Bernard’s Belching Bride: TheAffectusthat Words cannot Express

In Sermon 67 of his set of sermons on the Song of Songs, Bernard of Clairvaux is rendered speechless by the verse Dilectus meus mihi et ego illi. There are no words with which to express the soul’s delight in its union with the divine. There is resort only to the language of affectus – a spontaneous eruption of joy unconstrained by the rules of normal speech. In this instance, it is the belch that expresses the inexpressible love of the soul for God. This paper suggests several reasons why Bernard selected the belch: It is consistent with the references to eating, both metaphorical and literal, that recur throughout the commentaries. It is a phenomenon that makes palpable on a physical level the experience of the divine. Consideration is given to whether the belch is a form of jubilus. Bernard’s focus on the belch, furthermore, suggests his ambivalence towards matters of the body.