# Don Juans Auswahl · Don Juan's Election

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems: The Other Part

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

**1** Und der Engel trat ihn an: Bereite  
And the angel came at him: Prepare
> A 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.
> An 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** dich mir ganz. Und da ist mein Gebot.  
yourself for me wholly. And here is my command.
> A 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.
> An 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** Denn daß einer jene überschreite,  
For that one man should pass beyond those women,
> daß 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.
> To 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** die die Süßesten an ihrer Seite  
who turn the sweetest men at their side
> Two 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'.
> A 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 machen, tut mir not.  
bitter — this I have need of.
> An 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** Zwar auch du kannst wenig besser lieben,  
True, even you can love only a little better,
> A 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** (unterbrich mich nicht: du irrst),  
(do not interrupt me: you are mistaken),
> A 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** doch du glühest, und es steht geschrieben,  
yet you glow, and it stands written,
> An 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.
> A 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** daß du viele führen wirst  
that you will lead many women
> Future 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** zu der Einsamkeit, die diesen  
into the solitude that has this
> Solitude 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** tiefen Eingang hat. Laß ein  
deep entrance. Let in
> An 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** die, die ich dir zugewiesen,  
those whom I have assigned to you,
> A 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** daß sie wachsend Heloïsen  
so that, growing, they may outlast Héloïses
> daß 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** überstehn und Überschrein.  
and outcry them.
> To 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.
> A 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.

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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.