The Back Layer
Author: Luiken, Jan, 1649-1712
Image Title: The Back Layer
Scripture Reference:
- Psalms 91 (further images / scripture text)
Description: Two men enjoy the goods derived from food, drink and the contents of a coin-purse next to the World and do not notice Satan in the form of a crowned serpent hidden behind it. 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 Psalm 91:2-4.
Poem:
See, all Cunning, keeps himself hidden,
To feed the one, he is trying to catch,
While he blindly wanders,
Thinking, that the evil is not there.
And the more boldness would provoke him,
To go ahead and show himself,
The more Cunning would hide himself,
Until he saw him firmly caught.
The Back-layer will not Trumpet,
For fear that his Enemy will hear,
Whom he wants to expediently capture,
But, when his chance comes, he will show himself.
If only all bold careless men,
With imagined wise delusion,
Would consider this also about the Evil-one,
So as to escape his snares for sure!
He is not a Bumpkin, and doesn’t shun,
Things of great importance to him,
But sharply educated in the olden days,
So that he would catch sharp minds.
Who would think or believe it;
That in the very clearest day,
(The Ornament of all things above)
The black Night would lie hidden!
If light only retreats from our eyes,
So is the net of Darkness,
Already covering our head,
Because it lies hidden behind the light,
Think if the Cunning-one then wouldn’t laugh,
When stupidity called loudly, show yourself,
So that one could watch out for you,
When one saw you in full view!
When then remorse begins to lament,
And says, I didn’t mean that,
So mocks that crafty back-layer,
While he laughs, and grins nastily.
Although we have become dumb witted,
And don’t see because of blindness,
God’s Wisdom has clearly taught us,
How each one can escape that Evil.
(Translation by Josephine V. Brown, with editorial assistance from William G. Stryker)
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