Canción XIX
The Soul's Longing for Hidden Communion
The soul, hostile to the lower part, desires God's communication to be given only to the higher part, without the sensory part, as seen in Saint Paul's rapture.
Annotation on the following song In this state, the soul has become so hostile to the lower part and its workings that it wouldn't want God to communicate anything spiritual to that lower part when he communicates it to the higher part—because it would have to be very little, or else the lower part couldn't bear it, given the weakness of its condition, without the natural powers failing, and consequently the spirit suffering and being distressed—and so the soul couldn't enjoy it in peace.1 For as the Wise Man says, the body weighs down the soul because it is corrupt: "For the body that is corrupted weighs down the soul." And since the soul desires the highest and most excellent communications of God, and it can't receive these in company with the sensory part, it desires that God grant them without it. For that high vision of the third heaven that Saint Paul saw, in which he says he saw God—he himself says he doesn't know whether he received it in the body or outside it. But in any case, it was without the body, because if the body had taken part he couldn't have failed to know it, nor could the vision have been as high as he says, when he says he heard words so secret that it isn't lawful for a human being to speak them. That's why the soul, knowing also that favors so great can't be received in such a narrow vessel, and wanting the Bridegroom to grant them outside it, or at least without it, asks him for this in this song while speaking with him.2
The Bride's Song and Her Four Requests
After presenting the song's stanza, the bride asks for hidden communion, the formation of her faculties, high and deep knowledge, and love for her virtues.
Hide yourself, my Beloved, and turn your face toward the mountains; do not wish to speak of it, but look at the companions of her who travels through strange islands.34 Exposition In this song, the bride soul asks four things of the Bridegroom: first, that he be pleased to communicate himself to her deep within, in the hidden place of her soul; second, that he strike and form her faculties with the glory and excellence of his divinity; third, that this be so high and so deep that it remains unknown, that one doesn't want to speak of it, and that the exterior and sensory part isn't capable of it; fourth, that he fall in love with the many virtues and graces he has placed in her, with which she goes accompanied and rises to God with very high and exalted knowledge of the divinity, and by excesses of love far stranger and more extraordinary than those ordinarily had; and so she says:56
First Request: Hidden Communion
The bride asks the Beloved to hide in the innermost depths of her soul, communicating hidden wonders beyond mortal perception.
Hide yourself, Beloved.7 As if she were saying: My dear Bridegroom, hide yourself in the innermost depths of my soul, communicating to her in secret and revealing to her your hidden wonders, foreign to every mortal eye.✦
Second Request: The Face on the Mountains
The bride desires that God's face (his divinity) strike her soul's powers (memory, understanding, will) with essential communication, beyond what Moses received.
And look with your face upon the mountains.8 God's face is his divinity, and the mountains are the powers of the soul—memory, understanding, and will; and so it is as if she were saying: Strike my understanding with your divinity, giving it divine insights, and my will, giving it and communicating to it divine love—the soul asks for everything that can be asked; for she no longer contents herself with knowing and communicating with God from behind, as God did with Moses, which is knowing him by his effects and works, but with the face of God, which is the essential communication of the divinity, without any other medium in the soul, through a certain knowledge of it in the divinity; and this is something foreign to every sense and accident, since it is a touch of bare substances—namely, of the soul and the divinity.910 And that is why she says next:
Third Request: Ineffable Communication
The bride asks that the communication be so deep that it is not told to the senses, remaining pure spirit like the secrets Saint Paul heard.
And don't wish to say it. That is: don't speak it the way you did before, when the communications you made in me were such that you told them to the outer senses, because they were things those senses could grasp—since they weren't so high and deep that the senses couldn't reach them. But now let these communications be so lofty and substantial, and so deeply interior, that nothing is told to the senses—that is, so that the senses can't manage to know them—because the substance of the spirit cannot be communicated to the senses, and whatever is communicated to the senses, especially in this life, cannot be pure spirit, since the senses aren't capable of it. So, desiring here this communication from God—so substantial and essential that it doesn't fall within the senses—the soul asks the Bridegroom that he "not want to tell it," which is like saying: Let the depth of this hiding place of spiritual union be such that the sense can neither manage to speak it nor feel it, being like the secrets Saint Paul heard, which it was not lawful for a man to tell.11
Fourth Request: Companions and Strange Islands
The bride asks the Beloved to look lovingly on the virtues and gifts in her soul and to communicate himself in a way foreign to all senses, as she goes to him by strange news.
