The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage

...to order it for him. I had the book sent to me—but I kept it for myself and read from it occasionally. One day, I began to translate Ruysbroeck’s debut work, The Kingdom of God’s Beloved, following the nearly literal Dutch translation by Dr. Möller, so that I could present a finished work as a gift for my Abbot’s Name Day The feast day of the saint after whom a monk is named; a significant day for celebration and gift-giving in a monastery. I immediately felt the blessing of such work in prayer and in the service of God, and I translated away boldly, just as I used to read books in foreign languages in my youth, without using a dictionary and without worrying at first whether I understood everything correctly. I sought to immerse myself in my author original: "Auktor", just as a child learns the meaning of the words it hears and thus gradually learns to speak and express itself.

When this first task was finished, I tackled The Adornment of the Spiritual Marriage, likewise initially following Dr. Möller’s Dutch text. By then, I had also obtained Lambert’s German translation, and in the library of the Beuron monastery Beuron Archabbey in Germany, a famous center for the study of liturgy and theology, I found the [incomplete] German edition of Ruysbroeck’s works by Gottfried Arnold, published in Offenbach am Main in the year 1701. This translation was based on the Latin version by the famous Carthusian A member of a strictly contemplative religious order; the Latin translations by the Carthusians helped spread Ruysbroeck's work across Europe Laurentius Surius (died 1522), which, though not literal, is nonetheless excellent.

Gradually, I penetrated the understanding of Ruysbroeck’s teachings. Möller’s introduction contributed much to this, and Lambert’s translation also brought me greater clarity. It is precise, almost literal, but unfortunately somewhat dry and un—