German · New Poems

Die Spitze

The Lace

28 lines · 27 notes

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1
Humanity: names of unsteady possessions,
MenschlichkeithumanityMenschlichkeit · noun, nominative, feminine, singularhead of the phrase
NamennamesName · noun, nominative, masculine, pluraldepends on Menschlichkeit
schwankenderunsteadyschwankend · adjective, genitive, masculine, pluraldepends on Besitze
BesitzepossessionsBesitz · noun, genitive, masculine, pluraldepends on Namen
WordA rare plural of an uncountable noun der Besitz, 'possession, property', is normally uncountable, with no plural. Rilke coins the poetic plural Besitze to mean the several things a life claims. schwankender Besitze is genitive plural, 'of wavering possessions'.
2
an as-yet-unconfirmed holding of happiness:
WordA noun for stock or holding der Bestand means a 'stock, holding, inventory', what is on hand and continues to exist. Paired with unbestätigt, 'unconfirmed, not yet verified', happiness is figured as an account whose balance has never been certified.
3
is it inhuman that into this lace,
GrammarA postponed verb after daß daß, 'that', opens a subordinate clause, so its finite verb, wurden, is held back to the very end, two lines later. daß is the older spelling of modern dass, kept exactly as Rilke printed it.
WordA word for both point and lace die Spitze has several senses: 'point, tip, peak', and also 'lace', the openwork fabric named in the title. Here it is the literal lace, but the sense of 'point, summit' stays audible in the word.
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into this small dense piece of lacework
WordDense, close-woven dicht means 'dense, close-woven, tightly packed'. Of the lace it describes how closely the threads are worked together. It also sounds close to dichten, 'to compose poetry'.
5
two eyes were turned?–Do you want them back?
Grammarwerden zu means to turn into werden plus zu plus the dative means 'to turn into, become': zu dieser Spitze … wurden zwei Augen means 'two eyes turned into this lace'. wurden is the simple-past plural, closing the long daß-clause begun earlier.
6
You long-departed one and at last gone blind,
GrammarAdjectives used as nouns of address die Langvergangene, 'the long-past woman', and die Blinde, 'the blind woman', are adjectives turned into nouns; the feminine -e ending marks the addressee as a woman. Rilke speaks directly to the dead lacemaker with Du.
7
is your blessedness within this thing,
WordA word for religious blessedness die Seligkeit means 'blessedness, beatitude, supreme bliss', with a religious overtone of the soul's salvation. The poet asks whether the dead woman's blessedness now resides in the Ding, 'thing', the surviving scrap of lace.
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toward which, as between trunk and bark,
GrammarMotion toward a goal The pair zu … hin marks motion toward a goal, 'toward'. welcher is the relative pronoun, feminine dative, agreeing with Seligkeit, so zu welcher hin … ging means 'toward which it went'. The verb ging is held over to a later line.
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your great feeling, transformed small, went?
WordA coined compound participle Rilke welds klein, 'small', to verwandelt, 'transformed', into one participle: 'transformed into something small'. The woman's großes Fühlen, 'great feeling', did not vanish but was condensed, like sap between trunk and bark, into the tiny lace.
10
Through a tear in fate, a gap,
WordTwo nouns for a tear or opening der Riß is a 'tear, rip, fissure', the older spelling of modern Riss; die Lücke is a 'gap, opening'. The two nouns pair: a flaw torn in the weave of fate is itself an opening.
11
you withdrew your soul from your own time;
Grammarentziehen governing the dative entziehen, 'to withdraw, take away from', governs a dative for the thing deprived: du entzogst deine Seele deiner Zeit means 'you withdrew your soul from your time'. entzogst is the simple-past du-form.
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and it is so wholly in this luminous piece
Wordlicht versus leicht licht means 'bright, luminous, full of light', not to be confused with leicht, 'light in weight, easy'. dieses lichte Stück sees the lace as a piece of pure light; so … daß carries the result into the next line.
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that it makes me smile for sheer usefulness.
Grammarmachen with a bare infinitive etwas macht mich lächeln means 'something makes me smile': machen plus a bare infinitive expresses causation. vor Nützlichkeit uses vor plus the dative for cause, 'out of, for sheer usefulness'.
