We will be convening here at the ZigZag café, Suisse, on Thursdays for conversation and dialogue. I invite you to stop by every Thursday for the question of the day. Your thoughts and participation are most welcome. Pull up a stool, avec un café, un thé, ou un chocolat chaud, et un croissant, and join in here on Thursday at the ZZ café.
For today:
Can there be any such thing as ‘good death’ in a biblical world view?
6 comments:
that is an interesting choice of words: "good death". How should we understand "good" in this context? Normally "good" is a moral term but in some way someone might also use the adjective in order to designate an aesthetical aspect. Let us go with the ethical interpretation: Death is contrary to life. Life is valuable to most people so death seems to be something bad. Yet, humang beings have different values so in some moments they might sacrifice the value of life for some other value or for a number of different values. In those moments they probably could call this sacrifice as a "good death".
What would be a bad death or an evil death?
Well, if we personify death then this terminology makes sense in a methaphorical way. Death is good as the relief, death is the "brother of sleep":
"Come, oh death, brother of sleep,
Come and lead me on alone;
Loosen my boat's rudder,
Bring me to a safe port!
Those who will are glad to avoid you,
On the contrary, you can give me joy;
Because, through you, I come in
To the most beautiful child Jesus."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=liJ73QGC6z4
Or in the way Ludwig Hirsch is describing death to a sweet black bird:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zAp0HbHc-NU
Komm grosser schwarzer Vogel, komm jetzt!
Come great black bird, come now!
Schau, das Fenster ist weit offen,
Look, the window is wide open,
schau, ich hab Dir Zucker auf's
Fensterbrett g'straht.
Look, I have spread some sugar for you on the windowsill.
Komm grosser schwarzer Vogel, komm zu mir!
Come great dark bird, come to me!
Spann' Deine weiten, sanften Fluegel aus
Spread your wide, gentle wings
und leg s' auf meine Fieberaugen!
And lay them on my feverish eyes!
Bitte, hol mich weg von da!
Please, take me away from there/here!
Und dann fliegen wir rauf, mit in Himmel rein,
in a neue Zeit, in a neue Welt,
und ich werd' singen, ich werd' lachen,
ich werd' "das gibt's net" schrei'n,
weil ich werd' auf einmal kapieren,
worum sich alles dreht.
And then we will fly up, into the sky/into the heavens,
In a new time/age, in a new world,
And I will sing, I will laugh,
I will cry “I can’t belive it.”
Because I will realize all at once
What this is all about.
Komm grosser schwarzer Vogel, hilf mir doch!
Come, great dark bird, help me!
Press' Deinen feuchten, kalten Schnabel
auf meine wunde, auf meine heisse Stirn!
Press you wet, cold beak on my wound, on my hot forehead!
Komm grosser schwarzer Vogel,
jetzt waer's grad guenstig!
Come, great black bird,
now is the time!
Die anderen da im Zimmer schlafen fest
und wenn wir ganz leise sind,
hoert uns die Schwester nicht!
The others in the room sleep deeply
And if we are very quiet,
The nurse won’t hear us!
Bitte, hol mich weg von da!
Please, take me away from there/here!
Und dann fliegen wir rauf, mit in Himmel rein,
in a neue Zeit, in a neue Welt,
ich werd' singen, ich werd' lachen,
ich werd' "das gibt's net" schrei'n,
weil ich werd' auf einmal kapieren,
worum sich alles dreht.
And then we will fly up, into the sky/into the heavens,
In a new time/age, in a new world,
And I will sing, I will laugh,
I will cry “I can’t belive it.”
Because I will realize all at once
What this is all about.
Ja, grosser schwarzer Vogel, endlich!
Yes, great black bird, finally!
Ich hab' Dich gar nicht reinkommen g'hoert,
wie lautlos Du fliegst,
mein Gott, wie schoen Du bist!
I didn’t hear you coming into the room,
How you can fly without making any noise,
My God, how beautiful you are!
Auf geht's, grosser schwarzer Vogel, auf geht's!
Come on/Upward we go, great black bird, come on/upward we go!
Baba, ihr meine Lieben daham!
Bye-bye, my dear ones at home!
Du, mein Maedel, und du, Mama, baba!
You my girl, and you, mother, bye-bye!
Bitte, vergesst's mich nicht!
Please, don’t forget me!
Auf geht's, mitten in den Himmel eine,
nicht traurig sein, na, na, na,
ist kein Grund zum Traurigsein!
Come on/upward we go, into the sky/into the heavens,
Do not be sad, no, no, no,
There is no reason to be sad!
Weil ich werd' singen, ich werd' lachen,
ich werd' "das gibt's net" schrei'n,
weil ich werd' auf einmal kapieren,
ich werd' gluecklich sein!
Cause I will sing, I will laugh
I will cry “I can’t belive it.”
Because I will realize all at once,
I will be happy!
Ich werd' singen, ich werd' lachen,
ich werd' "das gibt's net" schrei'n,
weil ich werd' auf einmal kapieren,
ich werd' gluecklich sein!
Cause I will sing, I will laugh
I will cry “I can’t belive it.”
Because I will realize all at once,
I will be happy!
Ich werd' singen, ich werd' lachen,
ich werd' endlich gluecklich sein!
I will sing, I will laugh,
Finally I will be happy!
Thanks Sisyphos.
First comment: yes, the ethical is more my interest. I like your thought about a sacrifice of the value of life for another value/values implying a possibly good death. Would the notion of sacrifice make it good and bad in that the death is still a "sacrifice" and therefore giving up one value (bad) for another value (better)? Be interesting to know what kinds of values, if not the value of life, one might sacrifice for?
From another angle, one of the things I had thought about was eating. Humans and animals, etc have to eat to live, but eating inevitably produces death. To be able to eat seems to equate, in one sense, life. Life, for some, requires death, so could this be "good" death? If this might be the case, then the implications for the structure of the world would be that it has a death component integrated into it.
Second comment: a bad death would be a death that does not produce life. Death, for its own sake is not good. Death, if it has anything good about it cannot be the referent for itself.
Third comment: I like these poems and to put death in the throes of the poetic is a marvel.
Death is a relief or a release from suffering and pain, but it still leaves its mark of lament on those with life.
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