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"work": {
"slug": "hadewijch-strofische-gedichten",
"name": "The Strofische Gedichten (Stanzaic Poems) of Hadewijch"
},
"parents": [
{
"slug": "beguine-mystics",
"name": "Beguine Mystics",
"url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/"
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],
"chapter": {
"num": 7,
"slug": "vol-7-01-songs-31-35",
"title": "Section VII",
"of": 9,
"words": 3074,
"text": "## Section VII\n\nFive Songs (XXXI–XXXV) extending the cycle into its later, more theologically darkening register. The five include Song XXXIII's *hunger-and-saturation* doctrine in compact quatrains; Song XXXIV's famous *None ever in Love was lost / any work done for Love's sake — Love rewards either before or after; Love is always Love's reward*; and the climactic Song XXXV in which Hadewijch addresses Love directly as the One who *was at counsel where God commanded me to be human*:\n\n- **Song XXXI** — *For great Love, in high thought, I will be all my time. For she with her great might makes my nature so wide that I lease my whole being to the high birth of her lineage*. The opening turns within a few stanzas to the *fier-vs-confinement* dialectic. The high-tone stanza: *Comfort and disquiet in one Person — that is Love's taste. Though wise Solomon lived, he would forsake unbinding so high a thing*; and *The tone that exalts all songs — I mean Love in her might*.\n- **Song XXXII** — *This year the flowers spring up to us, and other manifold herbs. So also one shall judge the noble hearts who live in Love's might*. The doctrinal-autobiographical opening: ***In Love I set my keeping, / and my might in her hand; / from her I demand no other debt / than that I remain in her bond***. Strong autobiographical lines later: *Love is master of many things; she gives sour and sweet. Since I first received her taste, I always lie at her feet*. The closing program: *Heavy hearts and low sinne — the great good stays hidden from them, which those well know who live in Love's orewoet*.\n- **Song XXXIII** — A short-quatrain Song of fourteen stanzas. *The season renews with its years; the days lighten that were dark; those who desire Love and must lack — it is a wonder they do not fade away*. The doctrinal compression: ***Saturation and hunger both in one — that is free Love's fief***. The hunger-vs-saturation dialectic in nine successive paired quatrains: *How does Love's coming-satiation? — / one tastes with wonder that she is that ... / How does hunger keep Love standing? — / they cannot know that they should / yet not enjoy what they would; / that makes hunger manifold*. Closes with the *new*-anaphora envoi-quatrain: ***With new lightings have new diligence; with new works, satisfied new delight; with new storm, new hunger so wide; with new devouring, new eternal time***.\n- **Song XXXIV** — *In all seasons, new and old, let him be subject to Love*. Famous middle stanza: ***Sour and dark and over-cruel / are Love's ways at her beginning. Before one stands with Love in service, he often fails of sinne; where he thinks to lose, it is all gain***. The Love-rewards-always Song: ***None ever in Love was lost / any work done for Love's sake. Love rewards either before or after; Love is always Love's reward***. The climactic Loved-of-Beloved stanza: *the taste that troth gives in Love / — whoever otherwise speaks anything of joy / has ever lived without joy ... it is the heavenly pleasure free, / wholly without lack: / you-all-Beloved and I-all-yours; / there is no other speaking*.\n- **Song XXXV** — *The season is dark and cold; birds and beasts grieve; the hearts must suffer manifold*. The opening of one of the darkest of Hadewijch's lyric Songs. The famous despair-Song. The Christological middle stanza: ***Love, you were there at counsel / where God commanded me to be human; you bring me into ungrace — be it all your debt, what happens to me***. The accusation of Love is not a denial of Love; it is the climactic Hadewijchian appeal to Love-against-Love. Closes with the prayer: *Ah Love, do all your pleasure; your right is my nearest comfort. I will with all me join thereto, be I taken captive or delivered. Your dearest will I will, above all, to stand in pain, in death, in misfortune. Grant Love that I know your Love — that is riches above all gain*.\n\nSame conventions as previous Sections. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only.\n\n---\n\n## Song XXXI\n\nXXXI.\n\nFor great Love in high thought
\nwill I be all my time;
\nfor she with her great might
\nmakes my nature so wide
\nthat I lease all my being
\nin the high birth of her lineage.
\nWhen I would take free delight,
\nshe throws me into her confinement.\n\nI think to bear without scath
\nthat I am thus embraced in Love;
\nwill she make me understand
\nall the nearest paths of her way?
