Tag: Advent

Joseph (G. K. Chesterton)

Bij de derde zondag van de Advent

 


De droom van Sint Jozef door Philippe de Champaigne, 1642-43

 

Joseph

If the stars fell; night’s nameless dreams
Of bliss and blasphemy came true,
If skies were green and snow were gold,
And you loved me as I love you;

O long light hands and curled brown hair,
And eyes where sits a naked soul;
Dare I even then draw near and burn
My fingers in the aureole?

Yes, in the one wise foolish hour
God gives this strange strength to a man.
He can demand, though not deserve,
Where ask he cannot, seize he can.

But once the blood’s wild wedding o’er,
Were not dread his, half dark desire,
To see the Christ-child in the cot,
The Virgin Mary by the fire?

 

 
G. K. Chesterton (29 mei 1874 – 14 juli 1936)
Trafalgar Square, Londen in kersttijd. G. K. Chesterton werd geboren in Londen

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 13e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Johannes der Täufer (Friedrich Treitschke)

Bij de tweede zondag van de Advent

 

 
Johannes de Doper door Giovanni Guercino, 1641

 

Johannes der Täufer
(Von Guercino.)

“Bereitet euerm Herrn die rechte Bahn!
Was Gott verhieß, soll in Erfüllung gehen.
Bald werdet ihr den Heiland kommen sehen;
Sei weit das Tor der Ehren aufgetan.”

“Des Kreuzes Zeichen trag’ ich ihm voran.
Mit Wasser tauf ich; doch in blauen Höhen
Wie Flammen rauscht des Geistes Flügelwehen;
Dem Sohne nach des Vaters Wort zu nahn.”

Also Johannes: und die Völker kamen,
Er wandt’ sie emsig zu des Meisters Namen,
Und lebt’ und lehrt’, nicht achtend sein Verderben.

O Treue, fremd den neuen kalten Zeiten!
Wer mag noch jetzt für Gott und Wahrheit streiten?
Und muss es sein: für Gott und Wahrheit sterben?

 

 
Friedrich Treitschke (29 augustus 1776 – 4 juni 1842)
Kerstmarkt in Leipzig, waar Friedrich Treitschke werd geboren.

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 6e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Advent Hymn (Ada Cambridge)

 

Bij de eerste zondag van de Advent

 

 
De verkoop van kerstbomen door David Jacobson (1818-1891)

 

Advent Hymn

Another mile—a year
Pass’d by for ever! And the warnings swell
From upper heaven to darkest depths of hell,—
O we are drawing near!

All through the waiting lands
Dim signs and tokens, if unheeded, throng;
We feel them thickening as we pass along,
Holding out fearful hands.

Light! which in love sent down
That tender gleam on Eden’s darken’d bowers,
When sin had breathed the blight upon the flowers
Whereof death made his crown:—

Light! which did deign to stamp
The tables on that Arab mountain-crest;—
Light! which, in shrouded glory, once did rest
On Israelitish camp:—

O day! whose dawn was spread,
Golden and clear, on Judaea’s terraced hills,—
O shining noon! whose waxèd beauty thrills
Earth and her quick and dead:—

Come to our hearts, we pray!
Through open doors let gracious gleams come in;
Fill us with light and life, and let the sin
And darkness pass away.

Lord, waken us who sleep,
Strengthen the feeble knees and weak hands now;
Teach us, with prayer and work, to measure how
The stealthy minutes creep.

Let not our lamp be dim
When in the night we hear the footsteps fall
Upon our threshold,—let death find us all
Watching in peace for him.
Let us lie down to rest
In surest hope of endless life in store,
With happy reverent hands, that strive no more,
Folded across our breast.

And when the angels come,
And the sharp echo of the herald’s cry
Pierces the dark and stillness where we lie
Cold in our sleep, and dumb,—

May we arise, O King!
In bridal garments, beautiful and white;
And do Thou, coming in Thy godly might,
Our crown of glory bring.

 

 
Ada Cambridge (21 november 1844 – 19 juli 1926)
Maria en kind op de lambrizering in St Mary the Virgin’s Church in Wiggenhall St Germans.
Ada Cambridge werd geboren in Wiggenhall St Germans

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 29e november ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Advent (Scott Cairns)

Bij de vierde zondag van de Advent

 

 
Weihnachtsmarkt Am Hof in Wien door Emil Barbarini, z.j.

 

Advent

Well, it was beginning to look a lot like Christmas — everywhere, children eyeing the bright lights and colorful goods, traffic a good deal worse than usual, and most adults in view looking a little puzzled, blinking their eyes against the assault of stammering bulbs and public displays of goodwill. We were all embarrassed, frankly, the haves and the have-nots — all of us aware something had gone far wrong with an entire season, something had eluded us. And, well, it was strenuous, trying to recall what it was that had charmed us so, back when we were much smaller and more oblivious than not concerning the weather, mass marketing, the insufficiently hidden faces behind those white beards and other jolly gear. And there was something else: a general diminishment whose symptoms included the Xs in Xmas, shortened tempers, and the aggressive abandon with which most celebrants seemed to push their shiny cars about. All of this seemed to accumulate like wet snow, or like the fog with which our habitual inversion tried to choke us, or to blank us out altogether, so that, of a given night, all that appeared over the mess we had made of the season was what might be described as a nearly obscured radiance, just visible through the gauze, either the moon disguised by a winter veil, or some lost star — isolated, distant, sadly dismissing of us, and of all our expertly managed scene.

