The Poems of St. John of the Cross: (Dual English/Spanish) [Hardcover]

Ken Krabbenhoft (Translator)

Book Description

ISBN-10: 0151003270 | ISBN-13: 978-0151003273 | Publication Date: April 1, 1999 | Edition: 1

St. John of the Cross was born Juan de Yepes in 1542, in a small village in Spain. In his youth he met the Carmelite nun Teresa of Avila, and joined her monastic reform movement. He dedicated the rest of his life to founding and administering monasteries and to works of charity. His writing, which began in prison when he was held captive by monks hostile to the reform movement, earned him the reputation as the greatest poet in the Christian mystical tradition, and led to his canonization. In poems of astonishing clarity he evokes a vision of a world filled with beauty, radiant with the love of God, ecstatic in its purity. St. John is revered by readers of spirituality, for his words-which compare with the Psalms of David and the works of the Sufi poet Rumi-resonate with inspiration and rich imagery. This edition offers a dual Spanish/English text, and is accompanied by black-and-white illustrations based on famous Spanish paintings of the Renaissance.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

The Poems of St. John of the Cross, translated by Ken Krabbenhoft, burn with the ecstatic fury of the Psalms and sail in the radiant peace of the poet Rumi.

St. John of the Cross was born in Spain in 1542 and was imprisoned in 1577 for his devotion to the teachings of St. Teresa of Avila. During his imprisonment, he wrote most of the poems that have earned him the reputation as the greatest poet of the Christian mystical tradition. The poems, presented here in a beautifully printed, lightly illustrated Spanish/English edition, often blur the line between romantic and religious love, in the tradition of Song of Songs. "On a Dark Night," for example, begins with a lover whose gender is not identified, stealing out of a house, down a secret ladder, following "my only light and guide / the light that burned in my heart," to find "the one I knew would come, / where surely no one would find us." The poem ends with a breathtaking image of spiritual and sensual contentment: "On the ramparts / while I sat ruffling his hair / the air struck my neck / with its gentle hand, / leaving my senses suspended. / I stayed; I surrendered, / resting my face on my Beloved. / Nothing mattered. / I left my cares / forgotten among the lilies." These are poems to read aloud to a lover, poems to read silently before God, poems that quiver before the world's beauty and thankfully seek to describe something beyond it--a God whose undeniable intimacy with humanity always edges toward the ineffable. --Michael Joseph Gross

From Library Journal

St. John of the Cross, a 16th-century mystic, wrote a small body of poems, many of them while he was imprisoned for his involvement in St. Teresa of Avila's monastic reform movement. A friendly jailer gave him pen and paper, and with these he composed some of the most ecstatically spiritual poems of the Christian tradition. St. John's central theme is union, though he wrote from utter solitude. His expressions of spiritual union with God are surprisingly sexual; it's often difficult not to interpret them as secular love poems. There are many excellent translations available that endeavor to capture the intensity and passion of the original. Krabbenhoft's translations are flat and literal in comparison with those of Willis Barnstone (1968) and John Frederick Nims (1979). Nims, for example, translates the last line of "Canciones Dei" as "how delicately I'm caught afire with love!" while Krabbenhoft renders it "how soothingly do you woo me!" Spanish texts are included, and Ferris Cook's tender illustrations are based on 16th-century Spanish paintings.AJudy Clarence, California State Univ. Lib., Hayward
Copyright 1999 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 96 pages
• Publisher: Houghton Mifflin Harcourt; 1 edition (April 1, 1999)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0151003270
• ISBN-13: 978-0151003273
• Product Dimensions: 9.2 x 6.1 x 0.5 inches
• Shipping Weight: 12.6 ounces
• Average Customer Review: 4.0 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (5 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #762,302 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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15 of 16 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Divine Consummation, December 18, 2002

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"palebluetribe" (Noblesville, Indiana USA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: The Poems of St. John of the Cross (Paperback)

Nims' translation is nothing short of miraculous. I've read the poems in at least three different translations and Nim's were the only ones which made me cry like when I read the Spanish for the first time. There is something plaintive and erotic about John of the Cross that other tranlators edit out for propriety's sake, but Nims left it in as one should. John was a lover of the Song of Songs and his pursuit of God was the pursuit of one painfully in love and desirous of consummation. Nims brings that aspect to the fore. Gorgeous. But remember, the poems are not enough. One must still read John's commentaries.

14 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars Love Poems, May 21, 2001

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J. J. Jackson (Columbus, Oh USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Poems of St. John of the Cross: (Dual English/Spanish) (Hardcover)

John of the Cross is often associated only with the spiritual condition he called the dark night of the soul, experienced as a cold, dry, confusing place. But when you read his poem "On a Dark Night", you realize what wonderful intimacies are hidden for lovers under cover of darkness. For me, this poem, both in its original Spanish and its rich English translation, is itself worth the price of this attractive hardback book.

This is a book that celebrates the soul's love for her Divine Lover in images and language that transcend the limitations of physical gender. When the mystics subliminated, they truly made the energy of loving sublime!

2 of 2 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Baeutiful but bad translation, March 21, 2011

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Mark DeBolt (Coldwater, MI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: The Poems of St. John of the Cross (Paperback)

I have 5 translations of the poems of John of the Cross, and am working on making my own. This is the only translation which rivals the original in poetic quality, but it is very far removed from the original in phraseology and occasionally in overall meaning. It does not even deserve the name "translation"; it is more of a broad paraphrase. Robert Frost defined poetry as "what is lost in translation", and this tries to make up for that by creating poetry of its own. If you want good mystical Christian poetry, I heartily recommend this. If you can't read the 16th Spanish (which is included), and want to know what John of the Cross wrote, you will want to look elsewhere.