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Hadewijch

  • It is written in the code of love: He who strikes the blow is himself struck down.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Theodoor Weevers, Poetry of the Netherlands in Its European Context, 1170 - 1930 ()
  • Do good under all circumstances, but with no care for any profit, or any blessedness, or any damnation, or any salvation, or any martyrdom; but all you do or omit should be for the honor of Love.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • ... even if you do the best you can in all things, your human nature must often fall short; so entrust yourself to God's goodness, for his goodness is greater than your failures.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • ... love is that burning fire which devours everything and shall never, never cease in all the endless ages to come.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • Nowadays this is the way everyone loves himself; people wish to live with God in consolations and repose, in wealth and power, and to share the fruition of his glory. We all indeed wish to be God with God, but God knows there are few of us who want to live as men with his Humanity, or want to carry his cross with him, or want to hang on the cross with him and pay humanity's debt to the full.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • The soul who is most untouched is the most like to God.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • Be fervent in God, and let nothing grieve you, whatever you encounter.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • Although the season is joyful everywhere, / And mountain and valley are all verdant, / That would seem a truly small matter to him / Who has met mischance in love ...

    • Hadewijch,
    • "Sure Reward" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • The New Year has come to us. / God be blessed for it.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "Longing for Eternity" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • The new year has begun for us. / Now must God grant us with love / That we may be able so to begin it / That it may be of value for Love.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "Love's Sublimity" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • ... they wish to dissuade me / From all that the forces of Love urge me to. / They do not understand it, and I cannot explain it to them. / I must then live out what I am; / What Love counsels my spirit, / In this is my being: for this reason I will do my best.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "To Live Out What I Am" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • What use is it for me to force my nature? / For my nature shall always remain / What it is and conquer what belongs to it, / However men may narrow its path.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "To Live Out What I Am" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • I wish to devote all my time / To noble thoughts about great Love.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "Melody and Song" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • They who live without Love are dead. / But the worst of all deaths is this — / That the loving soul be cowardly toward Love; / For perfect Love is never cowardly, / But claims its rights, which it lacks.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "The Need of All Needs" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • Despair makes us serve evil as much as good ...

    • Hadewijch,
    • "The Nature of Love" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • He who lives in despair / takes and gives in vain.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "The Nature of Love" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • ... although I have no fish, / I do not want any frog; / Or any elderberries either, / Instead of a bunch of grapes: / Although I have no love, / I do not want anything else, / Whether Love is gracious to me or hostile.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "No Frog, No Elderberries" (13th cent.), in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • Love has seven names, / Which, as you know, are appropriate to her; / Chain, light, live coal, and fire — / ... dew, living spring, and hell.

    • Hadewijch,
    • "Love's Seven Names," in Mother Columba Hart, O.S.B., Hadewijch: The Complete Works ()
  • Love has seven names. / Do you know what they are? / Rope, Light, Fire, Coal / ... / Dew, Hell, the Living Water.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Aliki Barnstone and Willis Barnstone, eds., A Book of Women Poets From Antiquity to Now ()
  • Take care, you who wish / to deal with names / for love. Behind their sweetness / and wrath, nothing endures. / Nothing but wounds and kisses.

    • Hadewijch,
    • 13th cent., in Aliki Barnstone and Willis Barnstone, eds., A Book of Women Poets From Antiquity to Now ()
  • For this is love's truth; she joins two in one being, makes sweet sour, strangers neighbors, and the lowly noble.

    • Hadewijch

Hadewijch, Flemish mystic, beguine, poet

(13th cent.)

Spellings of her name differ. She was also known as Hadewijch of Brabant.