German · New Poems

Todeserfahrung

Experience of Death

20 lines · 24 notes

Tap a line to open its words. The mark beside it plays it.

1
We know nothing of this going-hence, which
WirWewir · pronoun, nominative, pluraldepends on wissen
wissenknowwissen · verb, present, indicative, first-person, pluralmain verb of the sentence
nichtsnothingnichts · pronoun, neuterdepends on wissen
vonofvon · prepositiondepends on nichts
diesemthisdieser · determiner, dative, neuter, singulardepends on Hingehn
Hingehngoing-henceHingehn · noun, dative, neuter, singulardepends on von
"Hingehn" (from hingehen, "to go away/pass on") is used as a euphemism for dying.
daswhichder · pronoun, nominative, neuter, singular, relativesubject of teilt
WordAn infinitive used as a euphemism Hingehn is the infinitive of hingehen, 'to go away, pass on', used here as a neuter noun and euphemism for dying. diesem Hingehn, dative after von, means 'this going-hence'.
GrammarA relative pronoun spanning lines das is a neuter relative pronoun referring back to Hingehn, 'going-hence'. Its clause continues into the next line, where das is the subject of teilt, 'shares': 'this going-hence, which does not share itself with us'.
2
does not share itself with us. We have no ground,
GrammarSharing itself with us teilen mit means 'to share with'; here it is used reflexively in sense, though without sich, meaning the going-hence does not disclose or communicate itself to us. nicht mit uns teilt means 'does not share [itself] with us'.
3
admiration and love or hatred
WordThe old spelling of hatred der Haß means 'hatred', spelled with the old ß rather than modern ss. It is coordinated with Bewunderung, 'admiration', Liebe, 'love', by oder, listing the feelings we might show death but do not, since death cannot receive them.
4
to show to death, whom a masked mouth
GrammarA dative recipient for showing zeigen takes a dative person and an accusative thing: dem Tod, 'to death', is the dative recipient. dem Tod zu zeigen means 'to show to death', completing the sentence's earlier statement that we have no ground for admiration, love, or hatred to show it.
WordA compound for a masked mouth Maskenmund is a compound of Maske, 'mask', and Mund, 'mouth', naming a mouth fixed in a mask's frozen expression. ein Maskenmund is the subject of entstellt, 'distorts', in the next line.
5
strangely distorts with tragic lament.
WordThe verb for distorting entstellen means 'to distort, disfigure'; entstellt is its third-person present form. tragischer Klage... entstellt means '[a masked mouth] distorts [death] with tragic lament', with tragischer Klage dative, the means by which the distortion happens.
6
The world is still full of roles that we play.
GrammarAn adverb inverting the word order Noch, 'still', opens the sentence, so the verb ist follows immediately and the subject die Welt comes after it: normal order would be Die Welt ist noch. voll Rollen means 'full of roles', with Rollen genitive after voll.
7
As long as we fret whether we, too, pleased,
GrammarSubordinating as long as Solang means 'as long as', introducing a subordinate clause whose verb, sorgen, 'fret, worry', comes at the end. ob wir auch gefielen means 'whether we too pleased', a second subordinate clause nested inside the first.
8
death too goes on playing, though it does not please.
WordTwo verbs sharing one form gefällt here is the third-person present of gefallen, 'to please', not of fällen, 'to fell, cut down', though the two verbs share this form. obwohl er nicht gefällt means 'though it does not please', referring back to der Tod, 'death'.
9
But when you went, there broke onto this stage
Grammarals meaning when, normal order als here introduces a past-time clause meaning 'when'. du gingst is the second-person past tense of gehen, 'to go'. Unlike als gingst du fehl earlier in this batch, here the clause has normal word order because als, not the comparison itself, does the subordinating.
10
a strip of reality through that crack,
WordA strip of something abstract der Streifen means 'a strip, a stripe'. Wirklichkeit, 'reality', follows it in the genitive without an article, a compact construction meaning 'a strip of reality', suggesting reality showing only in a narrow band through a crack.
11
through which you went out: green of real greenness,
GrammarPast tense of going away hingingst is the second-person singular past tense of hingehen, 'to go away, depart', a compound of hin-, 'away, thither', and gehen, 'to go'. durch den du hingingst means 'through which you went away'.
WordAn abstract noun made from an adjective Grün, 'green', names the color; wirklicher Grüne, genitive, means 'of real greenness', with Grüne as an abstract noun formed from grün, 'green'. Grün wirklicher Grüne means 'green of real greenness', a green more intense than what is usually seen.
12
real sunshine, real forest.
13
We go on playing. Anxiously reciting things
GrammarA separable verb, prefix detached weiterspielen means 'to go on playing, continue playing', a separable verb; weiter detaches and moves to the end of the clause: Wir spielen weiter means 'We go on playing'.
WordA participle turned into a noun erlernt is the past participle of erlernen, 'to learn thoroughly, master'; Erlerntes, capitalized, turns it into a neuter noun, 'things learned, learned material'. Bang und schwer describes the manner: 'anxiously and laboriously'.
14
learned with effort, and now and then taking up
GrammarThe participle for reciting by rote hersagen means 'to recite, say by rote', from sagen, 'to say', with the prefix her-. hersagend is its present participle, describing the ongoing act of reciting Erlerntes, 'things learned', from the line before.
15
gestures; but your being, removed from us,
GrammarA participle for taking up aufheben here means 'to take up, pick up' (though the same verb elsewhere means 'to lift' or 'to cancel'); aufhebend is its present participle. It joins hersagend to describe two things done at once: reciting learned lines and taking up gestures.
16
withdrawn from our play, your existence can
WordA play, not a piece das Stück here means 'a play, a piece of theater', not 'a piece' in the general sense. aus unserm Stück means 'out of our play', naming the performance that dein Dasein, 'your existence', has been withdrawn from.
WordA noun built from being there das Dasein means 'existence, being', from da, 'there', plus sein, 'to be', literally 'being there'. It is the grammatical subject of kann, 'can', continuing into the next line with the verb überkommen, 'come over'.
17
sometimes come over us, like a knowledge
WordComing over someone, like a feeling überkommen means 'to come over, overtake, seize (a feeling)', used here as the infinitive completing kann, 'can': kann... überkommen means 'can come over [us]'. wie ein Wissen, 'like a knowledge', describes the manner in which it happens.
18
of that reality, sinking down,
GrammarA reflexive participle for sinking down sich niedersenken means 'to sink down, settle downward'. niedersenkend is its present participle, describing dein... Dasein as it sinks down von jener Wirklichkeit, 'from that reality', into the players' awareness.
19
so that for a while, carried away,
GrammarSubordinating a result clause so daß means 'so that', introducing a clause of result rather than purpose: it states what follows from something, not what someone intends. Its verb, spielen, arrives two lines later, after hingerissen, 'carried away'.
20
we play life itself, not thinking of applause.
GrammarA participle with its object placed first denken an etwas means 'to think of/about something'; here it appears as a present participle, denkend, with its object, an Beifall, 'of applause', placed before it. nicht an Beifall denkend means 'not thinking of applause'.

The particulars

The text: Neue Gedichte, Rainer Maria Rilke. New Poems.
Reading aloud: Digital narration, directed by 1732 Studios.
The app: The same text on your phone, your place kept, the audio offline. The first poems free, the rest $4.99.
App Store Google Play
Words: Every word of the text, by letter.
Data: JSON · Markdown · A guide for agents