\nWhen I think to rest in her graces,
\nshe storms me with new counsel.
\nThis is a wondrous striking-down:
\nthe more she loves, the more she lays-on.\n\nThis is great wonder to understand —
\nto take of Love and to give to her.
\nWhen she gives me comfort to receive,
\nit becomes fearing and trembling.
\nOf Love I pray and beseech
\nthat she draw the noble hearts
\nwho live thus in Love
\nin lowly doubt, in high expectation.\n\nComfort and disquiet in one Person —
\nthat is being of Love's taste.
\nThough wise Solomon lived,
\nhe would forsake unbinding so high a thing.
\nWe are not informed of it in any sermon.
\nThe song that heightens every tone,
\nthe season for which I ever hook —
\nhas in itself yet the reward.\n\nHooking, waiting, lingering long
\nfor that season that itself is Love
\n— makes one despise strange mixtures,
\nand shows losses and great winnings.
\n*Fierheit* counsels me that I hang
\nso fast in Love that I embrace
\na being above all *sinne* —
\nthe tone that heightens every song.\n\nThe tone that heightens every song
\n— that I mean Love in her might.
\nI say a little — and it suffices not to show
\nto the strange hearts that are cold
\nand have suffered little for Love.
\nThey do not know that Love opens
\nher kingdom to the *fier* who are bold
\nand in Love are suckled.\n\nThe might of Love that all conquers
\nis un-understood to know,
\nand by-with-wandering far recognized,
\nand a peace that all peaces disturbs
\n— the peace one wins in Love,
\nwhere one with her wholly attains her being —
\nthat is suckled in her comfort,
\nthe one who with Love in Love loves himself thus.\n\nHe who would thus in Love be embraced
\nshall not shrink from cost nor scath nor pain.
\nHe shall with all things stand
\nin the very nearest of Love's counsel,
\nand with high service be subject
\nin all her coming, in all her going.
\nHe who would do this on Love's troth
\nshall in Love all Love fully stand.\n\n---\n\n## Song XXXII\n\nXXXII.\n\nThis year the flowers spring up to us,
\nand other manifold herbs.
\nSo also one shall judge the noble hearts
\nwho live in Love's might.
\n**In Love I set my keeping
\nand my might in her hand.
\nFrom her I demand no other debt
\nthan that I remain in her bond.**\n\nHe who now bore the bond of right Love,
\nas one should rightly love,
\nhim would the cruel strangers
\nsoon openly attack —
\nthey do them many a great hazard,
\nthose who stand in high Love's keeping.
\nBut whatever they do them too heavy,
\nGod be thanked, that is to little success.\n\nHe who shall serve high Love
\nmay shrink from no pain.
\nHe shall give himself all-for-all
\nfor high Love's sufficing.
\nAnd if he in any way grows refined
\n— then well may he know the truth
\nthat he shall become in showing
\nmaster of right Love.\n\nLove is master of many a thing;
\nshe ministers sour and sweet.
\nSince I first received her taste,
\nI lie always at her feet.
\nI pray her that she be pleased
\nthat for her honor I bear
\nagony unto death, all without ransom,
\nand that I not complain of it to the strangers.\n\nHe who would make known to the strangers
\nwhat one bears for Love's honor
\n— he should make his heart well un-sound,
\nand wound his nature sorely;
\nfor they understand still less:
\nfor one must, for right Love, suffer
\nadventure and heavy turning,
\nthat he in her Love may be heightened.\n\nHe who would please Love well —
\nI counsel that he spare not,
\nand join his being to this:
\nthat with zeal he travel-through the storms
\nagainst the will of those onlookers
\nwho so stand after his pain.
\nWhatever they may then make heavy to him,
\nto him it remains ever free to be.\n\nFreedom one may well know
\nin jousts and in high deed —
\nwho with *fierheit* travels-through of *sinne*
\nwhere the storm of Love stands against him.
\nFor in the joust one receives the prize
\nwhere one in Love appears worthy.
\nLove is so rich a trust;
\nit is right that one suffer for her.\n\nHe who shrinks from any pain in Love
\n— certainly they cannot understand
\nwhat those may win
\nwho are ever subject to Love
\nand receive her heavy blows from her,
\nunder which they remain all un-healed,
\nand they rise high and strike-down low,
\nand so they sufficiently relieve Love.\n\nSluggish hearts and low *sinne* —
\nto them stays hidden the great good
\nthat those well know
\nwho live in *orewoet* of Love.
