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Abstract
San Juan de la Cruz's ‘mystical’ ‘En una noche oscura’ has received considerable critical attention both theological as much as literary. How can the mystical experience be expressed in verse? Despite many literary approaches to this poem, and other related ‘sacred’ poems, approaches that relate these verses to the poet's ‘mystical’ experiences, no critic has read, to my knowledge, ‘En una noche oscura’ from a close hermeneutical viewpoint. Such a reading, relating the poem to fin de siglo Symbolist aesthetics, shows that certain poetic processes are timeless and reveals an altogether different version of the poem. Placing the poem in a timeless Symbolist frame reveals how San Juan could convey that which ‘passes human understanding’ and further suggests that the poet may not have been writing solely about his own experiences.
Notes
1 For Professor Mackenzie's contributions to San Juan studies, see: Ann L. Mackenzie, ‘Upon Two “Dark Nights”: Allison Peers' Translations of “En una noche oscura” ’, BHS, LXII:3 (1985) [Homage Number to Gerald Brenan: Spanish Mystics, etc.], 270–79, and her ‘Translations of Meaning: Some English Versions of San Juan de la Cruz's Noche oscura’, in Readings in Spanish and Portuguese Poetry for Geoffrey Connell, ed. Nicholas G. Round & D. Gareth Walters (Glasgow: Glasgow Univ., Dept of Spanish, 1985), 137–60.
2 Leopoldo Alas (Clarín), ‘Palique’, collected in Palique (Madrid: Librería de Victoriano Suárez, 1893), 275.
3 The list of studies is extensive. Among the best religious studies are: Jean Baruzi, Saint Jean de la Croix et le problème de l'expérience mystique (Paris: Librairie de Felix Alcan, 1924); E. W. Trueman Dicken, The Crucible of Love: A Study of the Mysticism of St Teresa of Jesus and St John of the Cross (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1963); Leon Christiani, San Juan de la Cruz: vida y doctrina (Madrid: Ediciones de la Espiritualidad, 1969); Rowan Williams, The Wound of Knowledge: Christian Spirituality from the New Testament to St John of the Cross (London: Darton, Longman & Todd, 1979 [reprint 1990]); Colin P. Thompson, The Poet and the Mystic: A Study of the ‘Cántico espiritual’ of San Juan de la Cruz (Oxford: Oxford U. P., 1977) and St John of the Cross: Songs in the Night (London: SPCK, 2002), the former with an extensive bibliography; Desmond Tillyer, Union with God: The Teachings of St John of the Cross (London/Oxford: Mowbray, 1984); K. Kavanagh, John of the Cross: Doctor of Light and Love (London: SPCK, 2000); Edward Howells, ‘Spanish Mysticism and Religious Renewal: Ignatius of Loyola, Teresa of Ávila and John of the Cross’, in Blackwell Companion to Christian Mysticism, ed. Julia A. Lamm (Oxford: Wiley-Blackwell, 2012), 422–36, and many others. Among the literary and biographical studies are the pioneering works of E. Allison Peers, Spirit of Flame: A Study of Saint John of the Cross (London: SCM Press, 1943) and his edition and translation, St John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, 3rd rev. ed. (London: Doubleday, 1959); also his Studies of the Spanish Mystics, 3 vols (I & II, London: The Sheldon Press, 1927 & 1930; III, London: SPCK, 1960); Argimiro Ruano, Desnudez: lo místico y lo literario en San Juan de la Cruz (México D.F.: Editorial Polis, 1961); Dámaso Alonso, La poesía de San Juan de la Cruz (desde esta ladera) (Madrid: Gredos, 1966); Eulogio de la Virgen del Carmen, San Juan de la Cruz y sus escritos (Madrid: Ediciones Cristiandad, 1969); Gerald Brenan, St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry (Cambridge: Cambridge U. P., 1973); José C. Nieto, Mystic, Rebel, Saint: A Study of Saint John of the Cross (Genève: Editorial Droz, 1979) and San Juan de la Cruz: poeta del amor profano (El Escorial: Swan, Avantos & Hakeldama, 1988); Richard P. Hardy, The Life of St John of the Cross (London: DLT, 1982). Among psychological studies are: Stephen Payne, John of the Cross and the Cognitive Value of Mysticism (London: Lion Books, 1999) and Jill Robson, ‘Visions of St John of the Cross: A Twentieth Century Psychoanalyst's View’, in Leeds Papers on Saint John of the Cross: Contributions to a Quatercentenary Celebration, ed. Margaret A. Rees (Leeds: Trinity and All Saints’ College, 1991), 161–98. An exceptional study of the Islamic influence of the Saint's work is Luce López Baralt, Juan de la Cruz y el Islam (Puerto Rico: Univ. de Puerto Rico, 1985). This listing is not intended to be exhaustive, merely to be an indication of the explosion of studies from the 1960s onwards.
