German · New Poems: The Other Part

Die Bettler

The Beggars

12 lines · 13 notes

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1
You did not know what makes the heap
DuYoudu · pronoun, nominative, singulardepends on wußtest
wußtestknewwissen · verb, past, indicative, second-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
nichtnotnicht · particledepends on wußtest
waswhatwas · pronoun, nominative, neuter, singulardepends on verb in next line
dentheder · determiner, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on Haufen
HaufenheapHaufen · noun, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on verb in next line
GrammarSecond-person past of wissen wußtest is the second-person singular past of wissen, 'to know a fact', spelled with ß in the old orthography; modern German writes wusstest. wissen is irregular: present du weißt, past du wußtest.
2
it up. A stranger found
GrammarSeparable verb kept together in a clause ausmacht completes was den Haufen ausmacht, 'what makes up the heap'. ausmachen is separable, and its prefix aus- normally moves to the clause end; in this was-clause the finite verb stays whole at that position.
3
beggars in it. They are selling
WordPronominal adverb for in it darin fuses da-, 'there', with the preposition in, meaning 'in it, inside that'. German uses darin rather than in ihm when referring to a thing rather than a person, here the Haufen, 'heap'.
4
the hollow out of their hand.
GrammarAdjective turned into a noun das Hohle is the adjective hohl, 'hollow, empty', turned into a neuter noun by adding -e and capitalizing it: 'the hollow thing, the emptiness'. German makes nouns from adjectives this way freely.
5
They show the one who has travelled here
WordParticiple noun for a traveler Hergereisten comes from herreisen, 'to travel here'. Its past participle, hergereist, is made into a noun, der Hergereiste, 'the man who has journeyed here', shown here in the dative, dem Hergereisten. The prefix her- marks motion toward the speaker.
6
their mouth full of filth,
WordNoun for dung with no article Mist means 'dung, muck, refuse'. voll Mist, 'full of muck', takes no article after voll. The phrase is the second object of Sie zeigen, 'they show', from the line above.
7
and he may (he can afford it)
GrammarIdiom for being able to afford sich etwas leisten können is the fixed idiom 'to be able to afford something'. sich is dative, 'for oneself', and es is the accusative object. darf, from dürfen, 'to be allowed to', means 'may'.
8
to see how their leprosy devours.
WordAnimal verb applied to disease frißt, modern frisst, is the third-person form of fressen, the verb for an animal eating, 'to devour'. Applied to Aussatz, 'leprosy', it makes the disease the thing feeding. sehn is the clipped poetic form of sehen, 'to see'.
9
It melts away in their stirred-up
WordVerb for dissolving zergehen means 'to dissolve, to melt away, to come apart'. The prefix zer- signals breaking into pieces. The subject is sein fremdes Gesicht, 'his foreign face', named two lines further down.
WordCoined participle for clouded eyes zerrührt is the participle of zerrühren, 'to stir up until broken apart', again with the disintegrating prefix zer-. It describes ihre Augen, 'their eyes', as churned and clouded.
10
eyes his unfamiliar face;
Wordfremd spans foreign and strange fremd covers 'foreign', 'strange', and 'belonging to someone else'. sein fremdes Gesicht means 'his unfamiliar face'. Augen here completes in ihren zerrührten Augen, 'in their stirred-up eyes', carried over from the previous line.
11
and they take joy in the one led astray
Grammarsich freuen with a genitive object sich freuen normally takes über or auf; the literary construction sich einer Sache freuen instead uses the genitive, meaning 'to take joy in something'. des Verführten is genitive; der Verführte is the past participle of verführen, 'to lead astray', used as a noun.
12
and spit, when he speaks.
WordStrong verb for spitting speien is a strong, old verb for spitting or spewing, harsher than everyday spucken. wenn er spricht means 'when he speaks'; speien is coordinated with freuen from the line before.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems: The Other Part.
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