“The Spring That Feeds the Torrent: Poems” by St. John of the Cross

St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) was a Catholic priest, a mystic, a friar, a prisoner, a friend of St. Teresa of Avila, and a poet. It is poetry, in fact, that he’s best remembered for – mystical, almost ecstatic meditations with, by, and for God. 

He was born Juan de Yepes y Alvarez near the town of Avila in Spain. He came from an impoverished family, with his father disowned and his mother from the lower class. His early years were marked by family deaths – his father and an older brother. His mother took him and his surviving brother on several journeys to find work. Eventually, Juan entered a school for poor children and later studied humanities under a relatively new order called the Jesuits. 

 

In 1563, he joined the Carmelite order. He was ordained a priest in 1567 and that year met Teresa of Avila, a reformer seeking to return the Carmelites to its original rule. A few years later, he experienced his vision of Christ on the cross and drew a picture of what he’d seen (which would eventually inspire Salvador Dali). The Carmelites were not happy with the reforms of Teresa and John, and in late 1577 he was arrested (essentially kidnapped), taken to Toledo, tried before a court of friars, and sentenced to imprisonment in extremely harsh conditions. He escaped, despite being in poor health. The pope would eventually approve a division of the Carmelites into “old” and “reformed.” John became one of the key leaders of the reformed Carmelites. He died in 1591, was beatified in 1675, and canonized in 1726.

 

His poetry, much of which was written during his imprisonment on paper smuggled in by a guard, is something of a personal odyssey, the sinner in search of God. Rhina Espaillat, translator of The Spring That Feeds the Torrent: Poems by St. John of the Cross, explains: “The theme is the need of the living presence of God, and the lengths to which the soul bereft of that company will go in order to find Him.”

 

Rhina Espaillat

Espaillat is ideally suited for the translation from the original Spanish into English. She is well known for her English-to-Spanish translations of the poetry of Robert Frost and Richard Wilbur and her own poetry chapbooks, essays, and short stories. She’s won many international awards for her work, including the T.S. Eliot Prize in Poetry, the Richard Wilbur Award, the Howard Nemerov Prize, and the May Sarton Award, among others.

 

She says she first read the poems of St. John of the Cross in childhood, and the poems stuck. It’s easy to see why. St. John of the Cross may be a mystic, but, at least in translation, he was a mystic who wrote in very accessible language. His best- known poem is “The Dark Night of the Soul,” describing the soul’s search for light. Here are the first three stanzas of that eight-stanza poem, as translated by Espaillat:

 

One darkest night I went,

Aflame with love’s devouring eager burning—

O delirious event!—

No witnesses discerning,

The house now still from which my steps were turning.

 

Hidden by darkness, bent

on flight, disguised, down secret steps sojourning—

O delirious event!—

Hidden by dark, and yearning,

The house now still from which my steps were turning;

 

In that most blissful night,

in secrecy, since none had seen my going,

nor did I pause for sight,

nor had I light, for showing

the route, but that which in my heart was glowing.

 

The Spring That Feeds the Torrent opens a window, and a door, both a time of religious upheaval and an individual’s search for God. These poems open into the heart of St. John of the Cross, and the humility and simplicity of what we find there is appealing in any age.

 

Top illustration: St. John of the Cross, painting by Francisco de Zurbaran (1598-1664). 

 

Some Monday Readings

 

The Weirdness of Ambrose Bierce: From “Owl Creek Bridge” to Horror and Satire – Anthony Aycock at Reactor Magazine. 

 

What’s My Point? Consider the Pencil – Joel Miller at Miller’s Bok Review.

 

The Prophets: Allan Bloom – Thomas Chatterton Williams at The Free Press.

 

The War on Citizenship – Michael Lind at Tablet Magazine.

 

Puzzle – artwork by Sonja Benskin Mesher.