Kere wedder bure du must al mede
vnde dantzen na dyner olden sede
dynes ackers arbeyt is al vorlaren
den du bauen god haddest vterkaren
legghe dal dat pluchschar unde prekel
du mvst seker mede yn den partekel
Och ghude doet sume de godes doget
spare dannen noch myner junghen ioghet
unde ghef my ghummen dat reste tho
ik gheve dy vorwar eine vette ko
doch ik se wol du wult dar nicht na vraghen
och help criste ed ghelt my hir den kraghen
Turn around peasant, you must already go along
and dance after your old traditions.
Your fieldwork is all finished
that [work], which you have chosen above God.
Lay there the ploughshare and the dibble.
You must certainly join the party.
Oh good Death [I] dawdle over God's goodness.(1)
In spite of this spare my young youth
and give me, goodman, the rest of it.
I'll gladly give you a fat cow;
yet, I see well, that you will not ask for it.
Oh help Christ - here it´s a matter of my life.(2)
Krugersche gy muthen (ok al mede)
valsch tapen affreken is yo juwe se(de)
legghet dy valsche math ut iuwer hant
juwe viene vhalscheyt ys jo bekant
jw leyt....wol dat blawe bereyt
volghet na gy synt wol thu dantze beryt
Och gruwelike doet bystu rede hyr
nym den doren ick gha vnde tappe ber
jodoch doeth beyde thu kort werth my dy tyd
och were ik besser(3) valschen mathe quyth
dar ik jo muth vore lyden grote pyn
help my criste uth desser noth mach dat syn
Landlady, you must also join.
Dishonest [beer]tapping [and] accounts are your tradition.
Lay that false measure out of your hand.
Your fraudulent falseness is known.
Lay you.......well the blue hat.
Follow after. I suppose you are prepared for the dance?
Oh terrible Death - are you already here.
Take the fool - I'll go and tap beer.
Wait though, Death - the time was too short for me.
Oh, were I rid of this false measure -
since I must suffer great pain because of it.
Help me, Christ, out of this distress, if possible.
..........ren mit jwer bunghen
..........ch dat vp ghelunghen
..........vel de partyncken uth
vnde v....ok rewen ys iuwe hoth
were gy ok noch eynes ghewesen so mal
gy muthen al vormeren nu dessen tal
Och wath ga gy maken gy vule kockyn
latet my doch noch leuen al mach dat syn
ik jw wil maken eyn hauerech(t)
dat mach leyder nicht helpen my armen knech(t)
des rope ik thu dy criste help my scheyr
synt ik byn gewest eyn vule partyer
.............with your drum
.................succeeded
................the slippers off
............. is your skin
had you been one more time so [foolish],
you still had to increase this number now.
Oh what will you do - you lazy rascal?
Let me live longer, if possible.
I will make you an amusement.
Sadly that won't help me poor lad.
Therefore I call on you, Christ, help me right away
since I have been a lazy partygoer.
(O)ch w..........
wente thu..........
..........
..........
rupet al iw..........
help..........
The end of the dance is all but gone,
so attributing the lines to mother and child is only an educated guess.
Originally the dance of death
continued into the church, but
in the 16th century a wall was erected between the hall and the nave.
The end of the dance of death was lost in the process.
Berlin's dance of death, Cook or fool.
The fool / cook was destroyed during a building project in 1892.
The picture at the top of this page is a reconstructed drawing where the last dancer is depicted
as a fool with many-coloured clothes - standing behind what looks like a drum on the ground.
When the picture originally was uncovered, the figure was - at first - taken
as a cook, and the drum as a yellow pot. On the picture to the right
you can see how he is standing within the pot. The word "bunghen"
was then interpreted as "kettle" rather than "drum".
Even if it was a pot - standing inside it would be a foolish thing.
Because the two trouser legs are of different colours (blue and grey) and because of the bells at the end
of the clothes,
the figure was later interpreted as a fool. This fits in with the landlady's remark
"Take the fool".
He calls himself a "kockyn" — or maybe he calls Death
a "kockyn"?
In the oppostie case he'd be the only person in any dance of death, who addresses Death in plural:
"Oh what will ye do - ye lazy rascal?".
The word means rascal or tramp, and is related to
High German: "Koch" / "Köchin" meaning "cook".
This is not very flattering for cooks, but even in English "to cook"
can mean to ruin, falsify or make up.
The french word for rascal, "coquin", has the same etymological root -
or in the words of Balzac:
"a knave who eats, licks, laps, sucks, and fritters his money away,
and gets into stews; is always in hot water, and eats up everything,
leads an idle life, and doing this, becomes wicked, becomes poor,
and that incites him to steal or beg".
In Germanic contries there may be a transition from rascal to fool -
influenced by the word "Cuckoo".
Al wor, ik weet de fetten slöke,
Dar gha ick hen manckt de köke,
Ick ethe unde dryncke myt den heren,
Eyn ander betalet, ick helpet vorteren
Myt lichten synnen, bungen unde pipen.
Nu kumpt de dot unde wyl my grypen.
Wherever I know the fat bites [are]
there I go to among the cooks.
I eat and drink with the master,
another one pays - I help consuming,
with light spirits, drums and fifes.
Now comes Death and wants to grab me.
(1)dawdle over God's goodness...: This sentence is less than clear.
Low German "sume" corresponds to High German "säumen" - hesitate or dawdle;
"doget" means goodness or virtue.
Maybe it should have been "vorsume" = neglect?
(2)a matter of my life...: Quite literally it's a matter of the collar.
You might imagine Death grasping the peasant by the collar. Compare
with chapter 3 in the introduction of Des dodes dantz:
Wo sik vele minschen to sterven beklagen,
Unde wo de dôt einen isliken gript bi dem kragen,
...the way many people complain about dying,
and how Death grasps everyone by the collar...
(3)besser...: Probably a slip of the paint brush for "desser".
The medieval dance of death
Berlin's dance of death