German · New Poems: The Other Part

Samuels Erscheinung vor Saul

Samuel's Apparition before Saul

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1
Then the woman of Endor cried out: I see–
DaThenda · adverbdepends on schrie
schriecried outaufschreien · verb, past, indicative, third-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
dietheder · determiner, nominative, feminine, singulardepends on Frau
FrauwomanFrau · noun, nominative, feminine, singulardepends on schrie
zuofzu · prepositiondepends on Frau
EndorEndorEndor · proper noun, dative, singulardepends on zu
The 'woman of Endor' is the medium of 1 Samuel 28, whom Saul consults to summon the spirit of the dead prophet Samuel.
aufoutauf · particledepends on schrie
IchIich · pronoun, nominative, singulardepends on sehe
sehe–seesehen · verb, present, indicative, first-person, singularmain verb of the sentence
GrammarSeparable verb aufschreien aufschreien, 'to cry out', is a separable verb. The prefix auf- detaches and moves to the end of the clause, giving schrie ... auf. schrie is the simple past of schreien, 'to scream'.
2
The king seized her by the arm: Whom?
GrammarDative with an, the arm German names the body part gripped with an plus dative: packte sie am Arme, 'seized her by the arm'. am is a contraction of an dem. Arme carries an old dative -e ending kept here for the verse.
GrammarAccusative wen wen is the accusative form of wer, 'who'. English keeps this distinction only as 'whom'. Here it marks the object of seeing, the thing Saul asks the woman to name.
3
And as the staring woman described, even before that,
GrammarParticiple used as noun starrend, 'staring', is a present participle. Adding the feminine article turns it into a noun, die Starrende, 'the staring woman'. German regularly makes nouns this way from participles, declining them like adjectives.
4
it already seemed to him he had seen it himself:
GrammarImpersonal es war ihm war ihm schon, literally 'was to him already', is an impersonal idiom meaning 'it already seemed to him'. The person who has the impression stands in the dative, ihm. It introduces the unreal impression in the next clause.
GrammarSubjunctive hätte gesehn hätte gesehn is the past subjunctive, Konjunktiv II, of sehen, 'to see', built with hätte plus the participle. It marks an impression, not a fact: he only felt as though he had seen it himself. gesehn is a shortened verse form of gesehen.
5
him whose voice struck him one more time:
GrammarGenitive relative dessen dessen is the genitive form of the relative pronoun der, meaning 'whose'. den, dessen Stimme means 'him, whose voice'. den itself is accusative, picking up the object of Ich sehe from the line before.
6
Why do you disturb me? I am sleeping.
Grammarwas meaning why was here means 'why' rather than 'what', a colloquial use: was störst du mich means 'why are you disturbing me'. stören takes an accusative object, du störst mich. Ich habe Schlaf literally says 'I have sleep', meaning 'I am resting'.
7
Do you mean, because the heavens curse you,
GrammarDative object with fluchen fluchen, 'to curse', takes a dative object: die Himmel fluchen dir means 'the heavens curse you'. fluchen stands at the end of the clause because weil, 'because', is a subordinating conjunction. Willst du here means 'do you mean to', completed later in the sentence.
8
and because the Lord closed himself off from you and fell silent,
GrammarReflexive sich schließen sich schließen, 'to close oneself off', describes God shutting himself away vor dir, 'from you'. schloß and schwieg are the preterites of schließen and schweigen, 'to be silent'. schloß keeps the old ß spelling, written schloss today.
9
to search my mouth for a victory?
Grammarsuchen nach plus dative nach etwas suchen means 'to search for something', with nach taking the dative: nach einem Siege, 'for a victory'. Siege is the dative of Sieg with an old -e ending. This infinitive completes the question begun earlier with Willst du.
10
Shall I tell you my teeth one by one?
WordAdverb einzeln einzeln means 'singly, one by one, individually'. It describes how he would name his teeth, meine Zähne einzeln sagen, 'tell you my teeth one by one'.
11
I have nothing but them.... It vanished. Then cried
Grammarnichts als, nothing but nichts als means 'nothing but, nothing except'. sie refers back to meine Zähne, 'my teeth', from the previous line. Es schwand is the preterite of schwinden, 'to dwindle, fade, vanish', marking the vision's disappearance.
12
the woman, her hands flung before her face,
WordNeuter noun das Weib das Weib is an older word for 'woman', neuter in gender though it names a female person. It takes the article das, not die. The word survives mainly in older or biblical German, and can sound archaic today.
