F. J. Burmeister › Texts

Burmeister, Franz Joachim, was a native of Lüneburg. He was ordained at Cello, May 4, 1670, and instituted as diaconus of St. Michael's Church, Luneburg, July 10, 1670. This post he held till his death at Luneburg, April 21, 1672. Ho was a friend of Rist, who crowned him as a poet in 1659, and in 1660 received him into his order of Elbe Swans. (Koch, iii. 448-450: Allgemeine Deutsche Biographie, iii. 628; manuscript from Seminarlehrer Bode, Lüneburg.) His hymns were mostly contributed to the musical works of J. R. Ahle of Muhlhausen, 14 being set to music and published by Ahle in 1662, at Muhlhausen, as Neue yeistliche auff diehohen Festtage durchs gantze Jahr gerichtete Andachten. Those translations into English are:—
i. Du keusohe Seele du. [Visitation to Elizabeth.] First published 1662 as above, No. 13 in 6 stanzas of 6 lines, entitled on the "Festival of Mary's Visitation. On her visitation journey." As the hymn is very rare, the first and last stanzas are here quoted from a copy kindly sent from Muhlhausen:—
i.
Du keusche Seele du,
Der Weiber Licht und Sonne,
Und deines Joseph's Wonne
Genet nach Elisabethen zu,
Deinen Glaubcn dort zu starken
An des Allerhochsten Werken.
vi.
Die Welt ist soldi ein Ort,
Darin wir Gastfrist pflegen;
Bald muss mein Leib sichlegen,
Dann geht der Geist von hinnen fort,
Jesus woll' im Tod' und Leben
Mir sich zum Gefahrten geben.
The only translation in common use is:—
Thou virgin, soul! 0 thou. By Miss Winkworth in her Chorale Book for England, 1863, No. 82.
ii. Was soil ioh, liebstes Kind. [Epiphany.] First published, 1662, as above, No. 4, in 4 stanzas of 4 lines, entitled "On the Festival of the Holy Three Kings." In the Berlin Geistliche Liedersegen, edition 1863, No. 212. Translated as:—
0 Blessed Babe divine. A good and full translation by Dr. Kennedy as No. 194, in his Hymnologia Christiana, 1863. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]

-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)