German · New Poems

Grabmal eines jungen Mädchens

Tomb of a Young Girl

11 lines · 10 notes

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1
We remember it still. It is as if all
WirWewir · pronoun, nominative, pluraldepends on gedenkens
gedenkensremember itgedenken · verb, present, indicative, first-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
'gedenkens' fuses 'gedenken' (to remember, governs the genitive) with the clitic object 'es' — an archaic contraction.
nochstillnoch · adverbdepends on gedenkens
DasItder · pronoun, nominative, neuter, singulardepends on ist
istissein · auxiliary verb, present, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
alsas ifals · subordinating conjunctiondepends on müßte
müßtehad tomüssen · auxiliary verb, past, subjunctive, third-person, singularmain verb of the als-clause, depends on ist
Grammargedenken governs the genitive gedenken, 'to remember, to commemorate', takes the genitive case rather than the accusative. gedenkens contracts gedenken and es, giving 'we remember it'. The verb is solemn and formal, often used for honoring the dead.
GrammarA comparison marked as unreal als combined with the subjunctive müßte, an older spelling of müsste, marks an unreal comparison, close to 'it had to happen again'. It continues into the next line, where its subject appears.
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this had to be once again.
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Like a tree on the lemon coast
WordA compound naming a fruit coast Limonenküste joins Limone, 'lemon', with Küste, 'coast', naming a lemon-growing Mediterranean shore. The phrase sets up the simile that follows, comparing the girl to a tree on that coast.
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you bore your small, light breasts
GrammarA strong verb changes its vowel trugst is the second-person singular past tense of the strong verb tragen, 'to carry, to bear', its stem vowel changing from a to u. It completes a simile begun earlier: as a tree bears fruit, you bore your breasts.
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into the rushing of his blood:
Grammarin plus hinein marks motion inward in with the accusative das Rauschen means motion into something, and the separable particle hinein, 'into, inward', reinforces that direction. seines Bluts is the genitive of das Blut, 'the blood', naming whose it is.
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—of that god.
GrammarA genitive held back for emphasis jenes Gottes is the genitive of jener Gott, 'that god', appearing after a stanza break. It completes seines Bluts from the line before, so the two together read 'of that god's blood', with the owner named only now.
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And it was the slender
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fugitive, the indulger of women.
WordA participle turned into a noun verwöhnen means 'to spoil, to indulge'. Its present participle verwöhnend is used here as a noun, der Verwöhnende, 'the one who indulges'. der Fraun is a poetic genitive plural of der Frauen, 'of women'.
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Sweet and glowing, warm as your thought,
WordA present participle used as adjective glühend is the present participle of glühen, 'to glow, to burn', used here as an adjective meaning 'glowing, burning'. It is paired with süß, 'sweet', and warm to describe the god.
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overshadowing your early flank,
GrammarA participle governing the accusative überschattend is the present participle of überschatten, 'to overshadow'. Used as an adjective, it governs the accusative deine frühe Flanke, 'your early flank'. The participle form keeps the action ongoing rather than finished.
11
and inclined like your eyebrows.
WordA participle with two meanings geneigt is the past participle of neigen, 'to incline, to bend', used as an adjective meaning 'inclined, leaning'. It can describe a physical curve, like an eyebrow, or a favorable disposition toward someone. Augenbraun is a poetic form of Augenbrauen, 'eyebrows'.

The particulars

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