Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Mengeldichten (Mixed Poems) of Hadewijch·Section V — Attribution Note

Section V — Attribution Note

These poems are not by Hadewijch herself. The manuscripts after Mengeldicht XVII close with the explicit formula Dilata, ira decrescit. Explicit liber iste. Deo gratias. Amen. Mengeldichten XVIII–XXIX in the manuscripts follow after this closing-of-book and are in a markedly different register: short-stanza apophatic poems in the bloet sonder figure (bare without figure) tradition that scholars from Jozef Van Mierlo onward have identified as belonging to a later writer in Hadewijch's school, conventionally called "Hadewijch II". The Hadewijch II poems are an important early-Eckhartian precursor in Middle Dutch — apophatic / mystical-bare / un-grasped language that anticipates Eckhart's abegescheidenheit by some thirty years, and may have influenced Ruusbroec.

Section V covers Poems XVIII–XX of the Hadewijch II school. Poems XXI–XXXII (the rest of the Hadewijch II school-corpus in the 1875 edition) will be a future sub-pilot. The school-attribution is transparently marked in the title and metadata of this and all subsequent Hadewijch II sections.

The three poems shipped here:

• Poem XVIII — Mi en pijnt / Noch en gherijnt. The famous bare-without-figure apophatic poem in short three-line couplets. In dat blote staen de grote die vercrighen — in hare inzien, in zijn ontvlien, hare ontbliven — In the bare stand the great who attain — in their gazing-into, in his fleeing-out, their un-attaining. The closing stanzas on the bare beginning, the unscreated, the without-cry, the un-grasped — the most clearly proto-Eckhartian passage in the entire Hadewijch-school corpus.
• Poem XIX — Maer nu hort dat gebod. The Ezekiel-four-living-creatures poem (cf. Ez 1:9 non revertebantur cum ambularent). The four living creatures who went forward and did not turn are read as the soul who, in bare oneness above all understanding, goes forward in Love and does not turn aside. A noble I-know-not-how — neither this nor that — that leads us into our beginning, and lights us in, and draws us into our beginning.
• Poem XX — Ay God si werden rike die groene ende ripe ende al dat mach vergaen al scelden quite — Ah God, may they become rich who, green and ripe and all that can pass-away, all scolded-quit, take your Love one-only. The famous without-why prayer-poem: to love you without why for your own sake. Dies moet men striden ende liden menech leet, eer men weet dat — that one must strive and suffer many a grief before one knows that the way of Love goes through Love-without-why. The doctrinal kernel is the amare Deum propter ipsum of Bernard, but in the school's compressed apophatic register that anticipates Eckhart's one for the sake of one.

Same translation conventions as previous Sections, with the attribution-note explicit. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only.

Poem XVIII — In the Bare

XVIII.

It neither pains me
nor touches me
that I must compose
where he who lives
to us gives
his gifts —

and with new tidings
out of his clarity
into-all wills to lighten us.
Be he blessed
in all seasons,
in all aspects.

In knowing bare,
though it is great
that one attains,
it seems as nothing
when one beholds
what is yet lacking.

One must attain
in what is lacking,
if it shall be good;
or it is too small —
all of it pure,
whatever one does.

Those in the high knowing
of the bare Love
worth-less,
deeper attaining,
find their lacking
ever greater.

New tidings
in dark clarity
they find
of high price,
without mode,
in far in near.

In that eternal wide,
in all sides
without ending
becomes she divided,
broken-open, made-whole,
in one swallowing-up.

The thought
in still hunting
that the un-measured
all in all
shall find
all un-grasped.

There it seems to her to bear,
without making-clear,
a simple somewhat,
as in renouncing —
yet must she admit it
into a bare nothing.

In that bare
stand the great
who attain
— in their gazing-into,
in his fleeing-out,
their un-attaining.

What one attains
before this un-attaining
— for sure,
as I mean —
that is all too small
for any likeness.

Therefore are they swift
and follow after,
those who know this
— the dark paths
beyond counsel
ever from within.

What costs them most,
what serves them best,
that is this un-attaining.
But how that is —
of that be assured:
one may not write of it.

But the storms of Reason
and the forms of images
one must go from,
if one shall from within
recognize anything thereof
without understanding.

Those who do not rest
in other doing
than what is here said —
they one-only-themselves
into their first beginning,
into eternity.

There they become, into
their first beginning,
with him so one
that the like
cannot be
on earth of-two.

In the nearness
of this oneness
are some pure ones
within ever
bare without image,
without figure.

As freed
into eternal season,
un-screated,²
in still wide
without cry,
un-grasped.

I find nothing in it
— neither end nor beginning,
nor any likeness
whence I might
words bring forth
perfectly.

I will give it up here
to those who live
in their turning-toward-it.
It might the inward thought
maim the tongue,
spoke he of it more.

Poem XIX — The Four Living Creatures of Ezekiel

XIX.

But now hear the command
that God to us
makes known:
how we, with might,
out of all thought,
shall love.

With Love's might
must the thought
of her own-being
be wrung-out
and conquered
in over-height.

