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A Study of the Poem: Noche oscura del alma of St John of the Cross
Published online by Cambridge University Press: 28 February 2024
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Noche Oscura
Stanzas
en que canta el alma la dichosa ventura quo tuvo pasar por La Oscura Noche de la Fe en desnudez y purgacion suya, a la union del amado.
1 En una noche oscura,
con ansias, en amores inflamada,
oh dichosa ventura!,
sail sin ser notada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada;
2 a escuras y segura
por la secreta escala, disfrazada,
oh dichosa ventura!,
a escuras y en celada,
estando ya mi casa sosegada;
3 en la noche dichosa,.
en secreto, que naide me veia,
ni yo miraba cosa,
sin otra luz y guia,
sino la que en el corazon ardia.
4 Aquesta me guiaba
mas cierto que la luz del mediodia,
adonde me esperaba
quien yo bien me sabia,
en parte donde naide parecia.
5 Oh noche que guiaste!
Oh noche, amable m&s que la alborada!
Oh noche que juntaste
Amado con amada,
amada en el Amado transformada!
6 En mi pecho florido,
que entero para el solo se guardaba,
alii quedo dormido,
y yo le regalaba,
y en ventalle de cedros aire daba.
7 El aire del almena,
cuando yo sus cabellos esparda,
con su mano serena
en mi cuello heria
y todos mis sentidos suspendia.
8 Quedeme y olvideme,
el rostro recline sobre el Amado:
ceso todo, y dej?me,
dejando mi cuidado
entre las azucenas olividado.
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- Research Article
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- Copyright
- Copyright © 1991 Provincial Council of the English Province of the Order of Preachers
References
1 By far the best account of the Gjntico espiritual, its dependence on the Song of Songs and other aspects of the poem is to be found in The Poet und the Mysric: A Study of the Gtntico Espintual of Son Juan de la Cruz, by the Revd. Dr. Colin P. Thompson (Oxford University Press, 1977).
2 It is just possible that almena is a reminiscence of St. Teresa’s Interior Castle. She began writing this book on Trinity Sunday (June 2nd) 1577. At the time St. John was confessor to the Convent of the Encarnacibn in Avila where she wrote the Castle.
3 The idea of dance, a formal patterned, significant movement. conveyed in both Noche and Gánlico, is in fact present in the biblical text at Vl, 13 and VII. I but is obscured by the Vulgate. Modern translations (Jerusalem, the Paoline Italian, Schonfield. for example) make it explicit. Fray Luis de bn in his translation and commentary of the Song of Songs did not understand it so, though he was undoubtedly working from the Hebrew as well as the Vulgate. St. John of the Cross certainly knew León’s commentary (in Latin, 1582), and quite possibly the Spanish translation in manuscript.
4 There are two versions of the Gántico, differing mainly in the order of stanzas and in the addition of one stanza. For a detailed and lucid account of the matter see Chapter 3 of Dr. Thompson’s book The Poet and the Mystic, cf. note 1, above.
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