six feet). Compare with this poem the closing lines of Keats' _Ode to a
Grecian Urn_:
Beauty is truth, truth beauty, that is all
Ye know on earth and all ye need to know.
_Was aber schön ist, selig scheint es in ihm selbst._
_But beauty seems a thing all blessed within itself._
6. SCHLINGT DEN RINGELREIHN, circle about in a round dance.
10. IHM, old reflexive instead of _sich_.
88. The confession of Mörike's ideal.
1. WILLT = _willst_.
2. _A thing of joy or a thing of sorrow._
5-7. WOLLEST NICHT ÜBERSCHÜTTEN, _pray do not overwhelm with a flood
of_.
89. Lines of three and of two accents alternate, so that the poem is
really written in blank verse; its character is, however, entirely
changed, since the last word of each line stands out because of the
necessary rhythmical pause. Notice the change in the last two lines.
HEBBEL
Friedrich Hebbel, Germany's greatest master of tragedy since the days of
Schiller, was born March 18, 1813, in the little village of Wesselburen
in Holstein. Thus his first impression of nature was the infinite expanse
of the North Sea Plain. Bitterest poverty was his lot from childhood;
poverty and loneliness put their harsh imprint on his youth and early
manhood. Haunted by hunger, he battled for years to gain a mere living,
often on the brink of despair. His only help was a small stipend from the
king of Denmark, which enabled him to spend two years in Paris and Rome,
and the meager pennies that his devoted friend Elise Lensing, a poor
seamstress in Hamburg, sent him. His short stories, his dramas, although
they brought him fame, were of little avail in this struggle that seemed
all too hopeless. Then a sudden change for the better came. Stopping at
Vienna on his return from Rome, he found himself in a small circle of
ardent admirers. He met Christine Enghaus, at that time Germany's
greatest tragic actress, who became the most congenial interpreter of
Hebbel's heroines. The attraction was mutual and on May 26, 1846,
Friedrich Hebbel and Christine Enghaus were married. Now followed years
of calm maturity, the greatest period of Hebbel's dramatic production.
Hebbel died in Vienna December 13, 1863. His lyric poetry, for the most
part the product of his earlier years, is marked above all by a tendency
towards symbolism, these symbols usually of a rich sensuous beauty and
often of a rare delicacy. A homely realism is, however, by no means
lacking. The musical quality of his verse attracted the genius of Robert
Schumann, who set the _Nachtlied_ to music.
90. In the spring of 1836 Hebbel went to Heidelberg. A child of the North
Sea Plain, he came in contact here with a richer, softer beauty of a more
Southern landscape, a beauty which seemed to set free his latent powers.
A night in the month of May on the wooded summits near Heidelberg called
forth this song. The giant magnitude of the starry heavens awakened in
the poet to an overpowering degree the feeling of the greatness of cosmic
life; he feels the insignificance of his own individual existence, he
feels as if it were in danger of being extinguished by the vastness of
the great All; but then sleep comes as a kindly nurse and draws her
protecting circle about the meager flame of individual existence. Notice
the internal rhymes in the first and second stanzas that picture cosmic
life and its reflection in the individual, and the utterly different
effect of the third stanza, that returns to the narrower sphere of
individual life.
91.--3. SPIELT HEREIN, _comes playing into the room_.
6. GEFÄLLT IHM GAR ZU SEHR, _it likes all too well_.
92.--10. It was customary for the neighbors to perform the last kindly
offices for the dead.
16. WAS, _which_.
93.--1. DIE DU, _thou who_.
95.--6 ff. WIR STERBEN: because in this union, when even the last barrier
separating the "I" from the "Thou" has fallen, the aim of life has been
reached in utter harmony which overcomes the limitations of individual
existence. Thus these two souls may return into the All, as expressed in
the beautiful symbol of the last stanza.
11. ZERFLIEßEN IN EINS, _coalesce_.
97. Compare Keats' _Ode to Autumn_.
98. Addressed to Christine Hebbel, the poet's wife.
3, 4. IN FLAMMEN STEHEN, _to be aflame_. This passage could be
rendered, _that stands as if aflame with morning light at the
farthermost horizon_.