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II
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And if one day this doing of ours
GrammarA genitive marking indefinite time eines Tages, 'one day, someday', is a genitive used adverbially to mark an indefinite point in time. das Tun is the verb tun, 'to do', turned into a noun, 'our doing'. The wenn-clause it opens runs several lines further.
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and what happens to us should seem slight
GrammarSubjunctive II for a hypothetical erschiene is Konjunktiv II, past subjunctive, of erscheinen, 'to appear, seem'. It marks the clause as hypothetical, 'should appear', matching the earlier if. gering is a predicate adjective meaning 'slight, of little worth'.
17
and so strange to us, as if it did not merit
GrammarTriggers the subjunctive mood als ob, 'as though', introduces an unreal comparison and takes the subjunctive: als ob es nicht verdiene means 'as though it did not merit'. verdiene is subjunctive of verdienen, 'to deserve, earn'.
18
that we, so laboriously, out of our childhood shoes
WordAn idiom for outgrowing childhood die Kinderschuhe, 'children's shoes', stands for earliest childhood; aus den Kinderschuhen wachsen means 'to outgrow one's childhood'. Kinderschuhn is a clipped poetic form of Kinderschuhen, dative plural, trimmed for the meter.
19
should grow up for its sake–: whether the band
Grammarum … willen means for the sake of The frame um … willen means 'for the sake of'; with a pronoun it fuses into a single word, um seinetwillen, 'for its sake'. Ob, 'whether', then opens the real question that follows. die Bahn is a 'strip, length, band' of cloth.
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of yellowed lace, this densely jointed
WordTwo compound descriptions of the lace vergilbt, 'yellowed with age', is the past participle of vergilben, used here as an adjective in the genitive, vergilbter Spitze, 'of yellowed lace'. dichtgefügt welds dicht, 'close', to gefügt, 'jointed, fitted'.
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flowering band of lace, would then not suffice
Grammargenügen means to be enough genügen means 'to be enough, to suffice' and is intransitive; genügte here continues the hypothetical begun earlier, 'would not suffice'. The infinitive it governs, uns hier zu halten, 'to hold us here', follows in the next line.
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to hold us here? Look: it was made.
GrammarAn archaic passive with ward ward is the old simple-past of werden, modern wurde, forming a passive with the participle getan, 'done, made': sie ward getan means 'it was made'. The archaic verb gives the plain fact the weight of a finished deed.
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A life was perhaps disdained, who knows?
Wordverschmähen, to scorn or spurn verschmähen means 'to scorn, spurn, disdain'; verschmäht is its past participle, here passive, ward verschmäht, 'was disdained, was given up'. A whole life may have been refused so this single object could be made.
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A happiness was there and was given away,
GrammarA separable verb in the passive hingeben, 'to give away, surrender, devote', is separable: hin- plus geben. In the passive past, wurde hingegeben, the prefix reattaches to the participle. The line contrasts war da, 'was present', with wurde hingegeben, 'was surrendered'.
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and in the end there was, at any price,
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this thing made from it, no lighter than life
GrammarA pronominal adverb meaning from it daraus fuses da(r) and aus, 'out of it, from it', referring back to the surrendered life and happiness. wurde … dies Ding daraus means 'this thing came to be out of that'. leicht here means 'light in weight, easy'.
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and yet complete and so beautiful, as if it were
GrammarA contracted subjunctive with als als sei's contracts als es sei: als, 'as though', with Konjunktiv I sei, 'were', of sein. After als German may drop ob and front the verb, giving 'as though it were'. vollendet means 'completed, perfected'.
28
no longer too soon to smile and to float.
WordA verb for hovering or floating schweben means 'to hover, float, be suspended', weightless motion in air. Set against nicht leichter als das Leben two lines above, the close treats the finished lace as no longer too early to smile and drift.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems.
Reading aloud: Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
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