The Signpost
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Signpost
Scripture Reference:
- 2 Corinthians 4 (further images / scripture text)
Description: At a signpost, six individuals have given up traveling and lean on the World, instead of following the example of a travel companion, who proceeds on the signed path. The Dutch artist and poet Jan Luiken (1649-1712), whose initials are at the lower right, was responsible for drawing and etching this emblem and for the poem that accompanies it (below). The attendant scripture text is 2 Corinthians 4:18.
Poem:
Thus one sits by the wooden hand,
That stands, to show us the way,
As a service, planted at the crossroad,
So that one may reach the goal.
The entire visible object,
With its comfort, and the beauty
Exists wholly and in part,
To show us Heaven’s-path,
A finger that directs us further,
And that must be passed,
By someone who travels carefully,
So that his courage will be praised.
But he who loves the wooden hand,
And remains there standing or lying,
Is like an ignorant child,
Who cannot be said to have any wisdom.
O, sluggards, at the wooden hand,
So carelessly resting and leaning,
Where is your human judgment,
That should lean on their feet,
In order to pass all that,
And to leave behind your back,
What will remain standing as a wooden post,
Because what doesn’t follow can’t be of use;
As it clearly told us:
Whoever wants to reach the road’s Goal,
Should pass me, dead hand,
In order to look firmly at what I sign:
That is the root and the earth,
From which all existence originated.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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