10. LÄßT = _verläßt_.
KELLER
Gottfried Keller, best known as the master of the _Novelle_, was born in
Zürich, July 19, 1819, as the son of a master turner. A love for the
concrete world of reality induced him to take up painting. Keller was not
without talent in this line, but achieving no signal success, he gave up
painting for letters. To secure for himself a stable footing in the civic
world, Keller, after a number of years spent in Germany, in 1861 assumed
the office of a municipal secretary of his native city, where he died
July 15, 1890. Early in life, Keller threw aside all conventional
beliefs, and his religion henceforth was a deep love of and a joyous
faith in all life. Although Keller was in many respects decidedly
matter-of-fact, a calm objective observer with a strong leaning toward
utilitarian ideals--he had all the homely virtues of his ancestry--he
nevertheless delighted in a myth-creating fancy. Thus Keller is very much
akin to his countryman Arnold Böcklin, whom the German world honors as
its greatest modern painter.
99. One of the finest expressions extant of love for one's native land.
The various national anthems pale before its beauty.
3. OB = _obgleich_.
9. HELVETIA, _Switzerland_.
13. GUT UND HAB (usually _Hab und Gut_), _possessions_; render, _all
that I have_.
15. OB, compare 3.
100. The grief and woe of Nature held by the fetters of winter
personified by this nymph climbing the "_Seebaum_," whose branches are
held by the ice. A mythical creation such as Böcklin delighted in.
12. GLIED UM GLIED, _limb upon limb_, i.e., _each separate limb_.
14. HER UND HIN, _forth and back_.
16. The very sound of this line is a cry of pity.
101. Written 1879. Theodor Storm called it the best lyric poem since
Goethe. Compare C. F. Meyer's letter to Keller congratulating him on his
seventieth birthday. Meyer praises Keller's poetry because of its
"_innere Heiterkeit_," and continues: "_Auch meine ich, daß Ihr fester
Glaube an die Güte des Daseins die höchste Bedeutung Ihrer Schriften ist.
Ihnen ist wahrhaftig nichts zu wünschen als die Beharrung in Ihrem Wesen.
Weil Sie die Erde lieben, wird die Erde Sie auch so lange als möglich
festhalten._"
STORM
Theodor Storm, like Friedrich Hebbel, is a child of the North Sea Plain;
but while in Hebbel's verse there is hardly any direct reference to his
native landscape, Storm again and again sings its chaste beauty; and
while Hebbel could find a home away from his native heath, Storm clung to
it with a jealous love. He was born in Husum (_die graue Stadt am grauen
Meer_) on the west coast of Schleswig-Holstein, September 14, 1817, of
well-to-do parents. While still a student of law, he published a first
volume of verse together with Tycho and Theodor Mommsen. His favorite
poets were Eichendorff and Mörike, and the influence of the former is
plainly discernible even in Storm's later verse. Storm left his home in
1851 and did not return until 1864, after Schleswig-Holstein had become
German. He died July 4, 1888.
Storm is the poet of the North Sea Plain: he discovered its peculiar
beauty. While the tragic note predominates, joy and humor nevertheless
abound, and at the beginning of his poems Storm himself significantly
placed his _Oktoberlied_, written in the political gloom and uncertainty
of the fall of 1848. While realizing fully its inherent tragic elements,
Storm loved and glorified life and thirstily drank in its beauty to the
very last. This is the keynote of Storm's lyrics.
102.--21. DIE BLAUEN TAGE, _azure days_, i.e., _days blue as the heavens
in June_.
103.--6. _my heart is filled with joyous fright_.
104.--2. STEIN, i.e., _millstone_.
8. PUK, _Puck_, an elfin spirit of mischief. Compare Shakspere,
_Midsummer Night's Dream_.
105. The poet's tribute to his home city Husum, "_die graue Stadt am
grauen Meer_."
13. FÜR UND FÜR, _forever and ever_.
107. In memory of the poet's sister.
8. RECHT GESCHWISTER, _true brother and sister_.
11 f. NOCH WEHT EIN KINDERFRIEDEN MICH AN, _still a breath of
childhood peace comes to me_.
108.--18. PFINGSTGLOCKEN; _Pfingsten_, _Pentecost_, is celebrated as a
summer festival. In Northern Germany house doors are wreathed with birch
twigs, while young birch trees are placed upright on the wings of the
numerous windmills.
109.--6. MIR IST, etc., _I feel (full of life) like_, etc.
110.--1. VIVAT, Latin, _long may he live_, render _hurrah!_
111.--8. _what otherwise would be honorable_.
