Canción IV
The Soul's Address to Creation
The soul calls out to the woods, meadows, and flowers, asking if the Beloved has passed by them.
Oh woods and thickets planted by the Beloved's hand! Oh meadow of greenery, enameled with flowers!1 Tell me if he has passed by you.
The Path Through Creatures to the Creator
The exposition explains that after self-knowledge, the soul begins to know God through the consideration of creatures, as taught by Saint Augustine and the Apostle Paul.
EXPOSITION2 Once the soul has understood how it must prepare itself for this path—no longer chasing after delights and pleasures—and the strength it must have to overcome temptations and difficulties (and this is precisely the exercise of self-knowledge, the first thing the soul must do in order to come to the knowledge of God), it now begins, in this song, to walk through the consideration and knowledge of creatures toward knowledge of its Beloved, their Creator. For after self-knowledge, this consideration of creatures is the first step on the spiritual path to knowing God, since through them the soul contemplates his greatness and excellence, in keeping with the Apostle's words: Invisibilia enim ipsius, a creatura mundi, per ea quae facta sunt, intellecta, conspiciuntur—which is to say: The invisible things of God are known to the soul through visible and invisible created things.✦34 So in this song, the soul speaks to the creatures, asking them about her Beloved. And it's worth noting that, as Saint Augustine says, the question the soul asks the creatures is the consideration she makes of their Creator in them. And so this song contains the consideration of the elements and the other lower creatures, and the consideration of the heavens and the other creatures and material things God created in them, and also the consideration of the heavenly spirits, saying:
The Elements as Woods and Thickets
The soul contemplates the four elements and their countless creatures as woods and thickets planted by the Beloved's own hand, moving her to love.
Oh woods and thickets! He calls the elements woods—earth, water, air, and fire—because just as the loveliest woods are planted and filled with dense plants and groves, so the elements are filled with dense throngs of creatures, which he calls thickets here because of the great number and wide variety of them in each element: on the earth, countless varieties of animals and plants; in the water, countless kinds of fish; in the air, a great diversity of birds; and the element of fire joins with them all to give them life and keep them. And so each kind of animal lives in its own element, and is set and planted in it as in its woods and region, where it is born and raised. And truly, that is how God commanded it at their creation, ordering the earth to bring forth the plants and the animals, and the sea and water the fish, and making the air a dwelling for the birds. And that is why, seeing that he commanded it so and that it was done so, the soul speaks the next verse:✦ Planted by the hand of the Beloved. The point to consider here is that only the hand of the Beloved, God, could create these differences and grandeurs. It should be noted that she deliberately says "by the hand of the Beloved." Although God does many things through the hands of others—such as through angels or human beings—this act of creation is something He has never done, and never does, through any hand but His own. Because of this, the soul is deeply moved to love her Beloved, God, when she considers His creatures and sees that they are made by His own hand; and she continues by saying:5
Heaven as a Meadow of Greenery
The soul contemplates heaven as an unfading meadow of greenery, enameled with the flowers of angels and holy souls.
Oh, green meadow! This is the contemplation of heaven, which it calls a meadow of greenery, because the things created in it always keep an unfading greenness that neither perishes nor withers with time, and in them, as in fresh greenery, the righteous take their delight; this contemplation also includes all the variety of the beautiful stars and other heavenly plants. The Church also gives this name of verdure to heavenly things when, praying to God for the souls of the faithful departed and speaking to them, she says: Constituat te Christus Filius Dei vivi intra Paradisi sui semper amoena virentia; which means: "May Christ, Son of the living God, set you among the ever-delightful verdure of his Paradise."✦ The soul also says that this meadow of verdure is.6 Enameled with flowers.7 By these flowers he means the angels and holy souls with which that place is adorned and made beautiful, like a graceful and exalted enamel on a vessel of excellent gold.
The Question That Seeks the Beloved
The soul's question to the creatures is understood as a consideration of the excellences the Beloved has created in them.
Tell me if he has passed by you. This question is the consideration already stated above, and it's as if he were saying: Tell what excellences he has created in you.
Read the original Spanish
¡Oh bosques y espesuras plantadas por la mano del Amado! ¡Oh prado de verduras, De flores esmaltado! Decid si por vosotros ha pasado.
DECLARACIÓN
Después que el alma ha dado a entender la manera de disponerse para comenzar este camino, para no se andar ya a deleites y gustos, y la fortaleza que ha de tener para vencerlas tentaciones y dificultades, en lo cual consiste el ejercicio del conocimiento de sí, que es lo primero que tiene de hacer el alma para ir al conocimiento de Dios, ahora en esta canción comienza a caminar, por la consideración y conocimiento de las criaturas, al conocimiento de su Amado, criador de ellas, porque, después del ejercicio del conocimiento propio, esta consideración de las criaturas es la primera por orden en este camino espiritual para ir conociendo a Dios, considerando su grandeza y excelencia por ellas, según aquello del Apóstol, que dice: Invisibilia enim ipsius, a creatura mundi, per ea, quae jacta sunt, intellecta, conspiciuntur, que es como si dijera: Las cosas invisibles de Dios son del alma conocidas por las cosas criadas visibles e invisibles.
