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

Section VIII

Five Songs (XXXVI–XL) — the last full quintet before the final five-Song coda of the Strofische Gedichten. The five include the long In de minne refrain-Song (XXXVI), the swan sings at dying Song (XXXVIII), Song XXXIX's compact catalogue of Love's contraries (Love makes the unlearned wise and dis-instructs the wise; makes the low rise), and the great Song XL with its closing astronomical metaphor: the course of Love is faster than the course of the heavens, and no master can presume to make Love understood by sinne:

• Song XXXVI — The In de minne refrain-Song. Each stanza closes with the tag-phrase In de minne. Multi-line stanzas of varying lengths held together by the closing refrain. Howsoever the year has its season — Love-keeper, be of your diligence, that your matter be neither too narrow nor too wide, but all in measure. Whatever Love do or leave with you, be it harm or gain — for it is the countenance whereby Love is to be blessed — set you down in Love. The closing emblem-stanza: That is Love's pledge / where Love by Love found troth / and devoured all pain for Love's sake / sweet and unrestrained / the full saturations / become known to him / in Love.
• Song XXXVII — A short, plain Song in octosyllabic quatrains, all rhymed in the same couplet-rhyme. The famous Love-conquers-Love stanza: Yes, you are all Love; you are so wise; your name is Love and of price so good — it is forever enough, all that you do, even if one remains in the withstanding. Closes with the prayer: Praise be to Love and honor / for her great might and her rich teaching / and may she comfort all of those from their woe / who would gladly suffer Love's turning.
• Song XXXVIII — When spring is born to us, then one is in expectation of a fairer season, that grass and corn shall blossom, in which many a one may delight. The famous swan-sings-at-dying stanza: They say the swan, when he shall taste death, then he sings; for what Love ever bade from me, that I will that she fully bring about. The doctrinal closing: To become nothing all in Love / — that is the best that I know of all the works I know. The closing tag-stanza: Henceforth, whoever be glad, whoever grieved — he who can with eagerness undertake Love cannot resist her hot storms, unless he dwell equally with her therein.
• Song XXXIX — Most of all are all creatures constrained by the cold winter; even more those whom Love by nature constrains in Love's might. The Love-conquers-Love middle: Who can praise the storms of Love? Who well understands them gives her the prize. To some she gives all bait by their craving; to some she makes of bait her all. She makes the unlearned wise and dis-instructs the wise; she makes the low rise — as is the case with this my sweet amijs (Beloved); and feeds him with her food. Closes with the fier-young envoi-quatrain: I counsel the fier-ones who undertake Love in their young time, that they here do not hide it; let them see that they fulfill it before Love passes them by.
• Song XL — As this New Year is kindled to us, so one hopes that the season shall soon come. The verheit der minnen (distance / remoteness of Love) refrain-Song. The famous kimpe-stanza: He who thus conquers Love's might — he may well be known as a champion (kimpe); for it is read of Love's might that she overcomes all other things. Closes with the great astronomical metaphor: The course of the planets and the signs of the zodiac one may know by likeness, and embrace by measure of number; but no master can presume that he with sinne may make Love understood. All who ever knew Love and shall yet know it shall run the course of Love. They have forgotten Love's wideness who think to attain Love with sinne. Ay deus — what has God given them, who must run the course of Love.

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Song XXXVI

XXXVI.

However the year has its season,
be you Love-keeper —
hold so your diligence
that your matter be neither too narrow nor too wide,
but all in measure.
Whatever Love do or leave with you,
whether it be harm or gain —
for that is her countenance
whereby Love is to be blessed —
set you down
in Love.

He whom Love ever an hour blessed,
let him be timely
sorrowful and glad,
and ever on Love's side,
and let him be always ready
where he knows Love's will,
in light, in cruel,
in dear, in grievous —
the joy-wideness
he embraces
in Love.

