First Things RSS Feed - St. John of the Cross, translated by Rhina P. Espaillat https://www.firstthings.com/author/st-john-of-the-cross-translated-by-rhina-p-espaillat en-us Copyright 2025 First Things. All Rights Reserved. ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) ft@firstthings.com (The Editors) Mon, 20 Jan 2025 16:56:04 -0500 https://d2201k5v4hmrsv.cloudfront.net/img/favicon-196.png First Things RSS Feed Image https://www.firstthings.com/rss/author/st-john-of-the-cross-translated-by-rhina-p-espaillat 60 One Darkest Night https://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/03/one-darkest-night https://www.firstthings.com/article/2010/03/one-darkest-night Mon, 01 Mar 2010 00:00:00 -0500 One darkest night I went,
aflame with love’s devouring eager burning”
O fortunate event!”
no witnesses discerning,
the house now still from which my steps were turning.

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]]> Glosa: Apart and Not Yet a Part https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/06/glosa-apart-and-not-yet-a-part https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/06/glosa-apart-and-not-yet-a-part Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400 Apart and not yet a part,
I live lightless and unseeing
to be consumed out of being.

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]]> Glosa: To the Divine https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/06/glosa-to-the-divine https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/06/glosa-to-the-divine Fri, 01 Jun 2007 00:00:00 -0400 The beauty that can be eyed
will never be my undoing,
but rather what, beyond viewing,
only fortune can provide.

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]]> Letrillos https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/03/letrillos https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/03/letrillos Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500 Nativity

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]]> The Youthful Shepherd https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/03/the-youthful-shepherd https://www.firstthings.com/article/2007/03/the-youthful-shepherd Thu, 01 Mar 2007 00:00:00 -0500 A youthful shepherd, wandering and feeling
far from his heart’s content, goes sad and lonely,
his thoughts on one he loves, and for her only
his breast pierced by love’s wound, deep and unhealing.

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]]> I Went In, I Knew Not Where https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/12/i-went-in-i-knew-not-where https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/12/i-went-in-i-knew-not-where Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0500 I went in, I knew not where
and stayed, not knowing, but going
past the boundaries of knowing.
I knew not the place around me,
how I came there or where from,
but seeing where then I found me,
I sensed great things, and grew dumb—
since no words for them would come—
lacking all knowledge, but going
past the boundaries of knowing.

Of piety and of peace
I had perfect comprehension;
solitude without surcease
showed the straight way, whose intention—
too secret for me to mention—
left me stammering, but going
past the boundaries of knowing.

So wholly rapt, so astonished
was I, from myself divided,
that my very senses vanished
and left me there unprovided
with knowledge, my spirit guided
by learning unlearned, and going
past the boundaries of knowing.

He who reaches that place truly
wills himself from self to perish;
all he lately knew, seen newly,
seems trifles unfit to cherish;
his new knowledge grows to flourish
so that he lingers there, going
past the boundaries of knowing.

The higher up one is lifted,
the less one perceives by sight
how the darkest cloud has drifted
to elucidate the night;
He who knows the dark aright
endures forever, by going
past the boundaries of knowing.
This wisdom, wise by unknowing,
wields a power so complete
that the learned wise men throwing
wisdom against it compete
with a force none can defeat,
since their wisdom makes no showing
past the boundaries of knowing.

There is virtue so commanding
in this high knowledge that wit,
human skill and understanding
cannot hope to rival it
in one who knows how to pit
against self his selfless going
past the boundaries of knowing.

And if you should care to learn
what this mode of being wise is,
it is yearnings that discern
the Divine in all its guises,
whose merciful gift and prize is
to confound all knowledge, going
past the boundaries of knowing.

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]]> Coplas: In Pursuit https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/12/coplas-in-pursuit https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/12/coplas-in-pursuit Fri, 01 Dec 2006 00:00:00 -0500 In pursuit of amatory
adventure, hope bid me fly
and I rose so high, so hig
that I closed upon the quarry.
To achieve so great a height,
divine adventure pursuing,
I flew so far that the doing
lifted me clear beyond sight.
A flight so extraordinary
rendered me too faint to fly:
It was love drew me so high
that I closed upon the quarry.

As I rose up high and higher”
my divine prey still uncaught”
weary and heartsick, I thought,
fallen from my one desire,
“All such attempts must miscarry.”
So cast down by this was I
that I rose up high, up high,
until I closed on the quarry.

Somehow I contrived to go
a thousandfold by once reaching:
heaven grants to the beseeching
what they earn through hope. For no
prize but this prey would I tarry,
and hope raised me by and by,
until I was high, so high
that I closed upon the quarry.

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]]> Songs of the Soul in Intimate Amorous Communion with God https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/08/songs-of-the-soul-in-intimate-amorous-communion-with-god https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/08/songs-of-the-soul-in-intimate-amorous-communion-with-god Tue, 01 Aug 2006 00:00:00 -0400 O love, you living flame
who wound with tender fire
my very soul, down to its depths descending!
No longer hushed by shame,
come now, to your desire;
sunder the veil that parts for sweet befriending.O soft subjection!
O wound that joys beget!
O gentle hand! O touch with pleasures rife
that hints at resurrection
and ransoms every debt!
You have done death to death, and made it life.O fiery lamps ignited-
whose bright resplendent gleams
light those deep caverns where the mind, in hiding,
dwelt blind and all benighted-
your dazzling radiance streams
warm rays on the beloved there abiding!How tenderly you love me
and conjure in my breast-
that secret place where you alone are treasured-
how”your sweet breath above me-
by heaven’s good possessed-
with what rare lover’s skill have I been pleasured!

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]]> Song of the Soul that Takes Pleasure in Knowing God by Faith https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/04/song-of-the-soul-that-takes-pleasure-in-knowing-god-by-faith https://www.firstthings.com/article/2006/04/song-of-the-soul-that-takes-pleasure-in-knowing-god-by-faith Sat, 01 Apr 2006 00:00:00 -0500 How well I know the spring that feeds the torrent,
though night has fallen!

The spring runs from forever, and past finding;
how well I know it as it flows down winding,
though night has fallen.

Since it has none, I know not where its source is,
but know that there all things begin their courses,
though night has fallen.

I know nowhere exists so fair a treasure,
yet heaven and earth there slake their thirst with pleasure,
though night has fallen.

So clear it shines that nothing foul can scum it,
and every light, I know, emanates from it,
though night has fallen.

So full its current, and so strongly churning,
that heaven rains on hell and on the burning,
though night has fallen.

The stream that flows, I know, from that first welling
equals the source in might beyond all telling,
though night has fallen.

The stream that from these two flows forth together
keeps equal pace, as bonded by a tether,
though night has fallen.

For that eternal spring is safely hidden
in this, life’s bread, the feast to which we’re bidden,
though night has fallen.

They’re called to this, all creatures here abiding,
to come and drink their fill, although in hiding,
since night has fallen.

That living fountain that I most desire
I find in this, the bread of life, entire,
though night has fallen.

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]]> A Spiritual Canticle of the Soul and the Bridegroom Christ https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/11/a-spiritual-canticle-of-the-soul-and-the-bridegroom-christ https://www.firstthings.com/article/2003/11/a-spiritual-canticle-of-the-soul-and-the-bridegroom-christ Sat, 01 Nov 2003 00:00:00 -0500 Where have you fled and vanished,
Beloved, since you left me here to moan?
Deer-like you leaped; then, banished
and wounded by my own,
I followed you with cries, but you had flown.

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