Seite 134 [134]
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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
