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"work": {
"slug": "hadewijch-mengeldichten",
"name": "The Mengeldichten (Mixed Poems) of Hadewijch"
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"chapter": {
"num": 5,
"slug": "vol-5-01-poems-18-20-hadewijch-ii",
"title": "Section V — Attribution Note",
"of": 6,
"words": 1885,
"text": "## Section V — Attribution Note\n\n**These poems are not by Hadewijch herself.** The manuscripts after Mengeldicht XVII close with the *explicit* formula *Dilata, ira decrescit. Explicit liber iste. Deo gratias. Amen.* Mengeldichten XVIII–XXIX in the manuscripts follow after this closing-of-book and are in a markedly different register: short-stanza apophatic poems in the *bloet sonder figure* (*bare without figure*) tradition that scholars from Jozef Van Mierlo onward have identified as belonging to a later writer in Hadewijch's school, conventionally called **\"Hadewijch II\"**. The Hadewijch II poems are an important early-Eckhartian precursor in Middle Dutch — apophatic / mystical-bare / *un-grasped* language that anticipates Eckhart's *abegescheidenheit* by some thirty years, and may have influenced Ruusbroec.\n\nSection V covers **Poems XVIII–XX** of the Hadewijch II school. Poems XXI–XXXII (the rest of the Hadewijch II school-corpus in the 1875 edition) will be a future sub-pilot. The school-attribution is transparently marked in the title and metadata of this and all subsequent Hadewijch II sections.\n\nThe three poems shipped here:\n\n- **Poem XVIII** — *Mi en pijnt / Noch en gherijnt*. The famous **bare-without-figure** apophatic poem in short three-line couplets. *In dat blote staen de grote die vercrighen — in hare inzien, in zijn ontvlien, hare ontbliven* — *In the bare stand the great who attain — in their gazing-into, in his fleeing-out, their un-attaining*. The closing stanzas on *the bare beginning, the unscreated, the without-cry, the un-grasped* — the most clearly proto-Eckhartian passage in the entire Hadewijch-school corpus.\n- **Poem XIX** — *Maer nu hort dat gebod*. The **Ezekiel-four-living-creatures** poem (cf. Ez 1:9 *non revertebantur cum ambularent*). The four living creatures who *went forward and did not turn* are read as the soul who, in *bare oneness above all understanding*, goes forward in Love and does not turn aside. *A noble I-know-not-how — neither this nor that — that leads us into our beginning, and lights us in, and draws us into our beginning*.\n- **Poem XX** — *Ay God si werden rike die groene ende ripe ende al dat mach vergaen al scelden quite* — *Ah God, may they become rich who, green and ripe and all that can pass-away, all scolded-quit, take your Love one-only*. The famous **without-why prayer-poem**: *to love you without why for your own sake*. *Dies moet men striden ende liden menech leet, eer men weet dat — that one must strive and suffer many a grief before one knows that* the way of Love goes through Love-without-why. The doctrinal kernel is the *amare Deum propter ipsum* of Bernard, but in the school's compressed apophatic register that anticipates Eckhart's *one for the sake of one*.\n\nSame translation conventions as previous Sections, with the attribution-note explicit. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only.\n\n---\n\n## Poem XVIII — *In the Bare*\n\nXVIII.\n\nIt neither pains me
\nnor touches me
\nthat I must compose
\nwhere he who lives
\nto us gives
\nhis gifts —
\n\nand with new tidings
\nout of his clarity
\ninto-all wills to lighten us.
\nBe he blessed
\nin all seasons,
\nin all aspects.\n\nIn knowing bare,
\nthough it is great
\nthat one attains,
\nit seems as nothing
\nwhen one beholds
\nwhat is yet lacking.\n\nOne must attain
\nin what is lacking,
\nif it shall be good;
\nor it is too small —
\nall of it pure,
\nwhatever one does.\n\nThose in the high knowing
\nof the bare Love
\nworth-less,
\ndeeper attaining,
\nfind their lacking
\never greater.\n\nNew tidings
\nin dark clarity
\nthey find
\nof high price,
\nwithout mode,
\nin far in near.\n\nIn that eternal wide,
\nin all sides
\nwithout ending
\nbecomes she divided,
\nbroken-open, made-whole,
\nin one swallowing-up.\n\nThe thought
\nin still hunting
\nthat the un-measured
\nall in all
\nshall find
\nall un-grasped.\n\nThere it seems to her to bear,
\nwithout making-clear,
\na simple *somewhat*,
\nas in renouncing —
\nyet must she admit it
\ninto a bare *nothing*.\n\n**In that bare
\nstand the great
\nwho attain
\n— in their gazing-into,
\nin his fleeing-out,
\ntheir un-attaining.**\n\nWhat one attains
\nbefore this un-attaining
\n— for sure,
\nas I mean —
\nthat is all too small
\nfor any likeness.\n\nTherefore are they swift
\nand follow after,
\nthose who know this
\n— the dark paths
\nbeyond counsel
\never from within.\n\nWhat costs them most,
\nwhat serves them best,
\nthat is this un-attaining.
