# Der Pavillon · The Pavilion

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

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

**1** Aber selbst noch durch die Flügeltüren  
But even still, through the folding doors
> Double doors, accusative object: A Flügeltür is a double or 'wing' door, two leaves, Flügel meaning 'wings', that swing open from the center. The plural Flügeltüren is the object of durch, 'through', which always takes the accusative.

**2** mit dem grünen, regentrüben Glas  
with their green, rain-clouded glass,
> A coined compound adjective: Rilke fuses Regen, 'rain', and trüb, 'dim, murky, clouded', into a single adjective for glass made cloudy by rain. German lets a poet weld two words into one fresh image; trüb carries both an optical and an emotional sense.

**3** ist ein Spiegeln lächelnder Allüren  
there is a mirroring of smiling airs
> Infinitive turned into a noun: Spiegeln, 'to mirror, be reflected', is used here as a neuter noun, ein Spiegeln, 'a mirroring'. Any German infinitive can become a noun this way, capitalized and neuter, naming the activity rather than a finished thing.

**4** und ein Glanz von jenem Glück zu spüren,  
and a glow of that old happiness to be felt,
> That, pointing to something distant: jener, jene, jenes is the demonstrative 'that one over there', pointing to something remote in space or time, unlike dieser, 'this one here'. The dative jenem Glück is governed by von.

**5** das sich dort, wohin sie nicht mehr führen,  
which there, where they no longer lead,
> To where, motion toward: German splits English 'where' by direction: wo is location, 'where, at what place', wohin is motion toward, 'to where', and woher is motion from, 'from where'. wohin sie nicht mehr führen means 'to where they no longer lead'.

**6** einst verbarg, verklärte und vergaß.  
once hid itself, transfigured, and forgot.
> To transfigure, a shared prefix: verklären means to transfigure, to bathe in a softening, glorifying light, the same verb used for the religious Transfiguration. Strung with verbarg, 'hid', and vergaß, 'forgot', all three share the prefix ver-.


**7** Aber selbst noch in den Steingirlanden  
But even still, in the garlands of stone
> Stone garlands, a compound noun: Stein, 'stone', plus Girlande, 'garland', names the carved swags of leaves and flowers festooned across a facade. The dative plural in den Steingirlanden follows in used for a fixed location, hence the dative.

**8** über der nicht mehr berührten Tür  
above the door no longer touched,
> Participle used as adjective: berührt, 'touched', is the past participle of berühren, used here as an attributive adjective before Tür and inflected to agree with it. nicht mehr, 'no longer', sits inside the phrase: 'the no-longer-touched door'.

**9** ist ein Hang zur Heimlichkeit vorhanden  
there is a leaning toward secrecy present
> Inclination, plus zu and dative: der Hang is a leaning, a propensity, literally a 'slope', from hängen, 'to hang'. It takes zu plus the dative: ein Hang zur Heimlichkeit, 'an inclination toward secrecy'. Heimlichkeit, from heim, 'home', means concealment.

**10** und ein stilles Mitgefühl dafür,  
and a quiet fellow-feeling for it,
> Compassion, a compound noun: Mitgefühl compounds mit, 'with', and Gefühl, 'feeling': 'feeling-with', sympathy or compassion. dafür is a pronominal adverb, da plus für, 'for it', standing in for the secrecy named in the line before.


**11** und sie schauern manchmal wie gespiegelt,  
and sometimes they shudder as if mirrored,
> To shiver, shudder: schauern means to shiver or shudder, a tremor of cold, dread, or awe, related to der Schauer, 'a shiver'. The subject sie reaches back to die Steingirlanden, the stone garlands.

**12** wenn ein Wind sie schattig überlief;  
when a wind ran shadowy across them;
> Inseparable verb, to run across: überlief is the simple past of überlaufen in its inseparable, transitive sense, 'to run over or across' a surface. Because über- is unstressed and inseparable here, no ge- appears and the object sie stands in the accusative.

**13** auch das Wappen, wie auf einem Brief  
the coat of arms, too, as on a letter
> Coat of arms, a simile opens: das Wappen is a coat of arms, the heraldic crest of a noble family, here carved onto the pavilion. wie auf einem Brief, 'as on a letter', opens a simile that runs into the next line.

**14** viel zu glücklich, überstürzt gesiegelt,  
far too happily, hastily sealed,
> Hasty, rushed participle: überstürzt means 'headlong, rushed, precipitate', done too quickly, without care. Paired with gesiegelt, 'sealed', from siegeln, it pictures a coat of arms stamped in haste.


**15** redet noch. Wie wenig man verscheuchte:  
speaks still. How little has been driven off:
> Long-delayed verb across stanzas: The main verb redet, 'speaks', is held back across the stanza break, its subject das Wappen three lines earlier. verscheuchte, 'drove off, shooed away', is the past of verscheuchen; man, 'one', keeps the agent vague.

**16** alles weiß noch, weint noch, tut noch weh.  
everything still knows, still weeps, still aches.
> Weh tun, the idiom to hurt: weh tun is the idiom 'to hurt, to ache', weh meaning 'sore' and tun meaning 'to do'; it separates, so tut ... weh frames the inserted noch, 'still'. Three short verbs in a row give the place a living memory.

**17** Und im Fortgehn durch die tränenfeuchte,  
And while going off down the tear-damp,
> Verb turned into a noun: Fortgehn, from the separable verb fortgehen, 'to go away', is turned into a noun here. The fixed phrase im ...-en expresses 'in the course of, while doing': im Fortgehn means 'while leaving'. tränenfeucht, 'tear-damp', modifies Allee next.

**18** abgelegene Allee  
secluded avenue
> Tree-lined avenue: An Allee is a tree-lined avenue or walk, the formal approach of a park or estate. abgelegen means remote, out-of-the-way, secluded, describing the grand avenue now forgotten and overgrown.


**19** fühlt man lang noch auf dem Rand des Dachs  
one feels, long still, upon the edge of the roof
> Verb-second after fronted phrase: The sentence began with Und im Fortgehn two lines back; because that adverbial phrase is fronted, the finite verb fühlt must come second, so the subject man follows it. des Dachs is genitive, 'the edge of the roof'.

**20** jene Urnen stehen, kalt, zerspalten,  
those urns standing, cold, split open,
> Perception verb, bare infinitive: fühlt man ... jene Urnen stehen means 'one feels those urns standing'. Verbs of perception like fühlen, sehen, and hören take a bare infinitive with no zu, here jene Urnen plus the infinitive stehen. zerspalten means 'split open'.

**21** doch entschlossen, noch zusammzuhalten  
yet resolved to hold together still
> Zu splits a separable verb: The verb is zusammenhalten, 'to hold together'; with zu the particle splits to embed it, zusammen-zu-halten, contracted by Rilke to zusammzuhalten for the meter. entschlossen, 'resolved', governs this zu-infinitive.

**22** um die Asche alter Achs.  
around the ash of old laments.
> An archaic genitive plural: Achs is the genitive of das Ach, the nominalized interjection 'ach!', meaning a lament or sigh. um die Asche alter Achs means 'around the ash of old laments'; this genitive form is archaic but attested.

---

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.