The Dark Night of the SoulThe stanzas, the argument and the explanation

The stanzas to be explained are set forth at the beginning of this book, then an explanation of each severally, the stanza being placed before it. After that an explanation of each line, which is also set before the explanation, The first two stanzas explain the two spiritual purgations of the sensual and spiritual part of man, and the other six the various and admirable effects of the spiritual enlightenment and union of love with God.
In a dark night,
With anxious love inflamed,
O, happy lot!
Forth unobserved I went,
My house being now at rest.
il,

In darkness and in safety,

By the secret ladder, disguised,
O, happy lot!
In darkness and concealment,

My house being now at rest, II, III,

In that happy night,

In secret, seen of none. Seeing nought myself, IV. That light guided me Whom I knew well, V. O, guiding night; VI. On my flowery bosom, VII With His gentle hand, VIII, breeze.” III, Iv.

VII VIII, Without other light or guide

Save that which in my heart was burning.
More surely than the noonday sun
To the place where He was waiting for me,
And where none appeared,
O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that hast united

The lover with His beloved, And changed her into her love. Kept whole for Him alone,

There He reposed and slept;

And I cherished Him, and the waving

Of the cedars fanned Him.

As His hair floated in the breeze!

That from the turret blew,

He struck me on the neck

And all sensation left me.

I continued in oblivion lost,

My head was resting on my love;

Lost to all things and myself,

And, amid the lilies forgotten,

Threw all my cares away.

1 St. John of the Cross wrote: “As I scattered His hair in the

Before we enter on an explanation of these, it is right we should understand that they are the words of the soul already in the state of perfection, which is the union of love with God, when it has gone through the straits, tribulations and severities, by means of the spiritual training, of the strait way of everlasting life, by which ordinarily the soul attains to this high and divine union with God. Of it our Saviour says in the Gospel, ‘How narrow is the gate and strait is the way that leadeth to life, and few there are that find it.’ This road being so strait, and they who find it being so few, the soul regards it as a great and joyful blessing that it has journeyed on it to the perfection of love, as it sings in the first stanza, very rightly calling the strait road, a dark night, as may be seen further on in the words of the stanza. The soul, therefore, rejoicing in that it has travelled on this strait road whereby so great a blessing has come to it, sings as follows.