CAPUT XXIV. Quanta sit jucunditas speculationis secundae
The Words of Beauty
The author introduces Naphtali as a hind set free who gives words of beauty, and provides examples from the Song of Songs.
See how he is a hind set free. But how he gives words of beauty — perhaps we will show this more clearly through examples, and persuade more fully. Do you want to hear beautiful words, sweet words, full of loveliness and delight — the kind Naphtali is used to forming, or the kind it is fitting for him to form: "Let him kiss me," she says, "with the kiss of his mouth." Prop me up with flowers, heap me with apples, for I languish with love.✦ Your lips are a dripping honeycomb; honey and milk are under your tongue; and the scent of your garments is like the scent of frankincense.✦
Blending Carnal and Spiritual
The author reflects on the sweetness of these words and explains that Naphtali blends carnal and spiritual to refresh both natures of the human person.
What, I ask, is sweeter than words like these? What more delightful is there to be found? What is heard more gladly than such words? What more eagerly? These words seem to sound like something carnal, and yet the things described through them are spiritual. That's how Naphtali knows how to blend the physical with the spiritual, and through bodily things to describe the incorporeal, so that both natures of the human person—who is composed of a corporeal and an incorporeal nature—may find in his words something that wonderfully refreshes them. This is perhaps why they taste so sweet to a human being: because in some way, as I've said, they refresh both of his natures.
The Marvel of the Letter
The author marvels that words which seem meaningless literally are delightful, forcing the reader to seek spiritual understanding, and concludes that Naphtali is truly a deer let loose giving words of beauty.
But what is truly marvelous in his words, and worth marveling at, is that they almost always caress more delightfully when, according to the literal sense, they seem to mean nothing—as in this: 'Your hair is like flocks of goats that have come up from Mount Gilead.'✦ Your teeth are like flocks of shorn ewes that have come up from the washing.✦ Your nose is like the tower of Lebanon that looks toward Damascus; your head is like Carmel.✦ When these and others like them are heard or read, they seem very delightful—and yet in all of them, if we follow only the literal sense, we find nothing to marvel at. But perhaps in sayings of this kind, what we so gladly embrace is this: that by a certain delightful foolishness in the literal sense—if I may put it that way—we are forced to take refuge in the spiritual understanding.1 If, then, we consider how free and ready our Naphtali is in meditation, and how delightful he is in speech, we can more quickly see how rightly Scripture speaks of him: 'Naphtali is a deer let loose, giving words of beauty.'✦
Read the original Latin
Ecce quomodo sit cervus emissus. Sed quomodo dans eloquia pulchritudinis, fortassis hoc per exempla evidentius ostendemus, persuadebimus plenius. Vultis audire eloquia pulchritudinis, eloquia suavitatis, plena decore, plena dulcedine, qualia Nephtalim formare consuevit, vel qualia eum formare convenit: Osculetur me, inquit, osculo oris sui. Fulcite me floribus, stipate me malis, quia amore langueo. Favus distillans labia tua, mel et lac sub lingua tua, et odor vestimentorum tuorum sicut odor thuris. Quid, quaeso, dulcius hujusmodi eloquiis, quid jucundius invenitur? Quid talibus eloquiis libentius, quid avidius auditur? Ista verba carnale aliquid sonare videntur, et tamen spiritualia sunt quae per ipsa describuntur.
Sic novit Nephtalim carnalia cum spiritualibus permiscere, et per corporalia incorporea describere, ut utraque hominis natura in ejus dictis inveniat unde se mirabiliter reficiat qui ex corporea et incorporea natura constat. Hinc est fortasse quod homini tam suaviter sapiunt, quod quodammodo, ut dictum est, utramque ejus naturam reficiunt. Illud autem in ejus dictis est valde mirabile dignumque admiratione quod tunc fere semper delectabilius blanditur, quando juxta litterae sensum nihil sonare videntur quale est illud: Capilli tui sicut greges caprarum quae ascenderunt de monte Galaad. Dentes tui sicut greges tonsarum, quae ascenderunt de lavacro. Nasus tuus sicut turris Libani quae respicit contra Damascum, caput tuum sicut Carmelus. Haec et hujusmodi alia cum audiuntur, vel leguntur, jucunda valde esse videntur, et tamen in his omnibus, si solum litterae sensum sequimur, nil in eis invenimus quod digne miremur. Sed forte in hujusmodi dictis hoc est quod tam libenter amplectimur, quod ex jucunda quadam, ut ita dicam, litterae fatuitate ad spiritualem intelligentiam confugere coarctamur. Si ergo pensamus, iste noster Nephtalim quam sit expeditus in meditatione, quam sit jucundus in sermone, citius advertere licet quam recte de eo Scriptura pronuntiet: Nephtalim cervus emissus dans eloquia pulchritudinis.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Song.2.5 — Sustain me with raisin cakes, refresh me with apples, for I am faint with love.
- ↩Song.4.11 — Your lips drip, bride — honey and milk are beneath your tongue; the fragrance of your garments is like the fragrance of Lebanon.
- ↩Song.4.1 — Behold, you are beautiful, my love; behold, you are beautiful; your eyes are doves behind your veil. Your hair is like a flock of goats that have descended from Mount Gilead.
- ↩Song.4.2 — Your teeth are like a flock of newly shorn ewes that have come up from the washing, all of which bear twins, and not one among them is bereaved.
- ↩Song.7.4-Song.7.5 — Your two breasts are like two fawns, twins of a gazelle. Song.7.5 — Your neck is like the tower of ivory; your eyes are pools in Heshbon, by the gate of Bath-rabbim; your nose is like the tower of Lebanon, facing toward Damascus.
- ↩Gen.49.21 — Naphtali is a doe set loose, he gives beautiful words.
Notes
- 1 ↩litterae fatuitas: rendered as 'foolishness of the letter'—the surface sense is so charmingly empty that it pushes the reader toward spiritual meaning.
Benjamin Minor (The Twelve Patriarchs / Preparation of the Mind for Contemplation) companion
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