Concerning a translation, here's the response of Bill Warda, one of the best minds in the field of Imperial German art (IMO).
"Dean,
Delete it, no way! This is exactly the sort of thing I'd like to bring to the fore - the German mindset before, during and after the First World War. For those that might give a small rat's behind, these great illustrations give us a candid peek into some of the myriad smaller ideas that blended together in a vast cauldron of thoughts and emotions that helped shape 1933 Germany - non-Nazis and National Socialists alike.
Your latest addition (looks like an engraving of some nature) is also a variation on the theme of the "Totentanz," or "Dance of Death." A very old European idea regarding the "Black Plague" dating way back to the 13th century, with the outbreak of the disease on the continent.
The traumatic impact of the Black Death inspired a rich tradition of "Totentanz", "Danse Macabre", or "Triumph of Death", paintings; and since the Middle Ages, throughout the Renaissance until today, painters, such as Bosch, Brueghel, Holbein, and many others, have ritually cleansed our subconscious of this archetypal fear with fantastic, and sometimes humorously horrible, images of dancing corpses and armies of skeletons. Those images contained a moral message as well: they were to remind us of how fragile our bodies were and how vain the glories of earthly life are.
The artist who did this card must have had a dark sense of humor to send this off to his friends, and I think I can see the reason why. In the last line of his poem he uses the phrase, "Glück auf!" An old German/Austrian miner's saying, literally, Luck-up, but in other words, hope to see you topside again, or, cheers to your next ride up! The old miner's suffered tremendously back then, a time when casualty-lists were extremely high for the poor buggers. Safety measures were almost non-existant and must have been an awful irritant to the big mining bosses. Those safety measures cost money, with those Marks and Schillings coming directly out of their profits/pockets ... not! Anyway, it's an old miner's greeting for a dangerous profession and
I believe it comes into play here:
"Mein Futter wird vom Tragen blank u. weiss
Mein Aussres schwarz u. fahl:
Zum Jahresende wende ich lebensleis
Den Mantel jedesmal
Glück auf und glaub dir der bestimmt Sein anders schon fur besser nimmt."
auf englisch -
"My liner worn clean and white
My outer black and wan
On New Year's Eve I turn the coat with feeble life
Luck up and believe ordained to you
is he who takes his "other" yet as better..."
I may be off a bit but it's something along these lines..? German poetry, old limericks and rhymes can be a real thorn in the side and open to several interpretations. A few times I've seen 19th century, German military presentation swords with lines of poetry that stumped the best of the best translators, causing heated arguments. That is until an older gentleman came along and put it into context in it's true poetic sense and viola,' at once the meaning became crystal clear! Sometimes, the art of a good translation can be difficult at best.
So for better or for worse, that's my take on the image and I hope we now have at least one leg to stand on..? heh ...I'd appreciate hearing any and all criticisms and comments, maybe I've overlooked a key element somewhere along the line? Sorry it took so long to get back on this one but those poems can be a killer!
Thanks again for posting from your nice art collection!
Bill "
