1Barke: barge (a large, flat-bottomed boat)
2duc in altum: take the boat out to sea
3By employing the ship and sea metaphors Tauler seems to describe here the first step towards the mystical attainment of the Divine, the «via purgativa», in terms of a "vfferhaben sein, " or the rising above all creatures.
4This passage reveals Tauler as the humble teacher who refuses to place himself on the self-righteous pedestal of an effete preacher.
5Hildegard von Bingen