This is the complete original version of the Spiritual Canticle, by Saint John of the Cross, including the translation into english. It is one of the most beatiful and profound poems ever written in spanish. The Canticle has two versions. This is version B, composed of forty stanzas. In version A, the order of the stanzas -only 39- is slightly different. But the meaning of both is the same: they tell of the way which the soul must follow in order to be one with its Beloved, which is God.
After the text, I include some brief notes. They are obviously insufficient for such a deep and complex text. The reader must be aware of the fact that, for each one of the versions of the Canticle, John of the Cross wrote two long writings in prose-more than two hundred pages each- in order to explain the spiritual and mystical meaning of the poem.
Not to tell that the original rythm and music of the poem are very difficult to find in the translation. Anyway, for the reader who has some knowledge of the spanish language, the translation will help him greatly in order to discover that magnificent harmony an identify it with the meaning of the poem.
SAN JUAN DE LA CRUZ – SAINT JOHN OF THE CROSS
Canciones entre el alma y el Esposo – Stanzas between the soul and the Bridegroom conocidas con el nombre de – known as
CANTO ESPIRITUAL – THE SPIRITUAL CANTICLE
ESPOSA 1. ¿Adónde te escondiste, Amado, y me dejaste con gemido? Como el ciervo huiste, habiéndome herido; salí tras ti clamando y eras ido. |
BRIDE 1. Where have you hidden, Beloved, and left me moaning? You fled like the stag after wounding me; I went out calling you, but you were gone. |
2. Pastores los que fuerdes allá por las majadas al otero, si por ventura vierdes aquel que yo más quiero. decidle que adolezco, peno y muero. |
2. Shepherds, you who go up through the sheepfolds to the hill, if by chance you see him I love most, tell him I am sick, I suffer, and I die. |
3. Buscando mis amores iré por esos montes y riberas; ni cogeré las flores ni temeré las fieras, y pasaré los fuertes y fronteras. |
3. Seeking my Love I will head for the mountains and for watersides, I will not gather flowers, nor fear wild beasts; I will go beyond strong men and frontiers. |
PREGUNTA A LAS CRIATURAS 4. ¡Oh bosques y espesuras plantadas por la mano del Amado! ¡oh prado de verduras de flores esmaltado!, decid si por vosotros ha pasado. |
QUESTIONS TO THE CREATURES 4. O woods and thickets, planted by the hand of my Beloved! O green meadow, coated, bright, with flowers, tell me, has he passed by you? |
RESPUESTA DE LAS CRIATURAS 5. Mil gracias derramando pasó por estos sotos con presura y, yéndolos mirando, con sola su figura vestidos los dejó de hermosura. |
ANSWER OF THE CREATURES 5. Pouring out a thousand graces, he passed these groves in haste; and having looked at them, with his image alone, clothed them in beauty. |
ESPOSA 6. ¡Ay!, ¿quién podrá sanarme? Acaba de entregarte ya de vero; no quieras enviarme de hoy más ya mensajero, que no saben decirme lo que quiero. |
THE BRIDE 6. Ah, who has the power to heal me? now wholly surrender yourself! Do not send me any more messengers, they cannot tell me what I must hear. |
7. Y todos cuantos vagan de ti me van mil gracias refiriendo, y todos más me llagan, y déjame muriendo un no sé qué que quedan balbuciendo. |
7. All who are free tell me a thousand graceful things of you; all wound me more and leave me dying of, ah, I-don’t-know-what behind their stammering. |
8. Mas ¿cómo perseveras, ¡oh vida!, no viviendo donde vives y haciendo porque mueras las flechas que recibes de lo que del Amado en ti concibes? |
8. How do you endure O life, not living where you live, and being brought near death by the arrows you receive from that which you conceive of your Beloved? |
9. ¿Por qué, pues has llagado aqueste corazón, no le sanaste? Y, pues me le has robado, por qué así le dejaste y no tomas el robo que robaste? |
9. Why, since you wounded this heart, don’t you heal it? And why, since you stole it from me, do you leave it so, and fail to carry off what you have stolen? |
10. Apaga mis enojos, pues que ninguno basta a deshacellos, y véante mis ojos, pues eres lumbre dellos, y sólo para ti quiero tenellos. |
10. Extinguish these miseries, since no one else can stamp them out; and may my eyes behold you, because you are their light, and I would open them to you alone. |