112. Storm has used the same motif in _Immensee_.
113.--7. SCHLAG, i.e., _pulsation (beat) of pain_.
MEYER
Conrad Ferdinand Meyer was born October 12, 1825, in Zürich, and is thus
a fellow-townsman of Keller. Like Keller Meyer is a master of the
_Novelle_, but in all other respects there is a most striking difference.
Keller was a sturdy commoner and always retained a certain affinity with
the soil; there is a wholesome vigor about him. Meyer is of patrician
descent; His father, who died early, was a statesman and historian; his
mother a highly gifted woman of fine culture. Thus the boy grew up in an
atmosphere of refinement. Having finished the Gymnasium, he took up the
study of law, but history and the humanities were of greater interest to
him. Even in the child two traits were observed that later characterized
the man and the poet: he had a most scrupulous regard for neatness and
cleanliness, and he lived and experienced more deeply in memory than in
the immediate present. Meyer found himself only late in life; for many
years also, being practically bilingual, he wavered between French and
German. The Franco-German War brought the final decision, and from now on
his works appeared in rapid succession. He died in his home in Kilchberg
above Zürich, November 28, 1898.
Meyer's lyric verse is almost entirely the product of his later years. It
has none of the youthful exuberance of Goethe's earlier lyrics; a note of
quiet calm, a mellow maturity pervades all; both joy and sorrow live only
in the memory. And still Meyer loved life's exuberant fullness, and a
more finely attuned ear hears through this calm the beat of a heart that
felt joy and sorrow deeply. Everywhere there is apparent a love of nature
interpreted with all the modern subtlety of feeling. Meyer was a Swiss
and his landscape, is that of Switzerland, one might even say that of
Zürich. Nature hardly ever speaks in herself, but only in her human
relationship; not the field alone, but the field and the sower (121), the
field and the reaper (118); not the lake alone, but the lake and the
solitary oarsman (124). The poet loves the work of human hands and
especially its highest form, that of art. Thus a Roman fountain (119), a
picture, a statue become the subject of his verse. Of all the arts he
loved sculpture most, and in its chaste self-restraint his poetry is like
marble. Give marble a voice and you have a poem of Conrad Ferdinand
Meyer. His poetry is also akin to marble in its perfection of form that
is faultless, because it is the living rhythmic embodiment of an idea, of
an experience. Witness but the melody and the rhythm of _der römische
Brunnen_ or of the _Säerspruch_. In English letters Walter Savage Landor
is a kindred spirit and his _Finis_, except for a note of haughty pride,
might well be the epitaph of the Swiss poet:
I strove with none, for none was worth my strife.
Nature I loved and, next to Nature, Art:
I warmed both hands before the fire of life;
It sinks, and I am ready to depart.
114.--9-14. A series of "_Liederseelen_." Every one of these lines
contains the idea of one of Meyer's poems; compare 116.
11. GEN ... EMPOR, _up towards_.
115.--10. DUMPFEN RUDERS, a case of transferred epithet. The sound goes,
of course, with _Schlagen_.
116.--8. FRÄGT, usually _fragt_.
11. DU TUST DIR'S SELBST ZU LEID, _You do it_ (i.e., _stay away_) _to
your own grief_.
12. WAS FÜR EIN, _what kind of a_.
119. The theme of Meyer's lyrics often is a painting, a piece of
sculpture, etc. Here a typical Roman fountain has found lasting
embodiment.
2. DER MARMORSCHALE RUND, _the round hollow of the marble basin_.
120.--3. ZUM ERSTEN, _at first_.
121. The poem in its rhythm embodies the rhythm of the sower. Compare
Millet's painting _The Sower_.
122.--4. NICHT EINER, DER DARBE, _not one that may suffer want_.
123. The Dutch school of painting is famous for its realism and its truth
to life. The effect of this poem is due in no small mean to contrast:
"_das kleine zarte Bild_" of the first two lines described, 12 ff., and
the "_Junker mit der Dirn, der vor Gesundheit fast die Wange birst_"; the
quiet of death, the quiet grief of the master, and the boisterous
fullness of life.
NACH, _according to, from_.
