Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten

thumb| Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten (1 February 1758 – 26 October 1818), later adopting the second name Theobul or Theoboul, was a German poet, Lutheran preacher and a professor of history at the University of Greifswald. His son Gottfried became an orientalist and historian. Quotes "Sich," sprach der Greis, "hast du denn nicht gelesen:Wenn Menschen schweigen, werden Steine schreien?Nicht spotte ferner, Sohn, mit Gottes Wort!Lebendig ist es, kräftig, schneidet scharf,Wie ein zweischneidig Schwert, und sollte gleichDas Menschenherz sich ihm zum Trotz versteinen.So wird im Stein ein Menschenherz sich regen." "Son," said the old man," hast thou then never read,'When men are dumb, the stones shall cry aloud'?—Henceforward mock not, son, the word of God!Living it is, and mighty, cutting sharp,Like a two-edged sword. And when the heartOf flesh grows hard and stubborn as the stone,A heart of flesh shall stir in stones themselves! „Das Amen der Steine“, in Legenden (1804) — Tr. C. T. Books, "The Amen of the Stone" (1842) Cp. the Latin maxim Saxa loquuntur, from Luke 19:40: Wenn diese schweigen werden, so werden die Steine schreien.'' (Luther Bible) External links Ludwig Gotthard Kosegarten, Legenden, new ed. (Berlin: Voss, 1810), vol. 1, pt. 1, bk. xvii Georg Büchmann, Geflügelte Worte: Der Citatenschatz des Deutschen Volkes, 12th ed. (Berlin, 1880), p. 41 Charles T. Books, Songs and Ballads; translated from Uhland, Körner, Bürger, and other German Lyric Poets, Specimens of Foreign Standard Literature XIV (Boston: James Munroe & Co., 1842), p. 287 Category:Poets from Germany Category:Historians from Germany Category:Lutherans Category:1758 births Category:1818 deaths