To the Now-Arrived, Cold Wintertide

A poem by Johannes Rist (with translations interlarded):

Auf die nunmehr angekommene kalte Winterszeit

Der Winter hat sich angefangen,
Der Schnee bedeckt das ganze Land,
Der Sommer ist hinweggegangen,
Der Wald hat sich in Reif verwandt.

Winter has itself begun, the snow bedecks the land entire; the summer has traversed away, the woods turned over into rime.

Die Wiesen sind von Frost versehret
Die Felder glänzen wie Metall,
Die Blumen sind in Eis verkehret,
Die Flüsse stehn wie harter Stahl.

The pastures are by frost consumed, the fields are glistening as if metal; the flow'rs into ice apostate, the rivers stand like hardy
steel.

Wohlan, wir wollen von uns jagen
Durchs Feu'r das kalte Winterleid!
Kommt, laßt uns Holz zum Herde tragen
Und Kohlen dran, jetzt ist es Zeit!

Well then, we wish to chase from us through fire the chilly winter pangs! Come, let us carry wood to hearthside, and coals thereto; the time is here!

Laßt uns den Fürnewein hergeben
Dort unten aus dem großen Faß!
Das ist das rechte Winterleben:
Ein heiße Stub und kühles Glas.

Let's the sherry wine give hither, down thence from out the barrel great! This is the rightful life in winter: a heated room and chilly glass.

Wohlan, wir wollen musizieren
Bei warmer Luft und kühlem Wein!
Ein ander mag sein Klagen führen,
Den Mammon nie läßt fröhlich sein.

Well then, we wish to music-make with mellow air and chilly wine! Another may his plaints proclaim, since Mammon never leaves content.

Wir wollen spielen, scherzen, essen,
Solang uns noch kein Geld gebricht,
Doch auch der Schönsten nicht vergessen,
Denn wer nicht liebt, der lebet nicht.

We wish to play, make merry, eat, so long the money will permit; yet too the loveliest not forget, for who loves not, he liveth not.

Wir haben dennoch gnug zu sorgen,
Wann nun das Alter kommt heran.
Es weiß doch keiner, was ihm morgen
Noch vor ein Glück begegnen kann.

Still do we have enough to ponder, as now high age advances near; see, no one knows what will tomorrow by way of luck meet with him yet.

Drum will ich ohne Sorge leben,
Mit meinen Brüdren fröhlich sein.
Nach Ehr' und Tugend tu ich streben,
Den Rest befehl ich Gott allein.

Thus will I live without dismay, and with my brothers happy be. Hon'r and virtue I pursue — the rest commend alone to God.

***

Illustration: Johann Rist. Engraving from a hymnbook (1899) after the original portrait. (Wikimedia Commons)

***

Some of this translation is fanciful, in favour of the rhythm and on my part a slightly overenthusiastic baroque quality. 'Apostate' is of course not at all what the original says, which is 'verkehret.' 'Verkehret,' of course, translates to 'converted'; 'converted' sounded too modern entirely to me and 'transfigured' too much like post-Baroque latinized English, while 'apostate' sounded endearingly bizarre and captured the figurative meaning of 'converted.' So I went with it on a lark and must apologize to the poet for the liberty. 'Sherry' was apparently only popular in the rest of Europe (apart from Great Britain which already consumed it liberally) during the 18th and 19th centuries, so after this poet lived; but as far as a quick internet search reveals, it is an approximation for the aged wine which is also spelled Firnwein. 'Versehrt' means 'injured' rather than 'consumed.' The poet himself is a northern German and Protestant who lived from 1607-1667.

German original poem from Das große deutsche Gedichtbuch, ed. by Karl Otto Conrady (1978). 102.