# Der Marmorkarren · The Marble Cart

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems

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

**1** Auf Pferde, sieben ziehende, verteilt,  
Shared out across horses, seven of them pulling,
> Participle 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.
> Present 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** verwandelt Niebewegtes sich in Schritte;  
the never-moved transforms itself into steps;
> A 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.
> Reflexive 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** denn was hochmütig in des Marmors Mitte  
for what, in its arrogance, at the marble's center
> Genitive 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** an Alter, Widerstand und All verweilt,  
lingers in age, resistance, and all-being,
> verweilen, 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** das zeigt sich unter Menschen. Siehe, nicht  
shows itself among men. Behold: not
> das 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** unkenntlich, unter irgendeinem Namen,  
unrecognizable, under some name or other,
> irgendein, 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** nein: wie der Held das Drängen in den Dramen  
no: as the hero, in the dramas, the urgency
> Infinitive 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** erst sichtbar macht und plötzlich unterbricht:  
first makes visible and abruptly cuts short:
> unterbrechen 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 kommt es durch den stauenden Verlauf  
so it comes, through the damming-up course
> so 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** des Tages, kommt in seinem ganzen Staate,  
of the day, comes in its full state,
> Staat 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** als ob ein großer Triumphator nahte,  
as though a great conqueror were drawing near,
> als 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** langsam zuletzt; und langsam vor ihm her  
slowly, at last; and slowly on before him
> vor … 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** Gefangene, von seiner Schwere schwer.  
captives, made heavy by his heaviness.
> Noun 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** Und naht noch immer und hält alles auf.  
And still keeps drawing near, and holds everything up.
> Separable 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'.

---

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.