3. ES POCHT, _Somebody knocks_. HEREIN, _come in_.
5. VOR, _because of_.
6. VON, _with_.
10. ZUR STUNDE, _at once_.
16. NACH DER NATUR, _from life_.
126. It is necessary to bear in mind that in Switzerland dusk first
settles in the valleys and then gradually creeps up to the villages
situated on a higher level.
8. KILCHBERG, the poet's home near Zürich.
128.--3. GEMAHL, _n._ in poetry instead of _Gemahlin_.
4. MORGENSCHAUER, _the cool morning breezes_, the chill that falls
just before sunrise.
12. SOMMERHÖHN, the higher meadows where the cattle can graze only in
the summer months.
LILIENCRON
Detlev von Liliencron, a countryman of Hebbel and Storm, was born in
Kiel, June 3, 1844. He loved a soldier's life and served his country in
two wars, 1866 and 1870-71, and thus saw life in its grim reality.
Because of wounds and debts, he tells us, he left the army. An inborn
love of adventure and action made him try his fortune in America, where
his mother's father had served under Washington. His aim was to enter the
military service of one of the Central or South American states.
Disappointed in his hopes, he returned to Germany and for a number of
years was a government official. This task, however, proved too irksome
for his restless spirit, and in spite of his continual financial
embarrassments, he resigned to live as he pleased. He died in Hamburg,
July 22, 1909.
In his younger days, Liliencron felt the throb and stir of life far too
keenly to find leisure for literature. Not till 1884 did his first volume
of verse appear, recollections of his soldier days. The volume contains
graphic descriptions of the most concise brevity, single words taking the
place of whole sentences (132).
He delineates war with all its horror, not however without a sad pathos
(133). He is also a master at depicting the more joyous side of a
soldier's life, the carefree maneuvres of a regiment with its colors and
music passing through a village (130). In his love of nature Liliencron
is akin to Storm, and even surpasses the older poet in the
impressionistic vividness of his descriptions.
130. The poem pictures a German village scene: soldiers with their music
approach from the distance, march through and disappear.
3. BRICHT'S, _breaks forth_ or _bursts forth_.
6 ff. The attention is first focused on the deeper notes. A gradual
rise in pitch is noticeable in the lines from instrument to
instrument named.
24. LATERNENGLAS, of the street lanterns.
29. WILHEL(MINE), KATHARINE (TRINE), CHRI(STINE)
131.--9. SIRRT, an onomatopoetic word coined by the poet to imitate the
sound of the scythe cutting through the grain.
10. ARBEITSFRIEDEN, _the quiet peace of daily labor_.
11. HEIMATWELT, _home world_. Compare _Alltagswelt_, _work-a-day
world_.
132.--4. _march and flood of victory_.
11 f. DURCH DIE LÜFTE BRAUST, etc., _with horrible whir of wings a
flight of vultures passes through the air_.
133. Famous battle in the Seven Years War, in which Frederick the Great
was defeated with enormous losses by the Austrians.
2. SOMMERHALM, lit. summerstalk, i.e., _growing grain_.
4. IST AUS, _is over_.
9. _he had to go_.
16. BEVERN, a small town in Brunswick.
22. HINEIN, into the book.
134.--4. WINZERVOLK, collective sing. Best rendered as plural of
_Winzer_.
136. A lullaby for the poet's son _Wulff_ (_Wolf_).
3. MONDESKAHN, i.e., crescent moon-shaped like a boat. Render the
line, _slowly the crescent moon floats like a boat_.
137.--5. _The content of life not stirred by a breeze_.
138.--6 ff. SONNENGRÜN ... WEISS ... STILL. The peculiar effect of
sunlight on colors and on quiet is depicted by these compounds.
14. -FÄLTIG, _-fold_.
16. _slowly the dusk of evening lowers_.
VOCABULARY
As this book presupposes a knowledge of elementary grammar, pronouns,
numerals, the common prepositions, and modal and auxiliary verbs are not
given. Of strong verbs only the vowel change, including the quantity when
different from the infinitive, is indicated, unless the verb shows
further irregularities. Intransitive verbs that take _sein_ contrary to
rule are marked with 's'. The prefix of separable verbs is followed by -.
Of nouns only the plural is given, unless they belong to the so-called
mixed declension. Compound words whose meaning is readily discernible
from the component parts, are not included.