\nBut how that is —
\nof that be assured:
\none may not write of it.\n\nBut the storms of Reason
\nand the forms of images
\none must go from,
\nif one shall from within
\nrecognize anything thereof
\nwithout understanding.\n\nThose who do not rest
\nin other doing
\nthan what is here said —
\nthey one-only-themselves
\ninto their first beginning,
\ninto eternity.\n\nThere they become, into
\ntheir first beginning,
\nwith him so one
\nthat the like
\ncannot be
\non earth of-two.\n\nIn the nearness
\nof this oneness
\nare some pure ones
\nwithin ever
\n**bare without image,
\nwithout figure**.\n\nAs freed
\ninto eternal season,
\n**un-screated,2
\nin still wide
\nwithout cry,
\nun-grasped.**\n\nI find nothing in it
\n— neither end nor beginning,
\nnor any likeness
\nwhence I might
\nwords bring forth
\nperfectly.\n\nI will give it up here
\nto those who live
\nin their turning-toward-it.
\nIt might the inward thought
\nmaim the tongue,
\nspoke he of it more.\n\n---\n\n## Poem XIX — *The Four Living Creatures of Ezekiel*\n\nXIX.\n\nBut now hear the command
\nthat God to us
\nmakes known:
\nhow we, with might,
\nout of all thought,
\nshall love.\n\nWith Love's might
\nmust the thought
\nof her own-being
\nbe wrung-out
\nand conquered
\nin over-height.\n\nThere she is led,
\nhallowed, broadened,
\nin dark ways,
\nand risen
\nin a high being,
\nin graces' victory.\n\nThis must be undertaken
\nwith the heart, and fulfilled
\nout of all might —
\nwhere one loves God
\nafter the greatest commandment,
\n*out of all thought*.\n\nThe circle of things
\nmust become narrow
\nand led to nothing,
\nif the bare circle
\nshall become wide and great
\nbroadened in all.\n\nThe thought in God
\nis Love's locking
\ninto the oneness
\nwhere Love has led her —
\nhallowed, broadened,
\nin the clarity of this light.\n\nIt belongs to the noble pure
\nthat they there endure
\nand no one else;
\nand themselves clear
\nfrom all un-likeness
\nhold well.\n\nFor that noble light
\ngives its direction
\nin particular
\naccording to its pleasure;
\nthere has no seeking
\nReason nor purpose.\n\nOne must outside-them
\nfar shut-them-up
\nand within stand
\nin a bare stillness,
\npure without will,
\nand so be embraced.\n\nThe nobility
\nwhich un-said
\nremains by the tongue
\n— a new understanding
\nnever before received —
\nout of that origin.\n\nAh, he is yours,
\never new,
\nnoble thought,
\ninto which you-un-done
\nare, and taken
\nby such-a-chase.\n\nNow remain there
\nwithout fear;
\nit is your gain;
\nand be glad
\nin eternal season
\nin your beginning.\n\nWhere you-into ever,
\nled, endless
\nbecome without turning,
\nthere may in high understanding
\nnor in deep going-in
\nanchor nor moor.\n\nThis in Ezekiel
\nthe prophet much
\nthe *four living creatures* taught,
\nwho forward went
\nin their bare-ness
\nand did not turn.\n\nThat they to us taught,
\nhow they turned
\nwhen they went —
\nthat is, in Love
\nwhich to Reason's knowing
\nmay bring.\n\nBut behold:
\nthey turned not
\nin their forward-going.
