[Jacopone da Todi, Amor de caritate, “Laude”, LXXXIX, 13th century.]
Love, that art Charity,
Why hast 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!
To depths so high?
Living I die,
So fierce the fire of Love.
Before I knew its power, I asked in prayer
For love of Christ, believing it was sweet;
I thought to breathe a calm and tranquil air,
On peaceful heights, where tempests never beat.
Torment I find, instead of sweetness there!
My heart is riven by the dreadful heat:
Of these strange things to treat
All words are vain;
By bliss I am slain,
And yet I live and move.
For I have lost my heart, my will, my wit,
My hopes, desires, my pleasures and my taste;
Beauty seems vile, corruption crawls on it,
Riches, delights and honours all are waste:
—A Tree of Love, with fruits both fair and fit
To feed me, in my heart is rooted fast,
It flings away in haste
All it can find,
Will, strength, and mind:
With Love in vain I strove.
All that I had, to purchase Love I gave,
Yea, all myself, and the whole world in fee;
And had Creation been all mine to have,
For Love would I have given it willingly:
Now Love hath tricked and caught me, woful slave;
Emptied of all, I know not where I be;
Yea, Love hath ruined me,
All crazed my thought;
I am sold for naught,
Beggared and stript by Love.
My friends, who loved me, called me oft away,
Far from this bitter path, this arid track;
But how can kingship sink to serfdom? nay—
Who gives himself hath given, and takes not back.
Marble may sooner melt and turn to clay,
Than Love, my Jailer, loose me from His rack;
My Will, a broken wrack,
Love hath ignited,
Transformed, united;
Who can endure Thee, Love?
Now are we one, we are not separate;
Fire cannot part us, nor a sword divide;
Not pain nor death can reach these heights so great
Where Love hath snatched and set me by His side:
Far, far below, I see the worlds gyrate,
Far, far above, my heart is satisfied:
My soul, who is thy Guide
To this strange bliss?
'Tis Jesu's kiss,
All sweetness far above.
Now on no creature can I turn my sight,
But on my Maker all my mind is set;
Earth, sea, and sky are emptied of delight,
For Christ's dear love all else I clean forget:
All else seems vile, day seems as dark as night;
Cherubim, seraphim, in whom are met
Wisdom and Love, must yet
Give place, give place,
To that One Face
To my dear Lord of Love.
Therefore let none reprove me evermore,
If Love so wondrous craze me utterly;
How can my heart withstand these onslaughts sore?
Besieged and taken thus, how can I flee?
My heart must break; think, friends, what pains it borc!
Can I endure this furnace patiently?
All you who list to me,
And pity take,
Your hearts would ache,
If I my woes could prove.
For heaven and earth and all things else do cry,
That Love is all my task, my life, my place;
Their heartfelt voices cry aloud—"Draw nigh!
The Love that made thee, hasten to embrace!
That Love that thirsts for thee eternally,
Commands us, to His arms thy soul to chase;
He pours His light and grace,
And courtesy,
All, all on thee,
In spreading streams of Love!"
More would I love, if more were possible;
Yet can I give no more than all my heart;
I give my all,—my life, my soul, my will,
Nor needs it proof that all is more than part.
I give Thee all, O Lover Terrible,—
Take all, fresh life for ever to impart;
So old, so new, Thou art;
Yea, I have found Thee,
Soft light around Thee,
And whiter than the Dove.
Gazing on Thee, Thou Bright and Morning Star,
I am led far, I know not where I be;
My heart is melted like a waxen bar,
That moulded in Christ's likeness it may be;
O Christ, Thy barters keen and wondrous are!
I am stript naked, to be dressed in Thee:
My heart transformed in me,
My mind lies dumb,
To see Thee come,
In sweetness and in Love.
So linked with that sweetness is my mind,
It leans and strains, its Lover to embrace:
And all in Him, and naught in self to find,
It learns, by gazing ever on His face.
Riches, and powers, and memories strong to bind,
It casts away, as burdens in the race;
It hath no resting-place,
No will, no care;
It mounts the stair,
Towards which its being strove.