Habla, pues, el alma en esta canción con las criaturas, preguntándoles por su Amado. Y es de notar que, como dice San Agustín, la pregunta que el alma hace a las criaturas es la consideración que en ellas hace del Criador de ellas. Y así, en esta canción se contiene la consideración de los elementos y de las demás criaturas inferiores, y la consideración de los cielos y de las demás criaturas y cosas materiales que Dios crió en ellos; y también la consideración de los espíritus celestiales, diciendo:
¡Oh bosques y espesuras!
Llama bosques a los elementos, que son tierra, agua, aire y fuego; porque, así como los amenísimos bosques están plantados y poblados de espesas plantas y arboledas, así lo están los elementos de espesas criaturas, a las cuales llama aquí espesuras, por el grande número y mucha diferencia que hay de ellas en cada elemento: en la tierra inumerables variedades de animales y plantas, en el agua inumerables diferencias de peces, en el aire mucha diversidad de aves, y el elemento del fuego concurre con todos para la animación y conservación de ellos; y así cada suerte de animales vive en su elemento, y está puesta y plantada en él como en su bosque y región, donde nace y se cría; y a la verdad, así lo mandó Dios en la creación de ellos, mandando a la tierra que produjese las plantas y los animales, y a la mar y agua los peces, y al aire hizo morada de las aves; y por eso, viendo el alma que él así lo mandó y que así se hizo, dice el verso siguiente:
Plantadas por la mano del Amado.
En el cual es esta la consideración, es a saber, que estas diferencias y grandezas sola la mano del Amado, Dios, pudo hacerlas y criarlas. Donde es de notar que advertidamente dice por la mano del Amado; porque, aunque otras muchas cosas hace Dios por mano ajena, como de los ángeles y de los hombres, ésta, que es criar, nunca la hizo ni hace por otra que la suya propia; y así, el alma mucho se mueve al amor de su Amado, Dios, por la consideración de las criaturas, viendo que son cosas que por su propia mano fueron hechas; y dice adelante:
¡Oh prado de verduras!
Esta es la consideración del cielo, al cual llama prado de verduras, porque las cosas que hay en él criadas, siempre están con verdura inmarcesible, que ni fenecen ni se marchitan con el tiempo, y en ellas, como en frescas verduras, se recrean los justos; en la cual consideración también se comprehende toda la diferencia de las hermosas estrellas y otras plantas celestiales.
Este nombre de verduras pone también la Iglesia a las cosas celestiales cuando, rogando a Dios por las ánimas de los fieles difuntos, hablando con ellas, dice: Constituat te Christus Filius Dei vivi intra Paradisi sui semper amoena virentia; que quiere decir: «Constitúyaos Cristo, Hijo de Dios vivo, entre las verduras siempre deleitables de su Paraíso». También dice el alma que este prado de verduras está.
De flores esmaltado.
Por las cuales flores entiende los ángeles y almas santas, con las cuales está adornado aquel lugar, y hermoseado como un gracioso y subido esmalte en un vaso de oro excelente.
Decid si por vosotros ha pasado
Esta pregunta es la consideración que arriba queda dicha, y es como si dijera: Decid qué excelencias en vosotros ha criado.
Scripture echoes
- ↩Rom.1.20 — For since the creation of the world, his invisible attributes have been clearly perceived, being understood through the things that have been made: both his eternal power and divine nature. So they are without excuse.
- ↩Gen.1.11-Gen.1.12 — And God said, "Let the earth sprout vegetation—plants yielding seed, fruit trees bearing fruit according to their kinds, whose seed is in them, upon the earth." And it was so. Gen.1.12 — And the earth brought forth vegetation—plants yielding seed according to their kinds, and trees bearing fruit with seed in them according to their kinds. And God saw that it was good.
- ↩Matt.16.16 — Simon Peter answered, "You are the Christ, the Son of the living God."
Notes
- 1 ↩esmaltado keeps the enamel/inlay metaphor of a surface set with color; alternatives such as 'studded with flowers' are close but flatten the image.
- 2 ↩Spanish DECLARACIÓN here is the structural heading for the prose commentary that follows each canción in the Spiritual Canticle; rendered as EXPOSITION (traditional English equivalent), not as a legal 'declaration'.
- 3 ↩Source Latin citation reads "quae jacta sunt"; the intended Vulgate reading of Romans 1:20 is "quae facta sunt" ("the things that have been made"). Translated from the corrected reading.
- 4 ↩Source surface "vencerlas tentaciones" is treated as "vencer las tentaciones" ("overcome the temptations"), the ordinary reading of this commentary line.
- 5 ↩Spanish criar (archaic/early modern for crear) rendered as create; the clause ésta, que es criar confirms the sense is divine creation, not rearing.
- 6 ↩Spanish clause ends at está.; the verse continuation De flores esmaltado. belongs to the next section (CanticoEsp.1.7.12).
- 7 ↩Spanish esmaltado keeps the craft image of enamel inlay; the next section makes that metalwork sense explicit.
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