The Disloyal Friend
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Disloyal Friend
Scripture Reference:
- Luke 16 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Two travelers sit in front of the door of an inn, with a sign “Traveling Man”; one of these treats himself royally and also asks to have some food packed, although he does not share anything with the other one. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant scripture text is Luke 16:10-11.
Poem:
Two friends had decided,
To travel to a certain place,
And took together to the road;
Spent nights and days,
Suffered sunshine and storms,
Mountain up, mountain down, through shrub and hedge.
However in traveling thus along the way,
One of them became distressed,
While he secretly considered,
That this road could extend farther,
Than their provisions might last,
To maintain life’s strength:
And while he was in his distress,
He began to save for himself,
As self he sought self-gain,
So that, as long as the journey might last,
He would not suffer for an ear of corn;
Want, and need, was for his comrade.
I think, whoever hears of this,
Will with abhorrence agree:
That was a disloyal friend;
He should have shared,
As long as there was enough to live on.
That way the title loyal is earned.
But yet we must say this,
So that each one does place it in his heart,
He who goes Ready-for-Travel with his nearest one,
Through this Time, to the other life,
Should determine for himself,
Of how far, or near, he stands with this.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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