I see the skies bleed

But mother tells of a comet

Unearthed by the eyes of Tycho

Oh Kepler, desire threads to study at Tubingen

The notes that tell of the lord

To minister as Luther did

But fate unsheathes a scholar

That will perceive the heavens

Through the eyes of mathematics

Even Tycho cannot deny

Sift through the works of Witelo

To learn of the ways of light

Between Ptolemy’s Geocentriscm

And Copernicus’ Heliocentrism who is right

Truly the heavens hide a mystery

The sun is the heart of the universe

Aspersed by giant earths as though by strings

I imagine myself as if on mars

For to behold a certain truth

The earth wanes in its pace

As it tests its string

All must sojourn in ellipses

Kepler, wither thy work in Latin prose

Like the clouds of Venus?

If thy brethren fail to comprehend

Wither their blame?

In these times when Europe draws

Closer to the night

For to decimate and plunder in God’s name

Germany shall not be spared

I will pray with you

As even thy mother is not safe

From the witch-hunters rage

I am a Lutheran

Even if my wages be denied me

I will not bow to Rome

Be it in Graz or Benatky

Contentions spare not even Lutherans

This I know

Makes me wonder why man be such

That he cannot learn from the harmony

Of the heavens

A gift I offer to the world

As the ‘Rudolphine Tables’

For to every seeker of the cosmos

Before my head I lay to rest in Regensburg