Vana Rosa, From Ausonius To Góngora and Gryphiuspdf

"Vana Rosa", from Ausonius to Góngora and Gryphius
Author(s): Baerbel Becker-Cantarino

Source: Revista Hispánica Moderna, Año 37, No. 1/2 (1972/1973), pp. 29-45
Published by: University of Pennsylvania Press
Stable URL: https://www.jstor.org/stable/30203124
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VANA ROSA, FROM AUSONIUS
TO GC6NGORA AND GRYPHIUS
I. Gdngora.
As an example of "agudeza ilustrada" Graciin quoted "este c6lebre soneto"
by G6ngora, in which he found the correlation between the rose and human life
so masterly expressed:
Ayer naciste, y morirfis mafiana.

Para tan breve ser, ~quidn te dio vida?
iPara vivir tan poco estis lucida,
y para no ser nada estis lozana?
Si te engafi6 tu hermosura vana,

bien presto la veris desvanecida,
porque en tu hermosura esti escondida
la ocasi6n de morir muerte temprana.
Cuando te corte la robusta mano,

ley de la agricultura permitida,
grosero aliento acabard tu suerte.
No salgas, que te aguarda algin tirano:

dilata tu nacer para tu vida,
que anticipas tu ser para tu muerte. 2
Unfortunately, today the reference in G6ngora editions and studies obscures

rather than clarifies the significance of this poem by indiscriminately associating
1 Agudeza y Arte de Ingenio, ed. E. Correa Calder6n, ClAsicos Castalia, No. 14-15
(Madrid, 1969), I, 55.
2 Obras completas, ed. J. Mill& y Giminez (Madrid, 1932), pp. 577-78. A change
in punctuation from the Graciin edition transforms lines 3-4 into a question, thus under-
scoring the quest for the meaning of the rose's beauty (and life) begun in line 2. Two
variant readings occur in lines 5 and 7 respectively:
Mill6: Si te engafi6 tu hermosura vana //
Porque en tu hermosura esti escondida
Graciin: Si tu hermosura te engafi6 mis vana //
Porque en esa hermosura esti escondida.
Both readings in Mill6 are more natural and must be considered as the original. The
hiatus in "tu hermosura" was still proper in G6ngora's lifetime, as the initial "h" was
still aspirated. By Graciin's time this was no longer the case, synalepha occurred and the
lines therefore did not scan: each had to be given an extra syllable. - Though this sonnet
is listed among the "sonetos atribuibles" (Mill6, p. 1243) following Salcedo's suggestion
(Segundo tomo de las obras de Don Luis Gdngora comentadas por D. Garcia de Salcedo
Coronel, Madrid, 1648, pt. I, 503), its authenticity is not questioned by modern scholars.
3 E. g. in the G6ngora anthology of the Biblioteca Hispana, No. 16 (Santiago de
Chile: Editorial Universitaria, 1961), p. 149, A. Galaz Vivar points to "el tema del Carpe
Diem." Mill6 refers to Ausonius (wrongly to an epigram), wh'le the latest edition, Sonetos
completos, ed. Birute Ciplijauskaiti, ClIsicos Castalia, No. 1 (Madrid, 1969), p. 303,
without further explanation repeats a line from Ausonius after Salcedo's commentary, which
30 BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO R11, XXXVII (1972-1973)
it with the carpe diem tradition,4 with the rose mot

by the Anacreontics, as an allegory of the Epicurean
ye Rose-buds, while ye may."
Nothing could distort G6ngora's intent in this sonnet
vana rosa also signifies the brevity of human life, bu
symbol for the vanity of this life: the tragic and parado
inception death is inherent. For G6ngora the vana r
expression of both life's supreme beauty and its nothing
interpretation, we shall first analyze the poem in its
with a similar rose metaphor in the work of the Ger
at Ausonius, the major influence on Renaissance rose
medieval rose symbolism as represented in Alanus d
creatura," will further illuminate the tradition of vana
The title of the sonnet already presents the theme
major concern of baroque men, here expressed in th
is looking at a single rosebud (not the entire bush) be
lines of the initial quatrain contain the central idea, culm
is defined by "nacer" and "morir." The proposition ends
tion of line 2, "iQuiin te di6 vida?" a question which
is broadened in lines 3-4, "Why the beauty, if it is sh
in the meaning of transitoriness, is the theme of the fir
leaving the quest for the origin and purpose of thi
second quatrain addresses itself to vanitas in the mea
of the rose. Beauty will not last, because it carries in its
tion, "la ocasi6n de morir muerte temprana." Superb
reliance on transitory values, only obscures the trage
Having thus stated the two aspects of vanitas, the po
law of beauty in terms of the world of men: "ley de
(nature does not cut down alive its plants, only agricultu
Death, the "morir muerte temprana" of the second quatr
in the realm of men: "la robusta mano" (the hand of
and "grosero aliento" (the breath of a human being w
to catch its scent), being presented here as an unfeel
advice in the final tercet, "no salgas," reveals in its impr
will be discussed below (note 15). Pertinent studies by Di

R. Jammes, B. Miuller do not mention this sonnet, while E
tendichtung, Bochum, 1935), somewhat at a loss, groups it
with the rose sonnets XCIV and LXXXIX of the Mill& edition.
4 B. Gonzilez de Escand6n, Los temas del "carpe diem" y la brevedad de la rosa
en la poesia espaiiola, Univ. of Barcelona, Seminario de Estudios Hispinicos, No. 6
(Barcelona, 1938), does not differentiate between the carpe diem tradition as expressed in
the allegory of the short-lived flower (not necessarily the rose, certainly not in antiquity)
and the rose as a Christian symbol for the vanitas of human life. Her ample collection of
material unfortunately lacks pertinent and precise interpretations (on this G6ngora sonnet
see p. 67f). We shall endeavor to clarify these traditions.
5 These cheerful lines by Robert Herrick (The Complete Poetry of R. H., ed.
J. M. Patrick, New York, 1963, p. 117), are characteristic of the rose motif as an ex-
pression of carpe diem in English poetry of the time. (See J. E. Wellington, "An Analysis
of the Carpe Diem Theme in Seventeenth-Century English Poetry," Diss., Florida State
University, 1956.)
"VANA ROSA," FROM AUSONIUS TO GONGORA AND GRYPHIUS 31
dismay over the swift disappearance of beauty. It is threatened by "algmin tirano,"

