DOI Seite / Zitierlink:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.48092#0306
DURER’S RHYMES.
“Jesus Maria, 1509.
“Thus says Albrecht Diirer the painter, who marks his engravings
with the monogram A D.
“Every soul which attains everlasting life is quickened in Christ
Jesus, who is both God and Man, two substances in one person, which
can only be believed by Faith and never understood by the human
Reason.
“The first Rhymes, which I made in the above year, were two, and
each had the same number of syllables as the other. I thought I had
succeeded well in them, as here follows*:
“ Thou mirror of all Angels and Redeemer of mankind,
A ransom for my sin let me in Thy martyrdom find.
“But when Wilibald Pirkheimer read this, he laughed at me and
said that no rhyme ought to have more than eight syllables. So I
began over again and made the following eighteen Rhymes with eight
syllables each,
Strive earnestly with all thy might,
That God should give thee Wisdom’s light.
He doth his wisdom truly prove,
Whom neither dearth nor riches move.
And he shall also be called wise,
Who joy and sorrow both defies.
He who bears both honour and shame,
He well deserves the wise man’s name.
Who knows himself and evil shuns,
In Wisdom’s path he surely runs.
Who ’gainst his foe doth vengeance cherish,
In hell-flame doth his wisdom perish.
* The translations of the rhymes are by Mrs Charles Heaton, and are reprinted by
permission from her Life of Albrecht Diirer. As to the originals of them, see Thausing’s
Diirer’s Briefe, etc. pp. xiv. and 143.
“Jesus Maria, 1509.
“Thus says Albrecht Diirer the painter, who marks his engravings
with the monogram A D.
“Every soul which attains everlasting life is quickened in Christ
Jesus, who is both God and Man, two substances in one person, which
can only be believed by Faith and never understood by the human
Reason.
“The first Rhymes, which I made in the above year, were two, and
each had the same number of syllables as the other. I thought I had
succeeded well in them, as here follows*:
“ Thou mirror of all Angels and Redeemer of mankind,
A ransom for my sin let me in Thy martyrdom find.
“But when Wilibald Pirkheimer read this, he laughed at me and
said that no rhyme ought to have more than eight syllables. So I
began over again and made the following eighteen Rhymes with eight
syllables each,
Strive earnestly with all thy might,
That God should give thee Wisdom’s light.
He doth his wisdom truly prove,
Whom neither dearth nor riches move.
And he shall also be called wise,
Who joy and sorrow both defies.
He who bears both honour and shame,
He well deserves the wise man’s name.
Who knows himself and evil shuns,
In Wisdom’s path he surely runs.
Who ’gainst his foe doth vengeance cherish,
In hell-flame doth his wisdom perish.
* The translations of the rhymes are by Mrs Charles Heaton, and are reprinted by
permission from her Life of Albrecht Diirer. As to the originals of them, see Thausing’s
Diirer’s Briefe, etc. pp. xiv. and 143.