Rhyme scheme is ABAB CDCD EEF GGF and the meter is irregular dactylic with verses of greatly varying lengths. This is the second of the three last similar sonnets in Part 1. This sonnet, however, is the sonnet most relevant to the dedication on the title page of Die Sonette an Orpheus, since it concerns itself with the sickness and death of Wera Ouckama Knoop.
Dich[1] aber will ich nun, dich,[2] die ich kannte
You, however, you, whom ich knew
wie eine Blume, von der ich den Namen nicht weiß,
as a flower, of which the name i do not know,
noch ein Mal erinnern[3] und ihnen zeigen, Entwandte,[4]
you will I yet again remember and show you to them, you who have been stolen from us,
schöne Gespielin des unüberwindlichen Schrei's.[5]
you beautiful playmate of the unconquerable scream.
Tänzerin erst, die plötzlich, den Körper voll Zögern,
Dancer first, who suddenly, your body full of hesitation,
anhielt, als göß man ihr Jungsein in Erz;[6]
stopped dead, as if one had cast her youth in bronze;
trauernd und lauschend --,[7] Da, von den hohen Vermögern[8]
mourning and eavesdropping --, There, from the higher potencies
fiel ihr[9] Musik in das veränderte Herz.
music fell into her transformed heart.
Nah war die Krankheit. Schon von den Schatten bemächtigt,[10]
The illness was nigh. Already strengthened by the shadows,
drängte verdunkelt das Blut, doch, wie flüchtig verdächtigt,
her blood thrust forth endarkened, yet, as if fleetingly suspicious,
trieb es[11] in seinen natürlichen Frühling hervor.
it drove itself forth into its natural spring
Wieder und wieder,[12] von Dunkel und Sturz unterbrochen,[13]
Again and again, interrupted by darkness and relapse,
glänzte es irdish. Bie es nach schrecklichem Pochen
it shone in an earthly light. Until after terrible throbbing
trat[14]in das trostlos offene Tor.
it stepped through the disconsolant (unconsoling) open door.
Dich aber will ich nun, dich, die ich kannte
You then, you, whom I as a mere blossum knew,
wie eine Blume, von der ich den Namen nicht weiß,
of which I could not even the name supply,
noch ein Mal erinnern und ihnen zeigen, Entwandte,
you will I remember and show them, you, lost ingenue,
schöne Gespielin des unüberwindlichen Schrei's.
you lovely plaything of the omnipotent cry.
Tänzerin erst, die plötzlich, den Körper voll Zögern,
Dancer at first, who suddenly, her body hesitant,
anhielt, als göß man ihr Jungsein in Erz;
stopped short, her youth as in bronze cast;
trauernd und lauschend --, Da, von den hohen Vermögern
mourning and attending--, there, from the highly puissant,
fiel ihr Musik in das veränderte Herz.
music fell into her transformed heart aghast.
Nah war die Krankheit. Schon von den Schatten bemächtigt,
Near was her sickness. Already by shadows overcome,
drängte verdunkelt das Blut, doch, wie flüchtig verdächtigt,
thrust enshrouded her blood, yet, fleetingly worrisome,
trieb es in seinen natürlichen Frühling hervor.
it reverted to its natural springtime innate.
Wieder und wieder, von Dunkel und Sturz unterbrochen,
Again and again, uppended by downturn and darkening,
glänzte es irdish. Bie es nach schrecklichem Pochen
it flared up earthly. Until after terrible throbbing,
trat in das trostlos offene Tor.
it stepped through the bleakly gaping gate.
[1] Dich: Sonnet XXV refers directly to the dedication on the title page, the image of which is used for the TERMS:
The "Dich" refers to the prematurely deceased Wera Ouckama Knoop who was born in 1902 and died in 1921. She had a promising career as a dancer which was cut short by a "mysterious glandular disease" which led to her declaring to her mother that she would dance no more. In a letter of April 12, 1923 to Margo Sizzo Rilke writes: "This beautiful girl, who began first to dance and draw the attention of all who saw her by her innate art of movement and transformation, declared one day to her mother that she could or would not dance anymore (...). Her body changed in a very peculiar way: without losing its beautiful Asiatic features, it became strangely heavy and solid . . . (which already signaled at the beginning of her mysterious glandular disease, which so soon led to her death). In the time that remained to her, Wera dedicated herself to music and, finally, only to drawing, as if dance were to be cut off from her more and more gently and discretely, but never outright." The hyphen in the word "GRAB-MAL" is significant, since the normal word is without hyphen and means "gravestone" or "sepulchral monument." The sonnets being, of course, not made of stone, but of words and ideas inspired by her untimely and very Rilkean death, the underlying meaning of the hyphen is to cause the reader to "Denk mal daran!" or to contemplate the intermingling of life and death. In the contemporaneous major work by Rilke "Duineser Elegien" one of the main themes is the inextricable integration of death and life. The "Dich" signals an Apostrophe which continue throughout the sonnet. Apostrophe: The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction.
