German · New Poems

Morgue

The Morgue

14 lines · 12 notes

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1
There they lie ready, as though the task remained
DaThereda · adverbdepends on liegen
liegenlieliegen · verb, present, indicative, third-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
sietheysie · pronoun, nominative, pluraldepends on liegen
bereitreadybereit · adverbdepends on liegen
alsasals · subordinating conjunctiondepends on gälte
obthoughob · subordinating conjunctiondepends on gälte
esites · pronoun, nominative, neuter, singulardepends on gälte
gältewere necessarygelten · verb, past, subjunctive, third-person, singulardepends on bereit
GrammarPast subjunctive of gelten gälte is the Konjunktiv II, or past subjunctive, form of gelten, 'to be at stake, to be a matter of'. The impersonal phrase es gälte, etwas zu tun means 'as though it were a matter of doing something'. The conjunction als ob, meaning 'as though', requires this subjunctive form.
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to invent, after the fact, some single act
WordAfter the fact, belatedly nachträglich means 'after the fact, belatedly, in retrospect', formed from nachtragen, 'to carry after, to add later'. It depends on the infinitive erfinden, 'to invent', describing when the inventing would happen. eine Handlung, 'an act', is the object of erfinden.
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that might know how to bind them, each to each
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and to this cold, and reconcile them all;
Grammarwissen zu plus infinitive wissen zu plus an infinitive means 'to know how to do something'. Here weiß, from wissen, sits inside a relative clause while two zu infinitives, versöhnen and verbinden, frame it: 'that knows how to reconcile and to bind them'. Sie, 'them', is the shared object of both infinitives.
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for all of this is still as if unclosed.
WordOld spelling of an ending noun Schluß, spelled Schluss in modern German, means 'end, close, conclusion'. wie ohne Schluß means 'as though without an ending'. The word is printed with the older ß after a short vowel, matching Rilke's original spelling rather than the post-1996 rule.
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What sort of name should have been found inside
GrammarAsking what kind of was für ein means 'what kind of, what sort of'. The preposition für does not set the case here; instead the case of the following noun depends on its role in the sentence. Name is the subject of the clause, so it stays in the nominative case.
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their pockets? At the weariness that ringed
WordA noun for weariness Überdruß, spelled Überdruss in modern German, means 'surfeit, weariness', the disgust of having had too much. It stands in the dative after the preposition an, 'at'. The related adjective überdrüssig sein means 'to be sick of' something.
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their mouths, the washing went round and around;
GrammarMan as an impersonal subject man is an impersonal subject meaning 'one, they, people', used when the doer is left unnamed. herumwaschen fuses the separable prefix herum-, 'round about', with waschen, 'to wash'; its perfect tense is hat herumgewaschen. Um ihren Mund, 'around their mouth', names the area that was washed.
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it would not come off; it only grew quite clean.
GrammarA separable verb splits apart abgehen is a separable verb that here means '(of a mark) to come off, wash out'. In the simple past the prefix ab splits from ging and moves to the end of the clause, so er ging nicht ab means 'it would not come off'. er refers back to a noun named earlier in the poem.
10
The beards stand stiff, a little harsher now,
WordStehen used of hair Bart, plural Bärte, means 'beard'. stehen usually means 'to stand', but here it describes hair standing up stiff. noch ein wenig härter means 'a little harder still', using härter, the comparative form of hart, 'hard'.
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yet tidier, to suit the keepers' taste,
WordTaste and the word for keepers Geschmack means 'taste', both the physical sense and an aesthetic preference; im Geschmack der Wärter means 'to the taste of the keepers'. Wärter, from warten, 'to tend, to watch over', names the people who look after the morgue. der Wärter is genitive plural, depending on Geschmack.
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only so as not to revolt the gaping crowd.
GrammarPurpose clause with a separable verb um … zu plus an infinitive expresses purpose, 'in order to'. Because anwidern, 'to revolt, disgust someone', is separable, zu is inserted between its prefix an- and the stem, giving anzuwidern. Die Gaffenden is a nominalized participle from gaffen, 'to gawk', meaning 'the gaping ones'.
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The eyes, behind their lids, have turned themselves
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around, and now they gaze the other way — within.
GrammarA reflexive verb and a direction word sich umwenden, 'to turn oneself around', is a reflexive separable verb whose perfect participle is umgewandt. The reflexive pronoun sich and the participle umgewandt belong together even though a line break falls between them. hinein means 'inward, into there', so schauen jetzt hinein means 'now gaze inward'.

The particulars

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