the impersonal expression being indicative of the senseless destruction. "Dilata tu
nacer para tu vida," in its repetition of the rhetorical advice, in its epigrammatic
poignancy, implies the moral lesson inherent in Spanish desengaiio: be careful
not to love beauty too much or you will be deeply hurt when it fades. The rose
is to postpone its birth in order to postpone the poet's eventual dismay. Graciin
admired the conceptismo in these final two lines because of the correspondence
of "contraposici6n y disonancia": the dichotomy of postponing birth in order to
live, and of anticipating life (rushing into it) in order to die. 6
Azorin elaborated on the lines of the final tercet:
No importard nada, sin embargo, el dilatar ese nacer. No se adelantard nada

con perdurar en el limbo de la vida sin entrar de lleno en la vida. El limbo
de la vida es tan fugaz como la vida misma. Entremos en la vida resuelta-
mente. Seamos en ello lo que nuestro ser quiere -espontineamente- que
seamos.... este minuto en que la rosa... luce y perfuma... es lo mis alto,
lo mis fino, lo mis exquisito de la civilizaci6n humana. 7
Departing from this G6ngora sonnet, Azorin discussed the fugacity of human life
as mirrored in "Las rosas." For him great artistic manifestations (in a picture
of Velizquez or the music of Beethoven) equal the beauty of the rose and of
creation, thus overcoming the sense of frustration inherent in the experience
of inevitable transitoriness. Azorin has found consolation in art.
II. Gryphius.
With this use of the vana rosa motif, G6ngora employed, of course, a topical
metaphor. For the German poet Gryphius it explicitly served as a mirror of human
life in his ode "Vanitas! Vanitatum, Vanitas" (1643):
Wie eine Rose bliihet/

Wen man die Sonne sihet/
Begriissen diese Welt:
Die ehr der tag sich neiget/
Ehr sich der abendt zeiget/
Verwelckt/ vnd vnversehns abfiilt.
So wachsen wir auff erden
Vnd dencken gros zu werden/
6 H. Ciocchini, Gdngora y la tradicidn de los emblemas (Bahia Blanca, Argentina

Cuadernos del Sur, 1960), remarks about these lines: "parece en ellos latir la moral
epictirea del Lathe bio" (p. 39), while the first tercet is to mirror stoic ethics. These two
moral concepts are seen as "los polos de este juego de simetrias que se resuelve en un
equilibrio moral, en normas de prudencia que acatan la ley natural, ambigiledad de posi-
ciones que revela a G6ngora como verdadero humanista" (ibid.). Yet there is nothing of
moral heroism or intrepid submission in the first tercet, nothing of embracing pleasures in
the final one, especially if we compare it with such obviously Epicurean lines by G6ngora
as "Goza cuello, cabello, labio y frente" ("Mientras por competir con tu cabello," ed.
Mill6, no. 228). I further fail to see the logic in the assumption that a true humanist is
characterized by ambiguity in his position.
7 Al margen de los cldsicos. Obras completas (Madrid: Rafael Caro Raggio, 1921),
XV, 66.
32 BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO RHM, XXXVII (1972-1973)
Vnd schmertz/ vnd sorgenfrey.

Doch ehr wir zugenommen/
Vnd recht zur bltitte kommen/
Bricht vns des todes sturm entzwey. 8
In an upward motion the first three lines of the stanza des

the rose, culminating in "Welt"; in a downward motion t
clude the stanza with the withering of the flower. The s
in the following stanza, which completes the comparison in
With the two stanzas syntactically tied together by "w
sions from the realm of plants (wachsen, zur Bliite kommen
enhance their close relationship. The human point of vi
tions and emotions (hoffen gros zu werden; schmertz vnd s
comparison.
These two stanzas are placed in central position (as numbers 8 and 9 of 15
stanzas) in the ode, whose theme, contained in the heading with the famous lines
from Ecclesiastes, is restated in the beginning lines:
Die Herrlikeit der Erden

Mus rauch vndt aschen werden/
Kein fels/ kein irtz kan stehn.
In the first two stanzas the pleasures of this earth are likened to a dream and a
phantasy of time. The following five show fame, knowledge, possessions, enjoy-
ment and earthly kingdoms, each in its transitoriness, in order to culminate in the
image of the rose, which stands for all of nature, as an example for mankind.
The rose's beauty is not mentioned; the swift passage of its life demonstrates the
transitoriness of all life. Sudden arrival of death is the theme of the following
three stanzas ending in the lament over the dead (stanza 12) and a memento
mori. It is significant for this ode that Gryphius adds an exhortation to man to
recognize his state (stanza 13), to forsake worldly goods (stanza 14), and instead
to trust in God: 9
8 Ode I, 9, stanzas 8 and 9. Oden und Epigramme, ed. M. Szyrocki, Gesamtausgabe

der deutschsprachigen Werke, (Tiibingen: M. Niemeyer, 1964), II, 19.
9 This ode is more than an "expansion of the sonnet 'Es ist alles eitel'," as M.
Schindler, The Sonnets of Andreas Gryphius (Gainesville: Univ. of Florida Press, 1971),
p. 35, contends. Rather, Gryphius followed in this ode the medieval tradition of the
vanitas poetry, describing the transitoriness of life followed by the memento mori (see
F. van Ingen, Vanitas und Memento Mori in der deutschen Barocklyrik, Groningen:
J. B. Wolters, 1966, p. 58 passim). Schindler unnecessarily visualizes grammatical and
structural difficulties in stanzas 8 and 9 (p. 36f). However, they merely repeat the
syntactical pattern of stanzas 2, 3, 5, 6, 7, while 1 and 3 also end with a major syntactical
unit in line 3 (not in line 2); a complete clause terminates in the middle of the stanza.
Each stanza contains, moreover, a proposition in its first three lines followed by an
amplification in its remaining 3 lines, thus forming a crescendo and decrescendo movement
in each stanza. This is also a characteristic of the entire ode, with the vana rosa as the
focal point for recognition of man's state. Around this simile the themes and images of
vanitas and memento mori are grouped symmetrically. Stanzas 8 and 9 are immediately
clear if the reader recognizes the image of the vana rosa, which was undoubtedly familiar
to contemporaries as a topos. This erodes the basis for Schindler's resulting interpretation
that the "deception which is life and the world has become a deception on the level of
language" (p. 37). Disregard for the poetic tradition results in Schindler's observation that
Woll dem der auff ihn trawett!

