"Stadtturm", Waidhofen an der Ybbs

Der "letzte Geiger": der vom Schrammelquartett oder der den Totentanz geigende Sensenmann? Oder beide?

Beide. So ist Österreich. So ist der Herbst, so ist das Leben...

Sure, I am speculating. But I have lived in the same little town as Helmberg-Lanner and, without ever having had the privilege of knowing her, I feel a certain affinity for her amazing and touching poetry. May I be permitted therefore to make a few guesses about this particular poem.

The town where Helmberg-Lanner lived and wrote for long years - and the one I presume was the backdrop for this poem - is Waidhofen an der Ybbs in Lower Austria. It is an old town, with little sun among the houses of its medieval core. From the historic Helmberg house one should be able to see the imposing Stadtturm (town tower, see opposite), a large medieval structure with a big clock, dating from the time when Waidhofen's ramparts and the resourcefulness of its defenders repelled the Turkish army (who where passing through, with fire and sword, on one of their historic invasions of Austria).

Der letzte Geiger (the last fiddler) must be a potent image for any Austrian. For me it recalls the strolling musicians - strolling like the mariachi of Mexico - at one of the wine-drinking Austrian establishments dedicated to the enjoyment of life and the philosophizing about its sadness. (The most famous of these bands, by the way, was the Viennese Schrammelquartett - a band that has nothing whatsoever to do with Helmberg-Lanner's poetry but much with my promoting the city of my philosophizing youth, Vienna.)

But the image of the last fiddler also conjures up the medieval figure of the Grim Reaper, playing the Dance of Death on his violin. As in the Schubert string quartet popularly known as "Death and the Maiden", if you don't mind.