Dear Arthur,
he is not so much bragging about his work (although "wacker schreiben"
means "to write bravely") but identifying himself as the writer of a
piece, a section of pieces or even of the whole book if his words are to
be found at the end of it. The comparision of one's work with what the
ploughman and the sower do was very common (and is: "etwas beackern"
means "to work on something" and "ackern" means "to slog away"; the
original connotations are lost to most of us today, I think, and both
german expressions are colloquial) so the somewhat oblique (is this the
right word?) image of someone writing with a piece of farmland will not
have seemed so queer to Gerhard's contemporaries.
Nevertheless I prefer late medieval writer's verse like:
"Als ich han dies buech geschriben /
Bin ich schier im fasse blieben"
('While I was writing this book, deeply into the barrel I did look' or -
more close to the words -: 'I nearly ended in the barrel').
All best,
Joachim
"Arthur Ness" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> schrieb:
> Johann Wolff Gehard bin ich genand /
>
> In Nürnberg ist mein Vaterlandt /
>
> Pappier ist mein Acker /
>
> Damit schreib ich Wacker
>
> =================================
>
> Not very good verse. Is he bragging about his work?
> What does "Wacker" mean? Paper is my specialty (my
> field) with which I write <???>.
>
> It's on the titlepage of a 17th century violin tablature
> in Nuremberg, MS 271.
>
> ==ajn
>
>
>
>
>
> To get on or off this list see list information at
> http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~wbc/lute-admin/index.html
>
>
--
Joachim Lüdtke, Lektorat & DTP-Dienstleistungen
Dr. Joachim Lüdtke
Blumenstraße 20
D - 90762 Fürth
Tel. +49-+911 / 976 45 20