Er hatt recht fest gebawet/
Vndt ob er hier gleich filt:
Wirdt er doch dort bestehen
Vndt nimmermehr vergehen
Weil ihn die stlircke selbst erhiilt.
Recognition of vanitas leads here to the safe harbor, to redemption in the other
world. While earthly pleasures are veiled by transitoriness, there is a sense of
assurance and security in this recognition. From the "Rauch vndt aschen" of the
beginning, the ode ends with the affirmative "stircke selbst erhilt." Using a
pattern for his poem which was rooted in the medieval tradition, Gryphius re-
mained within the framework of the Christian world outlook. While the ode is
centered around the vana rosa, the rose exemplifies the transitoriness of all living.
Beauty is conspicuously absent.
In Gryphius' martyr tragedy Catharina von Georgien the rose becomes a sym-
bolic flower. Catharina, defeated queen of Georgia, is in captivity when her lady-
in-waiting brings her a bouquet of roses, the very first of an early spring, with
the news that an embassy from her country has arrived. This news represents
some hope for her freedom, but Catharina realizes the futility of these expecta-
tions, represented in the bouquet of roses with which she compares human fate:
O Blumen welchen wir in Warheit zu vergleichen!

Die schleust den Knopff kaum auff/ die steht in voller Pracht
Beperl't mit frischem Tau. Die wirfft die welcke Tracht
Der bleichen Bliitter weg. Die edlen Rosen leben
So kurtze Zeit/ vnd sind mit Dornen doch vmbgeben.
Alsbald die Sonn' entsteht/ schmiickt sie der Giirte Zelt;
Vnd wird in nichts verkehrt so bald die Sonne felt.
So kiissen wir den Tag benetzt mit eignen ThrTinen.
Vnd schwinden/ wenn wir vns erst recht zu leben sehnen.
Schau wie die Rdth' erblast/ so fahren wir davon/
So fleucht die Lust der Welt/ so bricht der giildne Thron.
Nichts bleibt vns in der Faust als die nichts werthen Aeste/
Der Stachel/ dises Creutz/ die Angst/ die Seelen Peste/
Die kummervolle Sorg' und fiberhliufftes Leid/
So/ wie die Rosa ligt/ must auch mein Zepter brechen/
Die Dornen fiihl ich noch die vnauffhdrlich stechen. 10
"the eloquent talk in the ode of man's impermanence does not serve to emphasize the
joys of eternal life or the glory of God" (p. 38). This should likewise not be interpreted
as a personal note of Gryphius, who follows the pattern of these poems in the baroque, a
period which delighted more in apocalyptical descriptions than in ecstatic revelries (cf. van
Ingen, p. 87).
10 Act I, 1. 302-320. Trauerspiele III, ed. H. Powell, Gesamtausgabe der deutsch-
sprachigen Werke (Tiibingen: M. Niemeyer, 1966), VI, 148. Conceived and reworked in
the late 1640's the drama was performed in 1655 and first printed in 1657. For a salient
discussion within the framework of the European martyr tragedy see E. M. Szarota,
Kiunstler, GriTbler und Rebellen. Studien zum europdischen Miirtyrerdrama des 17. 7ahr-
hunderts (Bern, Munich: Francke, 1967), pp. 190-215. - The bouquet of flowers brought
to the captive Catharina and the fate read into them recalls the bouquet brought by the
captive Fernando to Finix in El principe constante.
34 BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO RI~M, XXXVII (1972-1973)
Catharina observes every detail of the bouquet, with the roses appearing in
ferent stages of flowering and withering, in order to point to their short life a
their thorns representing the two important aspects in their life cycle. From th
Catharina reads her own fate: "So kiissen wir den Tag..." not as an individ
but as a member of the human race, the "wir" of the generalized observer is use
throughout: "So fleucht die Lust der Welt / so bricht der giildne Thron."
here not so much life's fugacity is mourned, but rather its sufferings. Ju
merely the branches alone with the thorns remain, life becomes a cross, anxiety
torment of the soul, and a mere memory of past pleasures. This aptly mir
Catharina's personal fate: like the rose her kingdom and life must perish
only thorns - suffering - are ahead of her. Yet in full control of her emoti
she rationally comprehends her situation from observing the flowers, which are
mirror of the human condition in general. Later in this scene, the thorns remin
Catharina of a dream foreshadowing her fate as martyr. Gryphius' rose alle
follows the medieval Christian tradition where the rose came to signify am
other things the flower of martyrdom. Gryphius, of course, was familiar w
the symbolic significance of this flower, and the use of the rose motif in his d
is as functional as it is topical.
Looking at the rose G6ngora saw its beauty and with it the danger of "h
mosura vana" which might lead to "engafio," while Gryphius observed here abov
all the "Dornen," the sufferings in this life, an ever recurring theme in
writings.
Wo lust ist/ da ist angst; wo frewd' ist/ da ist klagen.

Wer schi6ne rosen sicht/ siht dornen nur darbey
Kein stand/ kein ortt/ kein mensch ist seines Creutzes frey.
Gryphius reiterated the juxtaposition of joy and suffering as the intrinsic nature
of human life. A deeply religious person who endured many hardships during the
Thirty Years War and the Counter-Reformation, Gryphius strove to accept
the misery of this world because he viewed human life within the context of
divine grace and salvation. As in Catharina von Georgien the vanitas mundi was
revealed in an exemplary way for man in order to show the way to the eternal
life, to God.
11 D. W. Jons, Das 'Sinnen-Bild'. Studien zur allegorischen Bildlichkeit bei Andreas