But look at the companions.12 God's gaze is loving and grants favors, and the companies the soul asks God to look upon here are the multitude of virtues, gifts, perfections, and other spiritual riches that he has already placed in her as betrothal pledges, tokens, and jewels from a bridegroom; and so it's as if she were saying: 'But rather, Beloved, turn to the interior of my soul, falling in love with the company of riches you have placed in her, so that, enamored of them, you may hide yourself in her and linger in her; for it is true that, although they are yours, already by your having given them to her they are also...' About the woman who travels through strange islands. That is to say: of my soul, which goes to you by strange news of you, and by strange modes and ways foreign to all the senses and to ordinary natural knowledge; and so it's as if she were saying, wanting to bind him: Since my soul goes to you by spiritual news, strange and foreign to the senses, communicate yourself to her also in so interior and elevated a degree that she is foreign to them all.13
Read the original Spanish
Anotación de la canción siguiente
Está el alma tan hecha enemiga en este estado de la parte inferior y de sus operaciones, que no querría que le comunicase Dios nada de lo espiritual, cuando lo comunica a la parte superior; porque ha de ser muy poco, o no lo ha poder sufrir, por la flaqueza de su condición, sin que desfallezca el natural, y por consiguiente padezca y se aflija el espíritu; y así, no lo pueda gozar en paz. Porque, como dice el Sabio, el cuerpo agrava el alma, porque se corrompe; Corpus enim quod corrumpitur aggravat animam. Y como el alma desea las más altas y excelentes comunicaciones de Dios, y éstas no las puede recibir en compañía de la parte sensitiva, desea que Dios se las haga sin ella. Porque aquella alta visión que vio San Pablo, del tercer cielo, en que dice que vio a Dios, dice él mismo que no sabe si la recibió en el cuerpo o fuera de él; pero, de cualquiera manera que fuese, fue sin el cuerpo, porque si él participara no lo pudiera dejar de saber, ni la visión pudiera ser tan alta como él dice, diciendo que oyó tan secretas palabras, que no es lícito al hombre hablarlas. Por eso, sabiendo también el alma que mercedes tan grandes se pueden recibir en vaso tan estrecho, deseando que se las haga el Esposo fuera de él, o a lo menos sin él hablando con él mismo, se lo pide en esta canción.
Escóndete, Carillo, Y mira con tu haz a las montañas, Y no quieras decillo; Mas mira las compañas De la que va por ínsulas extrañas.
DECLARACIÓN
Cuatro cosas pide el alma esposa en esta canción al Esposo: la primera, que sea servido de comunicársele muy adentro en lo escondido de su alma; la segunda, que embista e informe sus potencias con la gloria y excelencia de su divinidad; la tercera, que sea esto tan alta y profundamente, que no se sepa ni quiera decir, ni sea de ello capaz el exterior y parte sensitiva; la cuarta, que se enamore de las muchas virtudes y gracias que él ha puesto en ella, con que va ella acompañada y sube a Dios con muy altas y levantadas noticias de la divinidad, y por excesos de amor muy extraños y extraordinarios de los que ordinariamente se suelen tener; y así, dice:
Escóndete, Carillo.
Como si dijera: Querido Esposo mío, escóndete en lo más interior de mi alma, comunicándole a ella escondidamente y manifestándole tus escondidas maravillas, ajenas de todos los ojos mortales.
Y mira con tu haz a las montañas.
La haz de Dios es su divinidad, y las montañas son las potencias del alma, memoria, entendimiento y voluntad; y así, es como si dijera: embiste con tu divinidad en mi entendimiento dándole inteligencias divinas, y en mi voluntad dándole y comunicándole el divino amor, pide el alma todo lo que se puede pedir; porque no anda ya contentándose en conocimiento y comunicación de Dios por las espaldas, como hizo Dios con Moisés, que es conocerle por sus efectos y obras, sino con la haz de Dios que es comunicación esencial de la divinidad, sin otro algún medio en el alma, por cierto conocimiento de ella en la divinidad; lo cual es cosa ajena de todo sentido y accidentes, por cuanto es toque de sustancias desnudas; es a saber, del alma y divinidad. Y por eso dice luego:
Y no quieras decillo.
