Auferstehn, ja aufer stehn wirst du . F. G. Klopstock. [ Burial of the Dead .] This beautiful little poem, hardly to be called a hymn, on the Resurrection of the Body, was written after the death, on Nov. 28, 1758, of his first wife, Meta Moller, and first published in his Geistliche Lieder, vol. i., Copenhagen, 1758, p. 80, in 5 stanzas of 5 lines. It was sung by the assembled thousands when, on March 22, 1803, he was laid to rest at Meta's side in the churchyard of Ottensen, near Altona. Commonly used also at Easter. Included as No. 1512 in the Berlin Geistliche Lieder, ed. 1863. The translation in common use is:—
Thou my dust awaking from brief rest, by A. T. Russell, as No. 257 in his Psalms & Hymns, 1851, in 5 stanzas. Rather based on the German than an exact translation. Included, beginning "Thou wilt raise our bodies from brief rest," as No. 744 in Kennedy, 1863.
Translations not in common use:—
(1) “Yes! Soon away shall death’s deep slumbers roll,” by Sir J. Bowring in his Hymns, 1825, No. 99. (2) “Yes! Thou wilt rise, wilt rise as Jesus rose,” in W. Nind’s Odes of Klopstock, 1848, p. 309. (3) "Arise, yes, yes, arise, O thou my dust," in Dr. A. Baskerville's Poetry of Germany, 1854 (ed. 1876, p. 25), and thence in the Gilman-Schaff Library of Religious Poetry, ed. 1883, p. 774. (4) "Thou Shalt rise! my dust thou shalt arise," by Miss Borthwick in Hymns from the Land of Luther, 1855 (1862, p. 165,1884, p. 128), and altered in Schaff 's Christ in Song, 1869, p. 652 (ed. 1879, p. 520). (5) "Rise thou shalt, yes, rise," by J. S. Stallybrass, in the Tonic Sol-fa Reporter, July, 1857. (6) "Rise again! yes, thou shalt rise again, my dust," by Miss Fry, 1859, p. 112. (7) "Arise again, arise again," in C. S. Bere's Garland of Songs, 1861 (later eds. p. 29). (8) "Rise again! yes, rise again wilt thou," by Miss Winkworth, 1869, p. 333. [Rev. James Mearns, M.A.]
-- John Julian, Dictionary of Hymnology (1907)