Gryphius (Stuttgart: Metzler, 1966), p. 106ff., and G. Fr'cke, Die Bildlichkeit in der
Dichtung des Andreas Gryphius. Materialien und Studien zum Formproblem des deut-
schen Literaturbarock, Neue Forschung, No. 17 (Berlin, 1933), pp. 220f., discuss nature
and function of this imagery against the background of contemporary poetics.
12 Most commonly conceived of as the flower of martyrdom, it also is a sign of
Christ's passion (as the supreme martyr of Christendom) and most frequently became a
symbol of the Virgin; see. B. Seward, The Symbolic Rose (New York: Columbia Univ.
Press, 1960), pp. 18-52, and Ch. Joret, La rose dans l'antiquiti et au moyen dige (Paris:
B. Bouillon, 1892), pp. 231-284. Neither study - the former interpreting mainly modern
rose symbolism, the latter containing a wealth of literary, historical and folkloristic in-
formation - mentions the vana rosa theme.
13 "Der Welt Wolust" (sonnets I, 10), Gesamtausgabe, I, 34f.
III. Ausonius.
While the individual significance of the vana rosa for G6ngora and Gryph
has been demonstrated, the origin of this topical image is not without intere
Gryphius in his notes to Catharina von Georgien referred the reader to Ausonius
and likewise Garcia de Salcedo Coronel had called "Vana rosa" an "imitation
of an idyllion by Ausonius."
Ausonius' Idyllion XIV Rosae was, indeed, a frequently rendered and imitate
poem in the 16th and 17th centuries. While lines from it are carried from on
commentary to another, it has never been interpreted in toto, so that a closer look
at this idyllion is in order. 16 During an early morning walk the poet enjoys sprin
and its flowers among which the roses attract his attention:
Vidi Paestano gaudere rosaria cultu,

Exoriente novo roscida Lucifero.
Rara pruinosis canebat gemma frutetis,
Ad primi radios interitura die. (12-14)
With the dew which is soon to vanish under the sun's rays, the theme of the
poem, the transitoriness of earthly things, is mentioned for the first time. But
the beauty of the roses lets the poet set this thought aside and marvel, asking
which is more beautiful, the color of the flower or that of dawn:
Ambigeres, raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem,

An daret; et flores tingeret orta dies.
Ros unus, color unus, et unum mane duorum. (15-17)
A short mythological excursion is undertaken to emphasize the etherial beauty of

this flower: Venus, the goddess of both dawn and the rose, herself endowed this
flower with the same beauty as that of the dawn. 17 Then time passes, and the
roses change from supreme beauty to destruction:
Momentum intererat; quo se nascentia florum,

Germina comparibus dividerent spatiis.
14 Gesamtausgabe, VI, p. 223.

15 Segundo tomo de las obras de Don Luis de Gdngora comentadas por D. Garcia de
Salcedo Coronel (Madrid, 1648), pt. I, 502. Salcedo's remark: "El argumento deste Soneto
es la breue hermosura de la rosa, de quien tantos an escrito," and his quotation of lines
35-50 of Ausonius' poem seem to have started the indiscriminate association of the G6n-
gora sonnet with the carpe diem tradition.
16 The well-known poet Decimus Magnus Ausonius of Bordeaux (c. 310-c. 395) is
generally regarded as the author of this poem, transmitted among the early poems of
Virgil. A favorite with later readers down to the 17th century, the designation idyllion is
a modern one, as are the titles "De Rosis nascentibus" (Mon. Germ. Auct. Antiqu., ed.
Schenkl, 1884, V, 2, p. 243), or "Rosae" (Opera omnia, ed. B. Souchay, Editio Bipontina,
No. 70, London, 1823, pp. 587-591). We are using the latter edition, which contains a
valuable Latin commentary and paraphrase of this admittedly difficult poem. A translation
can be found in Mediaeval Latin Lyrics, tr. H. Wadell, Penguin Classics L 29 (Har-
mondsworth, Middlesex, 1929), pp. 36-39. - Aside from the question of authenticity,
there is no discussion of this poem.
17 The association of the rose with dawn is, of course, a topos of antiquity ever since
Homer's "rosy-fingered" dawn; more on this topos see Joret, op. cit., note 13 above,
p. 73. On the rose as the flower of Venus see Seward, op. cit., note 13 above, p. 11ff.
36 BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO RuIM, XXXVII (1972-1973)
Haec viret angusto fol'orum tecta galero;

Hanc tenui folio purpura rubra notat.
Haec aperit primi fastigia celsa obelisci,
Mucronem absolvens purpurei capitis.
Vertice collectos illa exsinuabat amictus,
Iam meditans foliis se numerare suis;
Nec mora: ridentis calathi patefacit honorem,
Prodens inclusi semina densi croci.
Haec modo, quae toto rutilaverat igne comarum,

Pallida collapsis deseritur foliis. (23-34)
The very detailed, almost realistic description of the rose blossoms is a rem
able feature of the poem. Supreme achievement and gradual decay in quick
cession remind the poet of the roses' transitoriness, which he experiences:
he speaks, the ground is already covered with rose petals. He laments the brevit
of the flower's life, which is completed in one day:
Tot species, tantosque ortus, variosque novatus

Una dies aperit: conficit ipsa dies.
Conquerimur, Natura, brevis quod grmtia florum est,
Ostentata oculis illico dona rapis.
Quam longa una dies, aetas tam longa rosarum,
Quas pubescentes juncta senecta premit.
Quam modo nascentem rutilus conspexit Eous,
Hanc rediens sero vespere vidit anum. (39-46)
Ausonius concludes with two divergent observations concerning this fate:
Sed bene quodpaucis licet interitura diebus,

Succedens aevum prorogat ipsa suum. 18 (47-48)
He is comforted by the roses bearing the same fate, because this succession of
like flowers gives a sense of duration and of eternity to the individual rose's life.
Moreover, Ausonius concludes with the famous admonition:
Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus, et nova pubes,

Et memor esto aevum sic properare tuum. (49-50)
This Epicurean advice draws the only direct parallel between the life of the rose
and human life. Yet the rose, in its quick course from supreme beauty to de-
struction, exemplifies for Ausonius the brevity of this life, in which birth, youth
and old age are so close together. As much as it is lamented, it is viewed as an
ever recurring phenomenon. The knowledge of this collective happening--not
s18 This line offers considerable difficulty. We are following B. Souchay's paraphrase
"aliarum rosarum producit suam aetatem" (p. 591), upon which H. Wadell seems to have
based her translation "and lives her life in some succeeding rose" (p. 39). Yet Herrera,
who quotes and translates this poem in toto but "s61o al intento," renders the line "si
asi mueren tan presto, que naciendo sucedan a su tdrmino cumplido" (Garcilaso de la
Vega y sus comentaristas, ed. A. Gallego Morell, Granada: Univ. of Granada, 1966,
p. 351). More on Garcilaso's rendering below.
an individual one - creates a sense of reconciliation with this fate continued in

the Epicurean advice of enjoyment of one's fleeting time. This attitude is far
from the medieval asceticism later associated with the vana rosa. It is, of course
the carpe diem motif, so common in classical literature, elaborated in the imag
of the rose.
With the concrete situation and realistic description in the poem, Ausonius
employed topical motifs from classical literature. The setting on a spring morning,
reflection on the fugacity of life and exhortation to enjoyment echo Horace's ode
to spring (I, 4):
Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni
Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam,