Es a saber, que «no quieras decillo» como antes, cuando las comunicaciones que en mí hacías eran de manera que las decías a los sentidos exteriores, por ser cosas de que ellos eran capaces, porque no eran tan altas y profundas que no pudiesen ellos alcanzarlas; mas ahora sean tan subidas y sustanciales estas comunicaciones, y tan de adentro, que no se les diga a ellos nada, esto es, que no las puedan ellos alcanzar a saber; porque la sustancia del espíritu no se puede comunicar al sentido, y todo lo que se comunica al sentido, mayormente en esta vida, no puede ser puro espíritu, por no ser él capaz de ello. Deseando, pues, el alma aquí esta comunicación de Dios tan sustancial y esencial que no cae en sentido, pide al Esposo, que «no quiera decillo», que es como decir: Sea de manera la profundidad de este escondrijo de unión espiritual, que el sentido ni lo acierte a decir ni a sentir, siendo como los secretos que oyó San Pablo, que no era lícito al hombre decirlos.
Mas mira las compañas.
El mirar de Dios es amar y hacer mercedes, y las compañas que aquí dice el alma que mire Dios son la multitud de virtudes y dones y perfecciones y otras riquezas espirituales que él ha puesto ya en ella como arras y prendas y joyas de desposado; y así, es como si dijera: Mas antes conviértete, Amado, a lo interior de mi alma, enamorándote del acompañamiento de riquezas que has puesto en ella, para que, enamorado de ellas, en ella te escondas y en ella te detengas; pues que es verdad que, aunque son tuyas, ya por habérselas tú dado también son
De la que va por ínsulas extrañas.
Es a saber, de mi alma, que va a ti por extrañas noticias de ti, y por modos y vías extrañas y ajenas de todos los sentidos y del común conocimiento natural; y así, es como si dijera, queriéndole obligar: Pues va mi alma a ti por noticias espirituales, extrañas y ajenas de los sentidos, comunícate tú a ella también en tan interior y subido grado que sea ajena de todos ellos.
Scripture echoes
- ↩1Cor.2.9;Isa.64.4 — But as it is written: What no eye has seen, nor ear heard, nor the heart of man conceived—all that God has prepared for those who love him. Isa.64.4 — You meet those who rejoice and do righteousness; in your ways they remember you. But behold, you were angry, and we sinned — in those ways we have been for long, and can we be saved?
Notes
- 1 ↩Source reading "o no lo ha poder sufrir" looks defective (likely "no lo ha de poder sufrir" / "couldn't bear it"); translated in that sense.
- 2 ↩Supplied text reads "mercedes tan grandes se pueden recibir" (can be received); the surrounding argument requires inability (cannot). Translated as cannot, with review flag.
- 3 ↩Carillo is an affectionate diminutive of caro (dear); rendered here as "my Beloved," matching the Canticle's address to the Bridegroom.
- 4 ↩Haz is an older spelling of faz, "face" or "countenance" (not "beam" or "bundle").
- 5 ↩Fourth petition: 'que se enamore' is read as the Bridegroom falling in love with the virtues and graces he has placed in the soul (parallel to the other petitions addressed to him). An alternate parse would make the soul the one who falls in love with those gifts.
- 6 ↩'embista e informe': mystical/scholastic pair—embestir as the divine striking or coming upon the faculties, informar as giving them form. Rendered 'strike and form' to keep both forces without archaic diction.
- 7 ↩Carillo is an affectionate diminutive of caro (dear); in this canticle it names the Bridegroom. Rendered as Beloved rather than Darling or Dear one to keep the mystical register without sounding archaic or overly intimate in a casual sense.
- 8 ↩Spanish haz here means face/countenance (as the following section explains: God's haz is His divinity), not 'bundle' or the imperative of hacer.
- 9 ↩Spanish haz (archaic faz) means face/countenance; here it names God's own face as his divinity, in deliberate contrast with knowledge 'from behind' (por las espaldas).
- 10 ↩toque is San Juan's technical term for an immediate mystical touch; sustancias desnudas means bare substances stripped of sensory images and accidents.
- 11 ↩escondrijo rendered as "hiding place" (secret recess of spiritual union); alternatives: secret place, covert.
- 12 ↩compañas: here the soul’s ‘companions’—the virtues, gifts, and spiritual riches God has already set in her—which the following commentary identifies as what she asks the Bridegroom to regard.
- 13 ↩Spanish noticias is Sanjuanist technical vocabulary for spiritual communications or interior knowledge of God; rendered here as "news" to keep the modern register without flattening the mystical sense.
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