Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Mengeldichten (Mixed Poems) of Hadewijch·Section I

Section I

First section of a planned multi-section project translation of Hadewijch's Mengeldichten ("Mixed Poems") — sixteen poems by Hadewijch herself, with a further group of poems (sometimes numbered XVII–XXIX) traditionally attributed to a slightly later writer called "Hadewijch II" in the Hadewijch-school tradition. Unlike the Strofische Gedichten (which are stanzaic with refrains in the troubadour-lyric form), the Mengeldichten are in rhymed couplets, more didactic in tone, often functioning as verse-letters addressed to an unnamed correspondent — typically a younger Beguine being formed in the way of Love.

Section I covers Poems I–V:

• Poem I — God be with you, from my greeting. The longest of the Mengeldichten — a 300-line verse-letter on the nature of Love (the topic the addressee had asked Hadewijch to write of). Hadewijch opens with the famous modesty-topos: Love's nature is unknown to me; her being and her ground are hidden against me; how I am about her is as well kept silent as said. The unfolding doctrine: Love's manieren (manners) include attainment, lacking, hope, despair. The doctrinal centerpiece is the four-fold practice — with nyed (zealous desire) one shall enjoy Love; with hope, fly into Love's heights; with un-attainment, sound the ground of Love; with despair, work narrowly — the canonical four-virtues of Love in Hadewijch's prose-letters as well. Closes with a confession: I am one who knows her not, nor expect to know her before my death — may his Love have mercy on me.
• Poem II — The Four Masters and the Strongest Thing. A medieval quaestio-poem in couplets. Four masters debate before a king what is the strongest thing in the world: wine, a king, a woman, or truth. Hadewijch glosses each spiritually: wine = sorrow for one's lowness, penitence and labor — drunkenness of the spiritual wine; a king = poverty-of-spirit (armen van gheeste), who conquers all things; a woman = humility, who alone overthrew the fairest in heaven (Lucifer) and cast him from his height into the bottomless wheel; truth = the conqueror of all, the very life of Love. The closing program: Where one perfectly loves, and with the powers well knows — there one loves eternally as one should; and I gladly, would love and have-it-be.
• Poem III — On Mary Magdalene as the model of gestedeghe minne (steady, constant Love). God be to all those God who love him alone and recognize him alone as worthy. The famous Magdalene-stanza: That was Maria Magdalena, who was one with Love made common. Yes, Origen says of Mary that of constant love one may speak who follows Mary's life and gives himself wholly in Love. The closing prayer placed in the addressee's mouth: Take Love with the bridle on her neck, and be her subject; wander the ways in Love's counsel; let her be your richest trust; remain in her one mind, and say: Ah noble Love, do all your high will with me — be it death, be it life, your debt be it all.
• Poem IV — Verse-letter to a young reader. I pray God, who is master of all things, that he make you suited to Love and protect you with his holy strength and feed you with his sweet Love. Programmatic counsel for a young Beguine in formation: if you live with Reason in truth, then all your labor lightens; your will desires to live well, and to give all service fully... do not think you do well, but ever say: "Virtue is lacking in me, by which I should win Love; how long shall I thus lack her? shall I never suffice her?". Closes with the closing benediction: Hold your three-foldness in good order, and love God sweetly.
• Poem V — Short companion-verse on the discipline of suffering. God be your comfort in all things, and make known to you the taste of Love, by which you may all suffer. The famous Love-is-best-adorned-with-suffering stanza: Love herself is best adorned with suffering, from which many gladly flee. For he who now has no comfort thinks he lives in wandering. He who has rest after his pleasure — to him it seems all to fit perfection. Closes with the companion-vocative: Will you also love with me — look at the suffering in which I lie. If it were un-ready for you to suffer it, then desire suffering to be raised by it, that we both together in one knowing may enjoy our Love.

Translation convention for the Mengeldichten: verse-paragraph form preserving line-breaks; rhymed couplet structure noted but not preserved as English rhyme (fidelity > rhyme). Same glossary as previous Sections (Minne = Love, capitalized when personified; sinne footnoted on first occurrence; orewoet preserved). Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only. Poems VI–XVI by Hadewijch, and Poems XVII–XXIX of the Hadewijch II-school, planned in subsequent sub-pilots.

