German · New Poems

Ein Frauenschicksal

A Woman's Fate

14 lines · 22 notes

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1
Just as the king out hunting takes a glass
Sojustso · adverbdepends on wie
wieaswie · subordinating conjunctiondepends on ergreift
dertheder · determiner, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on König
KönigkingKönig · noun, nominative, masculine, singularsubject of ergreift
aufonauf · prepositiondepends on ergreift
dertheder · determiner, dative, feminine, singulardepends on Jagd
JagdhuntJagd · noun, dative, feminine, singulardepends on auf
einaein · determiner, accusative, neuter, singulardepends on Glas
GlasglassGlas · noun, accusative, neuter, singulardepends on ergreift
GrammarAn extended simile begins So wie sets up a comparison: 'just as the king...' The matching so that closes it comes in stanza two, with das Schicksal, 'fate', as its subject. Hold this clause open until then; its verb ergreift, 'seizes', arrives on the next line.
2
to drink from, seizes one, just any one,—
GrammarA pronominal adverb for a thing daraus fuses da, 'there', with aus, 'out of', meaning 'out of it'. German uses these da(r)- compounds instead of a preposition plus a pronoun when the reference is a thing, not a person. daraus zu trinken = 'to drink from it'.
WordAny old one at all irgendein- means 'some or other, just any'. This neuter accusative form, irgendeines, stands in apposition to Glas, 'glass', from the line above: the king seizes 'any one', whichever glass is at hand.
3
and as, thereafter, he who owned the thing
WordA literary word for afterwards hernach means 'afterwards, thereafter', an older, more formal equivalent of nachher or danach. It marks the second stage of the scene, once the king has drunk and moved on.
GrammarA demonstrative plus a formal relative der here is a demonstrative pronoun, 'he, the one'; welcher is the relative pronoun that opens its clause. der, welcher es besaß = 'he who owned it'. welcher is a more formal, literary relative than der/die/das, and the clause sends its verb, besaß, to the end.
4
sets it away and keeps it, as though it were nothing:
GrammarSeparable verb fortstellen fortstellen, 'to put away, set aside', is separable: in a main clause fort- detaches and moves to the end. Here it appears in a wie-clause instead, so the prefix stays joined to the verb, fortstellt. verwahrt, 'keeps, stores safely', is the second verb joined to it by und.
Grammarals plus subjunctive for an unreal state als wär es keines means 'as though it were nothing'. als introducing an unreal comparison takes Subjunctive II; wär is the shortened poetic form of wäre, from sein. keines here is the pronoun 'none, not one', not the adjective 'no'.
5
so fate perhaps, being thirsty too, raised up
GrammarThe so that answers a simile This so closes the comparison opened by So wie in the first line: as the king seized a glass, so hob... das Schicksal, 'so fate raised...'. hob is the past tense of heben, 'to lift, raise'. Because the sentence starts with so, the subject das Schicksal follows the verb.
Worddas Schicksal das Schicksal means 'fate, destiny', the same word as in the poem's title, Ein Frauenschicksal, 'a woman's fate'. Here it is the grammatical subject of hob, 'raised', described as durstig, 'thirsty', two words later.
6
at times some woman to its mouth, and drank,
WordA literary word for sometimes bisweilen means 'sometimes, now and then, at times', more literary in tone than manchmal. It modifies hob, 'raised', from the line before: fate lifts a woman to its lips only now and then.
GrammarA capitalized pronoun for a woman Eine is the feminine form of ein used as a pronoun, meaning 'one, a certain one'. Capitalized, it functions as a stand-in for a person rather than a number: 'a certain woman'. It is the object of hob, 'raised', from the line before.
7
whom then a small life, far too afraid
GrammarRelative die as an object, out of order die is the feminine accusative relative pronoun, 'whom', referring back to Eine. Normal order is bent for the verse: die and ein kleines Leben, 'a small life', are separated, with die as the object and Leben as the subject of a verb that has not yet appeared, hinstellte, two lines later.
8
to break her, off and away from use,
GrammarToo afraid to do it viel zu bang, sie zu zerbrechen means 'far too afraid to break her'. The pattern zu plus adjective, followed by zu plus infinitive, expresses 'too X to do Y'. zerbrechen, 'to shatter, break to pieces', is the infinitive completing that pattern.
WordSet apart from everyday use abseits means 'off to the side, apart, out of the way'; combined with von it means 'away from'. der Gebrauch means 'use'. abseits vom Gebrauch means 'set apart from use, no longer used'.
9
set her down inside the anxious cabinet,
GrammarThe delayed verb finally lands hinstellte, past tense of hinstellen, 'to set/put down', is the finite verb the relative clause has been waiting for since die, two lines earlier. The prefix hin- adds the sense 'down, into that place'. in die... Vitrine is accusative because it marks motion to a destination.
WordAn anxious display case die Vitrine is a glass display cabinet, a showcase. ängstlich means 'anxious, fearful'. Together, ängstliche Vitrine means 'the anxious cabinet', though the anxiety plainly belongs to whoever tends it, not to the cabinet itself.
10
in which its precious things are kept
GrammarDative relative for a location welcher is again the literary relative pronoun, here feminine dative singular to agree with die Vitrine: in welcher means 'in which'. in takes the dative because the cabinet is a location, not a destination reached by motion.
WordPrecious things, plural die Kostbarkeit, plural Kostbarkeiten, means 'a precious object, a treasure, a valuable thing'. It comes from kostbar, 'precious, costly'. Here it is the nominative plural subject of sind, 'are'.
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(or the things that pass for precious).
Grammargelten für, to pass for gelten für etwas means 'to count as, be considered, pass for something'. die Dinge, die für kostbar gelten means 'the things that are reckoned precious'. gelten here is a finite present-tense verb, third-person plural, agreeing with Dinge.
12
There she stood, strange, like something lent away,
WordA noun from 'lent away' Fortgeliehne is a coined noun from fortleihen, 'to lend out, lend away'. The past participle fortgeliehn, clipped from fortgeliehen, is used here as a feminine noun: 'a lent-away one'. wie eine Fortgeliehne means 'like something lent away'.
13
and simply grew old, and grew blind,
Grammarwerden plus adjective, becoming wurde is the past tense of werden, 'to become'. With an adjective it marks entering a state: wurde alt means 'grew/became old', wurde blind means 'went blind'. The verb is repeated for each adjective, once per clause.
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and was not precious, and was never rare.
Grammarnicht versus niemals Two negations close the sonnet. nicht kostbar, 'not precious', is a plain negation of the predicate adjective. niemals selten, 'never rare', uses niemals, 'never, at no time', to negate across all time rather than negating a single state.

The particulars

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