CRUZ, San Juan de la
Dark Night of the Soul / En una noche obscura
One dark night,
fired with love’s urgent longings
— ah, the sheer grace! —
I went out unseen,
my house being now all stilled.
In darkness, and secure,
by the secret ladder, disguised,
— ah, the sheer grace! —
in darkness and concealment,
my house being now all stilled.
On that glad night,
in secret, for no one saw me,
nor did I look at anything,
with no other light or guide
than the one that burned in my heart.
This guided me
more surely than the light of noon
to where he was awaiting me
— him I knew so well —
there in a place where no one appeared.
O guiding night!
O night more lovely than the dawn!
O night that has united
the Lover with his beloved,
transforming the beloved in her Lover.
Upon my flowering breast
which I kept wholly for him alone,
there he lay sleeping,
and I caressing him
there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
When the breeze blew from the turret,
as I parted his hair,
it wounded my neck
with its gentle hand,
suspending all my senses.
I abandoned and forgot myself,
laying my face on my Beloved;
all things ceased; I went out from myself,
leaving my cares
forgotten among the lilies.
O flame of living love / Llama de amor viva
O flame of living love,
that at its deepest centre
wounds now my soul with tenderness!
Since you no more remove,
end then, if you intend to;
tear now the veil of mutual sweetness!
O cautery so sweet!
O wound’s caress!
O soothing hand! O delicate the touching,
that signals life complete,
pays every debt,
changes death to life in its ending!
O fiery light,
in whose resplendencies
deep caves of purest feeling,
that once were eyeless night,
with rarest beauties
shed warmth and light on the loving.
How lovingly, how gently
you return now to my breast
where you live all secret and alone
and filled with virtue’s glory
how your sweetest breath
delicately pierces to the bone!
Aunque es de noche / Though it is Night
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aunque es de noche!.
¡Que bien sé yo do tiene su manida aunque es de noche!
mas sé que todo origen della viene aunque es de noche.
y que cielos y tierra beben della aunque es de noche.
y que ninguno puede vadealla aunque es de noche.
y sé que toda luz de ella es venida aunque es de noche.
que infiernos cielos riegan y a las gentes aunque es de noche.
bien sé que es tan capaz y omnipotente aunque es de noche.
sé que ninguna de ellas le precede aunque es de noche.
en este vivo pan por darnos vida aunque es de noche.
y de esta agua se hartan, aunque a escuras porque es de noche.
en este pan de vida yo la veo aunque es de noche.
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Though it's night
How well I know where it has its lair Though it's night
But I know that everything's origin comes from it Though it's night
And that heavens and earth drink from it Though it's night
And that no one can cross through it Though it's night
And all light comes from it Though it's night
That heavens, hells water, and people Evеn though it is night
I know wеll that it is easily able and omnipotent Though it's night
I know that neither of them precedes it Though it is night
In this living bread to give us life Though it is night
And of this water they fill themselves, though in the dark Because it is night
In this bread of life, I see her Though it is night
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