German · New Poems: The Other Part

Römische Campagna

The Roman Campagna

14 lines · 14 notes

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1
Out of the crowded city, which would rather
Ausout ofaus · prepositiondepends on geht (line 3)
dertheder · determiner, dative, feminine, singulardepends on Stadt
vollgestelltencrowdedvollgestellt · adjective, dative, feminine, singulardepends on Stadt
StadtcityStadt · noun, dative, feminine, singulardepends on Aus
diewhichder · pronoun, nominative, feminine, singulardepends on schliefe (next line)
lieberratherlieber · adverbdepends on schliefe (next line)
WordPast participle of vollstellen vollgestellt is the past participle of vollstellen, 'to fill up, clutter a space with things', from voll, 'full', plus stellen, 'to place'. die vollgestellte Stadt is Rome jammed full of buildings. lieber completes with schliefe next line.
2
sleep, dreaming of the high baths,
GrammarSubjunctive expressing a wish schliefe is Konjunktiv II of schlafen, 'to sleep'. With lieber from the line above it forms a wish contrary to fact, die lieber schliefe, 'which would rather sleep'. Thermen are the Roman bath complexes, whose ruins still stand.
3
the straight road of tombs goes out into the fever;
WordCompound naming a road of tombs Gräberweg joins Gräber, plural of Grab, 'grave, tomb', to Weg, 'road, way': a road lined with tombs. grade is the clipped form of gerade, 'straight'. ins Fieber names the malaria long associated with the Roman Campagna.
4
and the windows in the last farmhouses
WordA borrowed word for farmhouses Fermen is the plural of Ferme, a borrowing from French ferme, 'farm', naming outlying farmhouses at the city's edge. Everyday German would say Höfe. in den letzten Fermen is dative after in, 'in the last farmsteads'.
5
watch after it with an evil look.
GrammarSeparable verb, dative object nachsehen, 'to gaze after someone leaving', is separable: the prefix nach- splits off to the end of the clause, sehn ihm nach, 'gaze after it'. sehn is the poetic short form of sehen, and it takes a dative object, ihm.
6
And it feels them always at the back of its neck,
WordIdiom for feeling pursued Genick is the nape, the back of the neck. The idiom jemanden im Genick haben means to have someone right behind you. Here er, the road, feels the windows' stares immer im Genick, 'always at its back'.
7
as it goes on, destroying right and left,
GrammarPresent participle used as adverb zerstörend is the present participle of zerstören, 'to destroy', used adverbially, 'destroying'. The prefix zer- carries the sense of breaking to pieces. hingehen is a separable verb, 'to go on'.
8
until, breathless out there, imploring,
WordOne word, two senses at once beschwörend is the present participle of beschwören, which means both 'to implore, entreat' and 'to conjure up, invoke'. atemlos means 'breathless'; draußen means 'out there'. The participle reaches forward to hebt, 'lifts', in the next stanza.
9
lifts its emptiness up to the skies,
WordNoun formed from an adjective die Leere is the noun 'emptiness, void', from leer, 'empty'. It is the accusative object of hebt, 'lifts', seine Leere hebt, 'lifts its emptiness'. zu den Himmeln uses the plural Himmel, 'the skies'.
10
looking hastily about itself, whether no
GrammarReflexive phrase, verb held back um sich schauen means 'to look around oneself'; as a present participle, um sich schauend means 'looking about itself'. ob, 'whether', opens an indirect question whose object ihn is held back until treffen on the next line.
11
windows strike it. While it, to the distant
GrammarSubordinator sends verb to the end während, 'while, as', is a subordinating conjunction, so its verb, zuwinkt, moves to the end of the clause. treffen here means 'to strike, to hit with a glance'.
12
aqueducts waves, to come striding near,
GrammarDative-governing verb, waving zuwinken, 'to wave to someone', is separable and governs the dative, den weiten Aquädukten zuwinkt, 'waves to the distant aqueducts'. herzuschreiten fuses her-, 'this way', with the zu-infinitive of schreiten, 'to stride'.
13
the heavens give it, in exchange for its own,
GrammarPossessive pronoun standing alone die seine is the possessive pronoun 'its own', standing in for seine Leere, 'its emptiness', from the previous stanza; the feminine die agrees with Leere. für die seine means 'in exchange for its own'.
14
their emptiness, which outlives it.
GrammarInseparable verb, no ge- prefix überleben, 'to survive, outlive', is inseparable, so its past participle takes no ge-, überlebt. die ihn überlebt is a relative clause, 'which outlives it', die referring to ihre Leere, 'their emptiness'.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems: The Other Part.
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