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Unless otherwise noted, the original translations and poems on this site are by middlingpoet and are licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
Tag Archives: mysticism
Man is great with God
How great we have become! The highest Seraphim Go veiled before our God. But we go nude to Him. ~ Angelus Silesius, Cherubinischer Wandersmann, III.203
Posted in Angelus Silesius, Translations
Tagged angels, Christianity, mysticism, Poetry
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The Wesleyan Scheffler
Who’d have known? John Wesley, an English poet I much admire, once translated a poem by Johannes Scheffler, a German poet I much admire. Why is that surprising? Johannes Scheffler (aka Angelus Silesius) was a counter-Reformation fireball. Which is to … Continue reading
Posted in Anglican, Catholic, Hymns, Methodist
Tagged Angelus Silesius, Catholicism, Christianity, Hymns, Methodism, mysticism, Poetry, Wesley
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Seraphim
O man, I’m nobler far than all the Seraphim. What they are, I’ll become. They can’t be what I am. ~ Angelus Silesius, Cherubinischer Wandersmann IV.145
Posted in Angelus Silesius, Divine Riddles, Translations
Tagged Angelus Silesius, Christianity, mysticism, Poetry
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He sent no angel to our race
I first heard this hymn (copied below) in a Lutheran church, on the Feast of the Transfiguration. It must (imperatively!) be sung to the original 15th-century Agincourt tune; otherwise, it loses vigor. The unique stanza is the second. “He sent no angel … Continue reading
Posted in Church Year, Hymns, Lent, mysticism
Tagged angels, Christianity, Hymns, mysticism, Poetry
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How Things Really Are
Transfiguration For that one moment, ‘in and out of time’, On that one mountain where all moments meet, The daily veil that covers the sublime In darkling glass fell dazzled at his feet. There were no angels full of eyes … Continue reading
A Grain of Sand
Why can’t we see our God within the world at hand? It strains the eye too much. The world’s a grain of sand. ~ Angelus Silesius, Cherubinischer Wandersmann VI.262
Posted in Angelus Silesius, Divine Riddles
Tagged Angelus Silesius, Christianity, mysticism, Poetry
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Without End
I saw full surely that ere God made us he loved us; which love was never slacked, nor shall ever be. And in this love he hath done all his works; and in this love he hath made all things … Continue reading
Posted in Current Events, mysticism
Tagged Christianity, medieval, mysticism, Poetry
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As Waters unto the Sea
The old second-person inflections here (“thou –st”) are a bit thick. But the soul of this hymn, especially when sung to Tallis’s haunting Third Tune, is stunning. Thou wast, O God: And thou was blest Before the world begun, Of thine … Continue reading
As Rich as God
I am as rich as God. No mote of dust can be, Unless (believe it well) He shares it all with me. ~ Angelus Silesius, Cherubinischer Wandersmann I.14
Posted in Angelus Silesius, Translations
Tagged Angelus Silesius, Christianity, mysticism, Paradox, Poetry
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God’s Alter-Ego
I am God’s other self. He finds in me alone What’s most eternally alike unto His own. ~ Angelus Silesius, Cherubinischer Wandersmann I.278
Posted in Angelus Silesius, Divine Riddles
Tagged Christianity, devotion, mysticism, Paradox, Poetry, riddles
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The Middle Room 