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Poetry
Chaikhana
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About Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti)Timeline (1230 - 1306) |
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English version by Original Language |
Love, where did You enter the heart unseen? (from In Praise of Divine Love)
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Love, where did You enter the heart unseen?
Lovable Love, joyful Love, unthinkable Love, In Your plenitude You lie far beyond the reach of reason. Love, jocund and joyous, Divine fire, You do not stint Of your endlessly beautiful riches.
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In these lines, the word "Love" almost becomes a chant: "Lovable Love, joyful Love, untinkable Love..." The phrases invite repetition, circling round and round in the awareness until they lead to the very subject which they praise.
I also love the translator's choice of words, "Love, jocund and joyous." Those words roll around on the tongue like chocolate.
There are several key phrases here worth noting:
"Love, where did You enter the heart unseen?"
In states of deep spiritual communion, when the agitations of the mind are at rest and the attention is not seeking outward distractions, all awareness settles into the heart, touching everything without the need to reach out to do so. It is an experience of expansiveness without movement, of absolute contentment and interconnection... and an experience of all-encompassing love.
What is often surprising is the recognition that this inner heart, this spiritual heart has always been at rest in this profound state love, even though we somehow have spent years not recognizing it. It is as if a thief has stolen unseen into the heart, but riches are given rather than taken. Treasures are suddenly scattered everywhere through the heart -- even far into the forgotten past.
"Love, jocund and joyous"
A giddy joy comes upon you in the ecstatic state, felt especially as a spreading warmth upon the heart. This is greater and, at the same time subtler, than what is normally called happiness. Happiness is sharp-edged and fleeting, but this joy is filled with peace and completely independent of external circumstances. This quiet bliss is steady and radiant.
"Divine fire, You do not stint..."
In ecstasy, there is often a sense of heat -- filled with immense love -- that permeates the body. This warmth seems to emerge from the seat, flares in the belly, and rises upward, fanning out at the heart. This is such a wonderful fire that mystics often describe it as a flame of love.
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Ivan
M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are Copyright ©
2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.
All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or
publishers.
