Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!

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Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas! (Latin for vanity! Vanity of vanities) is an ode by the German Baroque poet Andreas Gryphius . The poem dates from 1643.

text

Vanitas! Vanitatum Vanitas!

The glory of the earth Mush
smoke and ash /
no rock / no doctor can stand. What we
can glorify /
What we treasure forever /
Will pass as an easy dream.

What are all things /
That make us heartfelt /
As bad nothing?
What is human life /
The always vmb mus float /
As a fantasy of the times.

The fame we strive for / That
we mortally cherish /
Is just a false delusion.
As soon as the spirit gives way:
And this mouth is hereditary:
Nobody asks / what is being done here.

It does not help any wise knowledge /
We are carried away /
Without a vnterscheidt /
What good is the crowd of castles /
The world is too narrow here /
A narrow grave is too wide for him.

Everything will melt away /
What struggles and
hard work to gain Vndt sawrer sweat acquires:
What people have here /
Can not be used for death /
Everything dies from / whoever dies.

What are the short freedoms / who
always / ah! sorry / vnd suffer /
vnd hertzens fear complains.
The sweet jubilee /
the high triumph
is often perverted in scorn and shame.

You must be imperishable from the honor throne because
no power nor crown
can.
It may reye from the dead /
No scepter may free you.
No purple / gold / nor precious stone.

Like a rose blooms /
Whoever you see the sun /
Greet this world:
The honor of the day declines /
Honor of the evening shows /
Wilted / and unexpectedly duplicated.

This is how we grow up and
think about
becoming big / and pain / and worry-free.
But before we
gained weight / And come right to the blood /
Breaks from the storm of death in two.

We count year on year /
In which the stretcher
Vns will be brought for the door:
We have to go on top of it /
And rather we think of the
earth say good night.

Because we are delighted:
Vnd strengh appreciates freye;
Vnd juvenile makes sure /
Hatt vns der todt caught /
Vnd juvenile / strengthened vnd splendid / Vndt
stands / vndt art / vndt favors laughed at!

How much have passed already /
How much lovelier cheeks / Are you pale
this day?
The long räitung made / and
didn't even think about it /
That you made it so briefly.

Wake up my heart and think;
That this time presents / Be
hardly a moment /
What you have enjoyed before /
Is shot as a stream
that never fails to return.

Laugh the world and honor.
Fear / hope / favor vndt teach /
vndt fleuch to the lord /
who always remains king:
whom no one drives away:
who can make

unity forever.
He has quite firmly bet /
Vndt whether he will fold right away :
If he will survive there,
Vndt will never pass
because the strength itself keeps him.

shape

The fifteen stanzas of the poem follow the well-known meter from "Innsbruck / O Welt I must let you" (16th century), on which "Now all forests are resting" by Paul Gerhardt (1647) and Claudius' evening song "The moon has risen "(1779) are based on: Six lines with tail rhyme (a – a – bc – c – b) in iambic meter, of which the first five verses are always three-parted, while the last has four accents.

Corresponding to the rhetorical character of baroque poetry, an assertion is made in the first three verses, which is expanded in the next three verses.

interpretation

In the first stanzas, the joys of nature are called illusion. At the same time, man cannot even enjoy objects because his life is always a “fantasy of time”. The vanitas motif already indicated here is carried out further in the following stanzas. In the third to fifth stanzas of fame, like the associated prospect of eternal life in the memories of the descendants, the knowledge and property accumulated in life, as goods given up to transitoriness. Thereupon the following two stanzas themselves end with jubilation and triumph, privileged joys of minor worldly elites, when they are turned into their opposite. Kingdoms are going under too. Insignia of power like the throne, crown and scepter cannot stop death. Possessions like purple , gold and precious stones, which were the splendor of royal power during their lifetime, lose their assigned value. The enumeration resembles a dance of death , from common people, scholars to regents, death passes through all classes of society. This is followed by the vanitas motif in the eighth to ninth stanzas using the example of a rose. In a process of blooming - full bloom - wilting it equals life. The ubiquity of death becomes clear in the two climaxes "world" and "carefree", whereupon growth tips into decay. The 13th stanza is all about the memento mori , the mortality of man is remembered and in the following it is reminded that all earthly promises last only a moment. Instead, man should remember God , who, in contrast to the mighty, is immortal: "Who always remains king, who no time passes, who can make unity forever." Finally, in the awareness of one's own transience, one trusts in the strength of God, because whoever professes to the Almighty can hope for consolation.

reception

The ode was recorded in church hymn books. The songwriter Konstantin Wecker satirized the poem under the same title. On the other hand, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe 's poem of the same name is a parody of Adam Reusner's song “I have put my thing at home”.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Gudrun Beil-Schickler: From Gryphius to Hofmannswaldau. Studies on the language of German literature in the Baroque era . Francke, Tübingen 1995, p. 50.