Written work
Spiritual Canticle (poem)
Canciones entre el alma y el Esposo («¿Adónde te escondiste…?»)
A love dialogue in liras between the Bride and the Bridegroom, inspired by the Song of Songs: the search for the Beloved who has fled 'like the stag', the encounter in a transfigured nature, betrothal and spiritual marriage. It is one of the summits of Spanish-language lyric for its density of images and its music.
Authorship note
Authentic. The first 31 stanzas were composed in the Toledo prison (1577–1578); the poem grew to 39 stanzas (redaction A) and was reordered into 40 (redaction B).
Editions and translations
Editions in your language first, without hiding the others. Each with its cover and its store.
English
The Poems (bilingüe)
Harvill Press, 2000
Translation: Roy Campbell
ISBN 1860465897
Introducción de P. J. Kavanagh. Contiene este poema.
The Poems of St. John of the Cross (bilingüe)
University of Chicago Press, 1979
Translation: John Frederick Nims
ISBN 0226401081
Contiene este poema.
Français
Poèmes mystiques
Desclée De Brouwer, 1975
Translation: Lucien Florent
ISBN 2220020193
Contiene este poema.
Español
Poesías
Castalia, 1990
ISBN 8470395726
Edición, introducción y notas de Paola Elia. Contiene este poema.
Poesía
Cátedra, 2000
ISBN 9788437604107
Edición de la poesía completa. Contiene este poema.
Other works by John of the Cross
- Dark Night (poem) · 1579
- Living Flame of Love (poem) · 1585
- Song of the Soul that Rejoices in Knowing God through Faith ('How well I know the fount') · 1578
- Romances on the Gospel 'In principio erat Verbum' · 1578
- Romance on the Psalm 'Super flumina Babylonis' · 1578
- Stanzas Concerning an Ecstasy Experienced in High Contemplation ('I entered into unknowing') · 1580
- Stanzas of the Soul that Suffers with Longing to See God ('I live, but not in myself') · 1580
- 'Upon a quest of love' (stanzas a lo divino) · 1580
- 'A lone young shepherd lived in pain' · 1584
- Gloss 'Without support and with support' · 1580
- Gloss 'Not for all of beauty' · 1580
- 'With the divine Word' (Christmas song) · 1585
- Summary of Perfection ('Forgetfulness of creation') · 1585
- 'My soul is detached' (attributed stanzas) · 1600
- The Ascent of Mount Carmel · 1585
- The Dark Night · 1585
- Spiritual Canticle (redaction A) · 1584
- Spiritual Canticle (redaction B) · 1586
- The Living Flame of Love (commentary) · 1586
- Sayings of Light and Love · 1585
- The Precautions · 1580
- Counsels to a Religious on How to Reach Perfection · 1585
- Censure and Opinion on the Spirit of a Nun · 1588
- The Mount of Perfection (drawing of Mount Carmel) · 1579
- Letters · 1591
- Points of Love Gathered at Beas · 1580
- Spiritual Maxims and Sentences (later collections) · 1700
- Complete Works (collected editions) · 1618
Sources
- San Juan de la Cruz. Obras completas. Ed. José Vicente Rodríguez; introducciones y notas doctrinales de Federico Ruiz Salvador. Madrid: Editorial de Espiritualidad, 1980 (ed. revisada 2008, ISBN 9788470683459).
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