\nFor they receive many a fair meeting
\nin storms and in adventures.
\nIt is right they have success
\nin Love's high nature.\n\nGod give them success who stand after this
\n— that they will please Love,
\nand gladly through her receive
\ngreat burden with heavy weighings,
\nand ever much for her sake bear,
\nthat Love know them worthy.
\nI would gladly that they yet see
\nthe wise wonders of Love.\n\n---\n\n## Song XXXIII\n\nXXXIII.\n\nThe season renews with its years;
\nthe days lighten that were dark.
\nThose who desire Love and must lack —
\nit is a wonder they do not fade away.\n\nThis New Year has come in,
\nwhich has turned its *sinne*,
\nwhere he wills to spare neither more nor less.
\nBefore Love his pain becomes all gain.\n\nBut he who spares any pain before Love,
\nand so reveals his lowness,
\nand in strange pleasures so keeps himself
\n— it is right he be heavied in service.\n\nBut those who from Love are born
\nand chosen for her nature
\n— they spare no pain before her;
\nthey live always in holy travail.\n\nHe whom high Love's nature touches
\n— he is the one who ever gladly travails,
\nas plain in his works appears;
\nhe thinks it ever unfinished.\n\nThat were to the fine soul a damage:
\nthat, by strange low counsel,
\nhe let off working the high deed
\nthat gives hunger in Love's saturations.\n\n**Saturation and hunger both in one
\n— that is free Love's fief**,
\nas it ever appeared to those
\nwhom Love with her nature touched.\n\nThe saturation Love's coming gives — one can endure it;
\nthat the hunger keeps it up is a lament.
\nHer fairest lightings are heavy weighings;
\nher sharpest storms are new pleasures.\n\nHow does Love's coming-saturation?
\nOne tastes with wonder that *she is that*.
\nShe causes one to possess her highest seat;
\nshe gives her riches, that great treasure.\n\nHow does hunger keep Love standing?
\nThey cannot know that they should
\nyet not enjoy what they would —
\nthat makes the hunger manifold.\n\nHow does laden Love's lightings come?
\nOne cannot receive her great gifts,
\nand one cannot compose her like —
\nso one knows not where to set endurance.\n\nHow do storm and stroke please
\nthe noble Love night and day?
\nFor one can practice nothing else
\nthan trust on Love's seeing.\n\nNow I commend to holy Love
\nall of you who would know Love,
\nand spare therefore in no *sinne*
\nto dwell therein with new diligence.\n\n**With new lightings have new diligence;
\nwith new works, satisfied new delight;
\nwith new storm, new hunger so wide;
\nwith new devouring, new eternal time.**\n\n---\n\n## Song XXXIV\n\nXXXIV.\n\nIn all seasons, new and old,
\nlet him be subject to Love.
\nThe summer hot, the winter cold —
\nhe who would receive Love from Love
\nshall stand with full service
\nin high Love's handling.
\nSo he becomes Love with Love quickly;
\nthat cannot fail him.\n\n**Sour and dark and over-cruel
\nare Love's ways at her beginning.
\nBefore one stands with Love in service,
\nhe often fails of *sinne*;
\nwhere he thinks to lose, it is all gain.**
\nWhereby one may know this:
\nthat they spare neither more nor less
\nthan to give themselves wholly in Love.\n\nMany doubt about Love
\nbecause to them the labor seems too heavy
\nand they do not at the first take it in.
\nThey think: *Wouldst thou wander there?*
\nWere the reward clear before their eyes
\nthat Love gives at the end,
\nI dare well say openly
\nthey would suffer their misery.\n\n**None was ever lost in Love
\nof what one ever did for Love's sake.
\nLove rewards always — before or after.
\nLove is always Love's reward.**
\nLove knows by Love Love's habit;
\nher taking is always giving.
\nLove gives with her cunning
\nmany a death in the living.\n\nIt is over-sweet to wander in Love.
\nHer wide ways Love makes one go.
\nThat stays well hidden from the strangers,
\nbut those who with truth stand in Love
\nshall with Love through Love go-through
\nall the kingdom where Love is Lady,
\nand all the dominion with her receive,
\nand through-taste her noble troth.\n\nThe taste that troth gives in Love
\n— whoever otherwise speaks anything of joy
\nhas ever lived without joy,
\naccording to as I understand myself.
\nFor it is heavenly pleasure free,
\nwholly without lack:
\n**you-all-Beloved, and I-all-yours.
