# Östliches Taglied · Eastern Aubade

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems

Source: https://1732studios.com/books/rilke/oestliches-taglied. Data: https://1732studios.com/books/rilke/oestliches-taglied.json. Audio: https://audio.1732studios.com/rilke/<line id>.m4a.

**1** Ist dieses Bette nicht wie eine Küste,  
Is this bed not like a coastline,
> An older dative-style form: Das Bett means 'bed'. Bette is an older, poetic form with a final -e, once common in elevated verse and felt as old-fashioned now. This line opens the poem with that rounder, more lyrical form rather than the plain Bett.

**2** ein Küstenstreifen nur, darauf wir liegen?  
only a strip of shore, on which we lie?
> A pronoun fused with a preposition: Darauf fuses da-, standing for a thing, with the preposition auf, 'on', giving 'on which, on it'. German uses these da- compounds instead of preposition plus pronoun when referring to a thing. Here it points back to Küstenstreifen, 'strip of shore'.

**3** Nichts ist gewiß als deine hohen Brüste,  
Nothing is certain but your high breasts,
> A word meaning except: After nichts, 'nothing', als means 'except, other than, but', so nichts als means 'nothing but'. In other contexts als can mean 'when', 'as', or 'than'. The line reads 'nothing is certain but your high breasts'.
> An older spelling with ß: Gewiß means 'certain, sure'. It is spelled with ß in the orthography used at the time this poem was written; modern German writes gewiss, since the vowel before it is short. The word is kept here as originally printed.

**4** die mein Gefühl in Schwindeln überstiegen.  
which my senses, reeling, climbed beyond.
> An inseparable verb meaning surpass: Übersteigen means literally 'to climb over' and figuratively 'to surpass, to exceed'. Here it is the simple past of an inseparable verb, with the stress on the stem. Its subject, die, meaning the breasts, overwhelms mein Gefühl, 'my senses'.


**5** Denn diese Nacht, in der so vieles schrie,  
For this night, in which so much cried out,
> A coordinating conjunction, not weil: denn is a coordinating conjunction meaning 'for, because'. Unlike weil, it does not send its verb to the end of the clause, so the relative clause that follows, in der so vieles schrie, keeps ordinary word order.

**6** in der sich Tiere rufen und zerreißen,  
in which animals call to and tear at each other,
> Sich used to mean each other: The reflexive pronoun sich is read here reciprocally: Tiere rufen und zerreißen sich means animals 'call to and tear at one another'. Zerreißen, 'to tear apart', combines reißen, 'to tear', with the intensifying prefix zer-. Sich governs both verbs at once.

**7** ist sie uns nicht entsetzlich fremd? Und wie:  
is it not dreadfully strange to us? And how strange:
> Fremd takes the dative: Fremd, 'strange, foreign', takes a dative for the person to whom something seems strange: sie ist uns fremd means 'it is strange to us'. Sie refers back to diese Nacht, 'this night'. Entsetzlich, 'dreadfully', intensifies the strangeness.

**8** was draußen langsam anhebt, Tag geheißen,  
what slowly lifts up outside, called day,
> A separable verb for beginning: Anheben is a separable verb, here hebt an, meaning 'to begin, to set in' and, in older usage, 'to rise, to lift up'. Was draußen langsam anhebt, 'what slowly begins outside', is the subject of the following line.
> Past participle of heissen: Heißen means 'to be called, to be named'. Tag geheißen is a compressed participial phrase meaning 'called day', naming the thing rising outside that people call Tag. Geheißen stands in apposition to was.

**9** ist das uns denn verständlicher als sie?  
is that, then, any more intelligible to us than it?
> Comparative followed by als: Verständlicher is the comparative of verständlich, 'comprehensible', and after a comparative als means 'than': 'more intelligible than it'. Sie again refers to die Nacht, 'the night'. The particle denn here means 'then, after all'.


**10** Man müßte so sich ineinanderlegen  
One would have to lay oneself so into the other
> Subjunctive stating a necessity: Müßte, the older spelling of müsste, is the Konjunktiv II of müssen, 'must', meaning 'would have to'. With the impersonal man, 'one', it states a felt necessity rather than a fact: 'one would have to'.
> A separable compound verb: Ineinanderlegen combines legen, 'to lay', with ineinander, 'into one another'. Used reflexively, sich ineinanderlegen means 'to fold into each other'. So, 'so, thus', points forward to a comparison in the next line.

**11** wie Blütenblätter um die Staubgefäße:  
as petals fold around the stamens:
> Compound nouns from botany: Das Blütenblatt, plural Blütenblätter, means 'petal', literally 'bloom leaf'. Das Staubgefäß, plural Staubgefäße, means 'stamen', literally 'dust vessel'. Um, 'around', takes the accusative here, giving 'petals around the stamens'.

**12** so sehr ist überall das Ungemäße  
so everywhere is the immeasurable
> An adjective made into a noun: Gemäß means 'fitting, in proportion'; ungemäß negates it, meaning 'disproportionate, beyond measure'. Capitalized as das Ungemäße, the adjective becomes a noun, 'the immeasurable'. Überall means 'everywhere'.

**13** und häuft sich an und stürzt sich uns entgegen.  
and heaps itself up and hurls itself toward us.
> Two reflexive separable verbs: Sich anhäufen means 'to pile up, to accumulate', appearing here as häuft sich an. Sich entgegenstürzen, with the dative, means 'to hurl itself toward', giving stürzt sich uns entgegen, where uns means 'toward us'.


**14** Doch während wir uns aneinanderdrücken,  
Yet while we press ourselves against each other,
> Doch marks a turn, während delays the verb: Doch, 'yet', marks a turn in the poem. Während, 'while', is a subordinating conjunction, so its clause sends the verb to the end: während wir uns... drücken. Sich aneinanderdrücken is a separable reflexive verb meaning 'to press against one another'.

**15** um nicht zu sehen, wie es ringsum naht,  
so as not to see how it draws near all around,
> Um zu expresses purpose: Um plus zu with an infinitive expresses purpose, 'in order to'; adding nicht gives 'so as not to'. Um nicht zu sehen means 'in order not to see'. Ringsum means 'all around', and naht, from nahen, means 'draws near'.

**16** kann es aus dir, kann es aus mir sich zücken:  
it can dart out of you, can dart out of me:
> A verb for drawing a blade: Zücken normally means 'to draw, to whip out' a weapon, as in das Schwert zücken, 'to draw the sword'. Used reflexively here, sich zücken pictures something flashing out suddenly. Aus dir, aus mir means 'out of you, out of me', with aus taking the dative.

**17** denn unsre Seelen leben von Verrat.  
for our souls live on betrayal.
> A verb phrase meaning to live on: Von etwas leben means 'to live on something, to subsist on it'; von governs the dative Verrat, 'betrayal'. The closing line states that the souls in question live on betrayal rather than on anything outside them.

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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.