Lead Me
gabrielle July 11th, 2008
I cannot dance, O Lord,
Unless You lead me,
If You wish me to leap joyfully,
Let me see You dance and sing -
Then I will leap into Love -
And from Love into Knowledge,
And from Knowledge into the Harvest,
That sweetest Fruit beyond human sense.
There I will stay with You, whirling.
[Mechthild of Magdeburg]
how incredibly soulful, vibrant, lovely & stirring to my spirit. thank you for sharing this, gabrielle. tell me more about the source of this poem, please.
(((hugs)))
P.S. this one didn’t need a video and/or music included in the post…somehow, there is music rising up in my soul at this very moment.
Kristin, it is from Mechthild of Magdeburg’s, “The Flowing Light of the Godhead”. You can find this portion online at Poet Seers or Poetry Chaikhana, although in a slightly different translation. I’m glad it stirred your spirit, my little dervish.
Just be careful with that ankle. 
It’s easy to imagine Him a graceful, mirthful Lord, for when was He ever not exactly that? But I, whirl? I’d need some decent ankle-straps, first–I’m Godzilla in work sneaks. It’s funny, tho’ — a few years ago when a direly suffering friend was now dying much too early and nearly 100% unhappily, I sent her an e-page about how He was coming to dance with her.. I thought of it again with all the old ladies who were dying. I could so easily picture Him rising from within and lifting them in a “Talitha cumi” dance, and whirling them out of this crazy place. Maybe that answers what I ponder below?:
“from Knowledge into the Harvest” — I’d first thought she’d meant into the world (while not of it), but she then goes on to call it a sweet Fruit.
lovely. thank you so much for sharing this. i always love the images of dancing and swirling, arms wide open to God and the world.
Carol, this is the translation from the “Poet Seers” site:
I cannot dance, Lord, unless you lead me.
If you want me to leap with abandon,
You must intone the song.
Then I shall leap into love,
From love into knowledge,
From knowledge into enjoyment,
And from enjoyment beyond all human sensations.
There I want to remain, yet want also to circle higher still.
We can see that much depends on the translation…and which is more correct, I cannot say…
My own feeling is that she may be talking about contemplation, from the beginnings of infused contemplation into a mystical direct experience of God with sensory consolations, but that she desires to go beyond these consolations to the heights of contemplation. I don’t have “The Flowing Light of the Godhead”, but I would really love to read it in its entirety.
Lucy, I love those images too! Receptivity and wild abandon, but with grace, when God is in charge of the whirlwind/vortex…