ballads: tired

spiritual canticle: absolutely wired ( )

This book was more academic than I expected. The book opens with the Spanish and English versions of each poems. The poems include The Codex of Sanlucar de Barrameda and Additional Poems. The last third of the book includes the life history of San Juan, textual and historical analysis of the poems,and a expose on the Spanish text. This is an excellent place to start if you are interested an academic study of his poems. The language is clear, concise, and accessible. Worth reading, and an excellent addition to any poetry lover's library. ( )

Barnstone produces a terrible translation; he mangles or creates phrases from whole cloth so that stanzas fit the rhyme scheme he's attempting to imitate. Those poems where he isn't trying to force the result into the original rhyme scheme are decent, but they're few and far between. ( )

A good introduction to this obscure Spanish poet and mystic. ( )

This is a superb translation of the poetry of St. John of the Cross. Ken Krabbenhoft has caught the beauty of the Spanish original. The poems grow upon you with rereading. One of the two poems that particularly captured my imagination was "I entered I knew not where", which continues "and remained without knowing,/ there transcending all knowledge". This is a paean to the intuitive way of knowing, which for St. John comes through the knowing of God but always remains a counter sense of not knowing. this is where your heart feels path but which your brain is unable to describe accutely.

The other poem that I've read over a number of times is "Surely I know the spring that swiftly flows", which continues "even during the night". There is rhythm in this poetry, always anchored by the last line of each verse "even during the night" (Spanish "aunque es de noche") which pulls one into the depths of his soul, and the reader is drawn into his own depths, not revealed fully but now seen darkly. ( )