11. Descubre tu presencia, y máteme tu vista y hermosura; mira que la dolencia de amor, que no se cura sino con la presencia y la figura. |
11. Reveal your presence, and may the vision of your beauty be my death; for the sickness of love is not cured except by your very presence and image. |
12. ¡Oh cristalina fuente, si en esos tus semblantes plateados formases de repente los ojos deseados que tengo en mis entrañas dibujados! |
12. O spring like crystal! If only, on your silvered-over faces, you would suddenly form the eyes I have desired, which I bear sketched deep within my heart. |
13. ¡Apártalos, Amado, que voy de vuelo! ESPOSO Vuélvete, paloma, que el ciervo vulnerado por el otero asoma al aIre de tu vuelo, y fresco toma. |
13. Withdraw them, Beloved, I am taking flight! BRIDEGROOM Return, dove, the wounded stag is in sight on the hill, cooled by the breeze of your flight. |
ESPOSA 14. Mi Amado, las montañas, los valles solitarios nemorosos, las ínsulas extrañas, los ríos sonorosos, el silbo de los aires amorosos; |
BRIDE 14. My Beloved, the mountains, and lonely wooded valleys, strange islands, and resounding rivers, the whistling of love-stirring breezes, |
15. la noche sosegada en par de los levantes de la aurora, la música callada, la soledad sonora, la cena que recrea y enamora. |
15. the tranquil night at the time of the rising dawn, silent music, sounding solitude, the supper that refreshes, and deepens love. |
16. Cazadnos las raposas, que está ya florecida nuestra viña, en tanto que de rosas hacemos una piña, y no parezca nadie en la montiña. |
16. Catch us the foxes, for our vineyard is now in flower, while we fashion a cone of roses intricate as the pine’s; and let no one appear on the hill. |
17. Detente, cierzo muerto; ven, austro, que recuerdas los amores, aspira por mi huerto y corran sus olores, y pacerá el Amado entre las flores. |
17. Be still, deadening north wind; south wind, come, you that waken love, breathe through my garden, let its fragrance flow, and the Beloved will feed amid the flowers. |
18. ¡Oh ninfas de Judea!, en tanto que en las flores y rosales el ámbar perfumea, morá en los arrabales y no queráis tocar nuestros umbrales. |
18. You girls of Judea, while among flowers and roses the amber spreads its perfume, stay away, there on the outskirts: do not so much as seek to touch our thresholds. |
19. Escóndete, Carillo, y mira con tu haz a las montañas y no quieras decillo; más mira las compañas de la que va por ínsulas extrañas. |
19. Hide yourself, my love; turn your face toward the mountains, and do not speak; but look at those companions going with her through strange islands. |
ESPOSO 20. A las aves ligeras, leones, ciervos, gamos, saltadores, montes, valles, riberas, aguas, aires, ardores y miedos de las noches veladores: |
BRIDEGROOM 20. Swift-winged birds, lions, stags, and leaping roes, mountains, lowlands, and river banks, waters, winds, and ardors, watching fears of night: |
21. Por las amenas liras y canto de serenas os conjuro que cesen vuestras iras y no toquéis el muro, por que la esposa duerma más seguro. |
21. By the pleasant lyres and the siren’s song, I conjure you to cease your anger and not touch the wall, that the bride may sleep in deeper peace |
22. Entrado se ha la esposa en el ameno huerto deseado, y a su sabor reposa, el cuello reclinado sobre los dulces brazos del Amado. |
22. The bride has entered the sweet garden of her desire, and she rests in delight, laying her neck on the gentle arms of her Beloved. |
23. Debajo del manzano, allí fuiste conmigo desposada, allí te di la mano, y fuiste reparada donde tu madre fuera violada. |
23. Beneath the apple tree: there I took you for my own, there I offered you my hand, and restored you, where your mother was corrupted. |
24. Nuestro lecho florido, de cuevas de leones enlazado, en púrpura tendido, de paz edificado, de mil escudos de oro coronado. |
24. Our bed is in flower, bound round with linking dens of lions, hung with purple, built up in peace, and crowned with a thousand shields of gold. |
25. A zaga de tu huella las jóvenes discurren al camino, al toque de centella, al adobado vino emisiones de bálsamo divino. |
25. Following your footprints maidens run along the way; the touch of a spark, the spiced wine, cause flowings in them from the balsam of God. |
ESPOSA 26. En la interior bodega de mi Amado bebí, y, cuando salía por toda aquesta vega, ya cosa no sabía y el ganado perdí que antes seguía. |