He who would embrace the wideness of Love
shall understand Love —
her coming, her going,
how Love by Love shall receive Love
altogether.
Then Love has no hiding from him;
she shows him her wideness, her highest hall,
who has fully made-good —
know it all well
with her affliction
in Love.

He whom Love shall heal of her affliction
shall be Love-being
after her drawing,
risen above all by trust
after fine Love.
He suffers all grief well without pain,
for the sake of being-enough to high Love.
He shows in seeming
that he shall read
all the fine judgments
in Love.

The judgment of Love
goes deep within
with inward sinne
that no lowly heart can win
who anything spares before Love.
But he who fierly travels-through
all of Love's land —
where Love with Love gazes at Love
for his conquering's sake —
remains he clarified
in Love.

Ah creature,
and noble figure,
endure the adventure!
Behold your right and your nature,
which must ever love,
and loves the best good of Love.
For her fruition, do fair encounter;
then have you success.
Spare not an hour
till you fulfill
in Love.

He who Love's counsel
according to Love understands
and by Love undertakes,
for Love's sake, many a rich deed
all without turning —
men say that of him Love is great cherishing.
For this, Love shows him her rich teaching
new evermore,
without ceasing.
He remains whole
in Love.

But he who Love's counsel denies,
where troth lies in it,
and on whom pain weighs
— I believe that you shall yet be slow,
and to no avail;
for you did not do what Love counseled,
and Love by Love promised you Love —
and you fled from this.
So remain you mis-pathed,
of which Love takes provision
in Love.

He whom Love provides — howsoever it be —
let him live free,
ever thereby,
when I am all Love's and Love all mine,
fier and bold.
If he summon all Love for Love-as-his-debt,
that gives her riches manifold;
she is in all things gracious to him.
He alone
has full might
in Love.

He who loves is in himself good;
whatever she does him
she makes him wise.
How Love makes Love a high spirit
makes him to know,
so that he can no more forget it;
so has Love with Love possessed him.
Whatever befalls him,
by Love's frenzy
he becomes all-eaten
in Love.

Ah, where is Love then,
when one cannot
find her — such a man
who sets to it all he ever won,
and yet finds Love not
— and Love into woe so winds him
and sends him Love into Love,
and he knows her not?
But the one whom she favors
has soon reached the end
in Love.

Love is here,
yonder, I know not where
— free without fear.
That Love is to me not openly shown
distresses me;
and still more anxious is woe to those who hang fast
on Love in over-heavy constraint.
But that endured not long
if Love would give all clear
her embracings
in Love.

Now may God counsel those
who would gladly fully serve
after Love's preparation,
and would wade through the deep wilderness
toward Love's land
— where it is often bent toward cares for him,
and Love's all-going into the hand
into heavy bonds —
thus does Love keep them, overburdened,
in steady fire
in Love.

That is Love's pledge —
where Love with Love found troth
and devoured all pain for Love's sake,
sweet and unrestrained.
The full saturations
become known to him
in Love.

Song XXXVII

XXXVII.

The season shall come to us shortly
that summer his banner
sets up with flowers manifold —
of which is gladdened many a fier soul.

For the days are growing long for us,
and the birds heighten their song,
whom Love makes sweet all his constraint —
he may say her dear thanks.

I would thank you also, Love, had you deserved it,
altogether as one of your poor friends.
But since you first drew me into your yoke,
did you ever spare my luck?

You do good to those whom you favor;
to me it seems that you cannot endure to do so.
At this my heart grieves, at this my mouth complains;
at this my strength is well un-sound.

Were you, Love, Love, as well you are,
where would you take strange envy,
with which you so through-cut the one
who gives you kisses at every season?

Yes, you are all Love; you are so wise;
your name is Love, and of price so good.
It is forever enough, all that you do,
even if one remains in the withstanding.

Your name adorns your countenance;
your withholding consumes; your giving crowns.
However sorely you have shamed us,
with one kiss you all-repay.

