{
"meta": {
"schema_version": "1.1",
"endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-1-03-iii.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": 4,
"slug": "vol-1-03-iii",
"title": "III",
"of": 14,
"words": 545,
"text": "## III\n\nThe signs show us well in appearance —
\nbirds, flowers, land, the day —
\nthat they shall overcome the trouble
\nthat the winter heavily bore.
\nNow that Summer can comfort them,
\nthey stand glad-ready to be.
\nWhere I must endure heavy blow,
\nI would also be glad — if Love would give me
\nfortune, which she never has.\n\nAh, what did I do to Fortune,
\nthat it was ever to me so unkind,
\nthat it pressed my nature so sore
\nabove all men manifoldly,
\nthat it did not repay me Love's troth
\nexcept sometimes by a tug?
\nNow perhaps it was my own fault —
\nso let me err out of my own piece,
\nthat Love may work her free might upon me.\n\nCould I but trust myself upon Love,
\nit might yet stand me in stead,
\nsince she would let me endure in troth
\nin good expectation
\nthat Love in troth had so done,
\nand would behold my need.
\nCould it be — and not too soon —
\nfor the shield is so hewn-through to me,
\nit can take no more blows.\n\nWhoever could understand this in goodness,
\nhe had what to me is un-ready:
\nin scathing, in shame, in sufferings —
\nall for Love's sake without bitterness —
\nand for all cost so even-measured
\nas if this were my best haste:
\nas one who can do no better.
\nHe who could do this would be called the wise.
\nI am not; that grieves me.\n\nNow the comfort, now the wound,
\nLove gives, who is much-skilled in both.
\nAfter great blows she gives healing;
\nhow shall any guard himself from her?
\nHe who sets-down all he ever won —
\nyet she hides from him her own;
\nto the one she gives, whom she favors,
\nthe sweet kissings of her mouth;
\nthe other she strikes into the ban.\n\n*Ay deus*,4 who shall *absolve* him
\nwhom Love has placed under the ban?
\nShe, who herself wills that he plead against her —
\nthat he face her so stoutly,
\nthat he hold it all for great gain —
\npain and joy in one handling,
\nand take it all even-handedly for good:
\nso does Love teach him to *jubilate*5
\nand make him knowing of all her wonders.\n\nAfter a great storm the weather grows fair —
\nthis is shown to us often plain.
\nBy turns angry and after pacified,
\nLove makes-steady to be:
\nLove proves all to be so fine,
\nhe becomes by Love's pain so bold
\nthat he swears, *Love, I am wholly yours;
\nI have nothing else to spend than you*.
\nAh noble Love, are you all mine?\n\nWould Fortune let me heal in Love —
\nFortune, who ever has so hated me —
\nI would yet be wholly Love to Love,
\nif my woe had any better.
\nSo would I, in her deep ford,
\nlose all my judgments,
\nand to Love give in Love my treasure;
\nwere my nature so highly risen,
\nmy hunger would be satisfied.\n\nWe are too late at Love's expense;
\ntherefore are we to her too strange in this,
\nthus we remain poor — know it all;
\nhe who at Love's cost set himself near her,
\nshe would give him her kingdom and her treasure.\n\n---\n\n## Song IV",
"project_translation": false,
"text_trust": "verbatim",
"quote_safe": true,
"license": null,
"methodology_url": null
}
}