\nThere is no other speaking.**\n\nThose who have thus in Love become one
\n— I may well keep silent how it stands with them.
\nNeither seeing nor speaking is my fief;
\nfor I know it not with being:
\nhow Beloved there Beloved all-around embraces,
\nand they enjoy as one giving.
\nWhat wonder that grief wears me out
\nthat this is still kept from me?\n\nThat I, of Love, ever for an hour failed
\n— it grieves me sorely; that is no wonder.
\nWith right I suffer un-easement
\nthat I let myself ever so low,
\nwhen Love promised me all good
\nif I ever so highly took thought
\nto work in the kingdom which she bade me
\nin the highest of her offices.\n\nThe kingdom which Love counseled us toward,
\nand the office which she bade us work,
\nthat is to practice Love and nothing else,
\nwith all the service that goes to it.
\nHe who with troth well understands this
\nto work in every *sinne*
\n— he it is whom Love wholly embraces,
\nand he becomes all one in Love.\n\nHereto I summon all the fine ones
\nwho with Love would stand by Love:
\nto be thus in Love's service
\nin all her coming, in all her going,
\nher uplifting, her striking-down
\n— let it be to him equally sweet.
\nSo they become Love with Love soon,
\nthat God may help us thereto.\n\n---\n\n## Song XXXV\n\nXXXV.\n\nThe season is dark and cold;
\nof this grieve birds and beasts.
\nThe hearts must suffer manifold
\nthat know their *fier* nature,
\nand from whom Love shall withdraw.
\nWhoever rises up, I remain in the dale
\nwithout rich comfort, un-counseled,
\never laden with heavy weighings.\n\nThe weighing is to me all too heavy
\nthat does not lie by any need.
\nHow can a heart endure there
\nthat must suffer so many a death
\nas he tastes who knows himself
\never by Love wholly un-loved
\nand altogether denied by her whom she receives
\n— help and comfort and trust?\n\nIf Love will not receive me with Love,
\nwhat was I then ever born for?
\nIf I am before Love thus undone,
\nI am, without doubt, lost.
\nSo may I lament *worse-after-woe*
\nall my time henceforth.
\nSo I hope not for any favor
\nsince Love shall thus withdraw from me.\n\nI showed Love my pain;
\nI prayed her that she have grace of it.
\nShe made it in countenance plain
\nthat she had neither will nor occasion.
\nWhat happens to me is all one to her.
\nHowsoever she ever in favor appeared,
\nher strange turnings have undone me.
\nFor this I must live nights by day.\n\nWhere henceforth is Love? I find her not.
\nLove has denied me all Love.
\nWere it to me ever by Love granted
\nthat I had lived one hour
\nin her favor — howsoever it stood with me —
\nso would I seek of her troth's leave.
\nNow must I keep silent, suffer, and endure
\nsharp judgment with new hours.\n\nThe judgments make me waste away,
\nthat Love must thus withdraw from me
\n— though I would for her favor strive.
\nThereto I have neither luck nor success.
\nDespair has so withstood me;
\nI can receive no comfort
\nthat may turn from my heart
\nthe unheard-of withering blow.\n\n**Love, you were there at counsel
\nwhere God commanded me to be human.
\nYou bring me into ungrace —
\nbe it all your debt, what happens to me.**
\nI thought to be loved by Love.
\nI am denied — that is to me in show.
\nMy trust, my high expectation,
\nhas all gone to sorrow.\n\nSo sweet a nature as Love is,
\nwhere can she take such strange envy
\nthat she at every hour wages-war upon me
\nand through-cuts my heart's ground with storm?
\nI wander in darkness without clarity,
\noutside free comfort, in strange dread.
\nGive Love to the noble *fier* Love,
\nand fulfill in me all your beginning.\n\nLove has dealt with me rightly hollowly —
\nof whom shall I now seek counsel?
\nThat is, of troth, if she will receive me;
\nthat she for me, of her high deed,
\nbefore Love would lead it, that I might
\ngive myself wholly over, if she wished aught.
\nI beseech her no comfort nor counsel
\nthan that she make herself known to me alone.\n\nAh Love, do all your pleasure.
\nYour right is my nearest comfort.
\nI will with all me join thereto,
\nbe it taken captive or delivered.
\nYour dearest will I will, above all,
\nto stand in agony, in death, in misfortune.
\nGrant Love that I know your Love;
\nthat is riches above all gain.",
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}