| Margarete Münsterberg, ed., trans. A Harvest of German Verse. 1916. | | | | Sonnet On the Transitoriness of Life | | By Andreas Gryphius (1616–1664) |
| | | YOU see, where’er you look, but vanity on earth: | |
| To-morrow they’ll tear down what we have built to-day, | |
| And peaceful herds will graze and shepherds’ children play | |
| On fields where now the lively cities boast their worth. | |
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| All that is blooming now must lie in sorry dearth; | 5 |
| The hearts that beat in pride will turn to ashes grey. | |
| No marble and no ore, nay, nothing here can stay. | |
| Now happiness may smile before some sorrow’s birth. | |
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| The glory of high deeds must vanish like a dream. | |
| Oh, how can man withstand the flow of time’s fleet stream? | 10 |
| Yea, what is all that we have deemed so wondrous great, | |
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| But worthless trifles, only shadows, wind and dust, | |
| A flower of the field, that on the road is thrust. | |
| And yet eternal things man will not contemplate. | | | | |
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