German · New Poems: The Other Part

Schlangenbeschwörung

Snake Charming

20 lines · 20 notes

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1
When in the marketplace, swaying, the charmer
Wennwhenwenn · subordinating conjunctiondepends on pfeift
aufinauf · prepositiondepends on pfeift
demtheder · determiner, dative, masculine, singulardepends on Markt
MarktmarketplaceMarkt · noun, dative, masculine, singulardepends on auf
sichhimselfsich · pronoun, accusative, singular, reflexivedepends on wiegend
wiegendswayingwiegen · verb, present participledepends on Beschwörer
dertheder · determiner, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on Beschwörer
BeschwörercharmerBeschwörer · noun, nominative, masculine, singulardepends on pfeift
WordThe one who casts the spell der Beschwörer is an agent noun from beschwören, 'to conjure, invoke, charm', itself built on schwören, 'to swear'. It names the one who casts the spell, here the snake-charmer, and gives the poem its title, Schlangenbeschwörung, 'snake-charming'.
GrammarReflexive present participle wiegen here is used reflexively, sich wiegen, 'to sway, to rock oneself'. The present participle sich wiegend works as an adverbial phrase set off by commas, describing how the charmer moves.
2
pipes the gourd-flute that teases and lulls,
WordA compound noun for the pipe die Kürbisflöte joins Kürbis, 'gourd, pumpkin', with Flöte, 'flute'. It names the snake-charmer's reed pipe with its gourd wind-chamber. German builds such single-word compounds where English needs a phrase.
3
then it may be that he draws himself a listener
GrammarThe older spelling of dass daß, 'that', is the pre-1996 spelling, kept here as Rilke printed it; modern orthography writes dass. It introduces a subordinate clause, so the conjugated verb is pushed to the end, completed two lines later by herüberlockt.
4
over toward him, one wholly out of the tumult
GrammarSeparable verb at clause end locken means 'to lure, to entice'; the prefix herüber, 'over here, across toward the speaker', gives herüberlocken, 'to lure over here'. As the verb of the daß-clause it lands at the end, completing daß er sich einen Hörer herüberlockt, 'that he lures a listener over toward himself'.
5
of the stalls, steps into the circle of the pipe,
GrammarGenitive plural across a line break die Bude, 'stall, booth', appears here as the genitive plural der Buden, completing aus dem Tumult der Buden, 'out of the tumult of the stalls', from the previous line. Rilke splits the noun phrase across the stanza break.
6
which wills and wills and wills and which achieves
Wordwill repeated three times will is the third-person form of wollen, 'to want, to will'. The threefold repetition, die will und will und will, has no further grammatical function beyond coordinating three identical clauses with und, 'and'.
7
that the reptile in its basket stiffen
GrammarSubjunctive of result erreichen, daß ... , 'to bring it about that ...', governs a subjunctive clause. steife, from sich steifen, 'to stiffen', carries the result the pipe achieves. The -e ending marks Konjunktiv I, reporting an intended effect.
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and which, flatteringly, softens the stiffened thing again,
WordAn adverb from schmeicheln schmeichlerisch is an adverb from schmeicheln, 'to flatter, to cajole'. das steife schmeichlerisch erweicht means 'flatteringly softens the stiffened thing'. das steife uses the adjective steif, 'stiff', as a noun, 'the stiffened thing'.
9
by turns ever more dizzying and more blind
GrammarComparatives with immer immer before a comparative means 'ever more, increasingly'. schwindelnder, 'more dizzying', from schwindeln, and blinder, 'more blind', both intensify in step with abwechselnd, 'by turns'.
10
with that which frightens and rears, and that which releases—;
Wordschreckt, streckt, löst Three verbs name the snake's states: schreckt, 'startles, terrifies'; streckt, 'stretches, rears up'; löst, 'loosens, releases'. All three are third-person singular present forms depending on the relative pronoun was, 'that which'.
11
and then one glance suffices: so the Indian
GrammarImpersonal sufficing genügen, 'to suffice, to be enough', takes its sufficient thing as subject: ein Blick genügt means 'a single glance is enough'. The verb-first order, und dann genügt ein Blick, throws the weight onto dann, 'then'.
12
has instilled a strangeness into you,
GrammarDative recipient of einflößen einflößen means 'to instil, to pour into, to administer'. It takes a dative for the recipient: dir ... eingeflößt means 'instilled into you'. eine Fremde, 'a strangeness', is the accusative object of the participle.
13
in which you die. It is as though a burning
Grammarals with subjunctive, 'as though' Es ist, als ... , 'it is as though ...', governs Konjunktiv II, the mood of the unreal. überstürze is morphologically Konjunktiv I because the Konjunktiv II form of this weak verb would look identical to the past tense, so literary German substitutes Konjunktiv I to keep the subjunctive clear.
14
sky came crashing over you. A crack runs
Wordein Sprung geht durch der Sprung can mean 'leap' but here means 'crack, fissure', as in cracked glass. es geht ein Sprung durch dein Gesicht means 'a crack runs through your face'. The expletive es only fills the front position; the real subject is ein Sprung.
15
through your face. Spices settle themselves
GrammarPlaceholder es es again only opens the sentence; the plural verb legen agrees with the real plural subject Gewürze, 'spices'. sich legen here is reflexive, meaning 'to settle, to lay themselves down'.
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over your northern remembrance,
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which helps you nothing. No powers ward you,
WordTo make charm-proof feien is a rare, archaic verb meaning 'to make invulnerable, to charm against harm', related to Fee, 'fairy'; its past participle gefeit survives in gegen etwas gefeit sein, 'to be proof against something'. Dich feien keine Kräfte means 'no powers make you charm-proof', with the object dich placed first for emphasis.
18
the sun ferments, the fever falls and strikes;
WordTo ferment gären means 'to ferment, to seethe', the process of wine or dough working. die Sonne gärt casts the sun as a seething heat. fällt und trifft, 'falls and strikes', are two coordinated verbs describing the fever.
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with wicked joy the shafts rear up,
GrammarDative of cause von plus the dative böser Freude gives the cause, 'out of wicked joy'. sich steilen, a coinage from steil, 'steep', means 'to rear up steeply'. die Schäfte, 'the shafts', are the snakes' raised bodies, the subject of the reflexive verb.
20
and in the snakes the venom gleams.
WordA false friend das Gift means 'poison, venom' in modern German, a false friend of English 'gift'. It once meant 'something given'; the English sense survives in German only in Mitgift, 'dowry'.

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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