Poem I

I. God be with you, from my greeting

God be with you, from my greeting.
What little virtue I have may you meet —
since you would have it,
and would play with it.
So I answer you in play,
with short words and not many
of that whereof you have bidden me speak.
It is with me as with a child:
who repeats what it hears speak
before it has understood or savored.
Love's nature is unknown to me,
for her being and her ground
are hidden against me.
How I am toward her
is as well kept silent
as if borne to a strange place.

May Love make you know
how one with Love loves in Love;
may her nature make you understand in nyed¹
how one with nyed in nyed sees;
may God make you suffer in your lacks,
and understand in your attainings;
may God make you live in despair
with all the service you can give,
and after, in hope of attainment,
and not lack of Love's nature.

This I do not say because I wished
to plead before you, nor on your favor —
but because you would have it in greetings,
therefore I had to tell you so:
how Love practices her nature,
how Love takes and gives.
That is in many manners,
by which she adorns her being.

In Love's being is all enclosed:
attaining, lacking, hoping, despair;
and yet this is named-nothing.
All that one hears and sees of her,
and may know and understand,
is un-attained and un-done.

He who would after Love's fitness be Love
must be in all things love-some.
For Love must he take pleasure in every grief;
he must fit himself to all things,
in lightness or in heaviness,
as if he were her own.
He may shrink from no need,
no anxiety, no pain, no scath, no death.
Where he hates, he must give in;
where he loves, he must take in.
And when he, most-zealously, takes
in Love's being love-some
according to feeling and high knowing
in high understanding of Love's nature —
so he falls down into nothing,
that he yet hears and sees,
and understands in Love's nature.
That seems to him far and un-ready.
Nature demands nature with such storm,
and lets it in un-stillness endure,
that nyed so swallows up all her giving
that she always must practice these habits.

Attaining makes the sinne fail
in coming of many a manner —
for when one has rest, one is silently still;
that one would not do, had one unwillingness.
He who attains rest would often be
in the dominion of fine Love.
So he has come as if to court
and thinks to dwell in the trust
of the comforted ones, in the giving
in which he shall long live without.

Attaining heightens also the sinne
in many a hard fier gain;
for he attains what he labors-for;
I think that joy seems to him —
for he grieves who stands in service
where the gain is un-ready.
But jousts and high deed
he does often, that fairly stands.
He who with fier sense
thinks to attain right Love
— like the bold knights
practice in fierheit
their fairness on their shaft —
thereby one knows their fier strength,
and that they by that deed win
favor in the place where they love.
So does also the noble sense,
where nature is in with nyed.
There is in Love no delight so high,
no pain so great in suffering,
that lets his fierheit be left:
he will rightly attain.

Un-attaining is higher deed,
which stands in with strong nyed.
For he who knows that it lacks him
is one who does not endure.
Knowing where the place is
in which his being would be free,
he shall spare no pain;
he shall with nyed in storms travel-through,
be it against God, be it with him.
That is free Love's habit.
I do not say this because I praise,
but to show the way of Love.
Young lady,³ not that I instruct you,
but I praise the freedom of Love.
For against God there was never any thing
done in right Love.
Though I say so by the rich might
that Love has in her keeping,
this I know less, and you know better:
you are in the chess and I am in the mate.

Of hope I cannot well speak;
you shall in being have her nearer.
For that I am the more timid,
and the more unwilling to speak to you of her,
because you know her better by practice.
He who with nyed in hope loves
gives and takes upon his gain.
He understands many a fair sense:
how one shall take and give,
and practice right Love.
He who is all and understands
where his gain is ready to him
gives to all who need him;
he comforts those who grieve;
he counsels those who know little;
he comes upon many a high boast.
He storms upon pleasant things;
he understands the high worthiness
that with free Love
in hoping work may be won.

