Poems of St. John of the Cross

       I promised myself that after I returned The Time Traveler's Wife, it would be my last book for this sem. But I needed some cheering up after my midterm and it just so happened that while I was looking for a collection of Neruda poems, I chanced upon a nondescript black book: The Poems of St. John of the Cross. The book contains the original Spanish poems and their translations.

I've gone through half of it, but will probably need to take a more thorough, second look on the works of this mystic saint. I must say that his words and his use of allegory and paradoxical phrases and symbolism are simply stunning. Here are some of the ones that I really like so far:

Concerning the Divine Word

With the divinest Word, the Virgin

Made pregnant, down the road

Comes walking, if you'll grant her

A room in your abode.

Other songs concernin Christ and the soul

A shepherd lad was mourning his distress,

Far from all comfort, friendless and forlorn.

He fixed his thouht upon his shepherdess

Because his breast by love was sorely torn.

He did not weep that love had pierced him so,

Nor with self-pity that the shaft was shot,

Though deep into his heart had sunk the blow,

It grieved him more that he had been forgot.

Only to think that he had been forgotten

By his sweet shepherdess, with travail sore,

He let his foes (in foreign lands begoteen)

Gash the poor breast that love had gashed before.

'Alas! Alas! for him', the Shepherd cries,

'Who tries from me my dearest love to part

So that she does not gaze into my eyes

Or see that I am wounded to the heart.'

Then, after a long time, a tree he scaled,

Opened his strong arms bravely wide apart,

And clung upon that tree till death prevailed,

So sorely was he wounded in his heart.

Dark Night of the Soul (Stanzas)

 On a darkened night,

Anxious, by love inflamed,
-- O happy chance! --
Unnoticed, I took flight,
My house at last at peace and quiet.

Safe, disguised by the night,
By the secret ladder I took flight,
-- O happy chance! --
Cloaked by darkness, I scaled the height,
My house at last at peace and quiet.

On that blessed night,
In secret, and seen by none,
None in sight,
I saw with no other guide or light,
But the one burning in my heart bright.

This guide, this light,
Brighter than the midday sun,
Led me to the waiting One
I knew so well -- my delight!
To a place with none in sight.

O night! O guide!
O night more loving than the dawn!
O night that joined
The lover with the Beloved;
Transformed, the lover into the Beloved drawn!

Upon my flowered breast,
For him alone kept fair,
There he slept
There I caressed,
There the cedars gave us air.

I drank the turret's cool air
Spreading playfully his hair.
And his hand, so serene,
Cut my throat.
Drained of senses, I dropped unaware.

Lost to myself and yet remaining,
Inclined so only the Beloved I spy.
All has ceased, all rests,
Even my cares, even I;
Lost among the lilies, there I die.

There are some more good ones in the book. Some are very long but very much worth the time.