German · New Poems: The Other Part

Don Juans Auswahl

Don Juan's Election

14 lines · 20 notes

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1
And the angel came at him: Prepare
Undandund · conjunctiondepends on trat
dertheder · determiner, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on Engel
EngelangelEngel · noun, nominative, masculine, singularsubject of trat
tratcame atantreten · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
ihnhimihn · pronoun, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on trat
anatan · verb particle (separable prefix of antreten)depends on trat
Bereitepreparebereiten · verb, imperative, second-person, singularmain verb of the quoted imperative clause
GrammarA separable verb for confronting antreten here means 'to approach, confront, step up to' someone, taking an accusative object. The prefix an- is separable, so the past splits: trat ... an frames ihn between stem and prefix, as the angel advances on Don Juan.
GrammarAn imperative split by enjambment Bereite is the du-imperative of bereiten, 'to prepare, make ready'; its object, dich, opens the next line, so bereite dich, 'prepare yourself', straddles the line break. The colon turns the rest into the angel's unquoted speech.
2
yourself for me wholly. And here is my command.
GrammarA reflexive verb with a dative bereite dich is reflexive, 'ready yourself', with mir a dative of interest: 'make yourself wholly ready for me'. ganz, 'wholly', is adverbial. da here means 'here', not 'there', presenting the command as something offered outright.
WordAn elevated word for command das Gebot means 'commandment, decree, charge', the word used for the Ten Commandments, die Zehn Gebote. Choosing it casts the angel's instruction in a scriptural key, a charge rather than a request.
3
For that one man should pass beyond those women,
Grammardaß plus Subjunctive I überschreite is Konjunktiv I, present subjunctive, of überschreiten, 'to cross, exceed, transgress'. After Denn daß, it states what the angel wills: 'that someone should overstep'. einer means 'one, a man'; jene, 'those', points ahead to the women named in the next lines.
WordTo cross a limit überschreiten literally means 'to step across, cross over', and figuratively 'to exceed, transgress a limit'. With jene as its object it means to pass beyond those women. The inseparable über- stays fixed to the verb, unlike the separable über- in übergehen.
4
who turn the sweetest men at their side
GrammarTwo identical words in a row The first die is a relative pronoun, feminine plural, referring back to jene, 'those women, who'. The second die is the article on the accusative object die Süßesten. So die die Süßesten ... bitter machen means 'who make the sweetest men bitter'.
WordA superlative used as a noun die Süßesten is the substantivized superlative of süß, 'sweet': 'the sweetest ones'. As a noun it takes the article and the plural ending -en. It names the gentlest men, the very ones these women embitter.
5
bitter — this I have need of.
GrammarAn idiom for being necessary not tun is a fixed idiom: das tut mir not means 'I need that, that is needful to me'. not is an old predicate noun for 'need', and the dative mir names who lacks it. The daß-clause before it is the grammatical subject of this idiom.
6
True, even you can love only a little better,
GrammarA concession answered later zwar concedes a point that a later clause will qualify: 'it is true that ..., but ...'. It pairs with doch or aber, which arrives in line eight. The fronted Zwar auch du pushes the verb kannst into second position.
7
(do not interrupt me: you are mistaken),
GrammarA strong verb's imperative unterbrich is the du-imperative of unterbrechen, 'to interrupt', with the strong-verb vowel change from e to i, du unterbrichst. The inseparable unter- stays fixed. du irrst, from irren, means 'you are in error'.
8
yet you glow, and it stands written,
WordAn archaic second-person ending glühest is the du-form of glühen, 'to glow, burn, be incandescent', carrying the older poetic ending -est where modern German has du glühst. It answers the concession in zwar: he cannot love better, but he burns.
GrammarA scriptural formula es steht geschrieben means 'it stands written', the German rendering of the biblical 'it is written'. stehen with a past participle expresses an enduring written state rather than an action. es is a placeholder subject; what is written follows in the next line's daß-clause.
9
that you will lead many women
GrammarFuture tense, verb held to the end wirst ... führen is the future tense, werden plus infinitive; in this daß-clause the finite wirst is pushed to the very end, after the infinitive führen, 'to lead'. viele, 'many women', is the accusative object.
10
into the solitude that has this
WordSolitude as destination die Einsamkeit means 'solitude, aloneness', from einsam, 'lonely, solitary'. Don Juan's seductions lead women zu der Einsamkeit, 'toward a solitude'. The relative pronoun die, feminine, begins a clause completed in the next line.
11
deep entrance. Let in
GrammarAn imperative separable verb einlassen, 'to admit, let in', is separable; the imperative laß, an older spelling of lass, sends the prefix ein to the end. Its object follows in the next line, so laß ... ein means 'let in' those the angel names.
12
those whom I have assigned to you,
GrammarA dative recipient, dropped auxiliary zuweisen, 'to assign, allot to', takes a dative recipient, here dir, 'to you'. zugewiesen is its past participle, with the auxiliary habe left out in verse: 'those whom I have allotted to you'. The line stacks two instances of die: object, then relative pronoun.
13
so that, growing, they may outlast Héloïses
Grammardaß meaning so that Here daß means 'so that', introducing a purpose rather than a fact. wachsend is the present participle of wachsen, 'to grow', used adverbially. The verbs these women will perform wait until the end of the next line, split by the stanza break.
14
and outcry them.
WordTo outlast or surmount überstehn, a poetic form of überstehen, means 'to survive, endure, get through, surpass'. With Heloïsen as its object it reads 'to outlast the Héloïses'. The inseparable über- stays fixed, and the final -en is clipped to -n for the meter.
WordA coinage on schreien überschreien normally means 'to shout louder than, drown out', built on schreien, 'to cry out, scream'. Capitalized and clipped to Überschrein for the meter, it is the second verb coordinated with überstehn in the daß-clause.

The particulars

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