Book contents
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Textual Note
- Introduction
- 1 Doris, or the Shepherd’s Complaint
- 2 To Anna R.[oemers]
- 3 [From] Batava Tempe: That Is the Lime-avenue of The Hague
- 4 The Exiled Shepherd: To the Lord Daniel Heinsius, Knight etc.
- 5 The Character of an Ambassador
- 6 Ship’s Talk, on the Death of Prince Maurits
- 7 To the Lady Tesselschade Crombalch with My Translations from the English Poems of Dr Donne
- 8 To Barlaeus
- 9 On the Death of Tesselschade’s Eldest Daughter, and on Her Husband Thereafter Bleeding to Death
- 10 The White Moon
- 11 The Mist Descending
- 12 The First Stone of the Marksmen’s School in The Hague, Laid by Prince William of Orange, on the Day of Public Prayer, 2 December 1636
- 13 To Stella, My Dearest Wife, Now Dead
- 14 [From] The Day’s Work: The Order of the House
- 15 In Her Snow-cold Arms
- 16 Prayer for the Holy Communion
- 17 The Lake
- 18 The Holy Communion
- 19 New Year
- 20 Good Friday
- 21 Pentecost
- 22 Christmas
- 23 Easter
- 24 To Tesselschade
- 25 On the Roses of the Most Eminent Painter, Daniel Seegers
- 26 To Tesselschade, Departing
- 27 To Albert Dürer on His Engraved Picture
- 28 On the Holy Communion
- 29 Again on the Holy Communion
- 30 [From] Hofwijk
- 31 Awakening
- 32 To the Lady Luchtenburgh, with My Poems Translated from the English of Donne
- 33 Again on Painting
- 34 On the Frontispiece of Korenbloemen
- 35 On the Grave of Jacob van Campen
- 36 The Vanity of Dreams
- 37 On an Engraved Glass
- 38 On My Birthday
- 39 Consolation of the Eyes, to the Lady of St Annaland
- 40 On the Holy Communion
- 41 Stillness and Snow after Storm and High Water
- 42 My Puppy’s Epitaph
- Appendix I A Selection of Huygens’ Poems in Modern European Languages
- Appendix II A Selection of Huygens’ Writings in English
- Appendix III Huygens and English Literature
- Appendix IV Additional Poems on Painting
- Bibliography
- Index of Titles and First Lines
- Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
30 - [From] Hofwijk
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 09 February 2021
- Frontmatter
- Dedication
- Contents
- Preface
- Textual Note
- Introduction
- 1 Doris, or the Shepherd’s Complaint
- 2 To Anna R.[oemers]
- 3 [From] Batava Tempe: That Is the Lime-avenue of The Hague
- 4 The Exiled Shepherd: To the Lord Daniel Heinsius, Knight etc.
- 5 The Character of an Ambassador
- 6 Ship’s Talk, on the Death of Prince Maurits
- 7 To the Lady Tesselschade Crombalch with My Translations from the English Poems of Dr Donne
- 8 To Barlaeus
- 9 On the Death of Tesselschade’s Eldest Daughter, and on Her Husband Thereafter Bleeding to Death
- 10 The White Moon
- 11 The Mist Descending
- 12 The First Stone of the Marksmen’s School in The Hague, Laid by Prince William of Orange, on the Day of Public Prayer, 2 December 1636
- 13 To Stella, My Dearest Wife, Now Dead
- 14 [From] The Day’s Work: The Order of the House
- 15 In Her Snow-cold Arms
- 16 Prayer for the Holy Communion
- 17 The Lake
- 18 The Holy Communion
- 19 New Year
- 20 Good Friday
- 21 Pentecost
- 22 Christmas
- 23 Easter
- 24 To Tesselschade
- 25 On the Roses of the Most Eminent Painter, Daniel Seegers
- 26 To Tesselschade, Departing
- 27 To Albert Dürer on His Engraved Picture
- 28 On the Holy Communion
- 29 Again on the Holy Communion
- 30 [From] Hofwijk
- 31 Awakening
- 32 To the Lady Luchtenburgh, with My Poems Translated from the English of Donne
- 33 Again on Painting
- 34 On the Frontispiece of Korenbloemen
- 35 On the Grave of Jacob van Campen
- 36 The Vanity of Dreams
- 37 On an Engraved Glass
- 38 On My Birthday
- 39 Consolation of the Eyes, to the Lady of St Annaland
- 40 On the Holy Communion
- 41 Stillness and Snow after Storm and High Water
- 42 My Puppy’s Epitaph
- Appendix I A Selection of Huygens’ Poems in Modern European Languages
- Appendix II A Selection of Huygens’ Writings in English
- Appendix III Huygens and English Literature
- Appendix IV Additional Poems on Painting
- Bibliography
- Index of Titles and First Lines
- Amsterdam Studies in the Dutch Golden Age
Summary
[ll. 1-32]
The first great web is woven, the court described enough,
Time now to flee to Hofwijk. Who knows the thread of life
How short, how strong it is? The loudest sounding string
Will often break the first, in life and on the lute,
Being tuned too high, too taut, abraded by the times.
Such tension I have known, but safely have endured it,
It comes down to attrition. And this has two signs
(I were a fool denying it): my years and my grey hairs.
When the stretched lutestring frays, abraded, split and worn,
It shows that it is ready, quite suddenly, to go.
Who knows if the sudden hour of your going forth, my soul,
Lies not before you now? And if it should please God
To take me, would my house outlive my days unsung,
Be outdone by my Tempe? Would I stint my own,
Who have so often lent my pen to others’ work?
Justly I’d be accused of negligence, when dead,
With justice would my epitaph begin, ‘Here lies
A man who thought it would suffice to plant and dig,
Who followed farmer's arts and never took the time
To ornament his own creation with a song.’
My death I can't postpone simply by living long,
But, if I live a while, I will prevent that charge:
That which I plant I’ll sing, and rhyme all that I grow,
Before my voice grows hoarse, before my pen grows old.
I’d make the stranger see and make the Dutchman read
Hofwijk as it stands now, the Hofwijk that shall be.
So frail are human works, paper outlasts them all,
Time wears the shrub and stone: in time it will be said,
‘Here once his Hofwijk stood, now rubble, weeds and spoil.’
And then shall Hofwijk stand, still flowering in its pride
If any words that come, my reader, from my hand
Have ever braved the years and conquered ruinous time.
[ll.127-64]
Ick will u Hofwijck doen aenschouwen, of 't te nacht,
Gelijck als duijvels-brood, te voorschijn waer gebracht.
Jae meer, ick will het u, en mij oock, doen betreden
Als waer ons gisteren een’ gansche eew geleden
’Kwill met kinds kinderen goed deelen voor mijn’ dood,
Als waer ick Grootevaer en twee drij mael soo groot.
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- Information
- A Selection of the Poems of Sir Constantijn Huygens (1596–1687)Revised, Second Edition, pp. 176 - 205Publisher: Amsterdam University PressPrint publication year: 2015