Thus is Love's work above all borne up,
and all besieged by her devices.
Her weighing has weighed-down all weighings;
there is no flying from her — one must go to meet her.

God must bless Love
who wills to leave behind all else, free of Love.
I cannot truly tell her wonder or her jealousy
much to my will.

Since you have all Love with Love at your command,
give me, by Love, that of which Love takes pleasure —
the fruition through your highest virtue.
Yet have you consumed all my youth.

Love wills that Love by Love summon all Love.
She has set up her highest banner;
thereby one learns her works' fashion
with clear truth without delusion.

You noble ones — turn into Love's building,
and adorn yourselves with the truth's light,
that no darkness may fight against you.
Do not fail of your Beloved in Love's right.

Love wills all-love of the noble fier,
and that they accord-with-her by works,
and with memory rejoice,
and with fruition in her revel.

Praise be to Love, and honor,
to her great might and her rich teaching.
And may she comfort all those of their woe
who would gladly suffer Love's turning.

Song XXXVIII

XXXVIII.

When the spring is born to us,
then one is in expectation of fairer time
that grass and corn shall blossom,
in which many a one may delight.
Some have set trust on it
in whose heart bitterness remained.
But he who would undertake Love with Love
comes to his best before-the-time.

Also in the summer flowers blossom
many whereon little hangs.
We will name ourselves to Love
whom never right Love constrained.
Some make new song of Love
and would boast of luck from her;
he whom Love does good thanks her;
of her I have but small judgments.

Ah, after that Love permits
that I complain of judgments and heart's need —
so I have before her no plea.
My right is small; her might is great.
They say the swan, when he shall taste death,
then he sings.
For what Love ever bade from me
— that I will that she fully bring about.

Ah, Love — though you keep me thus heavy,
so that the time burdens me wholly,
you give your dear-ones openly
your clear wonders all openly.
Ah, often I know not what I shall.
When you keep me so woeful in dread —
whoever climbs with you, I remain in the dale.
It shudders me often how I fare.

Ah, Love, that one might forget
the great grief you do us,
and what you have made known to many
— to one cruel, to another good.
Some you possess in your frenzy
that he becomes wholly eaten within;
some are softly nourished by you
and are by you yet un-possessed.

Of Love one may speak wonder
— her wonder-works, whatever they be.
She shows with cunning to some her tricks,
when I am all yours and you all mine;
she comes to some so suddenly near
that she touches him to the heart-breaking;
and some she lets all free of her —
thus she can mis-path and again reckon.

To become nothing all in Love
— that is the best that I know
of all the works I know,
though I know it well un-ready for me;
and he who with eagerness undertakes Love
all without heart and without sinne,
and Love then not with eagerness wears down,
— that is strength by which one wins through Love.

Henceforth, whoever be glad, whoever grieved —
he who can undertake Love with eagerness
cannot resist her hot storms,
unless he dwell equally with her therein.

Song XXXIX

XXXIX.

Most of all are all creatures
constrained by the cold winter;
even more those whom Love by nature
constrains in Love's might.
Were any of sinne fier and bold
and would altogether adventure
the sweet with the sour,
let Love demand-as-debt:
he would all-with-Love through-stir Love.

Who may praise the storms of Love?
He who well understands gives her the prize.
To some she gives all bait by their craving;
to some she makes of bait her all.
She makes the unlearned wise
and dis-instructs the wise.
She makes the low rise —
as is the case with this my sweet amijs
— and feeds him with her food.

Love's manners can be known
by no man who ever was wise.
She wounds within the heart of him
who never stood toward Love's bond.
He who would gladly live guarded by Love
— him she brings wholly out of his sinne;
and he who would gladly all-Love
she keeps from fruition without success,
so that he knows not where to undertake.

He whom such Love-manners satisfy,
let him grip-on and guard himself well
that the all-the-raising serve him well —
whether Love seems to him slow or swift.
He thinks Love through his play;
she is to him so un-conformed.
With what woe she struck him
he could yet do nothing
but what Love made for him.