[Transcriber's note: In the original, there are no commas between the
German word (printed in bold type) and its English translation in simple
definitions. Bold type is usually rendered as ALL CAPS in PG e-texts, but
since the meaning of German words can depend on their capitalization
(e.g. 'arm' and 'Arm' mean different things) I have added commas instead
to make the vocabulary more easily understandable. Short vowels are
marked with [s], long vowels with [l]. '-"' is my rendering for a change
of a vowel to an umlaut in plural form.]
A
Abend, _m._ -e evening
Abendrot, _n._ evening glow
abends, _adv._ in the evening
Abendschein, _m._ evening light _or_ glow
ab-fallen, ie, a; ä, _intr._ fall off
Abgrund, _m._ -"e abyss
ab-kehren, _refl._ turn away
ab-leiten, _tr._ lead aside
ab-messen, a[l], e; i, _tr._ measure off
ab-nehmen, a, omm; imm, _tr._ take off
ab-reisen, _intr._ leave on a journey
Abschied, _m._ departure, farewell
ab-schmeicheln, _tr._ obtain by flattery
ab-streifen, _tr._ slip off
ab-zählen, _tr._ count off
ach, alas, ah
achten, _tr._ heed, care for (_poet. with gen._)
acht-geben, a, e; i, _intr._ give heed
ächzen, _intr._ groan
Ade, _n._ farewell
Ader, _f._ -n vein, blood vessel
ahnen, _tr. and intr._ divine, have a foreboding of
ahnungsvoll, full of sweet foreboding; ominous
Ähre, _f._ -n ear of grain
Ährenfeld, _n._ -er field of ripening grain
All, _n._ the universe; entirety, unison
allda, there
allzu, _adv._ (_in compounds_) much too, all too
Alpe, _f._ -n the Alps
alt, old
Alter, _n._ -- age
Altersschwäche, _f._ senility, weakness of old age
Amme, _f._ -n nurse
Amselschlag, _m._ song of the Amsel (_kind of blackbird_)
an-beten, _tr._ worship
an-blicken, _tr._ look at
an-brechen, a[l], o; i, _intr._ dawn, break
andächtig, devout
an-fangen, i, a; ä, _tr._ begin
an-fassen, _tr._ catch hold of, seize
an-gehen, ging, gegangen _intr._ be possible
Angel, _m._, f. -s, -n fishhook
Angesicht, _n._ -er face, countenance
Angst, _f._ -"e fear, anguish
ängsten, ängstigen, _tr._ cause fear, frighten; _refl_. be afraid
an-halten, ie, a; ä, _tr._ stop; _intr._ last
an-klagen, _tr._ accuse
an-klingen, a, u, _intr._ begin sounding
an-legen, _tr._ put on, don
an-rufen, ie, u, _tr._ implore, call upon
an-schauen, _tr._ look at, gaze at
an-sehen, a, e; ie, _tr._ look at
an-stimmen, _tr._ strike up _or_ start (_a song_)
an-stoßen, ie, o; ö, _tr._ strike, knock against; clink glasses
Antlitz, _n._ -e face, countenance
Antwort, _f._ -en answer
an-vertrauen, _tr._ intrust
an-wehen, _tr._ blow _or_ breathe upon
an-wenden, _reg_. _or_ wandte, gewandt, _tr._ use, employ
Apfel, _m._ -" apple
Arbeit, _f._ -en work, labor
Ärger, _m._ vexation, anger
arm, poor
Arm, _m._ -e arm
Art, _f._ -en kind, type
Arzt, _m._ -"e physician
Asche, _f._ -n ashes
Asien, Asia
Ast, _m._ -"e branch
Atem, _m._ respiration, breath
atemlos, breathless
Atemzug, _m._ -"e breath, respiration
Äther, _m._ ether (_i.e._, the blue heavens)
atmen, _intr. and tr._ breathe
aufbauen, _tr._ build up, erect
aufdecken, _tr._ uncover, lay bare; raise, lift
aufdonnern, _tr._ dress ostentatiously
Aufenthalt, _m._ -e abode
auferziehen, erzog, erzogen, _tr._ bring up, rear
auffangen, i, a; ä, _tr._ catch, capture, receive
auffinden, a, u, _tr._ find, discover
aufhangen, i, a, _tr._ suspend, hang up