In Christ transformed, almost my soul is Christ;
Conjoined with God, all, all is now divine,
So great, so high, its marvellous acquist,—
Ask medicine for the guilt that once was mine;
No more in grief I pine,
My sinful soul
Is purged and whole,
Yea, it is cleansed and shrove.
Now, a new creature, I in Christ am born,
The old man stripped away;—I am new-made;
And mounting in me, like the sun at morn,
Love breaks my heart, even as a broken blade:
Christ, First and Only Fair, from me hath shorn
My will, my wits, and all that in me stayed,
I in His arms am laid,
I cry and call,—
"O Thou my All,
O let me die of Love!"
For Thee, O Love, my heart consumes away,
I cry, I call, I yearn for Thy caress;
Living, I perish when Thou dost not stay,
Sighing and mourning for my Blessedness:
Dost Thou return, I strain and strive and pray,
To lose amidst Thine All my Nothingness:
Then tarry not to bless, Love, think on me;
Bind me to Thee,
Consume my heart with Love!
O Love most gentle, look upon my pain,
How can I suffer all Thy dreadful heat?
All crazed I am, close fettered by Love's chain,
I know not what I say, nor Whom I greet:
Fevered, amazed, to wander I am fain,
In anguish oft, and dragging weary feet;
I have no strength to meet
This torment's tide;
My heart is dried,
And like an empty glove.
My wits are stolen away: I cannot grasp
What things I ought to do, or may have done;
The world, a-wonder, deems I strive to clasp
Love bodiless, if Christ but lead me on:
If not, my joy were but a venomous asp;
My mind, entangled, loseth all it won,
Yea, Love hath left me none
Of all my skill,
My speed, my will;
He taketh all for Love.
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,
Thy fiery strength to prove?"
Christ speaks:
Order this love, O thou who lovest Me,
For without order virtue comes to naught;
And since thou seekest Me so ardently,
—That virtue may be ruler in thy thought
And in thy love—summon that charity
Whose fervours are by gentle Order taught:
A tree to proof is brought
By ordered fruit;
Bole, branch, and root,
All thrive in Order's grove.
For see, with number and with measure fit,
All things I have ordered in this world that are:
From end to end fair Order ruleth it,
That all may move in peace, and not in war;
Then should not Love in ordered sweetness sit?
Love, of her nature stedfast as a star ?—
This frenzy sore doth mar
Thy fervours, Soul,
And brings thee dole;
Thou hast not reined thy love.
The Soul answers:
Christ, Who hast stolen my heart, Thou biddest me
In order fair my trembling mind to set;
But am I still mine own, though one with Thee?
—Never was such a bargain driven yet!
As skies at sunrise, shining lucently,
Or iron that the piercing flame hath met,
Their native form forget,
In wondrous change,
—So I, O strange!
Am dipped and clothed in Love.
So, when a soul its self-hood quite hath lost,
Of its own will no action can it take;
Of all its deeds that Power must pay the cost
Who hath re-made it, and doth still re-make;
Then, if my soul upon Thy bridge hath crossed,
O Christ, from Self's false dream in Thee to wake,
I do all for Thy sake,
And if Thou rue
Aught that I do,
'Tis Thine own doing, Love.
And this I tell Thee, Love, if I be crazed,
Thou, Wisdom's self it is, that crazeth me:
'Twas Thou that pierced me, Thou on Whom I gazed,
The bargain that we made is all my plea:
On that new life I entered, all amazed,
Stript of myself, to be enwrapt in Thee;
Undone, from self I flee;
Strong for Thy sake,
The doors I break,
And reach Thy breast, O Love!
Why didst Thou lead me to this bed of fire,
If Thou wouldst have me calm and temperate?
Thou giv'st Thyself, Thyself, to my desire!
And so my transports never can abate:
To clasp Thee little, Love, I did aspire,
How can I bear it when I clasp Thee great?
If this a fault Thou rate,
The fault is Thine,
Beloved, not mine,
Thou mad'st my path, O Love.
Thyself from Love Thy Heart didst not defend,
From Heaven to earth it brought Thee from Thy throne;
Beloved, to what sheer depths didst Thou descend,
To dwell with man, unhonoured and unknown:
In life and death to enrich us without end,
Homeless and poor, with nothing of Thine own,
Thou here didst come alone,
For Thou were called
By Love unwalled,
That all Thy heart did move.
