Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti) - Love beyond all telling (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)

September 2, 2009

Here's your Daily Poem from the Poetry Chaikhana --

Love beyond all telling (from Self-Annihilation and Charity Lead the Soul...)

By Jacopone da Todi (Jacopone Benedetti)(1230 - 1306)

English version by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

Love beyond all telling,Goodness beyond imagining,Light of infinite intensityGlows in my heart.I once thought that reasonHad led me to You,And that through feelingI sensed Your presence,Caught a glimpse of You in similitudes,Knew You in Your perfection.I know now that I was wrong,That that truth was flawed.Light beyond metaphor,Why did You deign to come into this darkness?Your light does not illumine those who think they see YouAnd believe they sound Your depths.Night, I know now, is day,Virtue no more to be found.He who witnesses Your splendorCan never describe it.On achieving their desired endHuman powers cease to function,And the soul sees that what it thought was rightWas wrong. A new exchange occursAt that point where all light disappears;A new and unsought state is

needed:The soul has what it did not love,And is stripped of all it possessed, no matter how dear.In God the spiritual facultiesCome to their desired end,Lose all sense of self and self-consciousness,And are swept into infinity.The soul, made new again,Marveling to find itselfIn that immensity, drowns.How this comes about it does not know.

-- from Jacopone da Todi: Lauds (Classics of Western Spirituality), Translated by Serge and Elizabeth Hughes

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Thought for the Day:

Enlightenment is the ultimate acquisition,as far as the ego is concerned.Now, if the ego can only figure outhow to hold enlightenmentand not lose itself!

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Hi Alan -Little is known with historical certainty about the life of of Jacopone da Todi. He was born Jacopone Benedetti to a wealthy family in the town of Todi, Italy. As a young man he entered a career as a notario, combining the skills of an accountant and a lawyer. And he married. All of these elements suggest an early life with some amount of worldly success.A popular story from an early religious biography suggests that his life drastically changed when, at a wedding feast, a balcony collapsed and mortally wounded his young wife. Devastated, Jacopone abandoned his career and gave away all of his possessions. This event is questioned by modern historians, however, as possibly being manufactured for religious drama. But something happened to his wife and prompted his radical conversion.He become a wandering penitent and a source of public ridicule. Jacopone

eventually joined the Franciscan order. Among the Franciscans, he discovered his gift for poetry. Brother Jacopone became a leader of the Spirituals faction of Franciscans who dedicated themselves to the ideal of radical poverty.The Franciscan Spirituals got caught up in the ugly politics of papal succession of the time, and Jacopone was imprisoned for five years for his opposition to the election of Pope Boniface VIII. Throughout this time, Jacopone continued to write his ecstatic and mournful poems that touch upon the deepest personal encounters with divine Love. With his release on Pope Boniface's death, Jacopone retired to a hermitage near Orvieto. He died on Christmas Day in 1306.===Love beyond all telling,Goodness beyond imagining,Light of infinite intensityGlows in my heart.Too often statements like this can sound like a formula of religious piety, but it is more than that. These are the

direct experiences of the mystic. The chest warms, the heart opens and seems to encompass all of creation. This is not just an idea or some philosophical notion -- it is felt tangibly in the body as well as the soul. Love floods in, and a sense of utter harmony, rightness, the "goodness" of being. And many mystics also witness a dazzling gold-white light like an ocean that through everything, showing the multiplicity of creation to secretly be a shining unity.It is this that Jacopone da Todi is writing of.I once thought that reasonHad led me to You...I know now that I was wrong,That that truth was flawed.These verses are a call to the religious minded to not be content with thinking one has found the truth or assertions of belief alone. He is proclaiming that the real truth is somehow more direct and surprising than that. All mental conceptualization is limited by the intellect and imagination, yet the

reality we seek is beyond the mind's ability to conceive of...Light beyond metaphor...He who witnesses Your splendorCan never describe it.Here, words fail. The mind can only become a mute witness.The very notion of self melts amidst that immensity...And are swept into infinity.The soul, made new again,Marveling to find itselfIn that immensity, drowns.How this comes about it does not know.Have a beautiful day!Ivan

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Ivan M. Granger's original poetry, stories and commentaries are 2002 - 2008 by Ivan M. Granger.All other material is copyrighted by the respective authors, translators and/or publishers.

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