Time Glasset --- The hourglass --- El reloj de arena --- Die Sanduhr --- Le sablier.

The sand lay still and the sunshine scorched
It's yellow, loose pate, all ashine.
One pinch was soldered in glass with a torch;
Now watch
How the sand measures time.

Not for years-just for minutes the hourglass will run,
Yet time we control within it:
When the sand runs out, turn the glass upside down
And the end, will become the beginning.

It seems to me, too, that I am the same;
Towards night, when my energy's on the wane,
I drop off like dead on a bed or sofa.
Then at dawn I get up, hale and hearty again,
As if I had been turned over.

And maybe, our death is similar, too:
Our friends fresh pine-planks prepare,
Yet death simply turns us over anew,
Like an hourglass; again year by year runs through,
And we never know wear or tear...