What would it help that I should speak of hope?
Hope shrinks from no labor.
With high hope one attains all
that is and was and shall be.
Despair — that is the greater storm.
She makes ungainly form;
despair makes bad and good both serve.
It seems lack-of-success in great success.
He who is embraced by despair
— his taking, his giving, is un-done.
If he speaks, it seems to him unheard-of.
In despair all is shortened —
rest and pain of Love's storm.
Hereby he has ungainly form.
He who lives in despair and labors —
to him it seems ever unfinished.
Whatever he serves, he fears
that what he wills does not happen to him.
What he knows seems nothing to him.
Hereby he is storm-driven and serves again.
His service seems to him too small in work —
that holds him always in Love's strength.
What is given him seems to him too small —
that holds him always in heavy leaning.
That is despair, which always hooks
to labor in the greatest strength.

That is a very fair work;
it is unconquered and equally strong.
It gives all that one should give;
it lives all that one should live;
it has all that one should have;
it wills all that God ever willed,
in poor and rich, in low and high,
in despair and in unsuffering.
He who thus in all works and labors,
and in cost fails not and finishes not —
he attains all that God eternally
shall be in him in the kingdom of heaven.

Of noble nyed would I speak
what happens by it; but that
were over-doing of me,
for I am not so free
that I have given up anything of myself.
As one shall practice in nyed —
that one might in nyed attain anything —
he must in all things be without himself,
and forsake honor and rest,
who bears the heavy load,
and has far to go.
Of which I am in good expectation
that he shall come here late,
unless he give up all for all,
and not have heed of many a thing
to revel in particularly,
nor undertake strange matters,
nor by small sorrows be bound to the bone,
nor for honor leave freedom,
nor do un-discerning labor.
For these are tokens of failing-of
Love-not-attainable.

Right nyed — that is desire's ground,
which many a heart makes un-sound.
Desire gapes always so wide
that I forbear from comparison;
for all likenesses are too small
for such gaping as I mean.
Desire's being is all nyed.
Whatever she beholds —
tastes it, knows it — she is un-sated.
Who may then guard the one whom she so overburdens?
Though desire had all that Love
might furnish above all sinne —
yet she would remain unsated.
What then may one in nyed attain?
Ungrace and strong pain,
ever to be in un-stillness.
What I have said of nyed
is small against what lies in it.

That I should speak of Love further —
to that I have too little comfort.
Where would I take such strength
that I should fully praise the love-some Love
after her worthiness,
and the wondrous labor
which she gives to those whom she loves,
in whom she knows herself?
She makes him desire un-ready,
and consume un-ready;
she makes him flee great readiness;
she makes him dread sweet service.
She makes his freedom stand in right;
she makes his dominion servants;
she makes his own free;
she makes him poor, however rich he be;
she takes from him the might of all matters
where with Love he made over-might.
In the nature of high Love
one may know wonder.
She makes one follow all that flies;
she makes one overcome what one shrinks from.
She has might in earth, in heaven;
she makes the lover so trained
that he shrinks from no pain or grief,
unless he be in all her service ready —
be it in evil, be it in good.
Those are free Love's successes.

Why in good, why in evil,
why in gain, why in scath?
In good — that one shall take of Love
right and fitting.
In evil — that one cannot fully recognize
any of Love's right.
Thus must he test himself in all
who shall attain true Love.
In gain — that Love wins,
that he know it from her without lease.
In scath — all that one may
suffer for Love: distress,
shame, pain, grief, and torment —
the lover has chosen it all
for Love's behoof, as if it were gain.
There he spares neither heart nor sense;
he takes as gladly sour as sweet,
that Love may be satisfied by it.

In good, Love shows her pleasure;
in evil, that one has need of her;
in gain, she shows that her winnings
give riches always and Love;
in scath, she shows that her strength
has brought heaven down to the dale.
The gain that came from scath,
and the graces from misdeeds —
the lover who would Love understand
shall gladly receive pain.
He shall adorn himself with Love's nature
and with despair tread the pure ways.
Lack visits the ground of Love;
attaining makes her riches known;
un-attaining makes one labor narrowly;
hope makes one fly in Love's heights.
With nyed shall one have fruition of Love
and fully taste and know
her glory and her gladness,
our bliss and our joy
and our delight,
the eternal new season.

