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ANIKÓ DARÓCZI And in the unity in which I was then absorbed and clarified, there I understood this being-one and I knew more clearly than by speaking or by reasoning or by seeing, one can know any object knowable on earth. (Letter 17, 106-111) Daer nam hi / hem ouer mi / ende mi ouer hem. / Ende in die enicheit / daer ic doen in ghenomen was ende verclaert, / daer verstondic dit wesen / ende bekinde claerlikere / dan men met sprekene / ocht met redenen / ocht met siene enighe sake / die soe bekinleec es in ertrike bekinnen mach. Taken up into this divine being (dit wesen), she understands what it is that God explicitly says to her. This is reinforced by the threefold repetition of ‘knowing’ (bekinnen) and by the comparative ‘more clearly’ (claerlikere) — a word that is already familiar from Letter 1. This is a crucial moment, for here we are approaching the source of mystical communication and of all mystical utterance. She continues with the word wonder, used three times, as if to echo or expand on the terms ‘knowing’ and ‘understanding’ (verstaan) — or perhaps intended as a juxtaposition? — to what we heard three times in the previous sentence: This seems wonderful indeed, but although I say that this seems wonderful, I do know that it does not astonish you (Letter 17, 112-114) Doch schijnt dit wonder. / Mer al segghe ic dat dit wonder schijnt / Jc weet wel / dat v niet en wondert. Hadewijch now returns to the communicative context in which she as a magistra speaks to her circle and tells them what she underwent in her oneness with God. This experience is so obvious that it far exceeds in clarity any other experience whatsoever. Both human perception (sien) and the clearest form of understanding and ability to express oneself — reasoning (redene) and speaking (spreken) — fall short of any comparison with this form of ‘understanding’. In the lines that follow, Hadewijch explains how human language lacks the capacity for expressing this experience. The opposition between earth + 126 + Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 126 6 2020.06.15. 11:04:16
