Other than one minor disappointment (there was no lantern-light cemetery tour offered on Saturday night; I soothed my sorrow at a nearby tavern), the trip was awesome.
Afraid
of disrupting the service, I was too timid to actually go inside the
church. But the adjacent burial ground was rich enough with delights.
I'm pretty sure the first three words carved onto this stone are "Here Lied Begraven." The text is in Dutch, which is thrilling enough (they spell Jesus with Z!) but I have to say the word "begraven" is kind of amazing. I'd like to start using this word all the time. I'm fairly sure the grave belongs to a woman ("huisvrouw,"
if I've been reading my Knickerbocker correctly, means "housewife" or
"wife") but the only name that appears is that of a man (John Emers). Is
it possible this goodly vrouw is identified only by her
husband's name? Dutch people, help me out on this one. The good woman
died in 1769, and her headstone is wonderfully representative of the
preferred colonial style: its shoulder arches and tympanum are classic
colonial, and the winged death's-head reflects the cheerier, more
cherubic design used at the time, which supplanted the grim, skeletal
carvings preferred in the earlier part of the century. A lovely
headstone.
A
few steps away, I found the grave of our man himself: Washington
Irving. I paused before it to pay my respects to the legacy of the first
genius of American letters, and left a rock atop it. Irving wrote a
number of wonderful spectral tales in addition to the two everybody
knows, as well as history, biography and satire, plus he pretty much
single-handedly saved Christmas.
And, he was a marketing genius. Prior to publishing his History of
New-York, which he released under the pseudonym "Diedrich
Knickerbocker," Irving plastered New York City with posters declaiming
the august historian Knickerbocker "missing," and asking all citizens to
come forward with any news of him, should they find him. Irving even
took out ad space in various newspapers. Naturally, the city was astir
with curiosity, and when "Knickerbocker's" book finally came out a few
weeks later, New Yorkers beat down the doors to get their hands on a
copy. A bestseller was born, and Washington Irving accidentally invented
viral marketing two centuries before such a thing existed.
An
opening in the trees now cheered him with the hopes that the church
bridge was at hand. The wavering reflection of a silver star in the
bosom of the brook told him that he was not mistaken... “If I can but
reach that bridge,” thought Ichabod, “I am safe.”
He looked at us intently and said, "That line always makes my hair stand up."
It
was amazing. This guy was an even bigger Washington Irving fan than I
was. I thanked him warmly and, brimming with inspiration, set off to
visit Sunnyside.
Sunnyside
was designed by Irving himself, and the cottage reflects the writer's
expansive and wide-ranging interests. It has all the architectural
cohesion of a minor explosion, and is curiously charming.
Irving
of course had to throw in a few inauthentic faux-Dutch touches, like
this date, affixed to the western wall of the cottage:
2 comments:
The transcription of the headstone is as follows:
Hier Leid Begraven
Sara Fouchee Huisvrouw Van
John Enters Geboren Den 20:
October 1717: Gestorven Den 26
December. 1769: Verwagtende Ein
Zalige OPstandinge Door
Jezus Christus ten Jongsten Dage
Which means:
Here lies Sara Fouchee (=Fouché; Fouchier), wife of John Enters, born October 20, 1717, died December 26, 1769. Expectant of a Blessed Resurrection through JC at the Youngest Day.
The Dutch is tolerable for the period, excepting "Ein" (which is German) and the two capitals "OP."
Greetings from Holland.
Greetings from New Amsterdam :)
Thank you so much for the translation! That's fantastic. I wonder how the German got mixed up in there? Maybe because by 1769 there were so few Dutch left in New York that the language began to mutate, evolve or lapse? Anyway, thanks again for posting your comment.
XO,
SA
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