There she is led,
hallowed, broadened,
in dark ways,
and risen
in a high being,
in graces' victory.

This must be undertaken
with the heart, and fulfilled
out of all might —
where one loves God
after the greatest commandment,
out of all thought.

The circle of things
must become narrow
and led to nothing,
if the bare circle
shall become wide and great
broadened in all.

The thought in God
is Love's locking
into the oneness
where Love has led her —
hallowed, broadened,
in the clarity of this light.

It belongs to the noble pure
that they there endure
and no one else;
and themselves clear
from all un-likeness
hold well.

For that noble light
gives its direction
in particular
according to its pleasure;
there has no seeking
Reason nor purpose.

One must outside-them
far shut-them-up
and within stand
in a bare stillness,
pure without will,
and so be embraced.

The nobility
which un-said
remains by the tongue
— a new understanding
never before received —
out of that origin.

Ah, he is yours,
ever new,
noble thought,
into which you-un-done
are, and taken
by such-a-chase.

Now remain there
without fear;
it is your gain;
and be glad
in eternal season
in your beginning.

Where you-into ever,
led, endless
become without turning,
there may in high understanding
nor in deep going-in
anchor nor moor.

This in Ezekiel
the prophet much
the four living creatures taught,
who forward went
in their bare-ness
and did not turn.

That they to us taught,
how they turned
when they went —
that is, in Love
which to Reason's knowing
may bring.

But behold:
they turned not
in their forward-going.
That is, in bareness
of oneness
above understanding.

There to us must remain
a climbing-up
of one only clarity,
in a longing,
in a foretaste
of one only darkness.

A noble I-know-not-how —
neither this nor that —
that leads us in,
and directs us
and draws us into
our beginning.

What goes, what returns,
what shows, what teaches —
heart or sense:
it remains to me fitting
he-who-is
all's beginning.

Poem XX — Ay God, Make Them Rich

XX.

Ah God, may they become rich
— the green and the ripe,
and all that may pass-away —
all scolded-quit,
and one-only
to receive your Love.

For with you in common
to be alone —
that is delight;
and nothing else
than all sorrow,
that you are not.

One cannot know
without loving you,
who you are,
nor into
your Love
without strife.

So must one strive
and suffer
many a grief,
before one knows that
how one the path
of your Love goes.

But it grieves him not
his long sadness,
who to this comes:
that he may win
a tasting of your Love
in any hour.

But whatever one may taste,
it remains all hooking,
until one comes there
which we now hope —
that shall be unfolded
and open.

And the great sums
which are surrounded
without count
that make me know
that I must love you
above all —

escape me, Lord,
when I turn
all-bare to you,
and must therefore
without why
love you for yourself.¹

Let him keep silent
who would heed
my speech;
he has need,
if he shall it all-bare
well understand.

May you understand it —
thanks to Love;
and take therefrom counsel.
But remain bare,
were it that great —
that you understand it.

In every court
is measure in praise —
both dear and worthy;
but if you remain in measures
you cannot leave-off
all that hurts you.

Hearing and being silent —
that I hear praised
above all measure.
But never to be silent —
that is a winning
in the highest honor.

You shall not become blind —
you remain wounded;
you may not live.
But if you remain blind,
then you may not
go without asking

the right path
that leads to the place
where the feast is.
But to see, to lose;
and to see, to choose —
that is the most.

If you will much hear,
you shall be deceived —
you shall be misled,
your thought,
so many a sign
in false places.

But ever to hear
— that is chosen
and great of price.
Wherever it strikes,
it ever stands
in the readiness.

Hold yourself for nothing
of whatever befalls you
that nothing hinder you
— the over-spirit
that gladly does
the virtues stain.

But you do not count yourself great;
you remain bare
and without honor.
So you the more know yourself,
so the more loves you
God our Lord.

Translator's footnote (project translation)

¹ Without why love you for yourself — Minnen u om u, sonder waeromme. The amare Deum propter Deum / amare sine cur doctrine, the canonical Bernardian-and-Augustinian formula for the highest love. In the Hadewijch II school's compressed register, this becomes the doctrinal kernel of the Hadewijch II corpus: to love God without why, in a bare love that is one-with the un-grasped, un-screated. Eckhart's later sine cur (Sermon 5b, the just man... lives without a why) shares the same root; Marguerite Porete's Mirror — in the sonder enich waeromme construction at multiple points (cf. Mirror Sec III in the project translation) — also descends from this same Beguine-school formula. Whether Hadewijch II directly influenced Eckhart, or whether all three writers share a common Latin scholastic root (Bernard's De Diligendo Deo), remains scholarship's open question.

² Un-screated — MDu Onghescepen — the un-prefix-pattern of Hadewijch II's apophatic vocabulary. The rendering is deliberately not the standard Christian uncreatus (which would translate as uncreated), but a more radical not-yet-shapened / not-yet-figured, parallel to onbegrepen (un-grasped) and bloet sonder figure (bare without figure) in the same stanza. The distinction matters: God-as-uncreatus and the soul-or-substance-as-onghescepen are theologically distinct categories in apophatic mysticism.

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