Autobiography

To

Johann Valentin Andreae.

In your Calw — you were once so content there,
O immortalized one! and only the beckoning of the Divine
Tore you away from your valley, where you
Harvested the fruits of your labor. Andreae spent his most productive years in Calw (1620–1639), where he founded the "Calwer Färberkasse," one of the first social insurance systems in Germany.
You do not journey to Stuttgart out of pride —
No! only with your gaze fixed upon a higher goal,
To become for the Fatherland what you were for

A promoter of good morals and true Christianity!
Yet envy, hatred, and greed
Often strewed your path with thorns.
There, almost every year, you strengthened yourself
In the embrace of your Calw, at the spring of Teinach, Teinach's spring refers to the mineral baths in Bad Teinach, a popular retreat near Calw where Andreae sought physical and spiritual restoration.
For new battles with the vipers. original: "Nattern"; a metaphor for the critics and courtly rivals who opposed Andreae's reform efforts in Stuttgart.