After that one may attain Love's nature
by these points,
he is a fool who spares an hour
that he gives not himself in adventures.
He who meets him must know
where he may these points attain,
at his command, at his right,
as if they were his hired servants.
So he has joy with Love in all,
when I, all-Beloved, and you, all-mine shall come to fruition.
He who would receive Love from Love,
the season that he is in his understanding —
let him give himself to her in all Love;
so he may of Love win Love.
God give to all who stand after Love;
I am one who knows her not,
nor expect to know her before my death.
May his Love have mercy on me, who commands.

Poem II

II. The Four Masters and the Strongest Thing⁴

Four masters said to a king
which were the strongest thing
that might be in the world.
Then each said his mind
— though I was not there at the time —
and each spoke as he believed.

The first said that wine
should rightly be the strongest;
for he purges, and gladdens the sad,
and many other good
that he works in many a thing.
The other said: a king,
for his manifold compulsion
— I might make it too long for you.
The third said: a woman's work
conquers all kinds of strong things.
The fourth said: truth
was the strongest of all strength.

These are four great strengths,
which any may understand and consider:

The wine is sorrow for one's lowness,
and penitence and labor —
yes, sorrow that one is too little to great Love
in every sinne;
ever to be in hope and in fear
in drunkenness of this wine.
That the master praised this strength
is because it shows great works.

The other strength is the king,
who despises all things
but what to right Love belongs,
and would have no other comfort.
These are the poor of spirit,
for whom I lament from my heart
that I never could be one,
since Love never favored me to be.
The poor of spirit is a king
who lightly conquers all things —
having, willing, and desiring,
honor, rest, fruition, feeding.
Such-natured poor will nothing
but only what Love commands.
Thus he is poor, for he has
nothing to which his desire cleaves.
He is king, for he constrains
all that Love does not bring him.

The third strongest is the woman.
The third master claimed this
because she can overcome the king and every man.
This woman is humility,
who so holds herself in lowness
that she lifts not herself up
— though she might work all the virtue
that all men may who live —
they would give her no rest.
No thing comes near her ground.
True humility devours all
that Love might furnish —
to her, it would not seem enough.
This is the strongest, well by right.
She makes of lords servants.
The fierst of all in heaven⁵
— him the deep ground so tamed
that he fell from his height
into that bottomless wheel.⁶
For her humility was so great
that she commanded the King to her.
She was strongest; that appeared well to her.
He who would yet dwell in the dale
of humility — he would conquer
all the powers of great Love.
Contempt you desire all too little:
that is what most hinders you here.

The fourth is truth: she conquers all
that was and is and shall be.
Her might is Love's life,
her practicing and her giving.
She takes the deed of the four powers
and makes all live after her counsel.
She takes the strength of the wine
and of the king who is wont to be strong,
and of the woman who is stronger;
and to truth herself turns it back.
Where one perfectly loves
and with the powers well knows —
there one loves eternally as one should;
and I gladly, would love and have-it-be.
He who loves shrinks not from, nor knows,
whether Love hate him or love him.
He who loves fails not
where harm or gain befalls him.
Love practices no distinguishing-discrimination;
she is free in every sinne.
She is so overflowing in her office
that she cannot consider truth.
She is so noble and so bold,
both in leaving and in doing,
that she beholds neither scath nor gain,
provided she come into her own self.

Poem III

III. The Magdalene as Model of Steady Love

God be to all those God who love him,
and recognize him alone as worthy,
and undertake this with words, with works,
and with the law of the holy Church,
and further wander in Love's counsel,
high trust after dark despair.
Ah, how unheard-of are Love's ways
before Love with Love wins victory.

He who would in Love win victory
must adorn himself in every sinne
and according to Love's fitness give up his all,
and with her judge and bless
himself, and what he hates and loves —
that he so know Love's right
that he wills nothing, and Love has nothing
to deny him that she gives.

For he who loves — to him is all rest strange,
and pain and over-burden.
Desire dredges him as a wheel;
so must Love that fully fulfill.
Ah, how must he give-up all
who shall wholly give himself to Love,
and how steady are they in miserable pain.
That their worth their works show.

