Love, that art Charity, Why has Thou hurt me so? My heart is smote in two, And burns with ardent love, Glowing and flaming; refuge finding none, My heart is fettered fast, it cannot flee; It is consumed, like wax set in the sun; Living, yet dying, swooning passionately, It prays for strength a little way to run, Yet in this furnace must it bide and be: Where am I led, ah me! I once could speak, but now my lips are dumb; My eyes are blind, although I once could see: In this abyss my soul is stark and numb, Silent I speak; cling, yet am held by Thee: Falling, I rise; I go, and yet I come; Pursue, and am pursued; I am bound yet free; O Love that whelmeth me! Maddened I cry: "Why must I die, They fiery strength to prove?" Love, Love, of naught but Love my tongue can sing, Thy wounded Hand hath pierced my heart so deep: Love, Love, with Thee made one, to Thee I cling, Upon Thy breast, let me sleep; Love, Love, with Love my heart is perishing; Love, like an Eagle snatching me Thy sleep, For Thee I swoon, I weep, Love, let me be, By courtesy, Thine own in death. . . ~Jacopone Da Todi
0 minstrel, raise thy plaintive melody, and let thy song be tender to my soul: upon the subtle ninefold modes of love display the secrets of a lover's heart. One moment parted from the Friend, I die: revive my heart with thy life-giving stream that I may come into the lovers' ring and grace the lovers' circle. Let me pass one moment from the world, and for an hour I will not heed my selfhood: being lost to this false being, let me swiftly move to realms of drunkenness where, like the drunk, I will commence the dance, and raise the cry of yearning love - for truly I do yearn for my Beloved - standing in the field of high ambition. I will shake my wings like sacrificial bird, and fly at last from empty word to true reality. Then will I tell in order, each by each, the beauty of the Friend, the lover's love. ~Jacopone Da Todi
From Love That Is Silent
Love, silent as the night, Who not one word wilt say, That none may know thee right! 0 Love that lies concealed, Through heat and storm and cold, That none may guess nor read Thy secrets manifold; Lest thieves should soon grow bold To steal away thy treasure, Snatch it and take to flight Deep-hid, thy secret fires More ardently shall glow; And he who screens thee close, Thy fiercest heat shall know. ~Jacopone Da Todi
Thou, Jubilus, the heart dost move; And makest us sing for very love.The Jubilus in fire awakes, And straight the man must sing and pray; His tongue in childish stammering shakes, Nor knows he what his lips may say; He cannot quench nor hide away That Sweetness pure and infinite. The Jubilus in flame is lit, And straight the man must shout and sing; So close to Love his heart is knit, He scarce can bear the honeyed sting; His clamor and his cries must ring, And shame forever take to flight. The Jubilus enslaves man's heart - A love-bewildered prisoner - And see! his neighbors stand apart, And mock the senseless chatterer: They deem his speech a foolish blur, A shadow of his spirit's light. Yea, when thou enterest the mind, 0 Jubilus, thou rapture fair, The heart of man new skill doth find Love's own disguise to grasp and wear, The suffering of Love to bear, With song and clamor of delight! And thus the uninitiate Will deam that thou art crazed indeed; They see thy strange and fevered state, But have not wit thy heart to read; Within, deep-pierced, that heart may bleed, Hidden from curious mortal sight. ~Jacopone Da Todi
When the mind's very being is gone, Sunk in a conscious sleep, In a rapture divine and deep, Itself in the Godhead lost: It is conquered, ravished, and won! Set in Eternity's sweep, Gazing back on the steep, Knowing not how it was crossed - To a new world now it is tossed, Drawn from its former state, To another, measureless, great, Where Love is drowned in the Sea. ~Jacopone Da Todi
