289: Was traurest du, mein Angesicht.

Was traurest du, mein Angesicht.--(Goed. 289.)

Appeared in Ebeling, 1666, 2, 24.

Of Gerhardt's hymns treating of Death, the Last Day, and Eternal Life, this is one of the least well known, and has not been retained in many German hymn books, mainly because of the mixed metaphor and the many unpoetic lines. It is translated in full by J. Kelly, 1867, no. 322, in stanzas of 7 lines, the long fifth line with the double rhyme being written as two short lines,

In stanza 19 Kelly has made the first personal pronoun predominant with the result that greater smoothness is obtained. He has, however, been obliged to omit what in the German are the best touches, namely the thoughts contained in "mein Hirt," "leiten" and "immergrün":