German · New Poems

Gott im Mittelalter

God in the Middle Ages

14 lines · 15 notes

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1
And they had saved him up inside themselves,
UndAndund · conjunctiondepends on hatten
sietheysie · pronoun, nominative, pluraldepends on hatten
hattenhadhaben · auxiliary verb, past, indicative, third-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
ihnhimihn · pronoun, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on erspart
ininsidein · prepositiondepends on erspart
sichthemselvessich · pronoun, dative, plural, reflexivedepends on in
erspartsaved upersparen · verb, participle, pastdepends on hatten
WordTo save up or hoard ersparen means 'to save up, to lay by', as one saves money. erspart is its past participle and depends on hatten, forming the compound past tense. in sich is a prepositional phrase with the reflexive sich in the dative, meaning 'inside themselves'.
2
and they wanted him to be, and to judge,
GrammarSubjunctive I reports a wish sei and richte are subjunctive I forms of sein and richten, used because the daß clause reports what people wanted: 'that he should be and should judge'. The subordinating conjunction daß sends both verbs to the end of the clause. Daß is an older spelling of the modern dass.
3
and at last they hung, like weights,
GrammarThe transitive form of hängen German has two verbs spelled hängen. One is intransitive: hängen, hing, gehangen, 'to hang, be suspended'. The other is transitive: hängen, hängte, gehängt, 'to hang something up'. hängten is the weak past of the transitive verb, so sie hängten means 'they hung something', with the object named later in the poem.
4
(to prevent his ascension to heaven)
WordThe word for ascension die Himmelfahrt, literally 'heaven-journey', is the standard German word for an ascension into heaven, as in Christi Himmelfahrt, 'Christ's Ascension'. zu verhindern is an infinitive of purpose, meaning 'in order to prevent'. Together the phrase means 'to prevent his ascension'.
5
upon him their great cathedrals'
GrammarAccusative preposition and a delayed noun an takes the accusative here to mark direction, so an ihn means 'onto him' and depends on the verb hängten. ihrer großen Kathedralen is genitive, 'of their great cathedrals', and depends on a noun that appears only in the following line. The genitive phrase stands before the noun it modifies.
6
burden and mass. And he was only to
GrammarA modal verb meaning was to sollte is the past tense of sollen, 'to be supposed to, be meant to'. Er sollte nur means 'he was only to', with the main verb it governs placed later, at the end of the clause. Nur, 'only', limits what he was meant to do.
7
over his boundless numbers
WordAn adjective built with -los grenzenlos means 'boundless, limitless', formed from Grenze, 'border, limit', plus the ending -los, 'without'. It takes accusative feminine plural endings here to agree with Zahlen, 'numbers'. seine grenzenlosen Zahlen means 'his boundless numbers'.
8
circle, pointing, and like a clock
GrammarPresent participle used adverbially zeigend is the present participle of zeigen, 'to show, to point', formed by adding -end to the stem. It is used here adverbially to describe how the subject circles, 'circling while pointing'. wie eine Uhr means 'like a clock', comparing the motion to a clock hand.
9
give signs to their doing and day's-work.
WordTwo nouns from verbs das Tun, 'doing', is the infinitive tun made into a noun; das Tagwerk means 'a day's work'. Both stand in the dative, depending on the verb geben through the phrase Zeichen geben, 'to give signs', which takes a dative object. und joins the two nouns into one phrase.
10
But suddenly he got fully into motion,
WordA fixed idiom for starting in Gang kommen is a fixed idiom meaning 'to get going, start up', literally 'to come into motion'. Ganz, 'fully', intensifies it to 'got fully under way'. Plötzlich, 'suddenly', marks that this happened without warning.
11
and the people of the horrified town
WordAn adjective from a reflexive verb entsetzt means 'horrified, aghast, terror-struck', and comes from the reflexive verb sich entsetzen, 'to be appalled'. As an adjective before a noun it takes case endings, here genitive feminine singular to agree with Stadt. der entsetzten Stadt means 'of the horrified town'.
12
let him, afraid before his voice,
WordAdjective meaning afraid bang means 'anxious, fearful, afraid'. The phrase bang vor etwas means 'afraid of something', and vor takes the dative here, giving seiner Stimme, 'of his voice'. So vor seiner Stimme bang means 'afraid before his voice'.
GrammarLassen with a bare infinitive lassen, 'to let, allow', takes a bare infinitive without zu, so ließen ihn weitergehn means 'let him go on'. ihn is the object of ließen and also the subject of the infinitive weitergehn. The phrase vor seiner Stimme bang is inserted between the object and the infinitive.
13
go on with its striking-works unhung,
WordA clock's striking mechanism Schlagwerk names the striking mechanism of a clock, the part that sounds the hours. Aushängen means 'to unhook, disengage', so ausgehängtem Schlagwerk, dative after mit, means 'with the striking works disengaged'. The clock in weitergehn, 'go on', still runs but can no longer strike.
14
and fled from before his clock-face.
GrammarA contracted past tense verb entflohn is a contracted simple past form of entfliehen, 'to flee, escape', third person plural. entfliehen vor takes the dative, so vor seinem Zifferblatt means 'from before his clock-face'. Zifferblatt is literally 'numeral-leaf', the numbered face of a clock or watch.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems.
Reading aloud: Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
The app: The same text on your phone, your place kept, the audio offline. The first poems free, the rest $4.99.
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Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
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