Zion

As we can read in the beginning line of the Zionlied is "Sion, trure", "Zion, mourne". Alexander adresses a biblical city. But what was Zion and what might be its symbolic role in this poem?
Zion is a favoured image in the Bible, which can refer to the holy city or even to a certain person. Originally Zion was the name of the southernmost hill on which the Canaanite fortress-city of Jebus was located. It was conquered by David around 1000 B.C. and renamed Jerusalem (see 1Chronicles 11;4-5 and 2Samuel 5;6-7). Situated on the borders of Judah and Israel, it became David’s capital. As the city expanded, the name Zion came to be applied to the whole city.
Later on Zion gets a symbolic role in the Bible especially at Isaiah and the Lamentations; just a few examples:


Lamentations 1;4-8

⁴ The ways of Zion do mourn, because none come to the solemn feasts: all her gates are desolate: her priests sigh, her virgins are afflicted, and she is in bitterness.
⁵ Her adversaries are the chief, her enemies prosper; for the Lord hath afflicted her for the multitude of her transgressions: her children are gone into captivity before the enemy.
⁶ And from the daughter of Zion all her beauty is departed: her princes are become like harts that find no pasture, and they are gone without strength before the pursuer.
⁷ Jerusalem remembered in the days of her affliction and of her miseries all her pleasant things that she had in the days of old, when her people fell into the hand of the enemy, and none did help her: the adversaries saw her, and did mock at her sabbaths.
⁸ Jerusalem hath grievously sinned; therefore she is removed: all that honoured her despise her, because they have seen her nakedness: yea, she sigheth, and turneth backward.

Isaiah 33:20
²⁰ Look upon Zion, the city of our solemnities: thine eyes shall see Jerusalem a quiet habitation, a tabernacle that shall not be taken down; not one of the stakes thereof shall ever be removed, neither shall any of the cords thereof be broken.

Isaiah 37;21-22

²¹ Then Isaiah the son of Amoz sent unto Hezekiah, saying, Thus saith the Lord God of Israel, Whereas thou hast prayed to me against Sennacherib king of Assyria:
²² This is the word which the Lord hath spoken concerning him; The virgin, the daughter of Zion, hath despised thee, and laughed thee to scorn; the daughter of Jerusalem hath shaken her head at thee.


We can see that Zion is actually identified with Jerusalem in the Old Testament and since it is the capital of the whole kingdom, therefore also standing for the Lord's chosen nation. Zion is also the bride of God, and in most of the abstract context has a feminine aspect. 
No wonder, when Alexander creates a rhetoric and elevated atmosphere by using Biblical allegories and metaphores, he would give his lady the role Zion. For further explanation just read the cited Bible verses and for more citations please check the following link on Bible Gateway which I used for this entry.

 

Properties of the number 7

There's a secondary symbol Alexander uses in the Kindheitslied and also in the Zion-lied, and this is the symbolism around number 7. I would like to give here a selection of the properties of the number 7 (source: http://www.ridingthebeast.com/numbers/nu7.php); I tried to pick the relevant meanings to this research.

• The number 7, according to Ambroise, corresponds to the Old Testament but he sees it also as the number representing the virginity. Thibaut of Langres gives also this attribute to this number because it is the only one of the first nine numbers which does not father and the only one which is not fathered. It is considered as virgin and representative of the Holy Spirit to which are attributed the same properties. Macrobe goes in the same way telling that it symbolizes Minerve, born of his father without passing by a mother.

• Perfect number and symbol of the divine abundance, it is also according to the Bible the number of the punishment, the purification and the penitence. It is also attributed to Satan who tries to copy God being the monkey of God. Also the infernal beast of the Revelation (Rv 13,1) has seven heads.

• Saint Augustin sees the seven like the perfection of the Plenitude. He made it also the number of the creature, considering not the life of this one but its become, the evolution.

• The seven indictments to the scribes and to Pharisees announced by Jesus. (Mt 23,13-31)

• The seven requests in the prayer of the Our-Father.

• The number seven is often used in the Revelation: the seven golden lamp-stands (Rv 1,12-20), the mystery of the seven stars (Rv 1,16-20), the seven seals (Rv 7 and 8), the seven letters addressed to the seven churches (Rv 2 and 3), the seven trumpets (Rv 8,6 and 11,15), the seven thunders (Rv 10,3-4), the seven kings (Rv 17,9), the seven heads of the Beast (Rv 13,1), the seven plagues of the seven bowls (Rv 15,5), etc. "Bush of thorn", during one of her visions, has understood that the seven lamps and the standard lamps mentioned in the Revelation, represented the seven principal Churches or Beliefs, that is to say: Roman Catholic, Orthodox, Muslim, Anglican, Protestant, etc. but only the Roman Catholic Church is remained lighted with the true fire of the Holy Spirit.