Iam te premet nox (1. 1, 15-6)
The rose culture at Paestum was famous and this flower usuall
it, as in the Elegies of Propertius:
Vidi ergo odorati victura rosaria Paesti

Sub matutino cocta iacere Noto. (V, 5, 61-2)
Besides the setting the language abounds with classical reminiscences. Horace's
famous ode to Leuconoe (I, 9) ends with:
Dum loquimur, fugerit invida

Aetas: carpe diem quam minimum credula postero.
Ausonius echoed Horaces's "Dum loquimur fugerit invida aetas," by letting the
rose wither while he was talking: "Dum loquor: et tellus tecta rubore micat,"
and he transformed the Epicurean "carpe diem" into "collige, virgo, rosas." A
translation of the 17th century attributed to G6ngora rendered the above lines
by Horace:
El tiempo huye; lo que mis te importa

Es no poner en duda tu provecho;
Coge la flor que hoy nace alegre, ufana,
,Quiin sabe si otra nacerif mafiana? 19
Here the image of the flower, possibly influenced by Ausonius' "collige, virgo,
rosas," has taken the place of Horace's "carpe diem." This underscores the prom-
inence of the flower (usually the rose) image as an expression for the brevity of
life in the 16th and 17th centuries. This, to be sure, is already a commonplace
in antiquity. Ovid advised in his Ars Amatoria:
carpite florem,
qui, nisi carptus erit, turpiter ipse cadet. (III, 80)
19 Horacio en Espaha reprinted in Edicidn nacional de las obras completas de Me-

nindez Pelayo, ed. A. Gonzflez Palencia (Santander, 1951), 49, p. 93.
38 BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO RHMt XXXVII (1972-1973)
Yet here and elsewhere in antiquity the flower is not yet spec
image in any way individualized. Ausonius then with his detai
scription of the rose seems to have transformed the ancient topos
the rose motif for the brevity of life. His elaboration of the topos
observation of nature captures the essential features of the ros
rapid destruction, which impressed later readers again and again. 2
cinctly described the quick decay:
Mirabar celerem fugitiva aetate rapinam,

Et dum nascuntur, consenuisse rosas. (35-6)
Herrera's translation of Ausonius shows his fascination by these lines:
Esto miraba at6nito yo, cuando

vi toda su belleza ir de caida,
el resplandor y olores olvidando.
Maravill~me, viendo asi perdida
la beldad y la edad de tantas flores
y muerta ya rosa aun no nacida.
Tanta belleza y varios resplandores,
un dia mismo adorna y descompone
ofreciendo y robando sus colores. 22
Ausonius' "querimur" is intensified and personalized by Herrera, who also delights

in concluding with the same advice of enjoyment:
Coged las rosas vos, que vais perdiendo

mientras la flor y edad, sefiora es nueva
y acordaos que va desfalleciendo
vuestro tiempo y que nunca se renueva.23
While Ausonius, one of the first Christian poets, is still deeply imbedded in the
pagan tradition24 with his carpe diem theme, his concept of the transitoriness of
20 Occassionally the rose is mentioned, as in Horace's ode II, 3: "Nimium brevis

Flores amoenae fere iube rosae" (13-14), but likewise the "breve lilium" (odes I, 36, 16).
The rose was the favorite flower of Anacreon, signifying beauty and love.
21 An epigram of the Anthologia Latina (put together in 6th century A. D.) elaborated:
Venerunt aliquando rosae. pro veris amoeni
Ingenium! una dies ostendit spicula florum,
Altera pyramidas nodo maiore tumentes,
Tertia iam calathos; totum lux quarta peregit
Floris opus. pereunt hodie, nisi mane legantur.
(ed. A. Riese, Leipzig, 1894, I, p. 121). In comparison with these lines Ausonius'
crystallization into a realistic event happening before his own eyes demonstrates evident
artistic improvement.
22 Garcilaso de la Vega y sus comentaristas, ed. A. Gallego Morell, p. 350.
23 Ibid., p. 351.
24 On the long discussion of Ausonius as a poet of transition from paganism to
Christianity see P. Langlois, "Les pokmes chr~tiens et le christianisme d'Ausone," Revue
de Philologie et Lit. et d'Hist. Anc., XLIII (1969), 39-58.
the rose lends itself to a Christian interpretation: the rose becoming the symb
of the vanitas of this life.
IV. Alanus de Insulis.
Vanitas is the theme of Alanus de Insulis' "Rhythmus alter, quo graphice

natura hominis fluxa et caduca depingitur.".25 From an observation of the wor
around him, he arrives at the cognition of this state:
Omnis mundi creatura,

Quasi liber, et pictura
Nobis est speculum.
Nostrae vitae, nostrae mortis,
Nostri status, nostrae sortis
Fidele signaculum. (1-6)
Like a book, picture or mirror, the rose is a sign of this life:
Nostrum statum pingit rosa,

Nostri status decens glosa,
Nostrae vitae lectio.
Quae dum mane primum floret,

Defloratus flos effloret
Vespertino senio.
Ergo spirans flos exspirat,
In pallorem dum delirat,
Oriendo moriens.
Simul vetus et novella
Simul senex et puella

Rosa marcet oriens. (7-18)
Without going into a detailed description of the flower itself, its one distinctive
quality which was already pointed out by Ausonius, the closeness of birth and
death, becomes its focal point and that of human life as well:
Sic aetatis ver humanae
Juventutis primo mane

Reflorescit paululum.
Mane tamen hac excludit
Vitae vesper, dum concludit

Vitale crepusculum.
Cuius decor dum perorat
eius decor mox deflorat
Aetas, in qua defluit. (19-28)
The transitoriness of life, the nothingness of man, the inescapable law of death is
reiterated in a series of images revealing Alanus' medieval unworldly piety:
25 Alain de Lille (c. 1120 - c. 1203), the scholastic philosopher "doctor universalis,"
was also a superb poet. His hymn is quoted in toto from Migne's Patrologia Latina, CCX,
col. 279-80; the verses are numbered by me.
Fit flos senum, gemma lutum.