\nThat is, in bareness
\nof oneness
\nabove understanding.\n\nThere to us must remain
\na climbing-up
\nof one only clarity,
\nin a longing,
\nin a foretaste
\nof one only darkness.\n\n**A noble *I-know-not-how* —
\nneither this nor that —
\nthat leads us in,
\nand directs us
\nand draws us into
\nour beginning.**\n\nWhat goes, what returns,
\nwhat shows, what teaches —
\nheart or sense:
\nit remains to me fitting
\n*he-who-is*
\nall's beginning.\n\n---\n\n## Poem XX — *Ay God, Make Them Rich*\n\nXX.\n\n**Ah God, may they become rich
\n— the green and the ripe,
\nand all that may pass-away —
\nall scolded-quit,
\nand one-only
\nto receive your Love.**\n\nFor with you in common
\nto be alone —
\nthat is delight;
\nand nothing else
\nthan all sorrow,
\nthat you are not.\n\nOne cannot know
\nwithout loving you,
\nwho you are,
\nnor into
\nyour Love
\nwithout strife.\n\nSo must one strive
\nand suffer
\nmany a grief,
\nbefore one knows that
\nhow one the path
\nof your Love goes.\n\nBut it grieves him not
\nhis long sadness,
\nwho to this comes:
\nthat he may win
\na tasting of your Love
\nin any hour.\n\nBut whatever one may taste,
\nit remains all hooking,
\nuntil one comes there
\nwhich we now hope —
\nthat shall be unfolded
\nand open.\n\nAnd the great sums
\nwhich are surrounded
\nwithout count
\nthat make me know
\nthat I must love you
\nabove all —\n\nescape me, Lord,
\nwhen I turn
\nall-bare to you,
\nand must therefore
\n**without why
\nlove you for yourself.**1\n\nLet him keep silent
\nwho would heed
\nmy speech;
\nhe has need,
\nif he shall it all-bare
\nwell understand.\n\nMay you understand it —
\nthanks to Love;
\nand take therefrom counsel.
\nBut remain bare,
\nwere it that great —
\nthat you understand it.\n\nIn every court
\nis measure in praise —
\nboth dear and worthy;
\nbut if you remain in measures
\nyou cannot leave-off
\nall that hurts you.\n\nHearing and being silent —
\nthat I hear praised
\nabove all measure.
\nBut never to be silent —
\nthat is a winning
\nin the highest honor.\n\nYou shall not become blind —
\nyou remain wounded;
\nyou may not live.
\nBut if you remain blind,
\nthen you may not
\ngo without asking\n\nthe right path
\nthat leads to the place
\nwhere the feast is.
\nBut to see, to lose;
\nand to see, to choose —
\nthat is the most.\n\nIf you will much hear,
\nyou shall be deceived —
\nyou shall be misled,
\nyour thought,
\nso many a sign
\nin false places.\n\nBut ever to hear
\n— that is chosen
\nand great of price.
\nWherever it strikes,
\nit ever stands
\nin the readiness.\n\nHold yourself for nothing
\nof whatever befalls you
\nthat nothing hinder you
\n— the over-spirit
\nthat gladly does
\nthe virtues stain.\n\nBut you do not count yourself great;
\nyou remain bare
\nand without honor.
\nSo you the more know yourself,
\nso the more loves you
\nGod our Lord.\n\n---\n\n**Translator's footnote (project translation)**\n\n1 ***Without why love you for yourself*** — *Minnen u om u, sonder waeromme*. The *amare Deum propter Deum / amare sine cur* doctrine, the canonical Bernardian-and-Augustinian formula for the highest love. In the Hadewijch II school's compressed register, this becomes the doctrinal kernel of the *Hadewijch II* corpus: to love God *without why*, in a *bare* love that is *one-with* the *un-grasped, un-screated*. Eckhart's later *sine cur* (*Sermon* 5b, *the just man... lives without a why*) shares the same root; Marguerite Porete's *Mirror* — in the *sonder enich waeromme* construction at multiple points (cf. *Mirror* Sec III in the project translation) — also descends from this same Beguine-school formula. Whether Hadewijch II directly influenced Eckhart, or whether all three writers share a common Latin scholastic root (Bernard's *De Diligendo Deo*), remains scholarship's open question.\n\n2 ***Un-screated*** — MDu *Onghescepen* — the un-prefix-pattern of Hadewijch II's apophatic vocabulary. The rendering is deliberately *not* the standard Christian *uncreatus* (which would translate as *uncreated*), but a more radical *not-yet-shapened* / *not-yet-figured*, parallel to *onbegrepen* (un-grasped) and *bloet sonder figure* (bare without figure) in the same stanza. The distinction matters: God-as-*uncreatus* and the soul-or-substance-as-*onghescepen* are theologically distinct categories in apophatic mysticism.",
"project_translation": true,
"license": "CC0 1.0 Universal",
"methodology_url": "https://anthroposophy.ai/about/translations/"
}
}