• The seven donations of the spirit of Yahweh: Wisdom, Insight, Counsel, Power, Knowledge, Piety, Fear of God. (Is 11,2-3)

• The mourning for the people of Israel lasted seven days. (Gn 50,10; Jdt 16,24; Si 22,12)

• The infidelity receives a sevenfold punishment.

• The seven priests carrying seven trumpets, during the catch of Jericho, have to walk, the seventh day, seven times around the city. (Jos 6,11-16)

•  Jacob served seven years for Rachel. (Gn 29,20)

•  The seven virtues. Three theologicals: faith, hope, love - or charity. Four cardinals: force, justice, prudence and temperance.

• The seven capital sins, corresponding to the seven material desires: the pride, the avarice, the impurity, the envy, the greed, the anger and the laziness.

• The seven sacraments of the Roman catholic Church: Baptism, Confirmation, Eucharist, Penitence, Unction of the patients, Order, Marriage.

•  The number seven is a characteristic of the Virgin Mary: the seven mysteries of the rosary commemorating the pains of the Virgin Mary; we represent the Virgin with a crown of seven roses to a heart and also seven daggers stung in her heart (from where the designation "Our-Lady of the Seven Pains"), 3 on a side and 4 of the other; the seven feasts of the Virgin Mary celebrated in the catholic Church: the purification, the Annunciation, the Visitation, the Assumption, the Nativity, the presentation of the Virgin and the Immaculate Conception; the Christians of the first centuries were making born the Virgin Mary gave birth after seven months of gestation.

Capstone, cornerstone and keystone

The stone which the builders rejected has become the chief cornerstone.
(Psalms 118,22)

I would like to give a short explanation of the "capstone" which is mentioned in the first strophe:
"After that cry
for the capstone, for the only one
that would keep your walls firm."

At first glance one would never tell how comes the image of capstone into view in this case. To understand its important role among the symbols of this poem, we have to understand what is a capstone. A capstone or a cornerstone is an important element of buildings: this is the first stone, the first element they lay down when they begin to build a building. Laying this cornerstone always happens in ceremonial circumstances, showing: it is an important moment.

Also the cornerstone had a special significance in Israel back then, in the Biblical times: the way this stone was carved and laboured defined the how they built the building, the house or the temple afterwards. It was a huge and heavy stone, for example they used a prismatic, beautiful chalk as a cornerstone at building the Temple at Jerusalem. But the format of the cornerstone could be anything: square, cube, oblong, conical, etc. If they once laid the cornerstone they built and adapted the building exactly to its cornerstone.

The psalm verse I've mentioned above is from an important Psalm regarding the wait for the Messiah, as we can see it in Parabel of the Wicked Vinedressers (Matthew 21,33-46). Jesus Christ quotes Psalm 118: Jesus said to them: "Have you never read in the Scriptues: 'The stone which the builders rejected become the chief cornerstone. This was the Lord's doing and it was marvelous in our eyes.'? Therefore I say to you, the kingdom of God will be taken from you and given to a nation bearing the fruits of it. And whoever falls on this stone will be broken; but on whomever it falls, it will grind him to powder. (Matthew 21,42-43)
Jesus Christ is the cornerstone of the Christianity, and also the Peter in his first letter says: you also, as living stones, are being built up a spiritual house, a holy priesthood, to offer up spiritual sacrifices acceptable to God through Jesus Christ. (1Peter 2,5). He is the fundament on which our salvation has been built and based; and at the same time he's also the keystone (the last stone they place when they finish to build any kind of building).
Also worths to mention the passage by Zechariah: Who are you, O great mountain? Before Zerubbabel you shall become a plain! And he shall bring forth the capstone with shouts of “Grace, grace to it! (Zechariah 4,7), in which he refers the Messiah, therefore Jesus Christ.

If the strophe would stand by itself, we could say that the image of the capstone refers to Jesus Christ, and Zion could be the Church, but I have a hunch that the capstone is rather a symbol for something that is as firm as the fundament of Christianity.

The fact that Alexander demands to cry for the capstone "that would keep your walls firm" indicates a sensitive state of mind or emotional state and - of course - some sort of danger. He also names the reason why the capstone weakened, he says: The wind took with pincers its solidity.

The question is: what does the wind (as symbol) stands for, and what kind of danger awaits Zion?