← Content: PreviousContent: Next →

Caligo Amoris [75]


ad1629077pict

Back to top ↑
Caligo Amoris.translation
XXXIII.
{?}arp.1
CAnis est symbolū odoris, odor est symbolū fi-
dei; anima hoc cane ducitur, que nudâ fide abs-
que vllâ intellectus operatione, immediatè per ar-
dorē amoris mouetur ad contemplandū Deum &
constituitur in quadā caligine, quænon potest ra-
tione aut intellectu comprehendi in quâamorosa
anima experiri incipit, quod omnis illa contēplans
& intuitiua cognitio quæ præcessit in imagini-
bus & similitudinibus, & etiā omne quod per in-
tellectum humanū & cogitationem nudam ima-
ginari valet, ab ipsa veritate diuinæ essentiæ in in-
finitum suâ dissimilitudine distant. Hinc intelle-
ctualem oculum denudans à corporalibus, spiri-
tualibus & etiam diuinis imaginibus, quantum-
libet sublimes & nobiles sint, ingreditur caligi-
nem, vbi in quâ dā Dei perfectâ ignorantiâ con-
stituitur, velut inter duas mensas, ibique fame
potius perire eligit, quam descendere ad mensam
inferiorem, vbi Deus in imaginibus & similitudi-
nibus cognoscitur: ad mensam vero superiorem
vbi Deus in nudâ sua essentiâ cognoscitur adire
non permittitur. sic igitur manet in nudâ caligine
& nihileitate cogitationis suæ, immediatè coram
ignotâ gloriosâ diuinitatis præ sentiâ.translation


Trahe me post te, curremus in odorem dilecti. Cant. 8. 2.2 translation

Tout beau Amour, allez tout beau,
Car ie n'ay pas d'autre flambeau.

Nuict de l'Amour.
XXXIII.
Quand la splendeur de la vermeille aurore,
Et le soleil qui luy succede, & dore
Tout l'vniuers, refuseroit le jour;
Ie ne veux pas, pour faire ma carriere,
D'autre clarté, conduitte, ny lumiere,
Que le flambeau & guide de l'amour.

Como el amor es tan ciego
Para que vaya contiento
Le guia el entendimiento:

Treedt sacht/ o lief/ eens omme siet/
Want ander licht en hebb' ick niet.

Back to top ↑

Facsimile Images


Back to top ↑

Translations

Darkness of love.
The dog is the symbol of smell, smell is the symbol of faith. By this dog the soul is led, that by blind faith without any operation of intellect is moved directly by the heat of love to the contemplation of God, and realises itself in a sort of darkness, that cannot be comprehended by reason or intellect; in this darkness the soul, as it is in love, begins to experience that all that contemplating and intuitive knowledge, that first came in images and similarities, and also all that can be imagined through human intellect and naked knowledge, is endlessly remote from the truth itself of divine essence by its own dissimilarity. Hence stripping the mind's eye from the corporal, the spiritual and even the divine images, no matter how sublime and noble they are, it enters the darkness, where it constitutes itself in a kind of perfect ignorance of God,3 between two tables as it were, and it prefers to die of hunger rather than to step down to the lower table, where God is known in images and likenesses; To the higher table, however, it is not permitted to go, where God is known in His naked essence. Thus, therefore, it remains in the naked darkness of the nothingness of knowing, immediately in the presence of the unknown glorious presence of the divinity.
Draw me, we will run into the scent of the beloved.4

Back to top ↑

Literature


    Back to top ↑

    Sources and parallels



    Back to top ↑

    Iconclass

    Just outside a village, the blindfolded soul is walking her dog who follows the scent of sacred love

    Back to top ↑

    Comments

    commentary

    Back to top ↑

    Notes

    1
    Illegible, maybe it is Harp.(ocration).
    2
    Cant. 8.2 probably a misreading in the transcription for Cant. 1, 2 (it should be 1:3 [= Vg; in KJV, RSV trahe me post te, curremus is to be found in Cant. 1:4).
    3
    'Dei perfecta ignorantia', 'perfect ignorance of God': ultimately this is derived from the Neoplatonic idea that not-knowing is the highest form of knowledge, in e.g. Damascius. Compare the famous work "De docta ignorantia" by Nicolaus Cusanus (of Kues, of Cusa; 1401-1464).
    4
    A garbled version of a variant of Cant. 1:3, which in some MSS has the addition 'in odorem unguentorum tuorum', here it is replaced by 'in odorem dilecti'. Hence the translation differs from Bible translations. 'Draw me, we will run after thee', KJV.