Homo cinis, dum tributum
Homo morti tribuit.
Cuius vita, cuius esse,
Poena, labor, et necesse
Vitam morte claudere.
Sic mors vitam, risum luctus,

Umbra diem, portum fluctus
Mane claudit vespere.
In nos primum dat insultum
Poena mortis gerens vultum,
Labor mortis histrio.
Nos proponit in laborem,
Nos assumit in dolorem;
Mortis est conclusio. (29-42)
Man is admonished to recognize this state in order to ponder about the vanity
of his existence:
Ergo clausum sub hac lege,

Statum tuum, homo, lege,
Tuum esse respice.
Quid fuisti nasciturus;
Quid sis praesens, quid futurus,
Diligenter inspice. (43-48)
Repentence of his sins is man's only course:
Luge poenam, culpam plange,

Motus fraena, fastum frange,
Pone supercilio.
Mentis rector et' auriga
Mentem rege, fluxus riga,
Ne fluant in devia. (49-54)
The simplicity of the verse, language and imagery intensified by the repetition
of key words, the melodic rhythm and rhyme contribute to the impressiveness of
the poem. In a prominent position the rose has become the mirror of man's vanity,
which is accepted in the manner of the medieval Church. Recognizing vanitas in
this world leads to the perception of one's own self:
Cerne, quid es, et, quid eris

Modo flos es et verteris
In favillam cineris. 26
"Homo cinis" is the Weltbild, which is exemplified by the rose's "oriendo moriens."
26 From "De brevitate vitae cantio" of Phillippe de Grave (d. 1236) Ein Jahrtausend
lateinischer Hymnendichtung, ed. G. M. Dreves, C1. Blume (Leipzig, 1909), I, 305. The
Ash Wednesday Liturgy expresses the same thought with: "Memento homo quia pulvis
es et in pulverem reverteris."
Just as the classical tradition knew the topos of the fugacity of the flower, the
Bible repeatedly expressed the same idea: "Homo, sicut faenum die eius, tanquam
flos agri sic efflorebit" (Psalm. 102, 15); "Omnis gloria eius quasi flos agri. Ex
siccatum est faenum, et cecidit flos" (Isaias, 40, 6-7). Alanus' rhythmus echoes
the words from 7ob: "Homo natus de muliere, breve vivens tempore repletur
multis miseriis. Qui quasi flos egreditur et conteritur, et fugit velut umbra..."
(14, 1-2). Yet the biblical flower is not the rose; it is either left unspecified as flos
or the lily is mentioned. 27 In Alanus de Insulis' hymn, however, the merging of
the biblical flower imagery, as an expression of the transitoriness of life, with
that of the rose becomes evident. The vana rosa in the Christian interpretation
exemplifies man's lot: "oriendo moriens."
V. "Carpe diem" and "vana rosa."

In Ausonius and Alanus the rose motif has received two different interpreta-
tions: Ausonius couples it with the Epicurean carpe diem; Alanus, with the bib-
lical vanitas. Due to the popularity of Ausonius' poem with Renaissance readers,
his "collige, virgo, rosas" has been rephrased many times. Like his model Bernardo
Tasso, Garcilaso could advise in his famous rose sonnet:
Coged de vuestra hermosa primavera

el dulce fruto, antes que el tiempo airado
Cubra de nieve la hermosa cumbre.
Marchitari la rosa el viento helado,

Todo lo mudard la edad ligera,
Por no hacer mudanza en su costumbre. 28
Garcilaso remains essentially in the carpe diem tradition.

Ausonius was likewise the model for numerous French rose poems of the 16th
century. In Baif's free rendering, the description of the rose becomes more vivid
and colorful; he delights in its beauty, while the brevity of life is pictured with
an almost naive gracefulness, lacking the somber overtones of the transitoriness
of all life which was certainly present in Ausonius:
Je m'emerveilloys en pensant
Comme l'Age ainsi larronnesse
Ravit la fuitive jeunesse
Des Roses vieilles en naissant,
Quand voicy i'incarnate fleur,
27 E. g. in the Psalms. Luther in his translation replaced the lilium of the Vulgate
with the rose, an indication of the ubiquitousness of this flower. - It is interesting to
note that the garden rose was introduced into the Roman empire from Persia or possibly
Egypt, with the entrance of Islam into Spain in the 8th century; and following the
Crusades, into the rest of Western and central Europe as late as about the 11th century.
The rose then became the most frequently cultivated flower, first in the gardens of
monasteries, then in ornamental gardens. Ever since the Middle Ages the rose has been
the favorite flower of literature and folklore.
28 Garcilaso, ed. A. Gallego Morell, p. 98. Herrera's commentary quoted abundantly
from the carpe diem tradition of antiquity, Ausonius and the Italians (pp. 347-355).
Ainsi que j'en parle s'esveille;

Et couverte de sa rougeur
La terre en dclatte vermeille. 29
Ronsard condenses the rose image in his ode "Mignonne allons voir si la rose"
by concentrating on the motif of fugacity of youth and beauty and by merging
the description of the girl with that of the rose. He concludes:
Donc, si vous me croids, mignonne:

Tandis que v6tre age fleuronne
En sa plus verte nouveautd,
Cueillis, cueillis v6tre jeunesse
Comme B cette fleur la vieillesse
Fera ternir v6tre beaut. 30
Neither the fugacity of time nor the brevity of life in general, but lament of the
transitoriness of beauty is the central idea in this poem, which lacks the usual
advice to Epicurean enjoyment.
Such a lament for the fugacity of beauty as represented by the rose becomes
likewise a dominant theme in Spanish poetry in the 16th century. Francisco de
Pacheco answers the question "Cuin frigil eres, hermosura humana" with:
,Quidn no ve en esta flor el desengafio,