 

 
Scott Cairns (Tacoma, 19 november 1954)
Tacoma

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 21e december ook mijn drie vorige blogs van vandaag.

Saint John Baptist (William Drummond)

Bij de derde zondag van de Advent

 

 
Johannes de Doper door Rafaël, ca.1518

 

Saint John Baptist

The last and greatest Herald of Heaven’s King
Girt with rough skins, hies to the deserts wild,
Among that savage brood the woods forth bring,
Which he more harmless found than man, and mild.
His food was locusts, and what there doth spring,
With honey that from virgin hives distill’d;
Parch’d body, hollow eyes, some uncouth thing
Made him appear, long since from earth exiled.
There burst he forth: All ye whose hopes rely
On God, with me amidst these deserts mourn,
Repent, repent, and from old errors turn!
—Who listen’d to his voice, obey’d his cry?
Only the echoes, which he made relent,
Rung from their flinty caves, Repent! Repent!

 

 
William Drummond (13 december 1585 – 4 december 1649)
Hawthornden Castle, waar William Drummond werd geboren.

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 14e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Advent (Marijke Hanegraaf)

Bij de tweede zondag van de Advent

 

 
De annunciatie door Paolo de Matteis, 1712

 

Advent

Ze stond bij coffeeshop The Doors en Stubbe’s Haring
en onverwacht kuste de avondwind de laatste bloemen
van de venter. Een vrouw werd kind; warrelend blad
de carrousel, het slagwerk blik en plastic bekers.

Ze keek omhoog. Daar, op het herenhuis zag ze
de engel Gabriël, in blauw nog wel, zijn gouden
vleugels in de laatste zon een groet.

Vanaf de overzijde wiegde een hijskraan stuntelig
zijn tegenwicht; kon hij maar buigen. Geen zon
voor hem, hij had zijn eigen licht.

‘Dag,’ zei ze tot de reuzen van dit moment;
de ritselende grond leek een seconde lang gezegend.
De wind ging liggen, nu viel de nacht en Gabriël
verdween, alleen de hijskraan  hield de wacht.

 

 
Marijke Hanegraaf (Tilburg, 6 maart 1946)
Tilburg in winterse sferen.

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 7e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Adventliche Einkehr (Ingo Baumgartner)

Bij de eerste zondag van de Advent

 

 
Eschweger Weihnachtsmarkt um 1816 door Ernst Christopher Metz

 

Adventliche Einkehr

Adventmarkt, glühgebirnte Helle,
ein runder Tisch, wie fein, ich stelle
mich hin und äußere den Wunsch
nach einem Gläschen Weihnachtspunsch.

Der Kellner eilt, jetzt schon zum dritten,
gar vierten  Mal, ein Pferdeschlitten
quetscht meine Zehen, weil ich lieg
und da den fünften Becher krieg.

Der Dom hat, seltsam, heut vier Türme,
im Schnee kriecht hässliches Gewürme,
doch ist’s nur eine Glühweinspur
von meiner Innenwärmungskur.

Am Nebentischchen lehnt ein Engel,
er hat genug vom Marktgedrängel
und tut, was gleich ins Auge sticht,
er säuft, der rechte Flügel bricht.

Ich geh hinüber, denn alleine
ist’s kaum adventlich, wie ich meine.
So frönen wir ab nun zu zweit
der Einkehr und Besinnlichkeit.

 

 
Ingo Baumgartner (Oberndorf an der Salzach, 24 december 1944)
Oberndorf an der Salzach

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 30e november ook mijn drie vorige blogs van vandaag.

Bij de vierde zondag van de Advent (Advent 1955, John Betjeman)

Bij de vierde zondag van de Advent

 

 popp
Weihnachtsmarkt in Hildesheim door Oskar Popp, 1928

 

Advent 1955

The Advent wind begins to stir
With sea-like sounds in our Scotch fir,
It’s dark at breakfast, dark at tea,
And in between we only see
Clouds hurrying across the sky
And rain-wet roads the wind blows dry
And branches bending to the gale
Against great skies all silver pale
The world seems travelling into space,
And travelling at a faster pace
Than in the leisured summer weather
When we and it sit out together,
For now we feel the world spin round
On some momentous journey bound –
Journey to what? to whom? to where?
The Advent bells call out ‘Prepare,
Your world is journeying to the birth
Of God made Man for us on earth.’

