{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.1", "endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-mengeldichten/vol-2-01-poems-6-10.json" }, "work": { "slug": "hadewijch-mengeldichten", "name": "The Mengeldichten (Mixed Poems) of Hadewijch" }, "parents": [ { "slug": "beguine-mystics", "name": "Beguine Mystics", "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/" } ], "chapter": { "num": 2, "slug": "vol-2-01-poems-6-10", "title": "Section II", "of": 6, "words": 2007, "text": "## Section II\n\nFive verse-letters (VI–X) continuing the *Mengeldichten* project translation:\n\n- **Poem VI** — A short blessing-verse to the addressee. The doctrinal centerpiece: *right Love and weak deceit cannot well agree; for Love follows the honorable fief — right truth, fast troth, joy, gladness, sweet sorrow, gladly-suffered misery*. Closes with a prayer to noble troth.\n- **Poem VII** — *God be with you at every season, and make all your delight in him, outside all strange cares*. The autobiographical complaint that the addressee so little recognizes what God is in his Love. Closes with the program: *upon Love shall you let yourself, to rightly love and to rightly hate; from all things be at peace — that is the sign of Love's habit*.\n- **Poem VIII** — *To God I commend your sense, that he do you Love therein*. The Trinitarian-stanza: *Those whom God by works had chosen — who wrought his Father's will and the one-thought of the Holy Spirit — a single will was all their work*. The famous **strike-while-the-iron-is-hot** stanza: *When the iron is hot, then one shall strike. So shall you make haste while you have your youth and may yet attain virtue*. Closes: *always desire to be in misery and friendless, for Love's honor, till God comfort you*.\n- **Poem IX** — *He who holds anything in inward sense cannot grow up in Love. One must with Love undertake all Love*. The poet declares that Love cannot be fulfilled by *all the service of the holy Church*, but only by giving oneself wholly to Love and ever wandering toward un-readiness. The Book-of-Wisdom-echo: ***Glorious fruit shall he know who much suffers for the heightening of Love***. Closes with a personal accusation-verse: *I would gladly have taken you ready, that you delay grieves me; it is heavy on me that you tarry — for this I am often angered about you*.\n- **Poem X** — The programmatic **Christological verse-letter**: *If you will begin the work of Love, you shall begin at the work where the Son of God began, when he came to us as a man. As he lived, so shall you live, and forsake all joy for him. As he gave up his own, so shall each who would live in fine Love forsake his own*. Closes with the long autobiographical register and the famous **closing-of-Section-II epigram**: ***Yes, I say \"deo gratias\"; but I never knew the one to whom Love gave gladness and free ways. Against Love I have refusal***; followed by the lyrical-disjunct envoi: *Though I have no fish, I want neither frog, nor any other beasts; I have no Love — I want nothing else, whether she be good or fell to me*.\n\nSame conventions as Section I. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only.\n\n---\n\n## Poem VI\n\nVI. *Right Love and Weak Deceit Cannot Well Agree*\n\nI pray God that he
\njoin your sense to his true Love,
\nand enlighten you with himself,
\nand direct you with his deep truth.
\nFor of me much shall be lacking to you,
\neven though for your usefulness I would speak.
\nThose who are by you give you little help;
\nthus it remains to you to live alone with God.\n\nWith him is the best for you to do,
\nif you would live free and bold;
\nand in him at every season be embraced —
\nso turn into him all your diligence,
\nand mark and learn in all knowing
\nthe storms of right Love.
\nWhether one does you evil or good,
\nlet it all remain whole in your spirit.
\nWhole remain in all matters;
\nso shall you know Love and taste her.\n\nThat I tell you, who understand it better,
\nthat **right Love and weak deceit
\ncannot well agree**;
\nfor Love follows honorable fief —
\nright truth, fast troth,
\njoy, gladness, sweet sorrow,
\ngladly-suffered misery.
\nAnd know that this is Love's habit:
\nto stand by all those, with troth,
\nwho you know are anything toward Love,
\nin troth and in fair service.
\nComfort the one to whom you are friendliest,
\nand those who in troth with troth are to you.\n\nI commend you to fine Love,
\nand I pray of noble troth
\nthat she may behold your being
\nwith the eyes of Love,
\nand make you know all her being.\n\n---\n\n## Poem VII\n\nVII. *God Be with You at Every Season*\n\nGod be with you at every season,
\nand make all your delight in him,
\noutside all strange cares.
\nFor this may he give you Love in pledge.\n\nIt grieves me that you so little can recognize
\nhow he is fashioned in his Love.
\nThat I would very gladly see —
\nmight it any sooner happen to me by it.
\nFor that I would gladly labor,
\nand well show it in works.\n\nI pray God that he give you success
\ntoward this, and your spirit
\nlighten after his nobility,
\nand may make the worthiness
\nof his nature your desire,
\nand in his nature consume you,
\nthat your being may be fed
\nand kept for our both behoof.\n\nAh dear, set all your thought
\nin God's Love, who wrought you;
\ncommend all your being to Love.
\nSo shall you of every affliction recover,
\nand you shall shrink from no pain
\nnor flee in any thing from un-easement.
\n**Upon Love shall you let yourself,
\nto rightly love, to rightly hate;
\nfrom all things be at peace —
\nthat is the sign of Love's habit.**\n\nThat you let yourself be sad-down so easily
\ntakes from you many a fair gift.
\nWill you within yourself let go to God
\nand hold yourself in *caritas* —
\nso shall it not fail you;
\nyou shall yet well attain your Beloved.\n\n---\n\n## Poem VIII\n\nVIII. *When the Iron is Hot, Then One Shall Strike*\n\nTo God I commend your sense,
\nthat he do you Love therein,
\nand teach his will to live,
\nand to give right truth to truth,
\nand live in troth without dissembling,
\nand may he behold your life.\n\nNow see that you haste yourself to virtue,
\nwith all that you may fulfill,
\nand serve all those who love
\nthat they may help you know the ways
\nthat belong to highest Love.