BRIDE 26. In the inner wine cellar I drank of my Beloved, and, when I went abroad through all this valley I no longer knew anything, and lost the herd that I was following. |
27. Allí me dío su pecho, allí me enseño ciencia muy sabrosa, y yo le di de hecho a mí sin dejar cosa; allí le prometí de ser su esposa. |
27. There he gave me his breast; there he taught me a sweet and living knowledge; and I gave myself to him, keeping nothing back; there I promised to be his bride. |
28. Mi alma se ha empleado y todo mi caudal en su servicio; ya no guardo ganado, ni ya tengo otro oficio, que ya sólo en amar es su mi ejercicio. |
28. Now I occupy my soul and all my energy in his service; I no longer tend the herd, nor have I any other work now that my every act is love. |
29. Pues ya si en el ejido de hoy más no fuere vista ni hallada, diréis que me he perdido, que andando enamorada, me hice perdidiza, y fui ganada. |
29. If, then, I am no longer seen or found on the common, you will say that I am lost; that, stricken by love, I lost myself, and was found. |
30. De flores y esmeraldas, en las frescas mañanas escogidas, haremos las guirnaldas, en tu amor florecidas y en un cabello mío entretejidas. |
30. With flowers and emeralds chosen on cool mornings we shall weave garlands flowering in your love, and bound with one hair of mine. |
31. En solo aquel cabello que en mi cuello volar consideraste, mirástele en mi cuello y en él preso quedaste, y en uno de mis ojos te llagaste. |
31. You considered that one hair fluttering at my neck; you gazed at it upon my neck and it captivated you; and one of my eyes wounded you. |
32. Cuando tú me mirabas, su gracia en mi tus ojos imprimían: por eso me adamabas, y en eso merecían los míos adorar lo que en ti vían. |
32. When you looked at me your eyes imprinted your grace in me; for this you loved me ardently; and thus my eyes deserved to adore what they beheld in you. |
33. No quieras despreciarme; que, si color moreno en mí hallaste, ya bien puedes mirarme después qu me miraste, que gracia y hermosura en mí dejaste. |
33. Do not despise me; for if, before, you found me dark, now truly you can look at me since you have looked and left in me grace and beauty. |
34. La blanca palomica al arca con el ramo se ha tornado, y ya la tortolica al socio deseado en las riberas verdes ha hallado. |
34. The small white dove has returned to the ark with an olive branch; and now the turtledove has found its longed-for mate by the green river banks. |
35. En soledad vivía y en soledad ha puesto ya su nido, y en soledad la guía a solas su querido, también en soledad de amor herido. |
35. She lived in solitude, and now in solitude has built her nest; and in solitude he guides her, he alone, who also bears in solitude the wound of love. |
36. Gocémonos, Amado, y vámonos a ver en tu hermosura al monte y al collado, do mana el agua pura; entremos más adentro en la espesura. |
36. Let us rejoice, Beloved, and let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty, to the mountain and to the hill, to where the pure water flows, and further, deep into the thicket. |
37. Y luego a las subidas cavernas de piedra nos iremos que están bien escondidas, y allí nos entraremos, y el mosto de granadas gustaremos. |
37. And then we will go on to the high caverns in the rock which are so well concealed; there we shall enter and taste the fresh juice of the pomegranates. |
38. Allí me mostrarías aquello que mi alma pretendía, y luego me darías allí tú, vida mía, aquello que me diste el otro día: |
38. There you will show me what my soul has been seeking, and then you will give me, you, my life, will give me there what you gave me on that other day: |
39. El aspirar del aire, el canto de la dulce filomena, el soto y su donaire en la noche serena, con llama que consume y no da pena. |
39. The breathing of the air, the song of the sweet nightingale, the grove and its living beauty in the serene night, with a flame that is consuming and painless. |
40. Que nadie lo miraba … Aminadab tampoco parecía; y el cerco sosegaba, y la caballería a vista de las aguas descendía. |
40. No one looked at her, nor did Aminadab appear; the siege was still; and the cavalry, at the sight of the waters, descended. |
El texto castellano proviene de Obras Completas de San Juan de la Cruz (B.A.C., Madrid 1989). The english translation is found in The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, by Kieran Kavanaugh OCD and Otilio Rodríguez, OCD, revised edition 1991.
