Dry Coninghen avond
The Search for the Guiding Star
The speaker seeks the Christ Child but finds only confusion and false lights amidst the world's clamor.
Where is God's only Child, that I may worship Him? O Wise Men, show me the way. I see a thousand stars glittering, but none that leads me—only false sparks. I don't see the Guiding Star your wisdom looked on.✦1 While I gape upward, what clamor do I hear?
The King's Bitter Cup
The revelry of the city is contrasted with the true, sacrificial drinking of the King who bore the bitterness of sin.
What does the wanton city cry, drowned in luxury and wine—The King is drinking?2 Away, away—the King has drunk, and in drinking paid the bitter score: the score of gall and vinegar, which no mouth could take and no throat could bear—of those who had forfeited head and throat and soul and all, confessed for their sins.✦✦34
The Child as the Light
Having found healing in the King's sacrifice, the speaker confidently follows the Child as the true star of the journey.
Now I step forward boldly with all my wounds healed. Come, Wise Men, I know the path; though it's steep and far, I don't fear the wrong road—the Child Himself is my Star.
Read the original Latin
Waer is Gods eenigh Kind, dat ick 't aenbidden magh? O Wijsen, wijst my 't pad. 'k zie duysend Sterren proncken; Maer geene die my leyd' als met verkeerde voncken: Ick sie de Leid-Sterr niet daer op uw' wijsheyd sagh. Terwijl ick opwaerts gaep, wat hoor ick voor gewagh? Wat roept de wulpsche Stad, in weeld en wijn verdroncken, De Coningh drinckt? wegh, wegh, de Coningh heeft gedroncken, En drinckende voldaen het bittere gelagh, 't Gelagh van Gall en Eeck, dat geenen mond en monden, Daer geen keel tegen mocht, van die daer kopp en keel En Ziel en all verbeurt bekenden voor haer' sonden. Nu treed ick moedigh toe met all mijn wonden heel. Komt, Wijsen, 'k weet het pad; all is het steyl en verre, Ick vrees den Dool-wegh niet, 't Kind selver is mijn' Sterre.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Matt.2.2 — Where is the one who has been born king of the Jews? For we saw his star in the east, and we have come to worship him.
- ↩Ps.69.21;Matt.27.34;John.19.29 — Reproach has broken my heart, and I am sick with grief; I looked for sympathy, but there was none, and for comforters, but I found no one. Matt.27.34 — They gave him wine to drink mixed with gall; and when he tasted it, he was not willing to drink. John.19.29 — A jar full of sour wine was standing there; so they filled a sponge with sour wine, put it on hyssop, and held it to his mouth.
- ↩Matt.26.39;John.18.11 — And going forward a little, he fell on his face, praying and saying, 'My Father, if it is possible, let this cup pass from me; nevertheless, not as I will, but as you will.' John.18.11 — Jesus said to Peter, "Put your sword into its sheath. The cup that the Father has given me—shall I not drink it?"
Notes
- 1 ↩'als met verkeerde voncken' can mean the ordinary stars mislead like false sparks, or that none truly leads and only false sparks remain; the contrast with Leid-Sterr (Guiding Star) supports the misleading-sparks sense.
- 2 ↩'De Coningh drinckt' plays on Epiphany / Twelfth Night revelry ('the king drinks') against the true King who will drink the Passion cup in the next sentence.
- 3 ↩'gelagh' means both a drinking bout and the tavern bill/score; the poem turns the city's revel-cry into Christ's payment of the bitter Passion reckoning.
- 4 ↩'kopp en keel / En Ziel en all verbeurt bekenden voor haer' sonden' is dense Early Modern Dutch: rendered as sinners who had forfeited head, throat, soul, and everything and confessed it for their sins; word order could also be read as 'confessed head and throat… as forfeited.'
Heilige Daghen (Holy Days: Sonnets on the Christian Calendar) companion
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