Christ My Song - 1527
What is human life below? - The shortness of Life
(Salomon Franck/Frances Elizabeth Cox/
Johannes Thomas Rüegg)
The shortness of Life.
"So teach us to number our days,
that we may apply our hearts unto wisdom." (Psalm 90, 12)
1. What is human life below?
Passing show!
Vapour, smoke, and fleeting shade:
Man, when few short years have flown,
is cut down,
as by scythe the springing blade:
years roll on, and make no stay;
ponder, Man, thy latter day. PDF - Midi
2. Man is like to fragile glass,
fading grass,
flower whose petals soon are strewn:
ah! how quickly reft of strength,
when at length
death's cold wind has o'er him blown!
Years roll on, and make no stay;
ponder, Man, thy latter day.
3. Youth, to which we may compare
roses fair,
pales, and must its charms forego:
all that men of pomp and state
highest rate,
soon shall be by death laid low:
years roll on, and make no stay;
ponder, Man, thy latter day.
4. Man's the mark at which take aim,
like some game,
darts which death unerring plies;
though like cedar fair outspread,
soars his head,
felled by death, he lifeless lies:
years roll on, and make no stay;
ponder, Man, thy latter day.
5. Death is that which must befall
great and small;
banish trivial cares of earth:
far beyond the things of time
thou must climb,
wouldst thou win immortal birth:
years roll on, and make no stay;
ponder, Man, thy latter day.
6. Let thine heart oft contemplate
that high state,
where no grief shall come, or pain:
let this theme thy soul employ,
heavenly joy,
wouldst thou once that joy obtain:
years roll on, and make no stay;
ponder, Man, thy latter day.
Frances Elizabeth Cox, Hymns from the German, 1864, 135+137.
Translated from the German Ach, was ist doch unsre Zeit? - Die Vergänglichkeit des Lebens
of Salomon Franck.