CAPÍTULO 14. En el cual se declara el segundo verso de la canción.
The Necessity of Divine Love
The soul requires the intense, enkindling love of the Bridegroom to overcome the natural appetites and successfully navigate the dark night of the senses.
Inflamed with the urgent longings of love. 1. Now that we have explained the first verse of this song, which deals with the sensory night—clarifying what this night of the sense is and why it is called a night—and having provided the order and method one must follow to enter it actively, we should now, in sequence, address its properties and effects, which are wonderful. These are contained in the following verses of that same song, which I will note briefly to explain those verses, as I promised in the prologue. Then, I will move on to the second book, which treats the other part of this night, namely the spiritual. 2. So the soul says that, with yearning and inflamed with love, she passed through and went out in this dark night of the senses toward union with the Beloved. For to overcome all the appetites and deny the pleasures of all things—with whose love and attachment the will is usually inflamed so as to enjoy them—another, greater enkindling from another, better love was needed, which is that of her Bridegroom, so that, having her delight and strength in him, she would have the courage and steadfastness to deny all the others easily.1 Merely having love for her Bridegroom was not enough to overcome the force of sensory appetites; she also had to be inflamed with love and full of yearning. For it happens—and so it is—that the sensual nature is moved and drawn toward sensory things with such strong cravings of appetite that, if the spiritual part is not inflamed with other, greater yearnings for what is spiritual, it will not be able to overcome the natural yoke, nor enter this night of the senses, nor have the courage to remain in the dark about all things, depriving itself of the appetite for them all.2 3. And how, and in how many ways, these yearnings of love are that souls have at the beginning of this path of union; and the efforts and devices they invent to leave their house—which is their own will—in the night of the mortification of their senses; and how easy, and even sweet and delightful, these yearnings for the Bridegroom make all the labors and dangers of this night seem to them: that is neither for telling in this place, nor can it be told; because it is better to have it and ponder it than to write it. So, we will move on to explain the remaining verses in the next chapter.
Read the original Latin
Con ansias en amores inflamada.
1. Ya que habemos declarado el primer verso de esta canción, que trata de la noche sensitiva, dando a entender que noche sea esta del sentido y por que se llama noche; y tambien habiendo dado el orden y modo que se ha de tener para entrar en ella activamente, síguese ahora por su orden tratar de las propiedades y efectos de ella, que son admirables, los cuales se contienen en los versos siguientes de la dicha canción, los cuales yo apuntare brevemente en gracia de declarar los dichos versos, como en el prólogo lo prometí, y pasare luego adelante al segundo libro, el cual trata de la otra parte de esta noche que es la espiritual.
2. Dice, pues, el alma que con ansias, en amores inflamada pasó y salió en esta noche oscura del sentido a la unión del Amado. Porque para vencer todos los apetitos y negar los gustos de todas las cosas, con cuyo amor y afición se suele inflamar la voluntad para gozar de ellos, era menester otra inflamación mayor de otro amor mejor, que es el de su Esposo, para que, teniendo su gusto y fuerza en este, tuviese valor y constancia para fácilmente negar todos los otros. Y no solamente era menester para vencer la fuerza de los apetitos sensitivos tener amor de su Esposo, sino estar inflamada de amor y con ansias. Porque acaece, y así es, que la sensualidad con tantas ansias de apetito es movida y atraída a las cosas sensitivas, que, si la parte espiritual no está inflamada con otras ansias mayores de lo que es espiritual, no podrá vencer el yugo natural, ni entrar en esta noche del sentido, ni tendrá ánimo para se quedar a oscuras de todas las cosas, privándose del apetito de todas ellas.
3. Y cómo y de cuántas maneras sean estas ansias de amor que las almas tienen en los principios de este camino de unión; y las diligencias e invenciones que hacen para salir de su casa, que es la propia voluntad en la noche de la mortificación de sus sentidos; y cuán fáciles y aun dulces y sabrosos les hacen parecer estas ansias del Esposo todos los trabajos y peligros de esta noche, ni es de decir de este lugar, ni se puede decir; porque es mejor para tenerlo y considerarlo que para escribirlo. Y así, pasaremos a declarar los demás versos en el siguiente capítulo.
Notes
- 1 ↩"inflamación" is rendered as "enkindling" to keep the fire-of-love metaphor without medical overtones; "gustos" as "pleasures" for sensory delights rather than mere "tastes."
- 2 ↩"sensualidad" is rendered as "sensual nature" (the sensory/appetitive part of the person), not modern pejorative "sensuality." "quedar a oscuras de todas las cosas" keeps the darkness metaphor of the night of the senses.
Ascent of Mount Carmel companion
A daily portion of stillness
Chosen Portion delivers one short contemplative reading and a guided moment of silence each day — the ascent, one step at a time.
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