Foreword

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

This poem is about Marguerite PORETE and her beguine sisters and all the marvellous people who took a part into the Rhenish-Flemish Mystic in the 13th and 14th century. Hence, it is also about anything else.

Their texts were written in French, German and Dutch and are a bit rare in French. Some of them at least must be available in English, since the French version of Marguerite Porete masterpiece was re-established based on an English version.

The Rhenish-Flemish Mystic is the most beautiful and pure and innocent one sort of mystic I am aware of.

Main figures of the Rhenish-Flemish Mystic are the following:

  • Master Eckhart
    that some of you might know about
  • Marguerite Porete
    from Valenciennes (currently in the north of France)  who wrote in French  and was burnt in Paris by king Phillipe Le Bel both for religious and political reasons since Phillipe le Bel had to get the money  from the Knight Templars at the same moment and had at that moment an urgent  need  to prove that he cared for the true faith and not only for the Templar's money.
  • Hadewijch van Antwerpen
    and some alike beguine sisters
  • Theodoric von Freiberg
  • Ulrich Engelbert de Strasbourg
    (currently in the east of France)
  • Ruisbroek

I took the risk to translate this poem into English. There are (at least...) some on-purpose inaccuracies in this translation. This is due to the fact that whenever I found some English expression which was closer to my meaning than the French, I simply used it.

The syntax might look strange in English. This is also the case in French. However, I am sure that the used syntax is possible in French, whereas in English it might just be wrong.