From the Death of Mary

Paul Hindemith

However, sooner than the apostle Thomas, who

Came after it was too late, the quick angel, who had

long been prepared for this, stepped in

and ordered at the burial place:

Push the stone aside. If you want to know

Where she is, who moves your heart:

Look: just as a lavenderpillow

She had been laid in there for a while,

That in the future the earth would smell of her

In its folds like a fine cloth.

Everything dead (do you feel), everything sick

Is stunned by her fragrance.

Look at the linen: where is it white,

Where becomes blinding and does not shrink?

This light out of this pure corpse

Was more clarifying to him than sunshine

Aren't you amazed, how gently she escaped him?

It is almost as if she were still here, nothing has moved.

But the Heavens are shaking above:

Man, kneel down and see me go and sing.