aufheben, o, o, _tr._ pick up, raise
auffassen, _tr._ snatch up; _refl._ rise quickly
aufrecht, upright, erect
aufreichen, _intr._ reach upward
aufrichtig, honest
aufschlagen, u, a; ä, _tr._ open (_a book_)
aufschweben, _intr._ soar up
aufspringen, a, u, _intr._ spring up, jump up
aufstehen, stand, gestanden, _intr._ arise, get up
aufsteigen, ie, ie, _intr._ rise upward, ascend
auftauchen, _intr._ rise up. emerge from (_the water_)
auftürmen, _tr._ pile up; aufgetürmt towering
aufwärts, upward
Auge, _n._ -s, -n eye
aus-blicken, _intr._ look out
aus-brennen, brannte, gebrannt, _intr._ cease burning _or_ glowing, burn
out
aus-graben, u, a; ä, _tr._ dig out
aus-klingen, a, u, _intr._ cease sounding
aus-löschen, o, o; i, _intr._ be extinguished, go out
aus-machen, _tr._ settle
aus-rufen, ie, u, _tr._ call out, cry out
aus-ruhen, _intr._ rest; _ausgeruht haben_ be rested
aus-schauen, _intr._ look out
aus-singen, a, u, _intr._ cease _or_ finish singing
aus-spannen, _tr._ stretch out, spread
aus-steigen, ie, ie, _intr._ get out, disembark
aus-strecken, _tr._ stretch out, prostrate
aus-ziehen, zog, gezogen, _tr._ undress; take off, pull off
B
Bach, _m._ -"e brook
baden, _tr. and intr. (refl.)_ bathe
Bahn, _f._ -en path, track
bald, soon; -- ... -- now ... now
Band, _m._ -"e volume
Band, _n._ -"er ribbon
Band, _n._ -e bond, fetter
bang, fearful, afraid
bangen, _intr._ yearn
Bank, _f._ -"e bench
bannen, _tr._ charm, drive away
Banner, _n._ -- banner
Barke, _f._ -n barque
Bart, _m._ -"e beard
Bau, _m._ -s, -ten structure, building
Bauch, _m._ -"e belly, paunch
Bauer, _m._ -s _and_ -n, -n farmer
Baum, _m._ -"e tree
bäumen, _refl._ rear, prance
beben, _intr._ tremble, shake
Becher, _m._ -- cup, goblet
Beckenschlag, _m._ -"e clang of cymbals
bedecken, _tr._ cover
bedeuten, _tr._ mean, portend
Bedeutung, _f._ -en meaning
bedrohen, _tr._ threaten, menace
bedrücken, _tr._ oppress
beengen, _tr._ narrow in, oppress
beerdigen, _tr._ bury
Beet, _n._ -e bed (in a garden)
befragen, _tr._ question
befreien, _tr._ free, liberate
befreundet, friendly
begegnen, _intr._ meet, pass
Begier, _f._ desire
beginnen, a, o, _tr._ begin
beglänzen, _tr._ illumine, cover with radiance
begleiten, _tr._ accompany
Begleiter, _m._ -- one who accompanies a person, companion
beglücken, _tr._ make happy, bless with happiness
begraben, u, a; a[s], _tr._ bury
begrenzen, _tr._ confine, limit
Behagen, _n._ content, delight
behalten, ie, a; a[s], _tr._ retain, keep; das Wort -- keep on speaking
Beharrung, _f._ perseverance, continuance
behend(e), nimble, agile
beherzt, courageous, daring
Bein, _n._ -e leg
beinern, bony, skeleton
beisammen, together
bekämpfen, _tr._ combat, resist
bekennen, bekannte, bekannt, _tr._ confess
beklommen, oppressed
bellen, _intr._ bark
bemessen, a[l], e; i, _tr._ measure
benebeln, _tr._ cover with fog; _p.p._ befuddled, drunk, made drowsy
bereit, ready, prepared
bereiten, _tr._ prepare
Berg, _m._ -e mountain
bergen, a, o; i, _tr._ hide, shelter
Bergeshang, _m._ -"e mountain slope
Bergesrand, _m._ -"er edge _or_ side of a mountain _or_ hill.
Bergesrücken, _m._ -- mountain ridge _or_ crest
bersten, a (o), o; i, _intr._ burst, explode
beruhigen, _tr._ calm
berühren, _tr._ touch
besänftigen, _tr._ assuage
beschatten, _tr._ cast a shadow on, shade
beschauen, _tr._ view, look at