# Der Schwan · The Swan

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems

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

**1** Diese Mühsal, durch noch Ungetanes  
This toil, of moving on through what is still undone,
> A noun for burdensome toil: Mühsal means 'toil, hardship, drudgery', built on Mühe, 'effort, trouble', with the suffix -sal, which marks something burdensome and lasting rather than a single task. The sentence it opens runs to gleicht in the next stanza.
> A participle turned into a noun: ungetan, 'undone, not yet done', combines getan, the participle of tun, 'to do', with the negating prefix un-. Capitalized, das Ungetane becomes a noun, 'that which is undone'. After durch noch it stands in the accusative.

**2** schwer und wie gebunden hinzugehn,  
heavily and as if bound,
> zu splits a separable infinitive: The verb is hingehen, 'to go there, walk on', with the separable prefix hin- marking motion away from the speaker. In a zu-infinitive the zu slips between prefix and stem, hin-zu-gehen, elided here to hinzugehn. It depends on Mühsal.

**3** gleicht dem ungeschaffnen Gang des Schwanes.  
resembles the swan's still-unmade walk.
> gleichen takes the dative, not the accusative: gleichen, 'to resemble', governs the dative: the thing resembled stands in the dative case, not the accusative. gleicht dem … Gang des Schwanes means 'resembles the swan's walk', with dem Gang dative and des Schwanes a genitive hung on it.


**4** Und das Sterben, dieses Nichtmehrfassen  
And dying, this no-longer-grasping
> A coined noun from a whole phrase: Rilke fuses nicht mehr, 'no longer', with the infinitive fassen, 'to grasp, take hold of', into one capitalized noun, das Nichtmehrfassen, 'the no-longer-grasping'. German lets any infinitive become a neuter noun this way.

**5** jenes Grunds, auf dem wir täglich stehn,  
of that ground on which we daily stand,
> An older genitive object: jenes Grunds is genitive; fassen here takes a genitive object in the older, literary way of saying 'to take hold of something'. jener, 'that one yonder', is more distant and formal than dieser. The line reads 'this no-longer-grasping of that ground'.

**6** seinem ängstlichen Sich-Niederlassen–:  
its fearful settling-down—:
> A reflexive verb nominalized whole: sich niederlassen is a reflexive separable verb meaning 'to settle down, alight, lower oneself'. Rilke nominalizes it whole, reflexive pronoun included, into das Sich-Niederlassen, 'the settling-down'. It stands in the dative, still governed by gleicht.


**7** in die Wasser, die ihn sanft empfangen  
into the waters, which gently receive him
> in with the accusative for motion: in takes the accusative when there is motion into something, the dative when there is rest within it. in die Wasser, 'into the waters', marks the swan's descent into the water, the goal of the settling-down named before it.

**8** und die sich, wie glücklich und vergangen,  
and which, as though blissful and bygone,

**9** unter ihm zurückziehn, Flut um Flut;  
draw back beneath him, wave upon wave;
> A separable, reflexive verb: sich zurückziehen means 'to withdraw, draw back, retreat'. Its separable prefix zurück stands at the end of the relative clause: die sich … unter ihm zurückziehn means 'which draw back beneath him'. Flut um Flut means 'wave upon wave'.

**10** während er unendlich still und sicher  
while he, endlessly still and sure,
> Sends its verb to the clause end: As a conjunction während means 'while, whereas' and sends its verb, geruht, to the end of the clause two lines later. It introduces the contrast between the waters retreating and the swan gliding on. As a preposition it means 'during', with the genitive.

**11** immer mündiger und königlicher  
ever more grown and more kingly
> mündig, of age and self-possessed: mündig means 'of age, fully responsible for oneself'. immer mündiger, its comparative, means 'ever more come-of-age, ever more in possession of itself'. Paired with königlicher, 'more kingly', it lets the swan grow in mastery.

**12** und gelassener zu ziehn geruht.  
and more serenely deigns to glide on.
> An elevated verb meaning to deign: geruhen zu … is an elevated, slightly archaic verb meaning 'to deign to, to graciously consent to' do something. geruht is its present third-person form, closing the während clause at the very end. gelassener, 'more serenely', modifies it.

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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.