The Vineyard: It Is Good for It
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Vineyard: It Is Good for It
Scripture Reference:
- Jeremiah 2 (further images / scripture text)
Description: In a vineyard a worker is in the process of pruning shoots. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649–1712) was responsible for drawing this emblem and composed the poem that accompanies it. The etching was executed by Jan Luiken or his son Casper Luiken (1672–1708), who had used this image in an earlier work, which may be found in the Digital Image Archive under the call number 1699Weig. The attendant scripture text is Jeremiah 2:21.
Motto: Through oppression, It must succeed.
Poem:
The Shoots are pruned,
And that has its well-known reason:
O Vineyard of the dear heart,
On the Earthly Mountain of flesh and blood,
How thou hast many useless shoots,
Shot wildly so far and wide!
They pull through their hungry desire,
The nourishment from the true fruit.
Many twist and are heavily loaded,
With branches, curls and leaves,
From Earthly practices and vanity,
Pleasure and sorrow of this time;
But grapes are not to be found,
As those consume thy power.
It is then indeed time to consider,
That with regard to Piety,
Undertake to prune the Vineyard,
And to remove its wild wood,
So the sap (dispersed so widely),
Gathers to produce fruitfulness,
And will bear sweet grapes,
To the pleasure of the Gardener,
And thou, O Vineyard! of the heart,
Art not shamefully eradicated.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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Rights Status: No Copyright - United States
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