is er unterbricht, with the stem vowel changing from e to i, never bricht unter.
9
so it comes, through the damming-up course
Grammarso triggers verb-second order so, 'in this way', answers the earlier wie, 'as', completing the comparison. Because so is fronted, the verb must come second, so kommt precedes its subject es: kommt es.
10
of the day, comes in its full state,
WordStaat meaning pomp Staat here carries its older sense of 'pomp' or 'ceremonial splendor' rather than 'the state'. in seinem ganzen Staate, with the archaic dative ending -e, means 'in all its pomp'.
11
as though a great conqueror were drawing near,
Grammarals ob with the subjunctive als ob, 'as though', introduces an unreal comparison and takes the subjunctive. nahte is the past subjunctive of nahen, 'to approach', and it falls at the end of the clause it opens.
12
slowly, at last; and slowly on before him
Grammarvor … her, moving ahead vor jemandem her means 'moving along in front of someone'. vor ihm her, 'on ahead of him', uses her to mark motion proceeding from a point toward the speaker's vantage.
13
captives, made heavy by his heaviness.
WordNoun and adjective share a root die Schwere, 'weight' or 'heaviness', and schwer, 'heavy', share the same root. von seiner Schwere schwer means 'heavy with his weight', with von plus the dative giving the cause.
14
And still keeps drawing near, and holds everything up.
GrammarSeparable verb aufhalten aufhalten, 'to hold up' or 'delay', is separable. Its prefix auf breaks off and moves to the end of the clause: hält alles auf, 'holds everything up'.

The particulars

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