German · New Poems: The Other Part

Die Sonnenuhr

The Sundial

16 lines · 24 notes

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1
Seldom does a breath of moist decay reach
Seltenseldomselten · adverbdepends on reicht
reichtreachesreichen · verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
einaein · determiner, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on Schauer
SchauerbreathSchauer · noun, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on reicht
feuchtermoistfeucht · adjective, genitive, feminine, singulardepends on Fäule
FäuledecayFäule · noun, genitive, feminine, singulardepends on Schauer
GrammarFronted adverb, inverted order The sentence opens with the adverb Selten, 'seldom', so the finite verb reicht, 'reaches', comes before its subject ein Schauer, the standard German inversion after a fronted element. reichen zu der Säule, in line 4, means 'to reach as far as the pillar'.
WordGenitive of decay die Fäule is 'rot, decay, mould', from faulen, 'to rot'; ein Schauer is a 'shiver, a faint waft'. feuchter Fäule is genitive after Schauer, 'of moist decay', with the feminine genitive ending -er on the adjective feucht, 'moist'.
2
out of the garden's shade, where one to another
WordReciprocal pronoun, one another einander is the invariable reciprocal pronoun 'one another, each other'. It belongs to fallen ... hören on the next line: wo einander Tropfen fallen hören, 'where drops hear one another fall'.
3
the drops hear falling, and a migrant
GrammarPerception verb with bare infinitive hören, 'to hear', like sehen and fühlen, takes a bare infinitive with no zu: Tropfen fallen hören means 'to hear drops fall'. Tropfen, 'drops', is the subject doing the hearing, and einander, 'one another', from the line before is the object.
WordCompound split across the line The line ends mid-word: ein Wander- is the first half of Wandervogel, 'a bird of passage, a migratory bird', completed by vogel at the start of the next line. Wander- comes from wandern, 'to roam, migrate'.
4
bird sounds its note — reach the pillar,
WordTo sound, ring out lauten here means 'to sound, give voice, ring out', related to laut, 'loud', and der Laut, 'a sound'; the migrant bird lautet, utters its call. zu der Säule, 'to the pillar', is dative after zu and completes the main verb reicht from line 1.
WordThe pillar of the sundial die Säule is a 'column, pillar', here the standing shaft of the sundial named in the poem's title, Die Sonnenuhr. zu der Säule is the dative of direction after zu; everyday German would contract this to zur Säule, but Rilke keeps the fuller form for the verse.
5
which, set among marjoram and coriander,
GrammarRelative pronoun agrees feminine die here is the relative pronoun 'which', feminine nominative, agreeing with die Säule, 'the pillar'. It launches a clause whose two finite verbs, steht and zeigt, fall at the end of the next line. in Majoran und Koriander, 'among marjoram and coriander', is dative after in with no motion.
6
stands and shows the summer hours;
WordCompound noun, the summer hours Sommerstunden compounds Sommer, 'summer', and Stunden, 'hours'. The sundial 'shows the summer hours', but only the bright ones, since a sundial can mark time only when the sun casts a shadow.
7
only as soon as the lady (whom a servant
GrammarAs soon as, a subordinator sobald, 'as soon as', introduces a subordinate clause and sends its finite verb, neigt, to the end, which arrives two lines later. nur sobald means 'only as soon as', naming the single moment the sundial goes dark.
GrammarDative relative pronoun, whom Inside the parenthesis, der is the relative pronoun in the dative feminine, 'whom', referring back to die Dame, 'the lady'. It is governed by nachfolgt on the next line, since nachfolgen, 'to follow after', takes the dative: der ein Diener nachfolgt, 'whom a servant follows'.
8
follows) in her bright Florentine hat
GrammarSeparable verb, dative object nachfolgen, 'to follow, come after', is a separable verb with the prefix nach-; inside this relative clause it stays joined and finite, der ein Diener nachfolgt, 'whom a servant follows'. It takes a dative object, here the relative der pointing back to die Dame.
9
leans over its edge,
GrammarReflexive verb, held to clause end sich neigen, 'to bend, lean, incline oneself', is reflexive, so the sich belongs to the verb. neigt is the finite verb held to the end of the sobald-clause begun two lines above. über ihren Rand, 'over its edge', takes the accusative to mark the leaning movement.
10
does it grow shadowed, and falls silent—.
GrammarMain clause after a long clause The main clause finally arrives here, and because the whole nur sobald-clause filled first position, the verb wird comes before its subject sie: wird sie schattig means 'does it grow shadowed'. sie, 'it', carries the feminine gender of die Säule, the dial.
WordTo fall silent, conceal verschweigen means 'to keep silent about, withhold', built from the prefix ver- on schweigen, 'to be silent'. Shadowed by the lady, the dial 'falls silent', stopping its telling of time; Rilke leaves the verb without an object before the dash and full stop.
11
Or when a summer rain
GrammarSecond case, subordinate wenn wenn, 'when, whenever', opens the second of two cases that silence the dial, parallel to sobald in the stanza before. As a subordinator it sends its verb, aufkommt, to the end of the clause. ein sommerlicher Regen means 'a summery rain'.
12
rises out of the surging motion
GrammarSeparable verb, to arise aufkommen, 'to come up, arise, blow up' of weather, is separable; at the end of the wenn-clause it stays joined as the finite verb aufkommt. aus dem ... Bewegen, 'out of the motion', is dative after aus.
WordInfinitive used as a noun das Bewegen is the infinitive bewegen, 'to move, stir', used as a neuter noun, 'the moving, the motion'. das wogende Bewegen means 'the surging, billowing motion', wogen being 'to surge, heave like waves'. Rilke prefers this verbal noun to die Bewegung.
13
of high crowns, it takes a pause;
GrammarGenitive plural ending -er hoher Kronen is genitive plural, 'of high crowns', the Kronen being the leafy tops of the trees; the ending -er marks the genitive plural. It completes das Bewegen hoher Kronen, 'the motion of high crowns'. After the comma the main clause resumes with hat sie eine Pause.
14
for it does not know how to express the time,
GrammarFor, a coordinating conjunction denn means 'for, because' and, unlike weil, is coordinating: it does not send the verb to the end, so word order stays as in a main clause, denn sie weiß ... nicht. It gives the reason the shadowless dial pauses: it cannot tell the time.
GrammarZu inside a separable verb ausdrücken, 'to express', is separable, and in the zu-infinitive the zu slips between prefix and stem: auszudrücken. It depends on sie weiß ... nicht, 'it does not know how to express'. The infinitive phrase die Zeit ... auszudrücken closes the clause.
15
which then, in the still lifes of fruit and flowers,
GrammarRelative points to the time die is the relative pronoun 'which', feminine, pointing back to die Zeit, 'the time', in the line before. Its clause runs to the poem's last line, where the verb glüht finally lands. in den ... Stücken is dative plural after in.
16
suddenly glows within the white garden house.
WordTo glow without flame glühen means 'to glow, burn without flame'. plötzlich glüht, 'suddenly glows', is the verb the relative clause has been reaching toward since two lines earlier: the time the dial cannot express still flares up inside the painted fruit and flowers.
GrammarArchaic dative ending kept im weißen Gartenhause means 'in the white garden house', dative after in, im being in dem. The final -e on Gartenhause is the older dative ending for masculine and neuter nouns, mostly dropped in modern German, im Gartenhaus, which Rilke keeps for the verse.

The particulars

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