4 Roy Campbell, The Poems of St John of the Cross (London: Harvill Press, 1951).
5 Marcelino Menéndez Pelayo, ‘La poesía mística en España’, collected in Estudios de crítica histórica y literaria, ed. preparada por Enrique Sánchez Reyes, 7 vols (Madrid: CSIC/Santander: Univ. de Cantabria, 1941–42), II, 90–115; first published in his Discurso de ingreso en la Real Academia Española (Madrid: RAE, 1891). He also wrote the Epilogue to Obras del místico doctor San Juan de la Cruz, ed., intros & notas de Gerardo de San Juan de la Cruz, 3 vols (Toledo: Imp. y Lib. de Viuda e Hijos de J. Peláez, 1912–14).
6 A year after the certamen an edition of Kempis’ Imitation of Christ was published: De la imitación de Cristo y menosprecio del mundo (Barcelona: Imp. y Lib. de V. E. H. de Subiraná, 1892). Five years later a compendium of these writers appeared for use in the home, in schools and seminaries: José de Castro y Castro, Resumen de historia de la filosofía (Sevilla: Imp. de F. De P. Díaz, 1897). This was one of the prescribed texts in the Jesuit college attended by the young Juan Ramón Jiménez.
7 Urbano González Serrano, Ensayos de crítica y filosofía (Madrid: Imp. Hernández, 1881), 93–94 (italics in original).
8 Urbano González Serrano, ‘El dolor’, in En pro y en contra (Críticas) (Madrid: Sucedores de Rivadeneyra, 1894), 85–103 (p. 98).
9 Urbano González Serrano, ‘El satanismo y el modernismo en el arte’, in La literatura del día (1990 a 1903) (Barcelona: Heinrich Editores, 1903), 33–34 (italics in original).
10 Menéndez Pelayo, ‘La poesía mística en España’, 72, 71.
11 We should not forget, of course, that while the annus mirabilis of the new poetics was 1903, many of the verses of these writers were penned long before. For example, Antonio Machado published five poems in Electra in 1901 that subsequently appeared in his Soledades in 1903. For details, see Dolores Romero López, ‘Introducción’, in Antonio Machado, Soledades, ed., estudio & notas de Dolores Romero López (Exeter: Exeter U. P., 2006), 1–53 (p. 11).
12 Menéndez Pelayo, ‘La poesía mística en España’, 97–98.
13 Menéndez Pelayo, ‘La poesía mística en España’, 109.
14 See Patricia McDermott, ‘Songlines of the Dreamtime on a Map of Misreading (an Unscientific Meditation on the Soledades of Antonio Machado for the Evening of Palm Sunday 1989)’, in ‘Estelas en la mar’. Essays on the Poetry of Antonio Machado (1875–1939), ed. D. Gareth Walters (Glasgow: Univ. of Glasgow, 1992), 1–17 and my ‘Antonio Machado, San Juan de la Cruz y el neomisticismo’, in ‘Estelas en la mar’, ed. Walters, 18–37.
15 See Juan Ramón Jiménez, El trabajo gustoso (conferencias), selección & prólogo de Francisco Garfias (México D.F.: Aguilar, 1961), 100, 224–25.
16 Juan Ramón Jiménez, Libros de prosa, ordenación & prólogo de Francisco Garfias (Madrid: Aguilar, 1968), 211–12. The quotation from Menéndez Pelayo actually reads: ‘Pero hay una poesía más angélica, celestial y divina, que ya no parece de este mundo, ni es posible medirla con criterios literarios, y eso que es más ardiente de pasión que ninguna poesía profana y tan elegante y exquisita en la forma, y tan plástica y figurativa como los más sabrosos frutos del Renacimiento, son las Canciones espirituales de San Juan de la Cruz, la Subida del monte Carmelo, la Noche oscura del alma. Confieso que infunde religioso terror al tocarlas’ (Menéndez Pelayo, ‘La poesía mística en España’, 97).
17 Antonio Machado, Poesía y prosa, edición crítica de Oreste Macrì con la colaboración de Gaetano Chiappini, 4 vols (Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1989), III, Prosas completas 1893–1936, 1211.
