{
"meta": {
"schema_version": "1.1",
"endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-1-01-i.json"
},
"work": {
"slug": "hadewijch-strofische-gedichten",
"name": "The Strofische Gedichten (Stanzaic Poems) of Hadewijch"
},
"parents": [
{
"slug": "beguine-mystics",
"name": "Beguine Mystics",
"url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/"
}
],
"chapter": {
"num": 2,
"slug": "vol-1-01-i",
"title": "I",
"of": 14,
"words": 674,
"text": "## I\n\nAh, all that the winter is now cold,
\nshort the days and the night long,
\nyet there nakedly draws near a stout-summer
\nthat shall soon bring us out of that constraint,
\nthat shall soon make plain by this New Year:
\nthe hazel brings us its fair flowers
\n— that is an open token.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*1
\nall you who are awaiting the new times,
\n*si dixero non satis est*,2
\nbe glad for Love.\n\nAnd they who are of *fier moed* (noble proud spirit)
\n— what storms they encounter for Love —
\nreceive them so finely,
\nas is this that I would win in everything,
\nand shall win, God give it me all,
\nthat-which to Love is most becoming,
\nyet by her own pleasing roads misfortune
\nshall to me be the greatest gain.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nall you to whom such venture comes,
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nendure for Love's own nature's sake.\n\nAh, what shall I do, a miserable woman?
\nWith reason I may well hate good Fortune.
\nMy very life grieves me sorely;
\nI can neither love nor leave-off-loving.
\nBoth are turned cruel against me:
\nFortune *and* Adventure.
\nI wander in self-loss, and there is no other
\nthan what seems to me against my nature.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nlet all of you be moved to pity
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nthat Love thus leaves me wailing.\n\nAh, I was ever bold upon Love
\nsince first I heard her named,
\nand gave myself to her free might.
\nFor this they all condemn me —
\nfriends and strangers, young and old,
\nwhom I in every way served and was hearty-toward
\nand loved all of them for Love's sake.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nI counsel them to spare nothing,
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nwhen they hear how I have fared.\n\nAh miserable I, I can do for myself
\nneither live nor die.
\nAh, sweet God, what has happened to me
\nthat the people lay me low?
\nIf they would but leave you to strike me alone,
\nyou would best counsel me
\naccording to right, in all that I have done amiss,
\nand they would be kept from harm.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nwho do not let God have his way,
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nand do not love and hate.\n\nWhile they stand-over me —
\nwho then shall love her Beloved?
\nLet them go their ways freely
\nwhere they would learn to know you.
\nThey would help you against me —
\nwho need it little —
\nwho can rightly atone and strike,
\nand prove with clear truth.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nall you who, with God, would have a part
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nin atoning, or in rights.\n\nAh, Solomon, you who counsel-against the work
\nof searching what is too strong for us,
\nand that we should not aspire
\nto higher things than we are,
\nthat we should not try them,
\nbut let Love, the fine one,
\nfreely make us bound and freed:
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nwho to the high Love's counsel
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nclimb-up from grade to grade.\n\nHuman senses are so small;
\nmuch may God stand above them.
\nGod alone is wise of all things —
\nlet one then praise him for all,
\nand let him do his office
\nin avenging and in suffering.
\nThere is no work to him so far escaped
\nthat it comes not all before his eyes.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*
\nthose who fully give themselves to Love
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nand live to her eyes' full satisfaction.\n\nGod must give us a new mind
\nfor the noble Love, and free,
\nthat we so newly live therein
\nthat Love bless us
\nand make us new with the new taste
\nshe alone can give-in-fullness
\n— Love is the new and mighty supplying
\nto those who wholly to Love newly give-themselves-up.
\n*Ay vale vale millies*,
\nthat newness of the new Love
\n*si dixero non satis est*,
\nthe new will newly know.\n\n---\n\n## Song II",
"project_translation": false,
"text_trust": "verbatim",
"quote_safe": true,
"license": null,
"methodology_url": null
}
}