Notes:
1. These stanzas begin with a person’s initial steps in the service of God and continue until the ultimate state of perfection is reached, which is spiritual marriage. They refer, consequently, to the three states or ways of spiritual exercise (purgative, illuminative, and unitive) through which a person passes in advancing to this state, and they describe some of the characteristics and effects of these ways.
2. The initial stanzas treat of the state of beginners, that of the purgative way. The subsequent ones deal with the state of proficients, in which the spiritual betrothal is effected, that is, the illuminative way. The stanzas following these refer to the unitive way, that of the perfect, where spiritual marriage takes place. This unitive way of the perfect follows the illuminative way of the proficients. The final stanzas speak of the beatific state, that sole aspiration of a person who has reached perfection.
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Copyright of the translation: ICS Publications. Permission is hereby granted for any non-commercial use, if this copyright notice is included. Maintained by the Austrian Province of the Teresian Carmel. The icon of St. John of the Cross, whose image is included after the Canticle was painted by the Discalced Carmelites in Harissa (Libano). The pictures were 0riginally printed by Il Messaggero di Gesù Bambino di Praga, Arenzano (Genova), Italy.
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© Lino Althaner
Ene 12, 2012 @ 17:19:48
REDDIT COMMENTS:
12.1.2012
[–] bdonk:
I decided to write about the Canticle for a class. At first, I was lukewarm, but after reading it over and over and studying it, there was a point where it all just clicked and I fell in love with it.
Amancio Prada set it to music. It’s split into eight videos that are easy to find. Even if you don’t know Spanish, you can hear (or read/sound out) how musical the poem is. It’s worth it, trust me.
Prada also does some stuff by Lorca that shouldn’t be passed up.
[–] Lino Althaner:
Thanks for the information. I heard sometime ago a very impressive interpretation by a spanish flamenco group. Perhaps we can find something of the sort at YouTube. A chilean musician, Joakin Bello, has made an effort too, helped by the colombian singer Nidia Caro. But I don’t have the CD.
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Ene 14, 2012 @ 21:09:52
Muy bello 🙂 Sólo un Amor fuera de lo común puede expresar tales sentimientos. Y me temo ,que sólo podemos hacernos una mínima idea del alcance de estos. Especialmente me han impactado las estrofas 9, 12, 23, 28 y 32. Aunque sé que es una atrocidad verlas por separado , fuera de la armonía de todo el cántico; las cito, porque tal vez en ellas , he podido recordar un atisbo, de un Amor que duró un instante sagrado y,me tomó el Corazón. Luego la Vida siguió, pero permanece cómo un pilar de certeza de algo divino.
Gracias Lino.
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Ene 15, 2012 @ 00:18:44
Es el poema del amor más alto, del amor de los amores, que es comprehensivo de todo buen amor. Masira, muchas gracias por tu sentido comentario.
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Ago 14, 2012 @ 18:04:26
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