German · New Poems: The Other Part

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17 lines · 22 notes

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1
She came up the slope, already heavy, almost past
SieShesie · pronoun, nominative, feminine, singulardepends on kam
kamcamekommen · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
dentheder · determiner, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on Hang
HangslopeHang · noun, accusative, masculine, singulardepends on herauf
heraufupherauf · adverbdepends on kam
schonalreadyschon · adverbdepends on schwer
schwerheavyschwer · adverbdepends on kam
fastalmostfast · adverbdepends on ohne
ohnewithoutohne · subordinating conjunctiondepends on kam
WordHeavy meaning with child Schwer means 'heavy', but of a pregnant woman it is the ordinary German way of saying 'far along, heavily pregnant'. Rilke uses only this plain adjective, without the word 'pregnant' itself.
GrammarAccusative of path Der Hang, 'the slope', takes the accusative den Hang because it names the stretch of ground covered by motion, not a fixed place. Herauf, 'up toward here', follows and completes the direction.
2
believing in comfort, hope, or counsel;
GrammarBelieving in with the accusative 'To believe in something' in German is an etwas glauben, with an governing the accusative: an Trost, 'in comfort'. The phrase continues fast ohne ... zu glauben from the line before, an ohne ... zu plus infinitive construction split across the line break.
3
yet when the tall, child-bearing matron
GrammarDa meaning when Here da is the temporal conjunction 'when, at the moment that', not the adverb 'there'. It opens a subordinate clause, sending the verb entgegentrat to the end of the next line. Doch means 'yet, but.'
WordA participle for bearing a child Tragend is the present participle of tragen, 'to carry, bear'. Of a woman it means 'with child, pregnant'. Die hohe tragende Matrone describes Elizabeth, herself far along.
4
stepped grave and proud to meet her
GrammarA separable verb Entgegentreten, 'to step toward, confront, meet', is separable: entgegen plus treten. The dative ihr, 'to her', names who is stepped toward. Because the clause is subordinate, opened by da, the verb stays whole at the clause's end.
5
and knew it all without her telling,
GrammarOld spelling of 'wusste' Wußte is the simple past of wissen, 'to know'. Rilke writes it with ß, the pre-1996 spelling; after a short vowel modern German writes wusste. The text keeps his original spelling.
WordA noun for confiding Das Vertrauen is 'trust'; 'to confide in someone' is sich jemandem anvertrauen. Ohne ihr Vertrauen means 'without her confiding it, without being told'.
6
she was at once at rest on her;
GrammarA participle for a state reached Ausgeruht comes from the separable verb sich ausruhen, 'to rest, recover'. War ... ausgeruht reads as a state reached, 'had come to rest', rather than a simple past action. An ihr means 'on, against her.'
7
warily the full women held each other,
WordFull meaning late in pregnancy Voll means 'full'. Of these two pregnant women it carries the rounded fullness of late pregnancy: 'the full women'. Sich halten here is reciprocal, 'held one another.'
8
until the young one spoke: I feel within me,
GrammarAn older form of until Bis daß, 'until', is a fuller, older form of plain bis; daß is the pre-1996 spelling of dass. It introduces a clause that sends its verb, sprach, 'spoke', to the end.
WordAn impersonal idiom of feeling The idiom mir ist (so) zumute means 'I feel a certain way inside'. Rilke uses the shorter form zumut. It is impersonal, literally 'to me it is in the mood', and opens the song that follows.
9
as if I were, dear one, from now on forever.
GrammarUnreal comparison Als plus the subjunctive (Konjunktiv II) sets up an unreal comparison, 'as though'. Wär is the contracted subjunctive of sein, full form wäre. After als the verb comes first: als wär ich, 'as though I were.'
WordAs a term of address Die Liebe means 'love', but set off in commas and addressed to the matron, it is a term of address: 'dear one, love.' It marks the words as spoken intimately to Elizabeth.
10
God pours into the vanity of the rich
GrammarGenitive of an adjectival noun Die Reichen, 'the rich', is an adjective used as a noun; its genitive plural is der Reichen, 'of the rich'. In der Reichen Eitelkeit means 'into the vanity of the rich.'
11
their glitter almost without a glance;
GrammarA separable verb with 'zu' Hinsehen, 'to look toward, glance at', is separable, so the infinitival zu sits inside: hinzusehen. Ohne ... zu plus infinitive means 'without doing something': fast ohne hinzusehen, 'scarcely with a glance.'
12
yet carefully he seeks himself a woman
WordAn old word for a woman Historically das Frauenzimmer was a plain or respectful word for a woman; Rilke uses this older sense, not its modern dismissive one. Sucht er sich, 'seeks for himself', uses a dative reflexive sich.
13
and fills her up with his most distant time.
GrammarA separable verb Anfüllen, 'to fill up', splits: füllt sie an, 'fills her up', with the prefix an landing at the clause's end. Mit seiner fernsten Zeit, 'with his most distant time', uses mit plus dative; fernsten is the superlative of fern, 'far.'
14
That he found me. Only think; and commands
GrammarAn exclamation on its own A daß-clause usually depends on a main clause, but here Daß er mich fand stands alone as an exclamation, 'That he found me!' The verb fand, simple past of finden, still sits at the clause's end, as subordinate word order requires.
15
gave for my sake from star to star–.
WordA frame for someone's sake The fixed frame um ... willen, 'for the sake of', takes special pronoun forms: um meinetwillen means 'for my sake'. The sentence continues Befehle from the line before: commands given 'for my sake, from star to star.'
16
Glorify and lift up, my soul,
GrammarTwo imperatives to the soul Verherrliche, 'glorify', from verherrlichen, and hebe, 'lift up', from heben, are both imperatives addressed to meine Seele, 'my soul'. Their shared object, den Herrn, is held back to the next line.
17
as high as you can: the Lord.
GrammarThe held-back object Der Herr, 'the Lord', becomes den Herrn in the accusative, adding -n because Herr is a weak masculine noun. It is suspended to the very last words of the poem, the object of verherrliche and hebe from the lines before.

The particulars

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