Que abre, cae, seca el sol, el viento, el hielo? 31
Here the rose again exemplified human beauty and the lesson of desengaiio con-
tained in it. Lope de Vega, too, laments the transitoriness of the "belleza mor-
tal"; he admires the beauty of the rose by day and returns at night to find only
its destruction. For him the rose is the example of "pompa vana," and he does
not suggest a carpe diem attitude but rather admonishes: "Rinde la vanidad que
al sol se atreve."33 For in what can "humana fantasia" possibly trust,
Si de la vida la mayor distancia

Fue breve suefio del prostrero dia? 34
With Lope and other authors of the 17th century, the vanitas of the rose's beauty
becomes the focal point again. Observation and appreciation of beauty lead to
29 "Les Poems. Livre IV. Les Roses." Poesies choisies de 7. A. Baif, ed. L. B. de
Fouquibres (Paris, 1874), p. 45.
30 "Ode ? Cassandre" (1553), (Euvres completes, ed. P. Laumonier (Paris, 1928),
V, p. 196. On the rose motif in the 16th century see also H. Weber, La crdation podtique
au XVIe sidcle en France. De Maurice Scive ca Agrippa d'Aubignd (Paris, 1956), pp. 333-
356.
31 "Sobre la brevedad de la hermosura. Fragmento," Biblioteca de Autores Espaioles,
ed. A. de Castro (Madrid, 1872), XXXII, p. 370.
32 "Por labios de coral," reprinted in B. Gonzilez de Escand6n, op. cit., note 4
above, p. 122.
33 "Rosa gentil" from "Triunfos Divinos," Obras escogidas, ed. F. C. Sginz de
Robles (Madrid: M. Aguilar, 1946), II, p. 265.
34 The two concluding lines from the sonnet "Humilla al sol la coronada frente,"
ibid., p. 266.
the lament over its destruction and a plea for the recognition of its fugacity.
Rather than a flower of the carpe diem as with Garcilaso, the rose becomes the
flower of desengaio.
Gryphius' rose imagery differs from this interpretation. He takes his point of
departure clearly from the medieval tradition. His rose mirrors human vanitas,
a reminder of man's fate and the futility of his achievements. While its beauty
is of little consequence its thorns, signifying human sin and sufferings, are its
distinctive feature. Yet there is no despair but rather a sense of security in the
assurance of redemption when submitting to this fate. If he looked to Ausonius
for the rose imagery in the martyr play, Gryphius saw above all the rapid de-
struction of all living things exemplified by this flower. "Oriendo moriens" is his
point of departure, yet unlike Alanus de Insulis, he does not insist on sin and
sermonizing. Gryphius uttered despair and loneliness in such sonnets as "Threnen
in schwerer kranckheit" or "Menschliches Elende." Yet the pessimism about life in
these poems must be viewed within the entire sonnet cycle in which earthly misery
is framed by the depiction of the realm of God. 35 Whenever he employed tradi-
tional religious forms (as the vana rosa motif, the vanitas poetry in his ode "Va-
nitas! Vanitatum vanitas," in the martyr play Catharina von Georgien), the Chris-
tian belief provided strength in the same way that the traditional form provided
external structure. 36
VI. "Vana rosa": flor de desengailo.

Following the Renaissance interpretation of Ausonius' rose, this flower signified
for G6ngora above all beauty and its transitoriness. "A la rosa y su brevedad" 7
depicts the superbia of beauty in the image of this flower and its merciless de-
struction by the hot rays of the sun. Again and again the rose serves as the topical
point of reference to the beauty of the beloved who "venza la nieve (of the lily), /
venza su rosicler (of the rose)." 38 Yet while these sonnets remain within the frame-
work of traditional imagery, his "Vana rosa" goes a step beyond it. For here the
poet of the Baroque gives an individual interpretation to the topical image, en-
compassing in the fugacity of the rose's beauty the tragical paradox of life itself.
"Vida" is, indeed, a key word in this sonnet. In the rare rhyme scheme (abba
abba cbd cbd) the b rhyme is repeated in the middle of the tercets, thus allowing
"vida" of line 2 to occur again at the end of line 13 to be followed by the final
"muerte." "Life" is thus placed into an emphatic position, its significance is
stressed by repetition, by prominence in the rhythmic pattern and by the anti-
climactic occurrence of its counterpart, "muerte," at the end of the poem. While
35 K. Richter points to the significance in Gryphius' contrastive presentation of time

and eternity in the cyclical arrangement of the sonnets ("Vanitas und Spiel. Von der
Deutung des Lebens zur Sprache der Kunst im Werk von Gryphius," fahrbuch der
deutschen Schillergesellschaft, XVI, 1972, esp. 134-38).
36 With the recent studies of rhetorical and traditional elements in German Baroque
poetry, a review of C. von Faber du Faur's theses of "Gryphius, der Rebell" (PMLA,
LXXIV, 1959, 14-27) might be desirable. When he states "wir fiihlen in seinen Schriften
ein stiindiges Brodeln wie in einem Vulkan, der dem Ausbruch nahe ist" and "er selbst (Gry-
phius) war sich dessen nicht bewusst" (p. 14), external criteria from the "Erlebnisdichtung"
of a later age have been applied to Gryphius.
37 Ed. Mill6, no. XCV.
38 "Los blancos lilios que de ciento en ciento," ed. Milli, no. 302.
44 BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO RH XXXVII (1972-1973)
looking at the rosebud, G6ngora, rather than describing the

detail, only addresses himself to the existential significance of h
Para tan breve ser, ,quidn te dio vida?

