The Traveler: Everywhere Is the World
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Traveler: Everywhere Is the World
Scripture Reference:
- Psalms 80 (further images / scripture text)
Description: A driver sits on a horse-drawn cart with his pack behind him and listens to the driver who points out a distant view. In the background are other travelers on horses. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem, as well as for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant Scripture text is Psalm 80:19.
Motto:
He who wishes to gain Benefit from his Travel,
Should travel from outside to inside.
Poem:
One Travels East, one Travels West,
So here and there, near and far,
At home is still the very best,
That weariness makes one return to;
Return again wayward Soul,
Removed from thy origin,
Where thou remained a long time,
Scattered in the eyes’ foreign desires.
Return again, it has wandered enough,
From all things of the earth,
No benefit is obtained,
Of much importance and great value.
Return again to thy Father’s House,
To God, thy Creator and thy provider,
Heaven is thy true Home,
Jerusalem is thy true Mother.
Thou hast now viewed all things,
And found through Experience,
That all desires flee from thee;
And by time are sent away.
Return again, before thou art beset,
By a mishap, from which to fear
That it prevents one’s return,
So that he can never again come home;
But must Eternally, in a strange land,
Situated in the most disagreeable corner,
Dwell in the most difficult condition,
From which deliverance is never obtained.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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