The sacking of Magdeburg was and is truly remembered as a “local
apocalypse.” King Gustavus Adolphus of Sweden and his army landed in the German
territory and claimed it their own (imperialism) as means of justifying the
violent sacking. Several poems through their syntax and diction describe the
very event as gruesome, bloody, and tragic. Andreas Gryphius translated the
original poem of the event in German and English. Both his German and English
translations of the event repeat the words “Blood” and “Death” which add
grotesque and cause the reader to picture the chaotic event. The carefully
chosen phrases of “behold our devastation”, “thundering siege gun”,
“blood-slick sword”, “the church is overthrown; our mighty men are slain”, and
“virgins are raped; and everywhere we turn are fire and plague, and death to
pierce us-heart and brain” demonstrate the chaos that the civilians of
Magdeburg experienced. It basically explains the ruin and end of their
civilization when the Roman Empire took over however they (the translated
poems) are a mere translation that are not as gruesome when compared to the
original poem of course. Though Gryphius did a well job of depicting the event
through the very power of his chosen diction and maintained the elements of
what makes a poem truly poetic.
When compared to Otto von Guericke’s and Julie K. Tanaka’s
accounts of the Thirty Year’s War, theirs was not as grotesque or gory. Blood
being shed and the battle’s chaos are not really mentioned in their translated
version of the sacking. Tanaka’s version was written with a focus on the motive
of the siege and the statistics/facts of the event. She mentions the numbers of
the dead, the countries involved, and the leaders who clashed with power. She
sticks to accurately describing the event without much exaggeration or emphasis
in order to maintain a more statistical/historical scope.
In James Harvey Robinson’s translation of the Guericke’s account,
he chooses to not mention any statistics or whom was involved in terms of
leaders of the event. Instead he describes the sacking of Magdeburg through the
paradigms of those who neighbored the civilization. He does appeal to pathos
with his choice of words comparing Magdeburg as a “fair princess” who is
succumbed to such forces. Robinson avoids mentioning the statistics of the
sacking simply to focus the event as emotionally tragic and validates the main
title of the original poem by mentioning “tears, woes, shrieks and cries”
simultaneously.
Works Cited
Gryphius, Andreas. "Tears of the
Fatherland." Trans. Ivo Mosley. Burke, Carol M. Humanities Core Course:
Guide and Reader. Boston: Pearson Learning Solutions, 2013. 47-49.
Print
Guericke,
Otto von. "The Siege of Magdeburg." German History in Documents and
Images. 1631. 3 Nov 2014. <http://germanhistorydocs.ghi-dc.org/pdf/eng/85.SackMagdeburg_en.pdf >
Robinson,
James Harvey. "Guericke Translation 2." Hanover College Historical
Texts Project. <https://eee.uci.edu/13f/27042/weekfive/GoerickeTranslation2.pdf>
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