| 1. Ich habe genug,1 Ich habe den Heiland, das Hoffen der Frommen, Auf meine begierigen Arme genommen,2 Ich hab ihn erblickt, Mein Glaube hat Jesum ans Herze gedrückt; Nun wünsch ich noch heute mit Freuden Von hinnen zu scheiden: Ich habe genug. |
1. I have enough;3 I have taken the savior, the hope of the pious, Into my eager arms; I have beheld him; My faith has pressed Jesus to my heart; Now I wish, with joy, this very day To depart from here: I have enough. |
| 2. Ich habe genug. Mein Trost ist nur allein, Dass Jesus mein und ich sein eigen möchte sein. Im Glauben halt ich ihn, Da seh ich auch mit Simeon Die Freude jenes Lebens schon. Lasst uns mit diesem Manne ziehn! Ach! möchte mich von meines Leibes Ketten Der Herr erretten; Ach! wäre doch mein Abschied hier, Mit Freuden sagt ich, Welt, zu dir: Ich habe genug. |
2. I have enough. My one and only consolation is That Jesus would be my own and I his. I hold him in faith; Thus, with Simeon, I, too, already see The joy of that life [in heaven]. Let us go with this man [Jesus, to die].4 Ah, that from my body’s chains The Lord would rescue me; Ah, were indeed my leave-taking here, I would say with joy to you, world: I have enough. |
| 3. Schlummert ein, ihr matten Augen, Fallet sanft und selig zu! Welt, ich bleibe nicht mehr hier, Hab ich doch kein Teil an dir, Das der Seele könnte taugen. Hier muss ich das Elend bauen, Aber dort, dort werd ich schauen Süssen Frieden, stille Ruh. |
3. Fall into [death’s] slumber,5 you languid eyes, Droop gently and blissfully shut. World, I will remain here no longer; I have indeed no share in you That could be fit for my soul. Here [on earth] I must build up misery,6 But there [in heaven], there I will look upon Sweet peace, quiet rest. |
| 4. Mein Gott, wenn kömmt das schöne: Nun!, Da ich im Friede fahren werde Und in dem Sande kühler Erde Und dort bei dir im Schosse ruhn? Der Abschied ist gemacht: Welt, gute Nacht! |
4. My God, when will the beautiful “Now”7come, When I will go in peace, And rest [here] in the sand of the cold earth And there with you in the bosom [of Abraham—heaven]?8 I have taken my leave: World, good night. |
| 5. Ich freue mich auf meinen Tod, Ach! hätt er sich schon eingefunden. Da entkomm ich aller Not, Die mich noch auf der Welt gebunden. |
5. I look forward to my death; Ah, had it already come about. Then9 I will escape all the distress That [had] bound me yet in the world. |
| (transl. Michael Marissen & Daniel R. Melamed) |
1 Some editions of the cantata retain the spelling “genung” that was often still used in Bach’s day.
2 The repetition of “Ich habe genug” here is apparently Bach’s musical invention, not a feature of the original poem.
3 The “I” of this poem is a general “existential I” who extensively employs language from the story, in Luke 2:25-35, of Simeon meeting the infant Jesus. Simeon, “a pious man” (Luther Bibles, “ein Mensch [der] war fromm”) of Jerusalem who was looking for “the consolation of Israel” (Luther Bibles, “den Trost Israel”), was told by God that he would not see death before he had seen God’s Messiah. In the Temple, Simeon “took [Jesus] into his arms” (Luther Bibles, “nahm ihn auf seine Arme”). The expression “I have enough” comes from what is said of Joseph in Luther’s translation of Genesis 45:28, understood as a kind of proto-Christian confession of faith—in Lutheran discourse, Jesus was sometimes called “ein himmlischer Joseph” (“a heavenly/spiritual Joseph”); the verse reads, in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day, “Israel sprach: Ich habe genug, dass mein Sohn Joseph noch lebet; ich will hin, und ihn sehen, ehe ich sterbe” (“[Jacob]/Israel said: I have enough, because my son Joseph yet lives; I will [go] there, and see him before I die”).
4 “This man” refers to Jesus, not Simeon. In John 11:16, one of Jesus’s disciples says to the others, in the rendering from the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day, “Lasst uns mit ziehen, dass wir mit ihm sterben” (“Let’s go with [Jesus], that we may die with him”).
5 This line refers to “der Todesschlaf” (“the sleep of death”), the Lutheran notion that in death the body merely “sleeps” until it is transformed at its resurrection, as opposed to the Roman Catholic notion that the dead person spends time actively suffering in Purgatory before moving on to heaven.
6 “Das Elend bauen” also carries the implication of “to live in exile”; i.e., earth is considered per se a place of exile, before one moves on to one’s true home, heaven.
7 This “now” is the “nun” from the Song of Simeon, in Luke 2:29, rendered in the Luther Bibles of Bach’s day as “Herr, nun lässestu deinen Diener im Friede fahren” (“Lord, now you are allowing your servant to go in peace”).
8 “Im Schosse” here does not refer to God’s lap. The turn of phrase is derived from “Abraham’s bosom,” an expression in Luke 16:19-31, the Parable of the Rich Man and Lazarus. Being “in someone’s bosom” referred to reclining at the right of the host (i.e., the place of honor) at a meal (e.g., John 13:23). In Luke 16:22-23, Lazarus is depicted as being, after his death, “in seinem Schosse” (“in his [Abraham’s] bosom”). Western Christianity came to use “Abraham’s bosom” as a designation for heaven.
9 The libretto of this cantata was reprinted in 1728, and there—but not in Bach’s musical setting—the word “da” (meaning “then,” or “there,” or perhaps both) is doubled (“Da, da”), bringing the line to eight syllables like the first line of the movement. The librettist does the same in movement 3 (“dort, dort”).