18 Thompson, The Poet and the Mystic, 14.
19 Juan de la Cruz, Llama de amor viva, intro. & notas al texto de P. Tomás Álvarez (Madrid: San Pablo, 1999), 15.
20 Thompson, The Poet and the Mystic, 27.
21 Giles Hibbert, ‘San Juan: The Poet and Theologian’, in Leeds Papers on Saint John of the Cross, ed. Rees, 127–59 (pp. 136, 137). Later, in the same article, he seems to go back on this claim when he argues that the poems were ‘the expression of his human solitude and joy in relationship to God, [ … ] one set firmly within the tradition of the Christian community, faith and sacramental liturgy’ (139).
22 Hibbert, ‘San Juan: The Poet and Theologian’, 136.
23 Hibbert, ‘San Juan: The Poet and Theologian’, 131.
24 Hibbert, ‘San Juan: The Poet and Theologian’, 148.
25 Cf. López Baralt, Juan de la Cruz y el Islam.
26 See Keith Whinnom, The Spanish Sentimental Romance 1440–1550: A Critical Bibliography (London: Grant and Cutler, 1983); and Whinnom, La poesía amatoria de la época de los Reyes Católicos (Durham: Univ. of Durham, 1981). See also the following studies by Ian Macpherson: ‘Secret Language in the Cancioneros: Some Courtly Codes’, in Medieval Studies, BHS, LXI:1 (1985), 51–63; ‘ “Manteniendo la tela”: el erotismo del vocabulario caballeresco en la época de los Reyes Católicos’, in Actas del Primer Congreso Anglo-Hispano, ed. Ralph Penny, Alan Deyermond & Richard Hitchcock, 3 vols (Madrid: Castalia, 1993), I, 25–36; ‘The Game of Courtly Love: letra, divisa and invención at the Court of the Catholic Monarchs’, in Poetry at the Court in Trastamaran Spain, ed. E. Michael Gerli & Julian Weiss (Tucson: Arizona State U. P., 1998), 95–110.
27 Alonso, La poesía de San Juan de la Cruz, 54.
28 Alonso, La poesía de San Juan de la Cruz, 159–60.
29 The same is true of taste, especially the taste of wine, which the experts invariably define synaesthetically in terms of other entities, often fruits, musical notes, even tar. The Sunday Times, 4 August 2013, p. 10, also has graphite, pencil, hard, fat, rounded, smooth, juicy, 10.
30 See my ‘Beyond the Mirror and the Lamp: Symbolist Frames and Spaces’, Romance Quarterly, 36:2 (1989), 267–72 and ‘Mirrors and Myths: Antonio Machado and the Search for Self’, Romance Studies, 9:1 (1991), 31–42.
31 Antonio Machado, Soledades. Galerías. Otros poemas, intro. & notes by Richard A. Cardwell (Manchester: Manchester U. P., 2015), poem VII, ll. 16–17, p. 79.
32 See Alonso, La poesía de San Juan de la Cruz, 198–99.
33 Alonso, La poesía de San Juan de la Cruz, 202.
34 Campbell (The Poems of St John of the Cross, 13) has ‘In love's anxiety of longing kindled’. Nicholson has ‘With all my cares to loving ardours flushed’. For Nicholson's translation, titled ‘The Dark Night’, see Brenan, St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry, 145–47 (p. 145).
35 ‘Almena’ is not usually expressed in the singular since it refers to a series of ‘almenas’, the crenellations on a castle wall. It seems unlikely that there would be a garden on the battlements. Perhaps San Juan is drawing from Arab-Andalusian sources which depict pleasure palaces with rooftop gardens and mock battlements, a traditional sitio de amores in Andalusí poetry.
36 Nieto, San Juan de la Cruz: poeta del amor profano, 62.
37 Nicholson, ‘The Dark Night’, in Brenan, St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry, 145; Campbell, The Poems of St John of the Cross, 13.
38 Nieto, San Juan de la Cruz: poeta del amor profano, 64.
39 Nicholson, ‘The Dark Night’, in Brenan, St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry, 147; Campbell, The Poems of St John of the Cross, 13.
40 Samuel Gili y Gaya, Curso superior de sintaxis española (Madrid: CSIC, 1943), sections 164–65.
41 Gili y Gaya, Curso superior de sintaxis española, section 164.
42 Gili y Gaya, Curso superior de sintaxis española, section 164.
43 Brenan, St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry, 125.
44 Brenan, St John of the Cross: His Life and Poetry, 126.
45 Rees, ‘A Poet's Poet’, in Leeds Papers on Saint John of the Cross, ed. Rees, 227–37 (p. 232).
46 I would like to thank Dr Michael Nassim for his thoughts, in our exchanges over the final part of this essay.
* Disclosure Statement: No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.