That showed the Mother of Love well —
on her one might first know it.
Though for Love-sake there had been done
much before, by her one might know it all.
She shrank from no law, no kin,
custom, gain, deceit, praise, complaint.
She left all for her one Beloved —
was it then not right that Love raised her up?
Then Love made her Mother of Love.
Why should anyone forget her, who is wiser?
To speak of her is too great for me,
for I never did what Love commanded.
And she did Love's highest counsel
and wandered her trust through,
till she climbed up into the high land
where she found Love wholly in fruition.
There lowness makes me silent of her
and bow before her highness.

Though her tree bore much fruit,
of which one might also speak —
lords, women, and maidens
who through Love of the highest troth
were subject unto death
in all that Love bade them —
of all the others I let stay.
Of one I will somewhat write,
on whom one may know great signs
of steady Love, and great example take
of how one wholly to Love gave herself.
That was Maria Magdalena
who was made one in Love's commonalty.⁷
Yes, Origen says of Mary —
of constant love one may speak
who follows Mary's life through,
and gives himself wholly in Love.
And they may stand for guidance in pleasing
and say: this he said to me, I saw it.²

He who lives miserably,
and cunningly on his matter
— in pains, in rest, in lightenings,
in cost, in loads — that he may suffice Love,
he should give himself once and for all
who in all things gives himself to Love
so that Love has nothing to say-to him.
To him God shows himself in a fleeing,
in fair countenance of good appearance,
and speaks to him hidden words
that he knows, and which he never had tasted.
Strange hearts who anything spare for Love,
and at all hours gaze not into Love,
because those who are fier and true of Love
read their judgment in Love's countenance,
and ever in Love are waking —
to them is many a wonder near.
Yes, wonder before us who do not know Love;
but righteousness before them who give all to Love.

For the fairest life that I know —
though I know it well un-ready for me —
were that one let God have his way
in taking, in giving, in storm, in defense,
were it in Love, were it in hate —
that should be all evenly in measure.
Would God come, would he go,
that should be all understood in Love,
and taken as he himself is Love,
and practice no affection therein.
For God is best received with God,
and held and nearest understood,
by him who with himself to God does himself.
I think God must escape him
who can satisfy no one,
who carries the image of the earthly man.

Do we feel anything? We are touched,
and lose Reason, and would lean upon it,
and think to be one with what we love.
Thus we break the game before we win it.
He who carries the earthly man —
see the debt of Reason,
who is his rule and who teaches him
the works which one turns to Love;
and how one may keep Love,
and wherewith with Love one has Love repaid.
When one thus handles God with Love
and with Love can know him sufficiently,
that the person does not undertake-of-himself —
when God thus finds him one Love,
so his soul is swallowed up in one will
of the highest rumor in the deep stillness.
Job said he had received the hidden word.
Also since then has each done so.
Rightly is it hidden from those who take
gladly strange comforts and the fitting,
who would aim God for themselves,
and seek pleasure in every piece,
and let their rule remain empty,
and seek touchings without work.
To them God shall not be seen, nor of him understood —
as Love and Job have done,
and those who all for God give up,
and with him all judge and bless.
Where it goes ill, God's work is theirs
above all pleasure in their sense.
To the lover all seems undone,
whatever he for Love's sake may undertake.

I must the unmeasure-habits of Love
keep silent by my lowness
till I know her more,
who gives Love un-merciful woe.
That shall be the very nearest being.
But shall Love heal him more,
let her lay the bridle on his neck,
and let him be her subject in all,
and wander the ways in Love's counsel,
that she be his richest trust,
and remain in her one mind, and say:
Ah noble Love, do all your high will with me —
be it death, be it life, your debt be it all.

Poem IV

IV. Verse-Letter to a Young Reader

I pray God, who is master of all things,
that he make you suited to Love
and protect you with his holy strength
and feed you with his sweet Love.
I pray the holy Trinity,
by her grace and by her goodness
— as he has honored you with his image —
that you be so fully taught in being
that you may with Reason understand
what God has done through you,
and what he in all things would mean,
and the sense in which he has appeared to you;
that you may work and know it
with the perfect service of Love.