(Para vivir tan poco estis lucida,
Y para no ser nada estis lozana?
In its simplicity and finality the law of life (birth and dea
initial line: "Ayer naciste, y morir~s mafiana." But the que
the whither and why of this life are left essentially unanswered
its enigmatic and brutal fugacity.
G6ngora's poem on the vana rosa differs from the traditional
sonnet. It begins with a proposition stating the law of life acces
and to the observation of the intellect; from there the poet
the meaning of this law, not to arrive at a higher wisdom a
to end merely with a tragic recognition of this insoluble tas
initial statement. From the poignant statement "Ayer naciste, y
to the vain plea of "dilata tu nacer para tu vida, / que anti
muerte," the tragic state of human existence, which cannot be e
perception, has been demonstrated. The lines are permeated by a
tion, because forestalling life in order to avoid its inevitable des
the inevitable and enigmatic transitoriness. The rose, such a bea
thing, comes to symbolize the state of mankind: "vanitas v
vanitas" (Ec. I, 2). But although he recognized life's central es
this remained for G6ngora as little understood as it was tra
Death in abstract terms as "algfin tirano" precludes reconciliatio
the absence of any comforting Christian overtones-- all the
comparison with Gryphius - further enhances the sense of lone
The impracticable advice "no salgas" expresses an almost exis
life, a feature quite commonly found only much later with the
for G6ngora "hermosura vana" should not deceive man about
life, at the same time admiration for this beauty is felt and
pressed, if only in the rhetorical "dilata tu nacer para tu vid
is not death but life, a beautiful life which the poet is afraid to
inexplicable transitoriness. In an earlier sonnet of 1583, G6n
Ausonius' "collige, virgo, rosas" by advising "goza, goza el colo
and in 1582 "goza cuello, cabello, labio y frente," even thoug
everything ended "en tierra, en humo, en polvo, en sombra, en
G6ngora departed in his "Vana rosa," proceeding to question
39 "Ilustre y hermosisima Maria," ed. Millk, no. 235, pp. 466-7

40 "Mientras por competir con tu cabello," ed. Millk, no. 229, pp. 463-4. - "En
G6ngora el nihilismo mis absoluto cierra la farsa," remarked A. Carballo Picazo about
this final line ("El soneto 'Mientras por competir con tu cabello' de G6ngora," Revista
de Filologia Espaiola, 48 [1964], p. 385). D. Alonso saw in this youthful masterpiece
"el violento contraste barroco" (Gdngora y el 'Polifemo,' Madrid, 1961, p. 362). The
structure of this sonnet was carefully analyzed by W. Monch ("G6ngora und Gryphius.
Zur Asthetik und Geschichte des Sonetts," Romanische Forschungen, LXV, 1954, pp. 300-
16), as an example of the classical sonnet form. Rising in a crescendo to the first tercet,
"goza cuello, cabello, labio y frente" (1. 9), the sonnet ebbs down in a decrescendo from
existentialist manner rather than escaping with any hedonistic advice. His "dilata
tu nacer para tu vida" is but a painful realization of the futility of the solution so
popular at his time, the engaio suggested by the carpe diem. G6ngora has reversed
Ausonius' "collige, virgo, rosas" to its paradoxical counterpart, "no salgas..., que
anticipas tu ser para tu muerte."
BAERBEL BECKER-CANTARINO
UNIVERSITY OF TEXAS (AusTIN)
this central axis to an almost inaudible "nada," with the last line symmetrically echoing
the axis, thus carefully balancing emotions with rationality.--One can but agree with
F. J. Warnke's statement about this sonnet: "As in Donne and Andreas Gryphius, the
carpe diem theme, with its conventional reminder that beauty will age, die, and decay, is
heightened to an assertion that beauty will turn to nothing at all. G6ngora's hyperboles
express the obsessive Baroque concern with the illusoriness of the phenomenal and the
transitoriness of all earthly experience" (Versions of Baroque. European Literature in the
Seventeenth Century, New Haven and London: Yale Univ. Press, 1972, p. 102).

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"Vana Rosa", from Ausonius to Góngora and Gryphius

Author(s): Baerbel Becker-Cantarino

University of Pennsylvania Press is collaborating with JSTOR to digitize, preserve and

Ayer naciste, y morirfis mafiana.

Si te engafi6 tu hermosura vana,

Cuando te corte la robusta mano,

No salgas, que te aguarda algin tirano:

Unfortunately, today the reference in G6ngora editions and studies obscures

it with the carpe diem tradition,4 with the rose mot

will be discussed below (note 15). Pertinent studies by Di

dismay over the swift disappearance of beauty. It is threatened by "algmin tirano,"

No importard nada, sin embargo, el dilatar ese nacer. No se adelantard nada

Wie eine Rose bliihet/

So wachsen wir auff erden

Vnd dencken gros zu werden/

6 H. Ciocchini, Gdngora y la tradicidn de los emblemas (Bahia Blanca, Argentina

Vnd schmertz/ vnd sorgenfrey.

In an upward motion the first three lines of the stanza des

Die Herrlikeit der Erden

8 Ode I, 9, stanzas 8 and 9. Oden und Epigramme, ed. M. Szyrocki, Gesamtausgabe

Woll dem der auff ihn trawett!

O Blumen welchen wir in Warheit zu vergleichen!

Wo lust ist/ da ist angst; wo frewd' ist/ da ist klagen.

11 D. W. Jons, Das 'Sinnen-Bild'. Studien zur allegorischen Bildlichkeit bei Andreas

Vidi Paestano gaudere rosaria cultu,

Ambigeres, raperetne rosis Aurora ruborem,

A short mythological excursion is undertaken to emphasize the etherial beauty of

Momentum intererat; quo se nascentia florum,

14 Gesamtausgabe, VI, p. 223.

Haec viret angusto fol'orum tecta galero;

Haec modo, quae toto rutilaverat igne comarum,

Tot species, tantosque ortus, variosque novatus

Ausonius concludes with two divergent observations concerning this fate:

Sed bene quodpaucis licet interitura diebus,

Collige, virgo, rosas, dum flos novus, et nova pubes,

an individual one - creates a sense of reconciliation with this fate continued in

Solvitur acris hiems grata vice veris et Favoni

Vitae summa brevis spem nos vetat incohare longam,

Vidi ergo odorati victura rosaria Paesti

Dum loquimur, fugerit invida

El tiempo huye; lo que mis te importa

19 Horacio en Espaha reprinted in Edicidn nacional de las obras completas de Me-

Mirabar celerem fugitiva aetate rapinam,

Herrera's translation of Ausonius shows his fascination by these lines:

Esto miraba at6nito yo, cuando

Ausonius' "querimur" is intensified and personalized by Herrera, who also delights

Coged las rosas vos, que vais perdiendo

20 Occassionally the rose is mentioned, as in Horace's ode II, 3: "Nimium brevis

IV. Alanus de Insulis.

Vanitas is the theme of Alanus de Insulis' "Rhythmus alter, quo graphice

Omnis mundi creatura,

Like a book, picture or mirror, the rose is a sign of this life:

Nostrum statum pingit rosa,

Quae dum mane primum floret,

Simul senex et puella

Sic aetatis ver humanae

Juventutis primo mane