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

Section II

Five verse-letters (VI–X) continuing the Mengeldichten project translation:

• Poem VI — A short blessing-verse to the addressee. The doctrinal centerpiece: right Love and weak deceit cannot well agree; for Love follows the honorable fief — right truth, fast troth, joy, gladness, sweet sorrow, gladly-suffered misery. Closes with a prayer to noble troth.
• Poem VII — God be with you at every season, and make all your delight in him, outside all strange cares. The autobiographical complaint that the addressee so little recognizes what God is in his Love. Closes with the program: upon Love shall you let yourself, to rightly love and to rightly hate; from all things be at peace — that is the sign of Love's habit.
• Poem VIII — To God I commend your sense, that he do you Love therein. The Trinitarian-stanza: Those whom God by works had chosen — who wrought his Father's will and the one-thought of the Holy Spirit — a single will was all their work. The famous strike-while-the-iron-is-hot stanza: When the iron is hot, then one shall strike. So shall you make haste while you have your youth and may yet attain virtue. Closes: always desire to be in misery and friendless, for Love's honor, till God comfort you.
• Poem IX — He who holds anything in inward sense cannot grow up in Love. One must with Love undertake all Love. The poet declares that Love cannot be fulfilled by all the service of the holy Church, but only by giving oneself wholly to Love and ever wandering toward un-readiness. The Book-of-Wisdom-echo: Glorious fruit shall he know who much suffers for the heightening of Love. Closes with a personal accusation-verse: I would gladly have taken you ready, that you delay grieves me; it is heavy on me that you tarry — for this I am often angered about you.
• Poem X — The programmatic Christological verse-letter: If you will begin the work of Love, you shall begin at the work where the Son of God began, when he came to us as a man. As he lived, so shall you live, and forsake all joy for him. As he gave up his own, so shall each who would live in fine Love forsake his own. Closes with the long autobiographical register and the famous closing-of-Section-II epigram: Yes, I say "deo gratias"; but I never knew the one to whom Love gave gladness and free ways. Against Love I have refusal; followed by the lyrical-disjunct envoi: Though I have no fish, I want neither frog, nor any other beasts; I have no Love — I want nothing else, whether she be good or fell to me.

Same conventions as Section I. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only.

Poem VI

VI. Right Love and Weak Deceit Cannot Well Agree

I pray God that he
join your sense to his true Love,
and enlighten you with himself,
and direct you with his deep truth.
For of me much shall be lacking to you,
even though for your usefulness I would speak.
Those who are by you give you little help;
thus it remains to you to live alone with God.

With him is the best for you to do,
if you would live free and bold;
and in him at every season be embraced —
so turn into him all your diligence,
and mark and learn in all knowing
the storms of right Love.
Whether one does you evil or good,
let it all remain whole in your spirit.
Whole remain in all matters;
so shall you know Love and taste her.

That I tell you, who understand it better,
that right Love and weak deceit
cannot well agree;
for Love follows honorable fief —
right truth, fast troth,
joy, gladness, sweet sorrow,
gladly-suffered misery.
And know that this is Love's habit:
to stand by all those, with troth,
who you know are anything toward Love,
in troth and in fair service.
Comfort the one to whom you are friendliest,
and those who in troth with troth are to you.

I commend you to fine Love,
and I pray of noble troth
that she may behold your being
with the eyes of Love,
and make you know all her being.

Poem VII

VII. God Be with You at Every Season

God be with you at every season,
and make all your delight in him,
outside all strange cares.
For this may he give you Love in pledge.

It grieves me that you so little can recognize
how he is fashioned in his Love.
That I would very gladly see —
might it any sooner happen to me by it.
For that I would gladly labor,
and well show it in works.

I pray God that he give you success
toward this, and your spirit
lighten after his nobility,
and may make the worthiness
of his nature your desire,
and in his nature consume you,
that your being may be fed
and kept for our both behoof.

Ah dear, set all your thought
in God's Love, who wrought you;
commend all your being to Love.
So shall you of every affliction recover,
and you shall shrink from no pain
nor flee in any thing from un-easement.
Upon Love shall you let yourself,
to rightly love, to rightly hate;
from all things be at peace —
that is the sign of Love's habit.

That you let yourself be sad-down so easily
takes from you many a fair gift.
Will you within yourself let go to God
and hold yourself in caritas —
so shall it not fail you;
you shall yet well attain your Beloved.

Poem VIII

VIII. When the Iron is Hot, Then One Shall Strike

To God I commend your sense,
that he do you Love therein,
and teach his will to live,
and to give right truth to truth,
and live in troth without dissembling,
and may he behold your life.

