Ascent of Mount Carmel/Book 1/Chapter I

by John of the Cross

CHAPTER I

Sets down the first stanza. Describes two different nights through which spiritual persons pass, according to the two parts of man, the lower and the higher. Expounds the stanza which follows.

Stanza The First

On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings — oh, happy chance! —
I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.

In this first stanzas the soul sings of the happy fortune and chance which it experienced in going forth from all things that are without, and from the desires^[1] and imperfections that are in the sensual^[2] part of man because of the disordered state of his reason. For the understanding of this it must be known that, for a soul to attain to the state of perfection, it has ordinarily first to pass through two principal kinds of night, which spiritual persons call purgations or purifications of the soul; and here we call them nights, for in both of them the soul journeys, as it were, by night, in darkness.

2. The first night or purgation is of the sensual part of the soul, which is treated in the present stanza, and will be treated in the first part of this book. And the second is of the spiritual part; of this speaks the second stanza, which follows; and of this we shall treat likewise, in the second and the third part,^[3] with respect to the activity of the soul; and in the fourth part, with respect to its passitivity.

3. And this first night pertains to beginners, occurring at the time when God begins to bring them into the state of contemplation; in this night the spirit likewise has a part, as we shall say in due course. And the second night, or purification, pertains to those who are already proficient, occurring at the time when God desires to bring them to the state of union with God. And this latter night is a more obscure and dark and terrible purgation, as we shall say afterwards.

4. Briefly, then, the soul means by this stanza that it went forth (being led by God) for love of Him alone, enkindled in love of Him, upon a dark night, which is the privation and purgation of all its sensual desires, with respect to all outward things of the world and to those which were delectable to its flesh, and likewise with respect to the desires of its will. This all comes to pass in this purgation of sense; for which cause the soul says that it went forth while its house was still at rest;^[4] which house is its sensual part, the desires being at rest and asleep in it, as it is to them.^[5] For there is no going forth from the pains and afflictions of the secret places of the desires until these be mortified and put to sleep. And this, the soul says, was a happy chance for it — namely, its going forth without being observed: that is, without any desire of its flesh or any other thing being able to hinder it. And likewise, because it went out by night — which signifies the privation of all these things wrought in it by God, which privation was night for it.

5. And it was a happy chance that God should lead it into this night, from which there came to it so much good; for of itself the soul would not have succeeded in entering therein, because no man of himself can succeed in voiding himself of all his desires in order to come to God.

6. This is, in brief, the exposition of the stanza; and we shall now have to go through it, line by line, setting down one line after another, and expounding that which pertains to our purpose. And the same method is followed in the other stanzas, as I said in the Prologue^[6] — namely, that each stanza will be set down and expounded, and afterwards each line.

Footnotes

1. [Lit., ‘appetites,’ but this word is uniformly translated ‘desires,’ as the Spanish context frequently will not admit the use of the stronger word in English.]
2. [The word translated ’sensual’ is sometimes sensual, and sometimes, as here, sensitivo. The meaning in either case is simply ‘of sense.’]
3. So Alc. The other authorities read: ‘and of this we shall treat likewise, in the second part with respect to the activity [of the soul] [these last three words are not contained in the Spanish of any authority], and in the third and the fourth part with respect to its passivity.’ E.p. follows this division. Alc., however, seems to correspond more closely with the Saint’s intentions; for he did not divide each of his ‘books’ into ‘parts’ and appears therefore to indicate by ‘part’ what we know as ‘book.’ Now Book I is in fact devoted to the active purgation of sense, as are Books II and III to the active purgation of the spirit. For the ‘fourth book,’ see General Introduction, IV above.
4. [The word translated ‘at rest’ is a past participle: more literally, ‘stilled.’]
5. [Lit., ‘and it in them.’ This ‘it’ means the soul; the preceding ‘it,’ the house.]
6. I.e., in the ‘Argument.’