# Eine von den Alten · One of the Old Women

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

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/rilke/eine-von-den-alten. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/rilke/eine-von-den-alten.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/rilke/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Abends manchmal (weißt du, wie das tut?)  
Some evenings (do you know how that feels?)
> tun for how something affects you: tun normally means 'to do', but in das tut weh, 'that hurts', and the clipped wie das tut, it describes how something acts on you. weißt du, wie das tut, means 'do you know how that feels'.

**2** wenn sie plötzlich stehn und rückwärts nicken  
when they suddenly stop and nod back over the shoulder
> Clipped verb for coming to a stop: stehn is the poetic short form of stehen, 'to stand', with the -e- dropped for the meter. Here it means not just 'to be standing' but 'to come to a stop, to halt'.

**3** und ein Lächeln, wie aus lauter Flicken,  
and a smile, as if made of nothing but patches,
> Quantifier lauter meaning nothing but: ein Flicken is a patch sewn onto worn cloth. aus lauter X means 'made of nothing but X'. lauter here is the quantifier 'sheer, nothing but', not the adjective laut, 'loud'.

**4** zeigen unter ihrem halben Hut.  
they show beneath their half-tilted hat.
> Main verb deferred across three lines: zeigen, 'they show', is the main verb of the stanza, arriving only here with sie from an earlier line as its subject and ein Lächeln from the line before as its object. German routinely defers the verb this way, holding the sentence open.


**5** Neben ihnen ist dann ein Gebäude,  
Beside them there is, just then, a building,
> neben plus dative for a fixed location: neben, 'beside, next to', is a two-way preposition; with a static location it takes the dative, here ihnen, 'them'. Placing the phrase first inverts the order so the verb ist comes before the subject ein Gebäude.

**6** endlos, und sie locken dich entlang  
endless, and they lure you along it
> Verb for luring someone on: locken means 'to entice, to tempt, to beckon', the verb used for luring an animal or person onward. dich is the accusative 'you', the reader drawn in. entlang, 'along', trails after the noun it follows.

**7** mit dem Rätsel ihrer Räude,  
with the riddle of their mange,
> Noun for mange applied to people: die Räude means mange or scabby skin disease, normally used of animals. Applied here to the women it is a deliberately harsh word for their ruined condition. mit dem Rätsel ihrer Räude is one of the dative mit-phrases naming what lures the reader.

**8** mit dem Hut, dem Umhang und dem Gang.  
with the hat, the cloak, and the gait.
> mit heads a list in the dative: mit always governs the dative; here it heads a list of masculine nouns in the dative singular: dem Hut, 'the hat', dem Umhang, 'the cloak', and dem Gang, 'the gait'. The three complete the list of lures begun in the stanza before.


**9** Mit der Hand, die hinten unterm Kragen  
With the hand that behind, beneath the collar,
> Relative clause spanning a stanza: Mit der Hand, 'with the hand', is dative after mit, extending the list of lures from the stanza before. die is a relative pronoun, 'that, which', introducing a clause that runs across the whole stanza. unterm contracts unter dem, 'beneath the'.

**10** heimlich wartet und verlangt nach dir:  
secretly waits and reaches out for you:
> verlangen nach governs the dative: verlangen nach means 'to long for, to crave' and governs the dative: nach dir means 'for you'. Paired with heimlich wartet, 'secretly waits', it names the hand as the active thing that wants.

**11** wie um deine Hände einzuschlagen  
as if to fold your hands shut
> um zu with zu inside a separable verb: wie um ... einzuschlagen means 'as though in order to fold shut'. um zu plus infinitive expresses purpose, and wie softens it to 'as though to'. einschlagen, 'to wrap, to fold over', is separable, so zu slots between prefix and stem: ein-zu-schlagen.

**12** in ein aufgehobenes Papier.  
in a piece of saved-up paper.
> Participle meaning kept or saved: aufgehoben is the past participle of aufheben, which means both 'to pick up' and 'to keep, to save'. ein aufgehobenes Papier is a scrap of paper that has been kept or saved, like cheap wrapping.

---

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.