German · New Poems: The Other Part

Die Irren

The Madmen

13 lines · 13 notes

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1
And they are silent, because the dividing walls
UndAndund · conjunctiondepends on schweigen
sietheysie · pronoun, nominative, pluraldepends on schweigen
schweigenare silentschweigen · verb, present, indicative, third-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
weilbecauseweil · subordinating conjunctiondepends on sind
dietheder · determiner, nominative, feminine, pluraldepends on Scheidewände
Scheidewändedividing wallsScheidewand · noun, nominative, feminine, pluralsubject of sind
WordCompound noun for dividing wall Scheidewände is the plural of Scheidewand, built from scheiden, 'to separate, divide', and Wand, 'wall'. A Scheidewand is a partition, an inner wall between rooms, or in anatomy a septum.
2
have been taken away out of their mind,
GrammarSeparable verb in the passive wegnehmen, 'to take away', is separable, built from weg, 'away', and nehmen, 'to take'. Here it appears as a passive, sind weggenommen, 'have been taken away', with the past participle keeping its prefix attached.
3
and the hours in which one might understand them
GrammarKonjunktiv II for a hoped-for case verstände is Konjunktiv II, past subjunctive, of verstehen, 'to understand', marking something hypothetical rather than real. The relative da here is an old literary form of in denen, 'in which'.
4
begin and pass away.
GrammarSeparable verb anheben split apart heben an is the separable verb anheben split apart, an elevated, old-fashioned word for 'to begin, to set in'. It pairs with gehen hin, 'to go away, to pass', the two verbs framing a brief arc.
5
Often at night, when they step to the window:
WordLiterary adverb for at night nächtens is a poetic adverb meaning 'at night, by night', formed from Nacht, 'night'. It is rare and literary; everyday German instead says nachts.
Grammaran plus accusative for motion toward ans contracts an das. With a verb of motion like treten, 'to step', an takes the accusative das Fenster to express movement toward, 'to step up to the window'. With a static verb it would instead take the dative, am Fenster, 'at the window'.
6
suddenly everything is well.
7
Their hands rest in the concrete,
WordAdjective turned into a noun konkret, 'concrete, tangible', is turned into the neuter noun das Konkrete, declined in the dative after in. im Konkreten means 'in the concrete', in the real, graspable world.
8
and the heart is lifted high and could pray,
GrammarKonjunktiv II states a possibility könnte is Konjunktiv II of können, 'can'. It states a possibility short of fact: the heart könnte beten, 'could pray', meaning it is able to but the sentence does not say it does.
9
and the eyes gaze, rested,
WordPast participle used as adverb ausgeruht is the past participle of sich ausruhen, 'to rest, to recover', used here as an adverb meaning 'rested, at ease'. It describes how die Augen schauen, 'the eyes gaze'.
10
upon the unhoped-for, often-disfigured
WordCoined and ordinary compound adjectives unverhofft means 'unhoped-for, unexpected', from verhoffen, 'to hope for'. oftentstellt is Rilke's coinage, joining oft, 'often', and entstellt, 'disfigured'. Both adjectives decline to agree with Garten in the next line.
11
garden in its quieted square,
WordLiterary noun for a square enclosure das Geviert is a literary word for a square or quadrangle, a four-sided enclosed space. Here it names the walled courtyard garden seen from the window. beruhigt, from beruhigen, 'to calm', means 'calmed, quieted'.
12
which in the reflected glow of the alien worlds
WordCompound noun for reflected light der Widerschein means reflected light or a gleam thrown back, from wider, 'back, against', and Schein, 'shine, glow'. Here der, the relative pronoun, reaches back to Garten, opening the clause that closes the poem.
13
grows on and never loses itself.
GrammarSeparable verb weiterwachsen weiterwächst is the separable verb weiterwachsen, 'to keep growing', held together here because it stands at the end of a relative clause. sich verlieren is reflexive, 'to lose oneself', paired with niemals, 'never'.

The particulars

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