Now see that you haste yourself to virtue,
with all that you may fulfill,
and serve all those who love
that they may help you know the ways
that belong to highest Love.
Those whom God by works had chosen —
who wrought his Father's will
and the one-thought of the Holy Spirit —
a single will was all their work.
With him willing, and becoming one and strong —
give in Love all your thought
to the sweet God who wrought you,
who has helped you to this:
that you live among those
who bear high Love to God,
and speak of you in letters,
and show you the highest virtue
which you would gladly learn,
and may be glad of the preparation
by which you shall reach Love.

When the iron is hot, then one shall strike.
Hereby shall you haste yourself soon,
the while you have your youth
and may yet attain virtues.
But if you were slow and sluggish,
and did not advance what
I will and have commanded you,
you would yet wander sorely.
All your friends would give you up;
you would live in great scath.
But of this there is no need to you.
Our God who commanded you
— let him help you and stand by you
in all by which you are over-burdened.
And let no thing make you over-burdened;
so shall you with Love be healed of all.

Be humble and patient
by the troth you owe to God.
And desire ever to be at all times
miserable and friendless,
for Love's honor, till God comfort you
and you yourself be delivered from misery.
Do you any thing less? Be ashamed of it.
God make you after his fitness.

Poem IX

IX. Glorious Fruit

He who holds anything in inward sense
cannot grow up in Love.
One must with Love undertake all Love,
if Love shall be done enough.
But that one cannot work
with all the service of the holy Church —
but he who gives himself wholly to Love
and from all joys lives a stranger,
and embraces no affection,
and ever wanders toward un-readiness
because he would gladly enough satisfy Love,
and storm or ungrace
spares not for Love's worthiness —
this says the book of Wisdom:¹
glorious fruit shall he know
who much suffers for the heightening of Love.

God must give you success in Love,
and may he heighten your high mind
in his nobility,
and make you all the truth
of his nature desire,
and consume you in his noble Love,
who must feed your Love
and protect it for our both behoof.

To this I would gladly have you ready.
That you delay is grievous to me.
Heavy is it to me that you tarry;
for this I am often angered about you.

Poem X

X. I Want Nothing, Whether She Be Good or Fell to Me

God be your comfort toward right Love,
and make you know high Love,
and the truth which you owe him,
and make in him all your diligence.
If you will begin the work of Love,
you shall begin at the work
where the Son of God began
when he came to us as a man.
As he lived, so shall you live,
and forsake all joy for him.
As he gave up his own, so shall each
who would live in fine Love forsake his own.

I pray you that you give up
yourself, and that you live for Love
in misery and in trouble.
I will not that it grieve you
that for God's sake in Love it goes ill with you;
for all pain for Love's sake gains good.
That one suffers much for Love's sake
— provided that one does not show it in measure,
as those who appear by Love-with-defense
and make trouble and show themselves angry —
that is pain that does not gain,
and to no one comes any benefit.
For ill-successes sadden Love
and hinder sorely in every sinne.
But of these you have little to do.

I would you were wise and bold
in making strife against God;
for it takes away the sweet speech
that Love gives to her lovers
when one does not live an hour in peace.
So one-only give your sense
to God purely in right Love,
that you live in sweet mind,
that to you no matter become for good
but God alone and nothing else.

For he who has tasted anything of God
— is he touched from within
in right feeling of his one-only Love —
then no matter becomes good to him more;
but all thing turns bitter in his spirit.
Nor he himself, nor saint, nor human
seems any more to him as a wish.
All other matters are pain to him,
but to be in Love's service for Love's sake.
At every hour for Love to die and faint,
or in the feeling of joys —
herein must you take your delight,
and let yourself not suffer in other matters.

Though I say deo gratias,
I never knew the one
to whom Love gave gladness and free ways.
Against Love I have refusal.
It is right I keep silent of the complaints
that I have of her, night by day.
I have given for too small a cost
to attain to free Love;
though I have no fish,
I will have neither frog
nor anything else of yours —
before the wine I'll thirst.
I have no Love at all;
I will nothing else,
whether she be
good or fell to me.

Translator's footnote (project translation)

¹ This says the book of Wisdom — Dat seget de boec der wijsheit. The reference is to Wisdom 3:13–15 (Vulgate): generatio enim bona cum claritate; gloriosus est fructus bonorum laborum — the fruit of good labors is glorious. Hadewijch's near-quotation in MDu is one of the more direct Wisdom-citations in her corpus, anchoring her much-suffering-for-the-heightening-of-Love doctrine in canonical Sapiential literature.

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