German · New Poems

Tanagra

19 lines · 19 notes

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1
A little fired earth,
EinAein · determinerdepends on wenig
weniglittlewenig · adverbhead of the phrase
gebrannterfiredgebrannt · adjective, genitive, feminine, singulardepends on Erde
ErdeearthErde · noun, genitive, feminine, singulardepends on wenig
WordGenitive after wenig, a little gebrannt is the past participle of brennen, 'to burn, fire', used here as an adjective. Erde means 'earth, clay'. gebrannter Erde, genitive after wenig, means 'of fired earth', describing what the little figure is made of.
2
as if fired by a great sun.
Grammarvon marking the agent of a passive gebrannt, 'fired', is a past participle used passively here; von großer Sonne names the agent that did the firing, 'by a great sun'. von plus a dative noun regularly marks the doer of an action in a German passive construction.
3
As though the gesture
GrammarOpening an unreal comparison als wäre means 'as though... were', introducing a comparison that is not literally true. wäre is the Subjunctive II form of sein, 'to be'. The subject, die Gebärde, 'the gesture', follows in the same clause.
WordA noun for bearing or gesture die Gebärde means 'gesture, bearing, expressive movement of the body'. Here it is the subject of the unreal comparison als wäre, 'as though [the gesture] were'.
4
of a girl's hand
GrammarA genitive without von einer Mädchenhand is genitive, meaning 'of a girl's hand'. German can mark possession this way, with a genitive ending on the noun, instead of using von plus dative. Mädchenhand itself is a compound of Mädchen, 'girl', and Hand, 'hand'.
5
were all at once no longer passed away;
WordPast participle of passing away vergangen is the past participle of vergehen, 'to pass away, elapse'. nicht mehr vergangen means 'no longer passed away', with auf einmal, 'suddenly, all at once', marking how abruptly this reversal happens.
6
without reaching out for anything,
WordReaching out for something langen nach etwas means 'to reach out for something, grasp toward something'. ohne, 'without', plus a zu-infinitive forms ohne... zu langen, 'without reaching out': the gesture asks nothing and reaches for nothing.
7
toward no thing at all,
Grammarzu... hin, a two-part directional zu... hin means 'toward, in the direction of'; hin reinforces the direction already given by zu and typically comes at the end of its phrase. zu keinem Dinge hin means 'toward no thing at all', with keinem in the dative required by zu.
8
leading out of her own feeling,
GrammarAn older dative ending on a noun aus takes the dative, so ihrem Gefühle, 'her feeling', is dative here, an older form with the -e ending still visible (modern usage would often drop it). aus ihrem Gefühle führend means 'leading out of her own feeling'.
9
only touching upon herself,
WordTouching only on herself an etwas rühren means 'to touch upon something, stir something'; with sich selber, 'herself', it means 'to touch only upon herself'. selber emphasizes sich, much like 'herself' emphasizes 'her' in English.
10
like a hand against the chin.
GrammarA contraction before the chin ans is a contraction of an das, 'to the'. an here takes the accusative because it marks contact or motion toward a point, das Kinn, 'the chin'. wie eine Hand ans Kinn means 'like a hand [placed] against the chin'.
11
We lift and we turn
GrammarTwo coordinated first-person verbs heben, 'we lift', and drehen, 'we turn', are both first-person plural present-tense verbs, joined by und. Both share the same subject, wir, 'we', stated once before heben and repeated before drehen.
12
one figurine and another;
WordOne figurine, then another eine is the feminine accusative form of ein, here used twice as a pronoun-like determiner meaning 'one' and then 'another'. eine und eine Figur means 'one figurine after another', with Figur, 'figurine, figure', understood with both.
13
we can almost understand
14
why they do not fade away,—
Grammarweshalb sending the verb to the end weshalb means 'why, for which reason', introducing a subordinate clause. As in any German subordinate clause, the finite verb, vergehen, 'fade away', is pushed to the end, after its subject sie and the negation nicht.
15
but we are only to
Grammarsollen, an obligation sollen is a modal verb meaning 'to be supposed to, be meant to'. wir sollen nur means 'we are only meant to', setting up an infinitive that follows later in the sentence to complete the thought.
16
more deeply and more wondrously
GrammarTwo adverbs in the comparative tiefer and wunderbarer are comparative forms of tief, 'deep', and wunderbar, 'wonderful', each formed regularly with -er. Used adverbially, they mean 'more deeply' and 'more wondrously', describing how something is done rather than what it is.
17
cling to that which was,
Wordhängen an, clinging to hängen an etwas means 'to cling to, be attached to something'. dem, was war means 'that which was', with dem as the object of an and was war as a relative clause defining it: 'they cling to that which was'.
18
and smile: a little more clearly
WordThe verb for smiling lächeln means 'to smile', distinct from lachen, 'to laugh'. Here it is an infinitive coordinated with hängen, 'cling', both describing what the figures continue to do: cling to the past, and smile.
19
perhaps than a year ago.
GrammarA year ago, with vor vor plus a dative time expression means 'ago': vor einem Jahr means 'a year ago'. als here means 'than', comparing this smile to how it was vor einem Jahr.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems.
Reading aloud: Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
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