The Harmful Effort
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Harmful Effort
Scripture Reference:
- Genesis 3 (further images / scripture text)
Description: A number of individuals pull, with great exertion and loud displays of joy, the World inside the house. 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 Genesis 3:6.
Poem:
It is said about the Trojan Horse,
Which, possessed with the Greeks’ cunning,
Gave birth to the fall of Troy;
But, in the meantime is forgotten,
How many a person still does the same,
Who with Triumph pulls in,
The world with its money and goods,
That causes his soul to descend.
The apple, that tastes so delicious,
And is so pleasing to the eyes,
Is worm-eaten in its core,
Which has deceived many a Soul.
So that the effort one expends,
Is not the only thing lost,
But from the sweetness that’s so tasty,
Great bitterness is born.
And whoever doesn’t die from it,
And is interred in the ground,
Yes, by hell’s fire destroyed,
Suffers pain! and sorrow! to vomit it out.
Therefore, give up the effort,
To breed snake eggs.
And undertake a better labor,
To root out false desires.
Oh poor man if only thou knewest,
The World is full of snake-cunning.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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