Christ My Song - 248
It is winter: all seems dead or dying - Winter
(Carl Johann Philipp Spitta/Richard Massie/
Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
Winter.
1. It is winter: all seems dead or dying,
solitude throughout all nature reigns;
she herself, like some fair corpse, is lying
in the sheet which shrouds her wide domains.
Her dear children sleep beneath their awning,
sheltered safely in their mother's breast,
dreaming of the resurrection morning,
when the spring shall wake them from their rest. PDF - Midi
2. Thou, O earth, art stripped of all thy beauty,
all thy boasted glory now has fled,
thou thyself dost preach to us our duty
in a solemn sermon o'er the dead.
Earth can yield us no enduring pleasure,
we must part from that which most we love;
wouldst thou seek an everlasting treasure,
raise thy thoughts to heaven and things above.
3. Let the earth herself to heaven direct thee,
seek not here thy home, but journey on
to the mansions, where the friends expect thee,
who before thee are already gone.
Vainly seek'st thou here what thou desirest,
therefore speed thee on thy heavenward way;
every thing which thou from earth requirest
is enough to hide thy mouldering clay.
4. But when Easter songs again awaken
those who still are sleeping in the dust,
earth shall bring the treasures she has taken,
and discharge her solemn sacred trust.
Think not here to find enduring pleasure,
earth possesses nothing of her own;
let her lead thee to the one true treasure,
joy in heaven at God's eternal throne.
Richard Massie, Lyra Domestica I, 1863, 16-17.
Translated from the German Winter ist es. In dem weiten Reiche - Im Winter
of Carl Johann Philipp Spitta.