If you live with Reason in truth,
then all your labor is lightened for you;
your will desires to live well
and to give all service fully.
And so he is diligent and strong
and shrinks from neither pain nor work.
And then your memory becomes bold,
and in it shall glory reign,
and beyond that trust with troth
that it shall fully behold its God.

He who has trust upon his God
loves counsel, loves commandment;
to him is all pain pleasant,
for he gladly would take fulfillment
where he with God might please,
and the Trinity at once stir.
Which is adorned and adorns so fairly
that great kingdom, the high throne,
which each has in his nature.
Thereto each creature had enough to do,
who could know in how hearty Love
God has given these three
where one lives so low therein
as men live now therein
who do not understand right Love.

What would it help that I spoke of Love?
Love is too high a matter to you,
for you are young, and to you is unknown
how one is enough for Love who loves.
Therefore haste you to virtue
with all that you can fulfill —
in leaving what belongs to leaving,
in shunning what disturbs Love,
in doing all that Love honors,
and seeking in all that Love teaches,
and paying what you owe to Love.
And be patient unto death.
You shall not only suffer
ill-easement without lamenting;
but you may not think that you are anything,
but always say: virtue is lacking in me
by which I should win Love.
How long shall I thus lack her?
shall I never suffice her?

No other matter shall sadden you;
you may not think that you do
— through Love's honor — it all satisfies
as instruments to do God's works.
This shall light up and strengthen your Reason.
You shall not be alone generous,
but as one who never had, nor wished to have,
upon all things, as upon thorns,
and turn yourself, in seeing and in hearing,
from no matters of strange things —
yes, of creatures in particular —
in which you may have pleasure —
but always remain to the empty crib,
that Love does not find you over-burdened
against her and against her counselings.

To all misdeed have mercy
by Love's command, by Love's counsel.
So you take after the high Love's nature,
who is so sweet that she at every hour
in Love devours what one does her —
be it dear, be it grievous, be it evil, be it good.
The Love feels all to be Love;
she cannot recognize anything else.
He who does all through Love's honor
— his service gladly has good success;
his will is ever yours-in-diligence.
Thus I pray you that you be the one
who always narrowly strives after Love,
gladly suffers for her sake,
all that you may for Love's will,
to abstain from what you can abstain from in your youth.
Offer to Love wholly
your heart without holding back.

Thus let your will live in diligence,
and see that you are enough to Love.
And always whatever you do,
ever remain in one mind.
So shall your memory be bold,
and read judgments in God,
and with troth behold God,
whereby all shall flee from you
that might sadden your being.
Do all that may please Love,
and what you may enjoy in virtues.
And always hold yourself to virtue.
Thus hold your three-foldness⁸ in good order,
and love God sweetly.

Poem V

V. Companion-Verse on Suffering

God be your comfort in all things
and make known to you the taste of Love,
by which you may suffer all,
and may know to you right virtue.
Love herself is best adorned
with suffering, from which many gladly flee.
For he who now has no comfort
thinks he lives in wandering.
He who has rest after his pleasure —
to him it seems all to fit perfection.
Thus many are now deceived
and think themselves perfect: that is a lie.
Would they with Reason behold
what would happen to them in perfection,
and would they for suffering's sake abandon Love
— it would shudder them that they live.

If you will turn to the highest Love
and fully follow her ways,
you shall always with burning sense
seek new suffering for Love's sake.
You shall let Love herself have her way;
she shall offset all pain with Love.
If you let your suffering be pain,
then you do not love — that is plain.
If you will hold a lament and ask of suffering,
then you have forgotten our Love,
who conquers all and would conquer
those who would fully be of her being.

Will you also love with me?
Look in what suffering I have lain,
that to you were un-ready to suffer.
Then desire suffering, that we may be heightened —
that we together in one knowing
may have fruition of our Love.
Now let us both so make ready
that Love may to herself lead us
into the highest preparation
where Love eternally shall be.

