Translated by Mary Rae
St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) is revered by poets and
students of spirituality alike. His work is full of natural music, and uses
lush imagery to invoke the beauty of the soul's longing for God. The
poems in this volume are St. John's most beautiful, painting the
shimmering landscapes of his interior life.

  BILINGUAL EDITION

   Poems include:

  LIVING FLAME OF LOVE
  SPIRITUAL CANTICLE
  THE DARK NIGHT
  I ENTERED WHERE I DID NOT KNOW
  BY THE RIVERS OF BABYLON
  ALTHOUGH IT IS EVENING NOW
  THE LITTLE SHEPHERD
A brief biography and an introduction to his poetry set St. John's work
in the proper context, Also included are notes on the poems, a  bibliography,
illustrations by the translator.
  

      
    
                                 



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   Read the stunningly beautiful poems written by a man that St. Teresa
called "Little Seneca."
        THE LITTLE SHEPHERD
    More songs of Divinity, of Christ and the soul.

     A little shepherd, all alone, is grieving,
a stranger both to pleasure and happiness,
thinking only of his shepherdess,
his heart by love torn open pitifully.

     He does not weep because love wounded him,
it does not grieve him to be hurt by love,
although his heart has been hurt enough;
he weeps, instead, to think he is forgotten,

     for only in thinking that she is forgetting,
he wanders far in his unhappiness,
and lets himself, in strange lands, be oppressed,
his heart by love torn open pitifully.

     And the little shepherd says: ‘Oh, woe is she,
who from my love has left and gone away,
and far from my sweet company has strayed,
my heart, for her, torn open pitifully!’

     And after a long while he climbed a tree,
and there he opened up his elegant arms,
and there he died, his arms held apart,
his heart by love torn open pitifully.


                                                  
     
                                      
                    


ABOUT  MARY RAE                                                                
Mary Rae first came into contact with the work of St. John of the Cross while working toward her degree inSpanish Language and Literature at Boston
University.  St. John’s beautiful poems captured her imagination immediately,and provided inspiration for her own path as a poet. At Boston University
she also became fascinated with the possibilites, as well as the inherent difficulties of translating poetry, but it was not until 1991 that a first edition of
St. John of the Cross: Selected Poems was published by Longwood Academic. Since then, Mary has devoted much of her time to her own poetry,
publishing widely and, for several years, editing a poetry journal, and to painting, a love developed in early childhood. Mary Rae has never lost
sight of her passion for St. John of the Cross, however, and this book is a natural outgrowth of her desire as a poet, as a translator, and as an artist, to
understand the beauty of his work.