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Eleven books by a shoemaker of Görlitz who wrote, by his own account, because he could not help it. Ten of them stand here in the seventeenth-century English of John Sparrow, who translated Boehme within a generation of his death and whose prose is itself now four hundred years old; where that English has drifted out of reach, the facing pane carries a modern register — the same text with archaic inflection and spelling normalised by rule, never paraphrased. Nothing is reworded, and where no register appears beside a passage it is because the rules found nothing to change.
The eleventh book is not in English at all, and it is the reason this note exists.
Des trois principes de l'essence divine, printed at Paris in 1802, is the same work as Concerning the Three Principles of the Divine Essence, which stands here as the second book — the same twenty-seven chapters in the same order, opening `Du premier principe de l'essence divine` against Sparrow's `Of the first Principle of the Divine Essence`. Its translator was Louis-Claude de Saint-Martin, who gave the last years of his life to putting Boehme into French, and who has a shelf of his own in this Lycaeum.
That makes a closed circuit inside this archive, and it is worth naming plainly. Saint-Martin translates Boehme. La Iniciación, printed in Montevideo a hundred and forty years later, traces its own descent through Saint-Martin. A reader can therefore follow one thread from a German mystic of 1619, through the French philosopher who carried him into another language, to a Spanish-language monthly of the 1940s that claimed them both — and read every step of it in the original.
The two are shelved as one work rather than two because that is what they are. They are not set as facing panes: an English translation of 1619 and a French translation of 1802 are two independent readings of a lost German original, and pairing them line by line would assert a correspondence neither translator ever claimed.
1out of the centre of nature, although the last letter in the syllable Brot expresseth that it is paradisical bread: for the cross in its character [T] in the language of nature, carrieth the severe name of God [GOTTES]; which, if men will rightly expound it, and understand it according to the language of nature, may be understood powerfully, and in its highest depth, in the word Tetragrammaton [Jehovah ]; for that word comprehendeth all the Three Principles; and in the word Adonai, God is understood as in one Principle, viz. in the angelical world; which may be expounded in a treatise by itself. We set down this, that this syllable might be considered of; for Brot [bread] is the food of the body; and is to be understood concerning the fierce wrath, that it hath mixed itself in it, and signifieth the house of lamentation and mourning: But since we must have this food, therefore the soul reacheth after it for the maintenance of its bestial body. 66. Heu-, this syllable signifieth the eternal bread of the soul, the new body, viz. the heavenly substantiality: for the will goeth forth out of the bread into the Heu, that is, the eternal substantiality, viz. the bread of God, Christ's flesh; -te, this syllable confirmeth that it affordeth and frameth the severe name [Gottes] of God; for the soul desireth a twofold bread, one for the belly, and the other for its holy heavenly body. The Fifth Petition.
2Und verlasse uns unser Schuld, als wir verlassen unser Schuldigern. And forgive us our Debts [trespasses], as we forgive our Debtors. 67. Und, this syllable is that wherein the will of the soul awakeneth the love of God; for the will sticketh fast in the word und, as in the meekness; it satiateth the ver-, viz. the anger, and springeth with the und [or meekness] up, as a budding, growing substance [vegetable], like a blossom out of the ver-, and yet they remain one in another: for ver- is the centre of the life, it hath the fire of the wrath, and the und belongeth to the second Principle: -lasse or -lass is the cleansing of that which is generated out of the ver-, of which Isaiah saith; Were your sins red as blood, if you turn, they shall be as wool, white as snow. In the syllable -lasse, is the bath or laver, wherein the ver- must be washed, or else it cannot subsist in the kingdom of God. 68. Uns is the union again, where the will of the soul, viz. the communion or fraternity, that is all souls, in one will, desire to be washed. 69. Un-, there the will yieldeth itself into the love of God, and washeth [cleanseth] the evil child, -ser; and thereby confesseth all evil and wickedness [for all in common], as if they were but one only soul. 70. Schuld, this is the true catalogue or