Mire and heavy adventure
have I suffered many a day.
All the matters are sour to me
that I ever saw with my eyes.
How could I have good endurance?
She holds me well in woe-and-sourness
who sweetens Love above all nature
and may give all.
It shudders me how I endure.

I shall let Love be
on my part what she will.
Some think to read their judgment in her;
she has soon silenced his rumor
and soon turned all his praise away,
by which he was risen up.
She can after her drawing
well shield under the shield —
even though none may be healed of it.

However I have fared in Love
— God give him good who practices Love
and who, in her lightnesses and in her heavinesses,
well can follow and flee.
He who can wait for good to happen,
and Love can well spare
— she shall reveal herself
to him who can wait, until
Love shall all-clarify.

I well know — had Love the time,
she would comfort my sorrowful spirit,
and seemed it to her any damage
that she thus makes me waste away
with great woe wholly without success
— she keeps me outside counsel,
unless she soon give me grace
and make me of her better wise.
She comes lightly too late to me.

However narrow I wander in Love's path,
and her knowledge is to me all too long —
however deep I wade in her water-fords —
I will thank her for all things,
for to me my all hangs on her.
Shall I fully climb her grades?
For whatever I did otherwise,
my hunger would all stay tilting,
unless she gave me fully her seed.

Thus I stand on Love's side,
whatever happens to me hereafter:
her hunger's sorrow, her saturation's gladness,
desires' no, pleasures' yes.
The fier-ones give blows before Love strikes;
so he comes fairly to the strife
who undertakes Love with eagerness;
however it goes with him,
he shall embrace her wide.

I counsel the fier-ones who undertake Love
in their young time
that they here do not hide it.
Let them see that they fulfill it
before Love passes them by.

Song XL

XL.

When this New Year is kindled to us,
so one hopes that soon shall come
the season many expect,
that makes mountain and dale to grow.
Yet the joy is un-ready,
so it is also to him who gives his all
on high Love's fair promise
before he attains the remoteness of Love.

He who shall be the swift then
shall reach the far Love.
The fier-one, who takes to himself of Love,
and lives by counsel and works by sinne
and sets to it whatever he ever won —
so that enlightened Reason may know
that he can spare nothing before Love
— he shall reach the remoteness of Love.

That Love is so far from us
who by right should be so near to us
— that seems to many and to me
who fall back on strange comfort.
The fier-one of Love let him live so free
that he undertake her with such a storm,
all unto death or near to it,
or he overcomes Love's might.

He who thus overcomes Love's might
may be well known as a champion;
for it is read of Love's might
that she overcomes all other thing.
The wise repay all of Love's lease,
and see that he so fairly begin —
ever with storm of new chase —
or he overcomes Love's might.

Whom Love overcomes — that he overcome her,
to him is her sweet nature yet known.
When he feels the sweet Love,
he is wounded with her wounds;
when he with wonder knows her wonder,
he sucks with eagerness from the ground of her veins,
ever with thirst of new beginning,
before he enjoys the sweet Love.

So becomes it out-of-measure good.
Desire scoops; pleasure drinks.
The fier-one who spends his own in Love,
and with frenzy sinks in her fruition
— so has he success of full Love,
where Love with Love wholly pours-out her Love,
and so becomes Love all Love fully-done,
where he enjoys the sweet Love.

Love's fruition is a play
that no one may well show forth;
and though one who practices it might somewhat show,
he could not be understood who never practiced —
how Love wills Love and not else.
Of all that ever the day showed-up,
the course of the heavens is not so swift
as Love's course in Love.

The course is the heavens' and the planets'
and the signs that go with the heavens —
one may with likeness know,
and embrace with measure of number.
But no master may presume
that he with sinne can make Love understood.
All who ever knew Love and shall yet know it
shall run the course of Love.

They have forgotten Love's wideness
who think to undertake Love with sinne.
Ay deus, what has God given them
who must run the course of Love.

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