{ "meta": { "schema_version": "1.2", "endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/index.json" }, "work": { "slug": "hadewijch-strofische-gedichten", "name": "The Strofische Gedichten (Stanzaic Poems) of Hadewijch", "stream": "greco-christian", "epoch_reflected": "greco-latin", "epoch_written": "greco-latin", "form": "mystical lyric poetry (vernacular songs in courtly Minne-lyric tradition)", "tradition": "Christian mysticism (Beguine)", "author": "Hadewijch of Antwerp/Brabant", "year_approx": 1240, "note": "Hadewijch's forty-five Stanzaic Poems (Strofische Gedichten, also called Liederen — Songs) are the lyric peak of Middle Dutch courtly-Minne poetry: the troubadour and Minnesang forms turned to the divine, the Beloved being God / Christ, the fier (proud, noble) lover the soul. Hadewijch's lyric mastery is unmatched in the vernacular literature of her time; she stands beside Mechthild of Magdeburg and the courtly poets of the Minne-tradition as one of the inventors of the European vernacular lyric of mystical love. **COMPLETE in nine sections — all forty-five Songs (I-XLV) are now shipped at approximately 32K English words.** Section I covers Songs I-V: the winter-and-New-Year opening with the famous Latin double-refrain (Ay vale vale millies / Si dixero non satis est); the Maiden-Queen Song with Hadewijch's signature etymological play Hare name amor es van der doet (Her name, Amor, is from death); Song III on Love's wounds and the jubileren of pain-and-joy; Song IV's many-called-few-chosen (Matt 22:14) fused with troubadour fin'amor; Song V the canonical oscillations-poem (bi wilen heet bi wilen cout / bi wilen blode bi wilen bout). Section II adds Songs VI-X: the sap-rising spring opening with the famous *Love's friends in heavy bonds, strangers in their own land* lament; the *Nuwe* Song's 39-fold anaphora on *new*; the All-Seasons Song with its rejection of the courtly *Natureingang* convention; the Birds-Have-Long-Been-Silent lament with its closing cry *Beloved, when will you come?*; and the sharper New-Year Lament with the famous *Love is Lady of all, and we wander at her side* and the closing self-rebuke. Source: Heremans/Vercoullie diplomatic edition (1875, Maatschappij der Vlaamsche Bibliophielen, Gent; DBNL hade002werk01 Vol 1: Gedichten, PD by US 95-year rule). Modern translations (Mother Columba Hart 1980, Marieke van Baest 1998) remain in copyright. Section III adds Songs XI-XV: the *My yoke is sweet, my burden is light* Song XI with its closing cosmic image (*the sun, the moon, the stars stand at her mercy*); Song XII with the *We dare well boast: you my Beloved and I yours* passage and Love's mighty rod; Song XIII the nightingale-and-wound Song with its school-of-Love masters who give *wounds without healing*; Song XIV the *orewoet*-Song with the Latin macaronic *Ay amabar / Ay utinam* tags; and the autobiographical Song XV with the *Now my misfortune has mustered its war-march against me* opening and the closing *I have given over to high Love all that I am — I am not my own*. Section IV (Songs XVI-XX): hazel-blossoms-in-the-dark; the *Love has the days and I the nights and orewoet* epigram of XVIII; Love's vocative *I am that I was before; now fall into my arms* at the close of XIX. Section V (Songs XXI-XXV): the warrior-Song XXI; *no peaceful wilderness was ever shaped as Love can make* (XXII); *Now-may-God-counsel-us* refrain (XXIII); *Love is strong and I am weak* (XXIV); the Desire-vs-Reason dialectic (XXV). Section VI (Songs XXVI-XXX) is the doctrinal heart: Queen-of-Sheba (XXVI); *deeper wounded, more softly healed* (XXVII); *orewoet is a rich fief* (XXVIII); the long Marian Song XXIX with *Then the mountain flowed to the deep dale; then was the castle conquered*; the *Whether I lose or win* refrain (XXX). Section VII (Songs XXXI-XXXV): Song XXXIII's hunger-and-saturation doctrine; Song XXXIV's *None was ever lost in Love of what one ever did for Love's sake — Love is always Love's reward*; the climactic Song XXXV's *Love, you were there at counsel where God commanded me to be human*. Section VIII (Songs XXXVI-XL): the *In de minne* refrain-Song (XXXVI); *swan sings at dying* (XXXVIII) with *To become nothing all in Love — that is the best of all the works I know*; the great astronomical metaphor of XL: *the course of the heavens and the planets one may measure, but no master can presume that he with sinne may make Love understood*. Section IX (Songs XLI-XLV): All Saints' Day Song XLIII (*Love shall grow to them more than lack*); the Closing Macaronic Hymn XLV, whose ten Latin tags — verus amor / cordis clamor / laus et honor / traxit odor / medicina / vrouwe et regina / condimentum / sacramentum / redemptori / bene mori — form a liturgical-hymnic envoi placing the eschatological *bene mori* (to die well) as the last word of the entire cycle.", "books_slug": null, "books_slugs": [ "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-1--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-2--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-3--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-4--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-5--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-6--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-7--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-8--project-en", "hadewijch--strofische-gedichten-section-9--project-en" ], "has_project_translation": true, "steiner_loci": [] }, "parents": [ { "slug": "beguine-mystics", "name": "Beguine Mystics", "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/" } ], "translation": { "title": null, "author": null, "source": null }, "chapters": [ { "num": 1, "slug": "vol-1-01-songs-1-5", "title": "Section I", "words": 3445, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-1-01-songs-1-5/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-1-01-songs-1-5.