# Die Fensterrose · The Rose Window

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems

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

**1** Da drin: das träge Treten ihrer Tatzen  
In there: the sluggish padding of their paws
> Colloquial word for inside: da drin is a colloquial contraction of da drinnen, 'in there, inside there'. da is the adverb 'there', and drin, 'inside', is the head of the phrase. Together they set the scene inside an enclosed space with no further introduction.
> An adverb meaning sluggish: träge is an adverb meaning slow, listless, heavy with inertia, and it modifies the noun Treten, 'padding, treading'. Treten is a noun formed from the verb treten, 'to tread'. Tatzen is the plural of Tatze, the paw of a large animal.

**2** macht eine Stille, die dich fast verwirrt;  
makes a stillness that almost bewilders you;
> The accusative pronoun for you: verwirren, 'to confuse, bewilder', takes a direct object in the accusative case, here dich, 'you'. The relative pronoun die stands for eine Stille and is the subject of verwirrt. So die dich fast verwirrt means 'that nearly bewilders you'.

**3** und wie dann plötzlich eine von den Katzen  
and how then suddenly one of the cats
> wie meaning how: Here wie means 'how, the way in which' rather than 'as', and it opens a subordinate clause. In a subordinate clause the finite verb moves to the end, so the main verb of this clause is delayed until later in the sentence. dann and plötzlich, 'then' and 'suddenly', both describe when the action happens.

**4** den Blick an ihr, der hin und wieder irrt,  
the gaze upon her, which wanders here and there,
> Wandering, now and then: hin und wieder is a fixed idiom meaning 'now and then, occasionally'; both hin and wieder depend on the verb irrt. This is not the idiom hin und her, 'back and forth', so the grammar supports a wandering that happens at intervals, not one that moves side to side.


**5** gewaltsam in ihr großes Auge nimmt,–  
seizes violently into her great eye, —
> The sentence's main verb arrives: nimmt is the third person singular present of nehmen, 'to take', and it is the main verb the sentence has been building toward. In ihr großes Auge is accusative, marking motion into the eye. Gewaltsam, 'forcibly, violently', describes how the taking happens.

**6** den Blick, der wie von eines Wirbels Kreis  
the gaze, which as if by a whirlpool's ring
> A genitive placed before its noun: eines Wirbels is genitive, 'of a whirlpool', and normal word order would put it after its noun as der Kreis eines Wirbels. Here it is fronted before Kreis instead, an older and more formal pattern. Wirbel means a whirl, eddy, or vortex.

**7** ergriffen, eine kleine Weile schwimmt  
seized, swims for a little while
> Past participle with two senses: ergriffen is the past participle of ergreifen, 'to seize, to grasp, to take hold of'. It describes something physically gripped or held. The same word also means emotionally 'moved, stirred', so it can carry both senses at once.

**8** und dann versinkt und nichts mehr von sich weiß,  
and then sinks down and knows no more of itself,
> To know of oneself: von sich wissen literally means 'to know of oneself', that is, to be conscious or aware. nichts mehr von sich wissen means 'to know nothing more of oneself', to lose all self-awareness. weiß, from wissen, depends on und and takes sich as the object of the preposition von.


**9** wenn dieses Auge, welches scheinbar ruht,  
when this eye, which seems to rest,
> An adverb meaning apparently: scheinbar means 'apparently, seemingly' and, unlike anscheinend, implies the appearance may be false. It modifies the verb ruht, 'rests', in the clause welches scheinbar ruht, 'which seems to rest'. Welches is the relative pronoun agreeing with the neuter noun Auge.

**10** sich auftut und zusammenschlägt mit Tosen  
opens itself wide and claps shut with a roar
> A separable verb stays fused: zusammenschlagen, 'to clap or slam shut', is a separable-prefix verb. In this clause it is joined by und to auftut, so the whole verb zusammenschlägt stays together rather than splitting its prefix off. mit Tosen means 'with a roaring', describing the noise as it shuts.

**11** und ihn hineinreißt bis ins rote Blut–:  
and tears him in, down into the red blood — :
> Prefix meaning into: hineinreißen means 'to tear inward, to drag in', combining the directional prefix hinein, 'into, away from the speaker', with reißen, 'to rip, to wrench'. ihn is the accusative pronoun 'him'. bis ins rote Blut means 'right into the red blood', marking how far the tearing goes.


**12** so griffen einstmals aus dem Dunkelsein  
so once, out of the dark of being,
> Past tense marks a shift: so means 'thus, in just this way' and depends on the verb griffen. griffen is the past tense of greifen, 'to seize', third person plural, so the verb tense shifts from present to past here. einstmals is a literary word for 'once, in former times', and Dunkelsein is a compound noun literally meaning 'dark-being'.

**13** der Kathedralen große Fensterrosen  
the cathedrals' great rose windows

**14** ein Herz und rissen es in Gott hinein.  
a heart, and tore it up into God.
> A doubled directional phrase: rissen is the simple past plural of reißen, 'to tear', taking es, 'it', as its object. In Gott hinein combines the preposition in with the adverb hinein, both marking motion inward, to say 'into God'. Repeating the direction with in and hinein together stresses the motion going all the way inside.

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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.