# Die Entführung · The Abduction

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

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

**1** Oft war sie als Kind ihren Dienerinnen  
Often, as a child, she had slipped away
> Dative object of a later verb: Dienerinnen is the dative plural of die Dienerin, 'maidservant', the feminine of der Diener, 'servant'. The dative is governed by entwichen on the next line, since jemandem entweichen means 'to escape from someone'.

**2** entwichen, um die Nacht und den Wind  
from her maidservants, to see the night and the wind
> Participle far from its auxiliary: entweichen, 'to escape, slip away', is a strong verb conjugated with sein: war ... entwichen is the pluperfect, 'had escaped'. The participle is held far from its auxiliary war in line 1, a long suspension typical of Rilke.

**3** (weil sie drinnen so anders sind)  
(because indoors they are so different)
> Weil sends the verb to the end: weil, 'because', is a subordinating conjunction, so the finite verb sind moves to the clause's end: weil sie drinnen so anders sind. drinnen means 'inside, indoors', where the night and wind are tamed once brought within the walls.

**4** draußen zu sehn an ihrem Beginnen;  
out where they begin to stir;
> Infinitive used as a noun: das Beginnen is the verb beginnen, 'to begin', used as a noun, 'the beginning, the setting-out'. an ihrem Beginnen means roughly 'at their first stirring'. draußen, 'outside', answers drinnen from the line before.


**5** doch keine Sturmnacht hatte gewiß  
yet surely no night of storm had ever
> Compound noun, storm plus night: Sturmnacht compounds Sturm, 'storm', and Nacht, 'night', giving 'stormy night'. German builds such nouns freely, and the gender follows the final element, so die Sturmnacht. gewiß, now spelled gewiss, means 'surely, certainly'.

**6** den riesigen Park so in Stücke gerissen,  
torn the vast park so to pieces
> Pluperfect, past participle: gerissen is the past participle of the strong verb reißen, 'to tear, rip', completing hatte ... gerissen, the pluperfect begun in the line before. in Stücke reißen is the idiom 'to tear to pieces'.

**7** wie ihn jetzt ihr Gewissen zerriß,  
as her conscience now tore it apart,
> Conscience, echoing an earlier word: das Gewissen is 'the conscience'. Rilke sets it against gewiß, 'surely', two lines above, and against zerriß, the past of zerreißen, 'to tear apart': the storm tore the park, her conscience tears her.


**8** da er sie nahm von der seidenen Leiter  
when he took her down from the silken ladder
> Weak adjective ending after von der: von takes the dative; die Leiter, 'ladder', is feminine, so the dative gives der seidenen Leiter, with the weak adjective ending -en following the article. seiden means 'silken'; da here is temporal, 'when'.

**9** und sie weitertrug, weiter, weiter:  
and carried her onward, onward, onward:
> Separable verb stays whole: weitertragen, 'to carry on, carry farther', is separable, weiter- plus tragen. In this subordinate clause introduced by da the verb stays whole and final, sie weitertrug, 'carried her onward'.


**10** bis der Wagen alles war.  
until the carriage was everything.
> The word for carriage: der Wagen here is the horse-drawn carriage waiting for the elopement, not the modern sense 'car'. Isolated as a single short line, it marks the threshold where nothing remains but the moving coach, alles, 'everything'.


**11** Und sie roch ihn, den schwarzen Wagen,  
And she smelled it, the black carriage,
> Past tense, and apposition: roch is the simple past of riechen, 'to smell'. ihn, den schwarzen Wagen places a pronoun and its noun in apposition, both accusative since der Wagen is masculine: 'it, the black carriage'.

**12** um den verhalten das Jagen stand  
around which, held in check, the hunt stood waiting
> Held in check, restrained: verhalten as an adjective means 'restrained, held in check, suppressed', describing das Jagen, 'the hunt', pressing in around the carriage but reined in. um den, 'around which', points back to den Wagen.

**13** und die Gefahr.  
and the danger.

**14** Und sie fand ihn mit Kaltem ausgeschlagen;  
And she found it lined with something cold;
> To line, and a nominalized adjective: etwas mit ... ausschlagen means 'to line, upholster something with', and ausgeschlagen is the past participle of the separable ausschlagen. Kaltem is the adjective kalt used as a neuter noun in the dative after mit, 'something cold'.

**15** und das Schwarze und Kalte war auch in ihr.  
and the black and the cold were in her too.
> Adjectives turned into nouns: das Schwarze and Kalte are adjectives made into neuter nouns, 'the black' and 'the cold', as abstractions. The single verb war stays singular even though it answers both nouns, fusing them into one quality now in ihr, 'inside her'.

**16** Sie kroch in ihren Mantelkragen  
She crept down into her coat collar
> To creep, plus a compound noun: kroch is the simple past of kriechen, 'to crawl, creep'; with in plus the accusative it expresses motion into a place. der Mantelkragen compounds Mantel, 'coat', and Kragen, 'collar'.

**17** und befühlte ihr Haar, als bliebe es hier,  
and felt for her hair, as if it would stay here,
> Als plus subjunctive, unreal comparison: als, 'as though', with the subjunctive II bliebe, from bleiben, 'to stay', marks an unreal comparison: 'as though it would stay here'. The word order inverts after als, with the verb coming right after it.

**18** und hörte fremd einen Fremden sagen:  
and heard, as a stranger, a stranger say:
> Same word, adverb and noun: fremd, 'strange, foreign, estranged', appears twice: first as an adverb coloring how she hears, then in einen Fremden, 'a stranger', a nominalized adjective in the masculine accusative. The doubling makes listener and speaker both strangers.

**19** Ichbinbeidir.  
Iamwithyou.
> Three words run together: Ich bin bei dir, 'I am with you', is printed with no spaces between the words; bei takes the dative, giving bei dir. Rilke fuses the reassurance into one breathless, unbroken utterance.

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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.