\n**Those whom God by works had chosen —
\nwho wrought his Father's will
\nand the one-thought of the Holy Spirit —
\na single will was all their work.
\nWith him willing, and becoming one and strong** —
\ngive in Love all your thought
\nto the sweet God who wrought you,
\nwho has helped you to this:
\nthat you live among those
\nwho bear high Love to God,
\nand speak of you in letters,
\nand show you the highest virtue
\nwhich you would gladly learn,
\nand may be glad of the preparation
\nby which you shall reach Love.\n\n**When the iron is hot, then one shall strike.
\nHereby shall you haste yourself soon,
\nthe while you have your youth
\nand may yet attain virtues.**
\nBut if you were slow and sluggish,
\nand did not advance what
\nI will and have commanded you,
\nyou would yet wander sorely.
\nAll your friends would give you up;
\nyou would live in great scath.
\nBut of this there is no need to you.
\nOur God who commanded you
\n— let him help you and stand by you
\nin all by which you are over-burdened.
\nAnd let no thing make you over-burdened;
\nso shall you with Love be healed of all.\n\nBe humble and patient
\nby the troth you owe to God.
\nAnd desire ever to be at all times
\nmiserable and friendless,
\nfor Love's honor, till God comfort you
\nand you yourself be delivered from misery.
\nDo you any thing less? Be ashamed of it.
\nGod make you after his fitness.\n\n---\n\n## Poem IX\n\nIX. *Glorious Fruit*\n\n**He who holds anything in inward sense
\ncannot grow up in Love.
\nOne must with Love undertake all Love,
\nif Love shall be done enough.**
\nBut that one cannot work
\nwith all the service of the holy Church —
\nbut he who gives himself wholly to Love
\nand from all joys lives a stranger,
\nand embraces no affection,
\nand ever wanders toward un-readiness
\nbecause he would gladly enough satisfy Love,
\nand storm or ungrace
\nspares not for Love's worthiness —
\nthis says the book of Wisdom:1
\n***glorious fruit shall he know
\nwho much suffers for the heightening of Love***.\n\nGod must give you success in Love,
\nand may he heighten your high mind
\nin his nobility,
\nand make you all the truth
\nof his nature desire,
\nand consume you in his noble Love,
\nwho must feed your Love
\nand protect it for our both behoof.\n\nTo this I would gladly have you ready.
\nThat you delay is grievous to me.
\nHeavy is it to me that you tarry;
\nfor this I am often angered about you.\n\n---\n\n## Poem X\n\nX. *I Want Nothing, Whether She Be Good or Fell to Me*\n\nGod be your comfort toward right Love,
\nand make you know high Love,
\nand the truth which you owe him,
\nand make in him all your diligence.
\n**If you will begin the work of Love,
\nyou shall begin at the work
\nwhere the Son of God began
\nwhen he came to us as a man.
\nAs he lived, so shall you live,
\nand forsake all joy for him.
\nAs he gave up his own, so shall each
\nwho would live in fine Love forsake his own.**\n\nI pray you that you give up
\nyourself, and that you live for Love
\nin misery and in trouble.
\nI will not that it grieve you
\nthat for God's sake in Love it goes ill with you;
\nfor all pain for Love's sake gains good.
\nThat one suffers much for Love's sake
\n— provided that one does not show it in measure,
\nas those who appear by Love-with-defense
\nand make trouble and show themselves angry —
\nthat is pain that does not gain,
\nand to no one comes any benefit.
\nFor ill-successes sadden Love
\nand hinder sorely in every *sinne*.
\nBut of these you have little to do.\n\nI would you were wise and bold
\nin making strife against God;
\nfor it takes away the sweet speech
\nthat Love gives to her lovers
\nwhen one does not live an hour in peace.
\nSo one-only give your sense
\nto God purely in right Love,
\nthat you live in sweet mind,
\nthat to you no matter become for good
\nbut God alone and nothing else.\n\nFor he who has tasted anything of God
\n— is he touched from within
\nin right feeling of his one-only Love —
\nthen no matter becomes good to him more;
\nbut all thing turns bitter in his spirit.
\nNor he himself, nor saint, nor human
\nseems any more to him as a wish.
\nAll other matters are pain to him,
\nbut to be in Love's service for Love's sake.
\nAt every hour for Love to die and faint,
\nor in the feeling of joys —
\nherein must you take your delight,
\nand let yourself not suffer in other matters.\n\nThough I say *deo gratias*,
\nI never knew the one
\nto whom Love gave gladness and free ways.
\nAgainst Love I have refusal.
\nIt is right I keep silent of the complaints
\nthat I have of her, night by day.
\nI have given for too small a cost
\nto attain to free Love;
\n**though I have no fish,
\nI will have neither frog
\nnor anything else of yours —
\nbefore the wine I'll thirst.
\nI have no Love at all;
\nI will nothing else,
\nwhether she be
\ngood or fell to me.**\n\n---\n\n**Translator's footnote (project translation)**\n\n1 *This says the book of Wisdom* — *Dat seget de boec der wijsheit*. The reference is to Wisdom 3:13–15 (Vulgate): *generatio enim bona cum claritate*; *gloriosus est fructus bonorum laborum* — *the fruit of good labors is glorious*. Hadewijch's near-quotation in MDu is one of the more direct Wisdom-citations in her corpus, anchoring her *much-suffering-for-the-heightening-of-Love* doctrine in canonical Sapiential literature.", "project_translation": true, "license": "CC0 1.0 Universal", "methodology_url": "https://anthroposophy.ai/about/translations/" } }