—And as about the world Thy feet did go,
'Twas Love that led Thee, always, everywhere;
Thy only joy, for us Thy love to show,
And for Thyself no whit at all to care;
Thou, in the Temple standing, calledst "Ho!
All ye who thirst, come hither; come and share
The living waters fair;
For I will give
To all who live
Unending draughts of Love!"
O Deepest Wisdom, counting all things dross,
Save love of us, so wretched and forlorn;
O Love Incarnate, counting gain for loss,
Sharing our life, yet of the Spirit born;
Uplifted to embrace us on the Cross,
Love spared Thee not, Thy hands with nails were torn,
Enduring Pilate's scorn,
That dreadful Day,
Our debt to pay,
Upon Thy Cross of Love!
For see, how Wisdom hid herself away,
And Love alone was to our vision plain:
Omnipotence sate shrouded on that Day,
When strength and power were turned to bitter pain;
No gift but Love upon that Altar lay,
Love, that for us was spent, for us was slain;
Custom and will were vain;
Love, crucified,
Fettered and tied,
Embraced mankind for Love.
Then, Jesus, if I be inebriate,
Enamoured of Thy sweetness and Thy woe,
From all reproach I stand inviolate,
Though foolish and distracted I should grow;
Thou too wert bound by Love, Who was so great,
That He was strong to bring Thy geatness low;
Nor would I scatheless go,
Though all amazed,
My wits be dazed,
With Thy caress, O Love.
For that same Love, that drives me all distraught,
Took all Thy wisdom, Lord, away from Thee;
That Love, that dips in languor all my thought,
Destroyed Thy powers too, and all for me:
And I will keep back nothing; I am caught
By Love Himself: I yield, I would not flee;
O let my sentence be
For Love to die,
No succour nigh,
O grant me death, my Love!
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, my Jesus, let me sleep;
Love, Love, with love my heart is perishing;
Love, like an Eagle snatching me Thy sheep,
For Thee I swoon, I weep,
Love, let me be,
By courtesy,
Thine own in death, O Love!
Love, Love, O Jesus, I have reached the goal,
Love, Love, O Jesus, whither Thou hast led;
Love, Love, O Jesus, comfort Thou my soul,
Love, Love, O Jesus, on her fiery bed.
Love, Love, O Jesus, Thou Who art my Goal,
O set Thy gentle hands about my head!
To Thee my soul is wed,
In Love most sure,
In Truth most pure,
In Thy transforming Love.
Love, Love, O Love, the world's wild voices cry,
Love, Love, O Love, the clamorous echoes spread
Love, Love, O Love, so deep Thy treasures lie,
We hunger more, the more we taste Thy bread:
Love, Love, O Love, Thou Circling Mystery,
Who enters Thee at Love's deep heart is fed;
Thou art Loom, and Cloth, and Thread:
O sweet to be
Clad all in Thee,
And ceaseless chant of Love.
Love, Love, O Love, Thy touch so quickens me,
Love, Love, O Love, I am no longer I:
Love, Love, O Love, Thyself so utterly
Thou givest me, Jesus, that I can but die.
O Love, O Love, I am possessed of Thee,
Love, Love, my Love, O take me in a sigh!
Love, glad and spent I lie.
O Love, my Bliss!
O Lover's Kiss!
O quench my soul in Love!
Love, Love, my heart is broken in its pride,
Love, Thou hast hurt me, I am wounded sore:
Love, Love, Thy beauty draws me to Thy side,
Love, Thou hast ravished me for evermore:
O Love, despised and scorned let me abide,
Love, Love, my soul hath entered at Thy door;
O Love, my Sea, my Shore!
No more we part:
Why bind my heart
In cords so ruthless, Love?
Love, Love, my Jesus, O my heart's Desire!
Love, Love, within Thine arms to die were sweet:
Jesus, my Love, I climb the Bridal Pyre,
Love, Love, among the flames my Spouse to meet.
O Jesus, Lover, Husband, Tempest, Fire!
Take me, transform me in Thine utmost heat:
Visions around me fleet:
I swoon, I grope:
Jesus, my Heart, my Hope,
O shatter me in Love!