And how, in fact, do we prepare
The great day that waits us there –
For the twenty-fifth day of December,
The birth of Christ? For some it means
An interchange of hunting scenes
On coloured cards, And I remember
Last year I sent out twenty yards,
Laid end to end, of Christmas cards
To people that I scarcely know –
They’d sent a card to me, and so
I had to send one back. Oh dear!
Is this a form of Christmas cheer?
Or is it, which is less surprising,
My pride gone in for advertising?
The only cards that really count
Are that extremely small amount
From real friends who keep in touch
And are not rich but love us much
Some ways indeed are very odd
By which we hail the birth of God.

We raise the price of things in shops,
We give plain boxes fancy tops
And lines which traders cannot sell
Thus parcell’d go extremely well
We dole out bribes we call a present
To those to whom we must be pleasant
For business reasons. Our defence is
These bribes are charged against expenses
And bring relief in Income Tax
Enough of these unworthy cracks!
‘The time draws near the birth of Christ’.
A present that cannot be priced
Given two thousand years ago
Yet if God had not given so
He still would be a distant stranger
And not the Baby in the manger.

 

 
John Betjeman (28 augustus 1906 – 19 mei 1984)
Londen, kerstmarkt, Southbank. John Betjeman werd in Londen geboren.

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 22e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Bij de derde zondag van de Advent (Advent, Christina Rossetti)

Bij de derde zondag van de Advent

 

 
Johannes de Doper door Michelangelo da Caravaggio, ca. 1604

 

Advent

This Advent moon shines cold and clear,
These Advent nights are long;
Our lamps have burned year after year
And still their flame is strong.
‘Watchman, what of the night?’ we cry,
Heart-sick with hope deferred:
‘No speaking signs are in the sky,’
Is still the watchman’s word.

The Porter watches at the gate,
The servants watch within;
The watch is long betimes and late,
The prize is slow to win.
‘Watchman, what of the night?’ But still
His answer sounds the same:
‘No daybreak tops the utmost hill,
Nor pale our lamps of flame.’

One to another hear them speak
The patient virgins wise:
‘Surely He is not far to seek’—
‘All night we watch and rise.’
‘The days are evil looking back,
The coming days are dim;
Yet count we not His promise slack,
But watch and wait for Him.’

One with another, soul with soul,
They kindle fire from fire:
‘Friends watch us who have touched the goal.’
‘They urge us, come up higher.’
‘With them shall rest our waysore feet,
With them is built our home,
With Christ.’—’They sweet, but He most sweet,
Sweeter than honeycomb.’

There no more parting, no more pain,
The distant ones brought near,
The lost so long are found again,
Long lost but longer dear:
Eye hath not seen, ear hath not heard,
Nor heart conceived that rest,
With them our good things long deferred,
With Jesus Christ our Best.

We weep because the night is long,
We laugh for day shall rise,
We sing a slow contented song
And knock at Paradise.
Weeping we hold Him fast, Who wept
For us, we hold Him fast;
And will not let Him go except
He bless us first or last.

Weeping we hold Him fast to-night;
We will not let Him go
Till daybreak smite our wearied sight
And summer smite the snow:
Then figs shall bud, and dove with dove
Shall coo the livelong day;
Then He shall say, ‘Arise, My love,
My fair one, come away.’

 

 
Christina Rossetti (5 december 1830 – 27 december 1894)
Londen, Westminster Abbey in Kersttijd

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 8e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.

Bij de tweede zondag van de Advent (Mariae Verkündigung, Rainer Maria Rilke)

 

Bij de tweede zondag van de Advent

 

 
Adriaen van de Velde, De boodschap aan Maria, 1667

 

Mariae Verkündigung

Nicht dass ein Engel eintrat (das erkenn),
erschreckte sie. Sowenig andre, wenn
ein Sonnenstrahl oder der Mond bei Nacht
in ihrem Zimmer sich zu schaffen macht,
auffahren -, pflegte sie an der Gestalt,
in der ein Engel ging, sich zu entrüsten;
sie ahnte kaum, dass dieser Aufenthalt
mühsam für Engel ist. (O wenn wir wüssten,
wie rein sie war. Hat eine Hirschkuh nicht,
die, liegend, einmal sie im Wald eräugte,
sich so in sie versehn, dass sich in ihr,
ganz ohne Paarigen, das Einhorn zeugte,
das Tier aus Licht, das reine Tier -.)
Nicht, dass er eintrat, aber dass er dicht,
der Engel, eines Jünglings Angesicht
so zu ihr neigte; dass sein Blick und der,
mit dem sie aufsah, so zusammenschlugen
als wäre draußen plötzlich alles leer
und, was Millionen schauten, trieben, trugen,
hineingedrängt in sie: nur sie und er;
Schaun und Geschautes, Aug und Augenweide
sonst nirgends als an dieser Stelle -: sieh,
dieses erschreckt. Und sie erschraken beide.
Dann sang der Engel seine Melodie.

 

 
Rainer Maria Rilke (4 december 1875 – 29 december 1926)
Praag in de Advent (Rilke werd geboren in Praag)

 

Zie voor de schrijvers van de 8e december ook mijn vorige twee blogs van vandaag.