[2] dich: The reiteration of the apostrophe serves as an emphasis and also as a metrical accent in the predominately dactylic meter. One problem is the German convention of capitalizing pronouns referring to intimate friends in letter writing. Since a person being apostrophied using the "du" form is similar to a person being addressed in a letter, it seems that the iteration of "Dich" should also be capitalized. In "Über 'Die Sonette an Orpheus' von Rilke" the "Dich" is capitalized. Apostrophe: The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction.
[3] ein Mal erinnern: This seems to be a direct reference to the in footnote 1 referenced "GRAB-MAL" where here the word "Mal" is used with its other meaning of "time."
[4] ihnen zeigen, Entwandte: In the above-mentioned "Über 'Die Sonette . . ." the writer, Na Schädlich, states that the "ihnen" refers to Rilke's fellow poets, who should see in Wera's death a subject worthy of Orphic consideration. The following word "Entwandte" comes from the verb "entwenden" which has the normal past participle "entwendete," with "entwandt" being less common is according to Brockhaus "stehle, bes. einen kleineren Gegenstand." Cassell's defines it as "steal, purloin, pilfer (sl) swipe." "Entwandte" being capitalized with an "e" could be seen as an extension of the two preceding apostrophes using "dich" and short for "entwandte Blume" or "entwandte Tänzerin." The noun "Entwandte" cannot refer back to "ihnen," since it would have to be in the dative plural "Entwandten." Apostrophe: The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction.
[5] schöne Gespielin des unüberwindlichen Schrei's: The fourth apostrophe in apposition to "Entwandte" calling forth the memory of Wera Ouckama Knoop and emphasizing her fateful death at the hands of unfeeling and implacable fate. The grammatical apostrophe in the word "Schrei's" replaces the "e" which would normally be in the genetive form of "Schrei" which is "Schreies." This is done so that it can rhyme with "weiß." Apostrophe: The direct address of an absent or imaginary person or of a personified abstraction.
[6] Tänzerin erst, die plötzlich, den Körper voll Zögern,/anhielt, als göß man ihr Jungsein in Erz: This complicated structure consisting of a noun with a temporal adverb "Tänzerin erst," a relative clause "die plötzlich anhielt" with an inserted condition "den Körper voll Zögern" and then a subjunctive explanation "als göß man ihr Jungsein in Erz" is missing a verb referring back to "Tänzerin erst." This seemingly elliptical structure is actually another appositive to the introductory word of the sonnet "Dich." Note the use of "voll" before "Zögern" which here has no ending, although it is in the genitive case. According to Duden's "Hauptschwierigkeiten der deutschen Sprache" one can also use "die erstarrte gebeugte Form 'voller'." Note the apocope of the Konjunktiv II form of "gießen" which normally would be "göße" Note also the assonance of the "ö" in the words "Körper" and "Zögern" in verse 5 and "göß" in verse 6. Ellipsis, plural ellipses: 1.a. The omission of a word or phrase necessary for a complete syntactical construction, but not necessary for understanding. Apocope: The loss of one or more sounds form the end of a word. Assonance: Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words.
[7] trauernd und lauschend --,: two present participial constructions referring back to "Tänzerin." The dash serves both as a Bindestrich indicating the inserted character of the words following without a dash before "Tänzerin" which is not uncommon in these sonnets; it also serves as a Gedankenstrich before the function of the insertion is clarified. Note the assonance of the "au" sounds in the two words. Assonance: Resemblance of sound, especially of the vowel sounds in words.
[8] von den hohen Vermögern: Note that this noun derives from the modal verb "vermögen" and not the noun "Vermögen" which means "ability, capacity, means, fortune, wealth, etc." The "r" in "Vermögern" indicates that the verb has been transformed into a plural noun "die Vermöger" used in the dative becoming "Vermögern." An attempt to express this in English could be "the higher potencies."
[9] ihr: An indirect object used as a dative of reference which in English is usually translated as a possessive: "music fell into her transformed heart." Were it a possessive before "Musik," it would have the ending "e."
[10] von den Schatten bemächtigt: A partial parallelism with the prepositional phrase beginning with "von" in verse 7 with "von den hohen Vermögern." In this case the prepositional phrase is paired with a past participle creating a past participial phrase. I am mentioning this because in verse 12 there is a similar phrase "von Dunkel und Sturz unterbrochen" which forms a perfect Parallelism. Note the two- syllable rhyme of "bemächtigt" with "verdächtigt" in verse 10. Parallelism: The repetition of identical or similar syntactic patterns in adjacent phrases, clauses or sentences.
[11] es: From this point on "es" refers to "das Blut" and by metonymy refers to Wera Ouckama Knoop herself. Metonymy: The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.
[12] Wieder und wieder: A diacope to emphasize the duration of the repetitions of the disease. Diacope: Repetition with only a word or two between.
[13] von Dunkel und Sturz unterbrochen: The structural parallism to "von den Schatten bemächtigt" in verse 9. Parallelism: The repetition of identical or similar syntactic patterns in adjacent phrases, clauses or sentences.
[14] trat: A hyperbaton since the normal word order should be "in das trostlos offene Tor trat." Rhetorically similar to the uses of "das Blut" to represent Wera Ouckama Knoop, "das trostlos offene Tor" is a metonomy for death. Metonymy: The substitution of the name of an attribute or adjunct for that of the thing meant.