3register, which the anger hath brought into the soul, which catalogue the will desireth to cast away altogether: But the mouth catcheth the syllable again as a flash, to signify that our works shall stand eternally to the wonders of God; and we need only wash them, that they might not be comprised in the fierce wrath of God, and inflamed; else they belong to the abyss, to the dark Principle. 71. Als, in this syllable the will of the soul compriseth together all whatsoever is called soul, and speaketh of many, as if they were but one. 72. Wir, in this syllable the will complaineth against the anguish of the source of disquietness in the soul, where one soul often hurteth another, and therefore the will compriseth together the turba of all souls, and saith [as followeth]: 73. Ver-, that is, the will [of the soul] desireth that the fierce wrath of all souls might be thrust downward upon a heap into the abyss: -las-, that is, to let it go, and not know it more in the fierceness of the anger: for the syllable -sen retaineth the form of the wonder: but it must be washed in the Lassen [or letting it go], for Lassen is the laver or bath [to wash it in] . 74. Un-, this syllable yet again presseth into the love of God, and desireth to bring the washed souls into the love: -ser, this syllable, in the
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
1out of the centre of nature, although the last letter in the syllable Brot expresseth that it is paradisical bread: for the cross in its character [T] in the language of nature, carrieth the severe name of God [GOTTES]; which, if men will rightly expound it, and understand it according to the language of nature, may be understood powerfully, and in its highest depth, in the word Tetragrammaton [Jehovah ]; for that word comprehendeth all the Three Principles; and in the word Adonai, God is understood as in one Principle, viz. in the angelical world; which may be expounded in a treatise by itself. We set down this, that this syllable might be considered of; for Brot [bread] is the food of the body; and is to be understood concerning the fierce wrath, that it hath mixed itself in it, and signifieth the house of lamentation and mourning: But since we must have this food, therefore the soul reacheth after it for the maintenance of its bestial body. 66. Heu-, this syllable signifieth the eternal bread of the soul, the new body, viz. the heavenly substantiality: for the will goeth forth out of the bread into the Heu, that is, the eternal substantiality, viz. the bread of God, Christ's flesh; -te, this syllable confirmeth that it affordeth and frameth the severe name [Gottes] of God; for the soul desireth a twofold bread, one for the belly, and the other for its holy heavenly body. The Fifth Petition.
2Und verlasse uns unser Schuld, als wir verlassen unser Schuldigern. And forgive us our Debts [trespasses], as we forgive our Debtors. 67. Und, this syllable is that wherein the will of the soul awakeneth the love of God; for the will sticketh fast in the word und, as in the meekness; it satiateth the ver-, viz. the anger, and springeth with the und [or meekness] up, as a budding, growing substance [vegetable], like a blossom out of the ver-, and yet they remain one in another: for ver- is the centre of the life, it hath the fire of the wrath, and the und belongeth to the second Principle: -lasse or -lass is the cleansing of that which is generated out of the ver-, of which Isaiah saith; Were your sins red as blood, if you turn, they shall be as wool, white as snow. In the syllable -lasse, is the bath or laver, wherein the ver- must be washed, or else it cannot subsist in the kingdom of God. 68. Uns is the union again, where the will of the soul, viz. the communion or fraternity, that is all souls, in one will, desire to be washed. 69. Un-, there the will yieldeth itself into the love of God, and washeth [cleanseth] the evil child, -ser; and thereby confesseth all evil and wickedness [for all in common], as if they were but one only soul. 70. Schuld, this is the true catalogue or
3register, which the anger hath brought into the soul, which catalogue the will desireth to cast away altogether: But the mouth catcheth the syllable again as a flash, to signify that our works shall stand eternally to the wonders of God; and we need only wash them, that they might not be comprised in the fierce wrath of God, and inflamed; else they belong to the abyss, to the dark Principle. 71. Als, in this syllable the will of the soul compriseth together all whatsoever is called soul, and speaketh of many, as if they were but one. 72. Wir, in this syllable the will complaineth against the anguish of the source of disquietness in the soul, where one soul often hurteth another, and therefore the will compriseth together the turba of all souls, and saith [as followeth]: 73. Ver-, that is, the will [of the soul] desireth that the fierce wrath of all souls might be thrust downward upon a heap into the abyss: -las-, that is, to let it go, and not know it more in the fierceness of the anger: for the syllable -sen retaineth the form of the wonder: but it must be washed in the Lassen [or letting it go], for Lassen is the laver or bath [to wash it in] . 74. Un-, this syllable yet again presseth into the love of God, and desireth to bring the washed souls into the love: -ser, this syllable, in the
The source text as printed, transcribed diplomatically. Where the source language uses a non-Latin script that reaches us only through a Victorian romanisation, this layer is labelled transliteration, because that is what we hold.
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