Greco-Christian stream·Beguine Mystics·The Strofische Gedichten (Stanzaic Poems) of Hadewijch·Section I

Section I

First section of a planned multi-section project translation of Hadewijch's forty-five Strofische Gedichten (Stanzaic Poems, also called Liederen — Songs). The Stanzaic Poems are Hadewijch's lyric corpus: courtly-love poetry of the troubadour and Minnesang tradition, converted to the divine — the Lief (Beloved) is God / Christ, the fiere (noble proud) lover is the soul. Hadewijch's mastery of the form is unmatched in Middle Dutch literature; she stands beside Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and the courtly lyric poets of the Minne-tradition as one of the inventors of the vernacular lyric of mystical love.

Section I covers Songs I–V, opening the corpus. The five together establish all the major themes the cycle will develop:

• Song I — Winter and the New Year (the seasonal opening on the courtly Natureingang model). The New Year's hazel-blossoms presage spring; the soul of fier moed (proud nobility) is to welcome whatever storms Love sends as the very gift of Love. The famous closing stanza on the new — God moete ons gheven nuwen sin, God must give us a new mind for the noble, free Love. The Latin double-refrain — Ay vale vale millies (Ah, farewell, farewell a thousand times) and Si dixero non satis est (if I should say it, it is not enough) — closes every stanza of Song I.
• Song II — Sap rising; Love as Maiden and Queen, mother of all virtue. The famous etymological play — Hare name amor es van der doet (Her name, Amor, is from death) — folding the Amor / mors Augustinian pun into the Beguine mystical register. The poet's lament that her songs have grown weary and her voice silent.
• Song III — The signs of spring as omens of Love's coming-back; the bitter wounds of Love; the Ay deus paradox of Love-as-judge — Love accuses and absolves at once; the jubileren of the soul that takes pain and joy as one thing; the renewal after the storm.
• Song IV — The courtly knight-ethic. Vele essere gheroepen ende lettel vercoren — many are called and few chosen, a Hadewijchian rendering of Matthew 22:14 fused with the troubadour fin'amor doctrine; the verhoelne woert (hidden word) granted to those who give themselves with troth; and the closing addressed to the edele, wel gheboren sinne — noble, well-born senses — to spend everything before the day lief in lief sal werden verheven (lover in lover shall be lifted up).
• Song V — The signature oscillations-poem. Bi wilen heet, bi wilen cout / Bi wilen blode, bi wilen bout — now hot, now cold / now timid, now bold. Five paired-opposite stanzas: hot-cold, timid-bold, near-far, dear-grievous, lowered-heightened, hidden-shown, light-heavy, dark-clear, freely-comforted–constrainedly-feared. This is Hadewijch's most-quoted Song, the canonical compressed statement of Minne's contradictory totality.

Translation conventions for the lyric cycle: light modernization preserving stanza divisions, line breaks, and refrains. The Latin refrains in Song I are kept in Latin in the body, with translation footnoted on first appearance. Minne is rendered as Love (capitalized when personified). Lief (Beloved) is preserved as Beloved or rendered as the lover-name fits the syntax. Fier / fierheit (noble pride) and trouwe (troth, faith, loyalty) are kept close to source. Jubileren is rendered as to rejoice on first appearance with a translator's footnote anchoring it to the mystical jubilus-tradition. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only. Songs VI–XLV planned in subsequent sub-pilots.

Song I

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