Oldal 134 [134]
ANIKÓ DARÓCZI
this clarity given by God. Clarity—the word is repeated—is experienced here
by regarding and seeing (besien, sien). This gift of sight renders God visible,
a visibility that is expressed in a series of abstractions that are repeated and
embellished:
She sees how God is in His everlastingness: God with natural Godhead.
She sees how God is in His greatness: mighty with natural might.
She sees how God is in His wisdom: blessed-making with natural blessedness.
She sees how God is in His nobility: clear with natural clarity.
She sees how God is in His presence: sweet with natural sweetness.
She sees how God is in His fluidity: rich with natural richness.
She sees how God is in His wholeness: abundance with natural profuseness. (15-28)
Si siet / hoe god es / in siere ewelecheit: / god met naturleker godheit
Sisiet / hoe god es / insiere groetheit: / gheweldich met naturleker gheweldicheit
Si siet / hoe god es / in siere wijsheit / verweent met naturleker verweentheit
Si siet / hoe god es /in siere edelheit /clare met natuerleker claerheit
Si siet / hoe god es / in siere ieghenwordicheit: /soete met natuerleker soetheit.
Si siet / hoe god es / in siere vloyelecheit /rike met natuerleker rijcheit
Si siet / hoe god es /in siere gheheelheit / weelde met naturleker weldicheit.
Hadewijch turns this part of the letter into an incantation. On the one
side of the symmetry are abstractions that suggest spatiality by means of
the preposition in: ‘in His everlastingness, in His greatness, in His wisdom,
etc., and on the other hand, by the use of repetitions: ‘She sees how God is’
is repeated without variation. There is also a repetition of form, the central
part of which — ‘with natural’ (met naturleker) — remains invariable. “With
natural’ is surrounded in each case by a repetition that does vary. This process
occurs seven times, in a litany-like repetition, while the flowing movement
continues: ‘natural’ here echoes the ‘understands in accord with their nature’
(naturlike versteet) of the introduction.
If the reader/listener — the receiver of words — does not ponder each abstract
term, she (or he) will quickly hear the regularity in the rhythm and will go
along with it. The abstractions thus pass by the eye of the spirit in a seeing
without images, a knowing without understanding. Space in Letter 28 thus
seems more than a ‘somewhere’ or an extended space. It is, rather, the medium
in which a phenomenon takes place, namely, that of the mystic becoming
one with God. The space in which words are spoken, and the movement of
words in that space, have a reciprocal influence. The same process can be
seen repeating itself: the soul perceives something in the space in which she
finds herself, and she sees and speaks — as Hadewijch puts it, the ‘words well
up’ from the ‘fineness of God’ (woerde...comen wallende uter fijnheit gods, 81).
+ 132 ¢
Daréczi-Sepsi-Vassänyi_Initiation_155x240.indb 132 6 2020. 06.15. 11:04:17