Translator's footnotes (project translation)

¹ Nyed — Middle Dutch nyed (or nijd), literally zeal / envy / jealous-craving. In Hadewijch's specialized usage, the term names the soul's zealous craving-for-Love, a positive desire-state — not the negative-modern envy. The term anchors a doctrinal cluster Hadewijch uses across the Visioenen (Vision 11) and her Letters: nyed is the desire-faculty by which the soul demands her share of Love. We render nyed as zealous desire on first appearance with this footnote-anchor, and nyed (italicized) thereafter where Hadewijch uses the technical term.

² Yes, Origen says of Mary — Ja origenes seget van marien. The reference is to Origen's Commentary on the Song of Songs (Latin translation by Rufinus, c. 410 CE), in which Origen reads the amica mea (my beloved) of the Song of Songs both as the soul-in-search-of-the-Logos and as Mary Magdalene at the empty tomb. Origen's reading was preserved in the Latin West through Rufinus and was a standard text in monastic-school lectio. Hadewijch's invocation of Origen is one of the strongest direct-Patristic citations in her entire corpus, and one of the indices of her learned milieu.

³ Joncfrouwe — "young lady," the term Hadewijch uses for a younger Beguine in spiritual formation under her direction. The Mengeldichten function as verse-letters to such a recipient (the Joncfrouwe address recurs across Poems III–V), continuous with Hadewijch's prose Letters. The recipient is unnamed in the manuscripts. This is the first explicit vocative; the rhetorical frame extends across all five poems.

⁴ Four Masters before a King. The motif derives from 1 Esdras 3–4 (deuterocanonical, in the Vulgate appendix), where the three bodyguards of Darius debate before the king whether wine, the king, or women are strongest; Zerubbabel adds truth, argues that truth is strongest, and wins the king's favor. Hadewijch expands the three to four (wine, king, woman, truth) and adds spiritualizing glosses: wine = sorrow-for-lowness, king = poverty-of-spirit, woman = humility, truth = Love-itself. The motif also passes through Augustine and Bernard of Clairvaux in twelfth-century monastic lectio, by either of which routes it would have reached the Beguine school formation. Paired with the Origen citation in Poem III, the 1 Esdras anchor in Poem II is one of the section's twin demonstrations of Hadewijch's learnedness.

⁵ Fier / *fierheit — Hadewijch uses this same root for noble-boldness (Poem I, the fier knights jousting for their lady) and for Lucifer's pride here (alre fierst was in den hemel — "the fiercest of all was in heaven"). The deliberate dual valence is doctrinally load-bearing: fierheit is a virtue when bent toward Love and a vice when bent away from her. In English context, fierst* here approaches "proudest"; the Middle Dutch is preserved to retain the conceptual pair with the knights-stanza of Poem I.

⁶ Grondelosen wiel — "bottomless wheel / whirl." In Hadewijch's Visioenen (especially Vision 11) and Letters, the grondeloos / grondelosen (bottomlessness, abyss) names the depth-of-Love into which the soul plunges in gebruken (fruition). Here the same image is inverted for Lucifer's fall out of heaven into a counter-abyss — the soul's positive-abyss image turned into the rebel-angel's punitive-abyss image. The inversion is deliberate and is one of the points where Hadewijch's signature image-set is most clearly visible.

⁷ Een met minne was ghemene — literally "was one with Love made common." MD ghemene = "common / shared / held-in-common." An earlier rendering "made common" risked an English reading as status-marker (vulgarized, made-ordinary), the opposite of Hadewijch's meaning: the Magdalene is being praised for holding all things in common with Love. The Beguine vita apostolica ideal (Acts 4:32 omnia communia) is the most likely scriptural-monastic background.

⁸ Drievoldecheit in the closing benediction. Hadewijch uses this term for both the divine Trinity (earlier in this same poem, de heileger drievoldicheit, line 5749 of the source) and the soul's Augustinian three-foldness of memory, reason, and will (memoria / intellectus / voluntas; here in the closing benediction, source line 5861). The young Beguine is being instructed in the Augustinian doctrine that the soul's image of the Trinity, rightly ordered, is the soul's conformity to God. The closing pivot from divine Trinity to soul-trinity is climactic, not redundant.

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