O spectabiles viri / Antiphon for Patriarchs and Prophets
by Hildegard von BingenEnglish version by Barbara Newman
Original Language Latin
Spectacular men! you see
with the spirit's eyes,
piercing the veil.
In a luminous shade you proclaim
a sharp living brightness
that buds from a branch
that blossomed alone
when the radical light took root.
Holy ones of old! you foretold
deliverance for the souls
of exiles
slumped in the dead lands.
Like wheels you
spun round in wonder as you spoke
of the mysterious mountain
at the brink of heaven
that stills many waters, sailing
over the waves.
And a shining lamp
burned in the midst of you!
Pointing,
he runs to the mountain.
 | -- from Symphonia: A Critical Edition of the Symphonia armonie celstium revelationum, by Hildegard of Bingen / Translated by Barbara Newman |
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/ Image by Wolfgang Staudt /
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A few thoughts --
Spectacular men! you see
with the spirit's eyes,
piercing the veil.
That taunting veil of surface seeming. It both hides and it reveals. It dances and teases the senses. But there is a point at which we must learn to see through its gauzy fabric.
In a luminous shade...
Hildegard seems to be suggesting that the material, everyday reality is shaded, veiled, but it also contains within it an inherent luminous glow visible to those who see "with the spirit's eyes," the "spectacular men."
That "sharp living brightness," the "radical light" that "took root" might be understood as Christ, the light in the world.
Like wheels you
spun round in wonder as you spoke...
These lines evoke a grin on my face. The imagery, the words carry a sense of delight. Pure wonder -- at the Divine, at the sheer immensity of Existence -- floods us, fills us, until all we can do is turn in all directions, in witness to the All. This almost brings to mind the image of Mevlevi dervishes, spinning and spinning, at once animated and at rest in divine contemplation.
...of the mysterious mountain
at the brink of heaven
that stills many waters, sailing
over the waves.
The mountain, like Christ, brings calm to the waters. But the phrasing here is particularly interesting to me. To talk of stilling "many waters" uses the gospel story of Christ calming the water and transmutes it into a broader statement about the psyche and its relationship with the world around it. It suggests a profound stilling of the turbulent movement that occurs throughout creation. It suggests the waves of the mind and its disharmonious perceptions of the world being made still, calm, clear. This "mysterious mountain," which is the bridge to heaven ("at the brink of heaven"), summons forth the hidden awareness of the harmonious unity of creation.
Pointing,
he runs to the mountain.
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