Sondagh
The Sun of the Soul
The speaker reflects on the inadequacy of earthly time and the obscuring effect of sin on the divine light.
Is it the Sabbath, my soul, or is it Sunday? It is neither. The Sabbath has passed with its services, and the sun I see shone yesterday just as it does today.1 But the one I do not see does not shine as she once shone.2 It is a sun I only see through my sins.3
The Wounds of the Son
The speaker invokes Christ as the true Sunday and Atonement, while acknowledging the collective guilt of humanity.
Son of God, who walked the earth again today, stately as a bridegroom entering the racecourse: through your wounds I see a Sunday without end.✦4 So let it be Sunday now; you may call it God's Son-day—yes, and God's day of atonement as well.5 But if I may condemn us: whichever of the three I choose, I find us in the guilt.6
The Patience of God
A lament over the divine patience in the face of human ingratitude and the desecration of holy time.
God Sun, God Son, God Atonement—how long does your patience last?7 How long, Lord, do you endure your Son-day, Atonement-day, Sunday—ungratefully wasted, gambled away, misspelled into Sin-day?8
Read the original Latin
Is 't Sabbath-dagh, mijn Ziel, of Sondagh? geen van tween. De Sabbath is voorby met zijne dienstbaerheden: En de Son die ick sie scheen gisteren als heden. Maer, die ick niet en sie en schijnt niet soo se scheen. Son, die ick niet en sie als door mijn' sonden heen. Soon Gods, die desen dagh het aerdrijck weer betreedden, Fier als een Bruydegom ter loop-baen ingereden, 'k Sie Sondagh sonder eynd door dijne wonden heen. 't Zy dan oock Sondagh nu, men mach 't Gods Soon-dagh noemen, Ia, en Gods Soen-dagh toe. Maer, laet ick ons verdoemen, Waer ick van dryen gae, ick vind ons in de schuld.
God Son, God Soon, God Soen, hoe langh duert dijn geduld? Hoe langhe lijdt ghy, Heer, dijn' Soon-dagh, Soen-dagh, Sondagh, Ondanckbaerlick verspilt, verspeelt, verspelt in Sond-dagh?
Scripture echoes
- ↩Ps.19.5-Ps.19.6 — Their line has gone out through all the earth, and their words to the end of the world. In them he has set a tent for the sun, Ps.19.6 — Its rising is from one end of the heavens, and its circuit reaches to the other end; and nothing is hidden from its heat.
Notes
- 1 ↩Dutch Son (sun) begins the poem's triple wordplay with Soon (Son) and Soen (atonement/reconciliation), developed in the following sentences.
- 2 ↩die ick niet en sie points beyond the visible sun to the spiritual Sun (Christ); se is the feminine/neuter Early Modern Dutch pronoun for that sun.
- 3 ↩als door mijn' sonden heen: the speaker sees the Sun only as if looking through the veil or haze of sin, so sins obscure rather than mediate true sight.
- 4 ↩Soon Gods pivots from Son (sun) to Son of God; Resurrection Sunday is in view, and the bridegroom-on-the-course image echoes Psalm 19 applied to Christ.
- 5 ↩Preserves the Dutch triple pun: Sondagh (Sunday), Soon-dagh (Son-day), Soen-dagh (atonement/reconciliation day). Soen = reconciliation/atonement, not the English word 'soon'.
- 6 ↩van dryen = the three names just given (Sunday / Son-day / Atonement-day). Under every title the speaker finds the self and others still in debt/guilt (schuld).
- 7 ↩Dutch vocative triad: Son (sun), Soon (Son), Soen (atonement/reconciliation, modern zoen). The three names stack the celestial sun, the divine Son, and reconciling atonement in one address.
- 8 ↩Triple verb play: verspilt (wasted), verspeelt (gambled/played away), verspelt (misspelled). The last lands the orthographic turn of Sondagh (Sunday) into Sond-dagh (Sin-day).
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