Granum sinapis

The Mustard Seed

I

When all began
(beyond mind's span)
the Word aye is
Oh what bliss
When source at first gave birth to source!
Oh Father's heart
from which did start
that same Word:
yet 'tis averred,
the Word's still kept
in womb perforce. 

II

From both doth flow
a loving glow:
in double troth
known to both
comes forth from them the Holy Ghost,
of equal state
inseparate
The three are one:
who grasps it? None!
Itself it knows itself the most.

III

The threefold clasp
we cannot grasp,
the circle's span
no mind can scan:
for here's a mystery fathomless.
Check and mate,
time, form, estate!
The wondrous ring
holds everything,
its central point stands motionless. 

IV

The peak sublime
deedless climb
if thou art wise!  
Thy way then lies
through desert very strange to see,
so deep, so wide,
no bound's descried.
This desert's bare
of Then or There
in modeless singularity.

V

This desert place
no foot did pace,
no creature mind
ingress can find.
It is, yet truly none
knows what.
'Tis there, 'tis here,
'tis far, 'tis near,
'tis high, 'tis low,
yet all we know
is: This it's not and That it's not.

VI

It's clear, it's bright,
it's dark as night;
no name or sign
can it define,
beginningless, of ceasing free.
Immobile, bare,
'tis flowing there.
Where it may dwell,
whoso can tell,
should teach us
what its form may be.

VII

As a child become,
both blind and dumb.
Thy own self's aught
must turn to naught.
Both aught and naught thou must reject,
without a trace
of image, time, or space.
Go quite astray
the pathless way,
the desert thou mayst then detect.

VIII

My soul within,
come out, God in!
Sink all my aught
in God's own naught,
sink down in bottomless abyss.
Should I flee thee,
thou wilt come to me;
when self is done,
then Thou art won,
thou transcendental highest bliss!

Tr. Bernard McGinn