GrammarParticiple phrase without a verb die Hände vors Gesicht geschlagen, 'her hands struck before her face', is a compact participial phrase with no finite verb of its own. vors is a contraction of vor das. Motion toward a position, 'to in front of', takes vor with the accusative.
13
as if she had to see it: You will fall–
Grammarals ob plus subjunctive als ob introduces an unreal comparison and triggers Konjunktiv II: müßte is the past subjunctive of müssen, 'must'. The clause implies she felt compelled to see it, not that she truly was. sie's contracts sie es. müßte keeps the old ß, written müsste today.
WordBare imperative stem Unterlieg is the bare imperative stem of unterliegen, 'to succumb, to be defeated'. The dash cuts the word off mid sentence. As an imperative it addresses Saul directly: be defeated, or go under.
14
And he, who in the time that went well for him,
Grammargelingen plus dative gelingen, 'to succeed, to turn out well', is impersonal and takes a dative object: die Zeit, die ihm gelang means 'the time that went well for him'. gelang is its preterite. The dative ihm marks the person the time favored.
15
towered over the people like a battle-standard,
Wordüberragen plus accusative überragen means 'to rise above, to tower over, to surpass', and takes a direct accusative object: das Volk. überragte is its preterite, third person singular. The subject is the king from the line before, described as towering over the people.
16
fell down before he even dared to lament:
GrammarSeparable verb hinfallen hinfallen, 'to fall down, to collapse', is a separable verb. The prefix hin-, marking motion away from the speaker, splits off to the end: fiel ... hin. The main verb arrives only after the long subject clause beginning Und er, der.
Grammarwagen zu plus infinitive wagen, 'to dare', takes zu plus an infinitive: er ... zu klagen wagte means 'he dared to lament'. klagen means 'to lament, to wail, to complain'. The clause says he fell before he could even dare to cry out.
17
so certain was his downfall.
WordNoun Untergang, downfall Untergang means 'downfall, ruin, destruction', literally a 'going under', from untergehen, used also of the sun setting. Fronting so sicher, 'so certain', pushes the verb war ahead of its subject sein Untergang, an emphatic word order.
18
But she, who against her will had struck him down,
GrammarDemonstrative pronoun die The first die here is a demonstrative pronoun meaning 'she, that one', not the article: Die aber, die means 'But she, who'. The second die begins the relative clause that follows. aber, 'but', sits in second position.
WordFixed phrase wider Willen wider Willen means 'against one's will, unwillingly'. wider is an older preposition meaning 'against', taking the accusative, and is distinct from wieder, 'again'. She struck Saul down wider Willen, only because forced to.
19
hoped that he would collect himself and forget;
GrammarSubjunctive after hoffte, daß After hoffte, daß, 'hoped that', the verbs stand in Konjunktiv II: faßte and vergäße express a hoped-for outcome, not a fact. sich fassen means 'to compose oneself, to collect oneself'; vergäße is the subjunctive of vergessen, 'to forget'.
20
and when she heard that he would never eat again,
GrammarSubjunctive äße äße is the past subjunctive, Konjunktiv II, of essen, 'to eat'. It follows daß after hörte, 'heard', because the clause reports what she learned as a claim, not a witnessed fact: that he would never eat again.
21
she went out and slaughtered and baked
GrammarPreterites schlachtete and buk schlachtete is the preterite of schlachten, 'to slaughter'. buk is the preterite of backen, 'to bake', an older strong form; modern German more often uses backte. Both verbs describe her preparing a meal.
22
and brought him to sit down;
Grammarbringen jemanden dazu, daß jemanden dazu bringen, daß means 'to bring someone to the point that, to get someone to do something'. brachte is the preterite of bringen, 'to bring'. dazu points forward to the daß clause naming what she got him to do: sich setzen, 'to sit down'.
23
he sat like one who forgets too much:
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everything that was, except the one, last thing.
Grammarbis auf, meaning except bis auf means 'except for, apart from'. alles, was war, bis auf das Eine, Letzte means 'everything that was, except for the one, last thing'. Eine and Letzte are adjectives used as nouns, both taking the accusative neuter ending.
25
Then he ate, as a servant eats his evening meal.
WordNoun Knecht, servant Knecht means 'servant, farmhand'. wie ein Knecht zu Abend ißt compares Saul's plain last meal to a servant eating his ordinary evening food, zu Abend essen, 'to eat supper'.

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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