# Sankt Georg · Saint George

Neue Gedichte · Rainer Maria Rilke · New Poems: The Other Part

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

**1** Und sie hatte ihn die ganze Nacht  
And she had been calling on him all night long,
> A pluperfect split across lines: hatte begins a pluperfect whose participle, angerufen, 'called upon', does not arrive until the next line. German routinely strands the auxiliary far from its participle, and here the gap leaves the long night of pleading unresolved across the line break.

**2** angerufen, hingekniet, die schwache  
called upon, knelt down before him, the weak,
> A separable verb for kneeling: The separable verb hinknien means 'to kneel down onto the ground'. The prefix hin- marks motion away from the speaker, toward a place, here the act of sinking to one's knees. The bare participle hingekniet sits beside angerufen as a second thing she did all night.

**3** wache Jungfrau: Siehe, dieser Drache,  
watching virgin: Behold, this dragon,
> An archaic imperative for behold: Siehe is an archaic, full form of the imperative of sehen, 'to see', where modern German would use sieh. It survives mostly in biblical and liturgical usage, giving the virgin's prayer the cadence of scripture.

**4** und ich weiß es nicht, warum er wacht.  
and I do not know why he keeps watch.
> Verb-final in an indirect question: After warum, 'why', the conjugated verb wacht is pushed to the very end of the clause: warum er wacht means 'why he keeps watch'. This word order marks the subordinate clause, and the repeated wach- root ties her wakefulness to the dragon's.


**5** Und da brach er aus dem Morgengraun  
And then he broke out of the grey of dawn
> To break out of dawn: The separable verb ausbrechen, 'to break out, burst forth', splits in the past tense: brach ... aus. Morgengraun contracts Morgengrauen, 'the greying of morning, daybreak'. The saint erupts out of the half-light like the sun itself.

**6** auf dem Falben, strahlend Helm und Haubert,  
on the dun horse, helmet and hauberk blazing,
> A horse named by its color: falb is a pale yellowish brown, 'dun' or 'fallow'; der Falbe is the dun-colored horse, named for its coat. Haubert, more usually Halsberge, is the mail hauberk. strahlend, 'blazing', governs both Helm und Haubert, so the whole armour shines.

**7** und er sah sie, traurig und verzaubert  
and he saw her, sorrowful and enchanted,

**8** aus dem Knieen aufwärtsschaun  
gazing upward out of her kneeling
> A bare infinitive after seeing: er sah sie ... aufwärtsschaun means 'he saw her gaze upward'. After verbs of perception like sehen, German uses a bare infinitive, schaun, a colloquial form of schauen, with no zu. aus dem Knieen turns the verb knien, 'to kneel', into a noun for the act itself.


**9** zu dem Glänze, der er war.  
up to the radiance that he was.
> A relative clause as predicate: der Glanz, 'radiance, splendour', appears here in the older dative form dem Glänze. The relative clause der er war means 'which he was': the saint does not merely have radiance, he is the radiance she kneels toward.

**10** Und er sprengte glänzend längs der Länder  
And he galloped, gleaming, along the lands
> sprengen, to gallop: Beside its common sense 'to blow up, burst', sprengen is also the old equestrian verb 'to set spurs, to gallop'. längs, 'along', takes the genitive, as in längs der Länder, 'along the lands'.

**11** abwärts mit erhobnem Doppelhänder  
downward with his raised two-handed sword
> A great two-handed sword: A Doppelhänder, also called a Zweihänder, is a great sword wielded with both hands. erhobnem syncopates erhobenem, 'raised', its dative ending agreeing with Doppelhänder after mit, 'with'.

**12** in die offene Gefahr,  
into the open danger,


**13** viel zu furchtbar, aber doch erfleht.  
far too terrible, and yet implored for.
> To win something by pleading: erflehen means to beg earnestly for something, to win it through prayer; the prefix er- adds the sense of attaining the end of that pleading. The danger is called viel zu furchtbar, 'far too terrible', and yet erfleht, the very thing prayed for all night.

**14** Und sie kniete knieender, die Hände  
And she knelt more kneelingly, her hands
> An invented comparative form: kniete knieender pairs the verb 'knelt' with a comparative coined from the participle knieend, 'kneeling', roughly 'knelt more kneelingly'. German has no ordinary comparative of a participle; this one is coined for the line.

**15** fester faltend, daß er sie bestände;  
folding them tighter, that he might withstand it for her;
> A subjunctive expressing a wish: bestände is the past subjunctive, Konjunktiv II, of bestehen, marking a wish rather than a fact: 'so that he might withstand it'. daß sends the verb to the end of its clause, and the subjunctive form keeps the prayer hopeful and unsettled.

**16** denn sie wußte nicht, daß der besteht,  
for she did not know that the one prevails
> der pointing ahead to a clause: Here der is not an article but a stressed demonstrative pronoun, 'the one who', whose own relative clause runs on into the next stanza. besteht, present tense of bestehen, now means 'endures, prevails'. The thought deliberately overruns the stanza break.


**17** den ihr Herz, ihr reines und bereites,  
whom her heart, her pure and ready heart,
> An accusative relative pronoun: den is the accusative masculine relative pronoun, 'whom', object of niederreißt two lines down: der besteht, den ... niederreißt means 'the one prevails whom her heart tears down'. ihr reines und bereites is in apposition to ihr Herz, her heart.

**18** aus dem Licht des göttlichen Geleites  
out of the light of the divine escort
> An escort of light: das Geleit is an accompanying escort or safe-conduct; des göttlichen Geleites is the genitive, 'of the divine escort', modifying Licht, 'light', in aus dem Licht des göttlichen Geleites.

**19** niederreißt. Zu Seiten seines Streites  
tears down. At the sides of his combat
> To tear something down: The separable verb niederreißen, 'to tear, pull down', completes the long suspended sentence: her heart reißt the saint nieder, down out of the divine light. zu Seiten, an older plural of Seite, 'side', with the genitive seines Streites means 'on either side of his combat'.

**20** stand, wie Türme stehen, ihr Gebet.  
her prayer stood, as towers stand.
> A simile splitting subject and verb: The subject ihr Gebet, 'her prayer', and its verb stand, 'stood', are split by the inserted comparison wie Türme stehen, 'as towers stand'. Placing the simile inside the main clause is an unusual word order.

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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.