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs I-V — courtly-Minne converted to the divine", "blurb": "The opening five Songs. Hadewijch inherits the troubadour and *Minnesang* lyric and converts it to the divine: *Lief* (Beloved) is God / Christ; the *fiere* (noble proud) lover is the soul. The seasonal openings, the figure of *Minne* as sovereign and beloved, the autobiographical voice are all established here." }, { "num": 2, "slug": "vol-2-01-songs-6-10", "title": "Section II", "words": 3509, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-2-01-songs-6-10/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-2-01-songs-6-10.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs VI-X — liturgical seasons and the song-in-any-season", "blurb": "Three liturgical-seasonal openings (VI on early spring; VII and X on the New Year, X with sharper lament) and two *any season* Songs: VIII opens 'one may sing of Love in any season'; IX is the *birds-have-long-been-silent* lament that abandons the bird-trope altogether for direct address to Minne." }, { "num": 3, "slug": "vol-3-01-songs-11-15", "title": "Section III", "words": 3515, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-3-01-songs-11-15/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-3-01-songs-11-15.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XI-XV — spring of the noble; autobiographical adversity", "blurb": "The confident *spring-of-the-noble* opening (XI), a sharp warning to false converts (XII), the *nightingale-wound* Song (XIII), and two of Hadewijch's most autobiographical adversity-Songs (XIV-XV) — Songs in which exile, isolation, and abandonment by the *jongen* (the young / immature) are voiced most directly." }, { "num": 4, "slug": "vol-4-01-songs-16-20", "title": "Section IV", "words": 3119, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-4-01-songs-16-20/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-4-01-songs-16-20.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XVI-XX — darkness-and-blossom; *fall into my arms*", "blurb": "Songs turning on the *darkness-and-blossom* paradox and the *days-and-nights* division. Culminates in the climactic Love-speaks-to-the-soul vocative — 'I am that I was before — fall into my arms' — one of Hadewijch's signature direct-address moments." }, { "num": 5, "slug": "vol-5-01-songs-21-25", "title": "Section V", "words": 3586, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-5-01-songs-21-25/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-5-01-songs-21-25.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XXI-XXV — warrior, isolation, desire-vs-reason", "blurb": "Hadewijch's most defiant warrior-stanza (XXI), her most autobiographical-isolation Song (XXII), the *Now may God counsel us* litany (XXIII), the *Love is strong and I am weak* abandonment-Song (XXIV), and the climactic Desire-vs-Reason dialectic of Song XXV." }, { "num": 6, "slug": "vol-6-01-songs-26-30", "title": "Section VI", "words": 3379, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-6-01-songs-26-30/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-6-01-songs-26-30.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XXVI-XXX — Queen of Sheba; the great Marian Song XXIX", "blurb": "The central doctrinal heart of the cycle. The **Queen of Sheba** Song (XXVI); the ***orewoet*-is-a-rich-fief** Song (XXVIII); the long **Marian Song XXIX**, in which the entire history of salvation is read through the figure of Mary as the *gate* by which Love-hidden-in-the-Father's-bosom *flowed down* to humanity." }, { "num": 7, "slug": "vol-7-01-songs-31-35", "title": "Section VII", "words": 3074, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-7-01-songs-31-35/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-7-01-songs-31-35.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XXXI-XXXV — hunger-and-saturation; *Love is always Love's reward*", "blurb": "The cycle's later, more theologically darkening register. Song XXXIII's *hunger-and-saturation* doctrine in compact quatrains; Song XXXIV's famous *None ever in Love was lost — Love rewards either before or after; Love is always Love's reward*; and Song XXXV addressing Love directly as the One *at counsel where God commanded me to be human*." }, { "num": 8, "slug": "vol-8-01-songs-36-40", "title": "Section VIII", "words": 3332, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-8-01-songs-36-40/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-8-01-songs-36-40.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XXXVI-XL — the *In de minne* refrain; astronomical Love", "blurb": "The last full quintet before the closing coda. The long *In de minne* refrain-Song (XXXVI); the *swan sings at dying* Song (XXXVIII); Song XXXIX's compact catalogue of Love's contraries (*Love makes the unlearned wise and dis-instructs the wise; makes the low rise*); and Song XL's closing astronomical metaphor — Love's course faster than the heavens, no master can make Love understood by sinne." }, { "num": 9, "slug": "vol-9-01-songs-41-45", "title": "Section IX", "words": 3190, "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-9-01-songs-41-45/", "api": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-9-01-songs-41-45.json", "project_translation": true, "subtitle": "Songs XLI-XLV — the closing coda", "blurb": "The closing five Songs of the cycle. The translation of the entire 45-Song *Strofische Gedichten* concludes here. Songs XLI-XLV form a tightly woven coda — the autobiographical voice returns, the *orewoet* (mystical ardour) is named with calm, the doctrine of *Love rewards before or after* is restated with finality." } ] }