Angelus Silesius loves to write in riddles and paradoxes, especially ones that point to the divine mysteries in God.
The poems below are from my translations of the Cherubinic Wanderer, and a short series is preparing for publication. For updates, subscribe to my occasional newsletter.
We Don’t Know What We Are
I don’t know what I am,
I’m not what I know here:
a thing and not a thing,
a point and yet a sphere.
(1:5)
We Love without Knowing
I love one thing alone.
What is it? I don’t know.
And since I don’t know what—
that’s why I love it so.
(1:43)
Eternity
What is eternity?
Not there or that or this,
not nothing, but not now—
I don’t know what it is.
(2:153)
The Unsearchable Cause
God’s all things to himself,
all joys and pleasures true.
So why did he make us?
We haven’t any clue.
(4:126)
God Knows No End
God’s highness is unending.
Believe it well, my friend,
for he himself fails endlessly
to find his end.
(1:41)