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Christian : Catholic
13th Century

 

About Hadewijch of Antwerp

Timeline (13th Century)

 

 

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English version by
Oliver Davies

Original Language
Dutch

Love's constancy

Commentary by
Ivan M. Granger

Themes
  Lotus
  Lover and Beloved
  Rose
  Spring Blossom
 

 

Recommended Books

Christian Mystics: Their Lives and Legacies throughout the Ages, by Ursula King
Hadewijch: The Complete Works (Classics of Western Spirituality) , by Mother Columbo Hart
Meister Eckhart and the Beguine Mystics: Hadewijch of Brabant, Mechthild of Magdeburg, and Marguerite Porete, by Bernard Mcginn
The Shambhala Anthology of Women's Spiritual Poetry, Edited by Aliki Barnstone
Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

Anyone who has waded
Through Love's turbulent waters,
Now feeling hunger and now satiety,
Is untouched by the season
Of withering or blooming,
For in the deepest and most dangerous waters,
On the highest peaks,
Love is always the same.

 

 

-- from Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women, Edited by Jane Hirshfield

 

 

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Commentary by Ivan M. Granger

I rather like this poem by Hadewijch. In a few short lines it suggests the nondualist perspective that the Divine, Love, is eternally the same, no matter what extremes are experienced on the surface of reality.

 

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright © 2002 - 2006 by Ivan M. Granger.
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