{
  "meta": {
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    "endpoint": "/api/sources/beguine-mystics/hadewijch-strofische-gedichten/vol-1-00-front-matter.json"
  },
  "work": {
    "slug": "hadewijch-strofische-gedichten",
    "name": "The Strofische Gedichten (Stanzaic Poems) of Hadewijch"
  },
  "parents": [
    {
      "slug": "beguine-mystics",
      "name": "Beguine Mystics",
      "url": "/sources/beguine-mystics/"
    }
  ],
  "chapter": {
    "num": 1,
    "slug": "vol-1-00-front-matter",
    "title": "Section I",
    "of": 14,
    "words": 571,
    "text": "## Section I\n\nFirst section of a planned multi-section project translation of Hadewijch's forty-five **Strofische Gedichten** (Stanzaic Poems, also called *Liederen* — Songs). The Stanzaic Poems are Hadewijch's lyric corpus: courtly-love poetry of the troubadour and *Minnesang* tradition, *converted to the divine* — the *Lief* (Beloved) is God / Christ, the *fiere* (noble proud) lover is the soul. Hadewijch's mastery of the form is unmatched in Middle Dutch literature; she stands beside Mechthild of Magdeburg, Marguerite Porete, and the courtly lyric poets of the *Minne*-tradition as one of the inventors of the vernacular lyric of mystical love.\n\nSection I covers **Songs I–V**, opening the corpus. The five together establish all the major themes the cycle will develop:\n\n- **Song I** — Winter and the New Year (the seasonal opening on the courtly *Natureingang* model). The New Year's hazel-blossoms presage spring; the soul of *fier moed* (proud nobility) is to *welcome whatever storms Love sends as the very gift of Love*. The famous closing stanza on *the new* — *God moete ons gheven nuwen sin*, *God must give us a new mind for the noble, free Love*. The Latin double-refrain — *Ay vale vale millies* (*Ah, farewell, farewell a thousand times*) and *Si dixero non satis est* (*if I should say it, it is not enough*) — closes every stanza of Song I.\n- **Song II** — Sap rising; **Love as Maiden and Queen**, *mother of all virtue*. The famous etymological play — *Hare name amor es van der doet* (*Her name, Amor, is from death*) — folding the *Amor / mors* Augustinian pun into the Beguine mystical register. The poet's lament that her songs have grown weary and her voice silent.\n- **Song III** — The signs of spring as omens of Love's coming-back; the bitter wounds of Love; the *Ay deus* paradox of Love-as-judge — Love accuses and absolves at once; the *jubileren* of the soul that takes pain and joy as one thing; the renewal after the storm.\n- **Song IV** — The courtly knight-ethic. *Vele essere gheroepen ende lettel vercoren* — *many are called and few chosen*, a Hadewijchian rendering of Matthew 22:14 fused with the troubadour *fin'amor* doctrine; the *verhoelne woert* (*hidden word*) granted to those who *give themselves with troth*; and the closing addressed to the *edele, wel gheboren sinne* — *noble, well-born senses* — to spend everything before the day *lief in lief sal werden verheven* (*lover in lover shall be lifted up*).\n- **Song V** — The signature **oscillations**-poem. *Bi wilen heet, bi wilen cout / Bi wilen blode, bi wilen bout* — *now hot, now cold / now timid, now bold*. Five paired-opposite stanzas: hot-cold, timid-bold, near-far, dear-grievous, lowered-heightened, hidden-shown, light-heavy, dark-clear, freely-comforted–constrainedly-feared. This is Hadewijch's most-quoted Song, the canonical compressed statement of *Minne*'s contradictory totality.\n\n**Translation conventions** for the lyric cycle: light modernization preserving stanza divisions, line breaks, and refrains. The Latin refrains in Song I are kept in Latin in the body, with translation footnoted on first appearance. *Minne* is rendered as *Love* (capitalized when personified). *Lief* (Beloved) is preserved as *Beloved* or rendered as the lover-name fits the syntax. *Fier* / *fierheit* (noble pride) and *trouwe* (troth, faith, loyalty) are kept close to source. *Jubileren* is rendered as *to rejoice* on first appearance with a translator's footnote anchoring it to the mystical *jubilus*-tradition. Below the 5K-word judge threshold; self-review only. Songs VI–XLV planned in subsequent sub-pilots.\n\n---\n\n## Song I",
    "project_translation": true,
    "text_trust": "project_translation",
    "quote_safe": false,
    "license": "CC0 1.0 Universal",
    "methodology_url": "https://anthroposophy.ai/about/translations/"
  }
}