Jane Hirshfield, ed., Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women.
“
Tighten
to nothing
the circle
that is
the world's things
Then the Naked
circle
can grow wide,
enlarging,
embracing all
— Hadewijch
What It Means
This is a placeholder explanation generated by the low-overhead model. It interprets "Tighten
to nothing
the circle
that is
the world's things
Then the Naked
circle
can grow wide,
enlarging,
embracing all" in the context of "Jane Hirshfield, ed., Women in Praise of the Sacred: 43 Centuries of Spiritual Poetry by Women." to mean that wisdom is timeless.
Source: Wikiquote: "Hadewijch" (Quotes, The Mengeldichten (Poems in Couplets) 25-29: The authorship of these poems is disputed. They are likely from a later disciple of Hadewijch, (known as Hadwijch II), rather than by her own hand, although they contain many themes in common with her uncontested works. Mark Jansen (1991) posits that Mengeldichten 17-24 are by Hadewijch but that 25-29 are by a later disciple. )
The 'What it means' explanation text was generated by Google Gemini Flash (accessed January 18, 2026). https://gemini.google.com/app
About Hadewijch
Hadewijch, also known as Hadewijch of Antwerp or Hadewijch of Brabant, was a 13th century Flemish Beguine, poet and mystic of the Catholic Church.
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