Funera Domestica Duo Luctuosissima

The year 1611 was a year of turmoil and grief for Johannes Kepler. First, his seven year-old son died of smallpox; and then his wife Barbara died of Hungarian spotted fever. Also, at this time, his sympathies with the Calvinist doctrine of the Lord's Supper prevented him from returning to the Lutheran University of Tübingen in Württemberg. In the midst of this time of trouble, his great scientific mind produced a little Latin poem in memorial to his wife and child entitled Funera domestica duo luctuosissima. Here is the English translation as provided by Max Caspar, Kepler, pp. 207-208:

Oh physical eye so weakly made
Your seeing is only dissembling
In these dark fields
When however your shine is extinguished here
From countenance to countenance
You will behold the eternal light
Make the change with confidence
Do not fear
Do not be childishly afraid

Oh mind, your knowledge is piece work
And though it may bring you some pleasure
And sweet fantasy
When, however, the final perfection
Will have destroyed this vanity
How greatly will this please you
Hurry and forget
That which is uncertain
So that this may turn out well for you.

O man you now live a perpetual death
For true life death's agony
Is but the beginning
All at once like grain you will
Be reborn to eternal life
Through Christ you will succeed
Do not wish for delay
Hurry to die
In order to achieve life.