Latest / The Daily Poem / St. John of the Cross's "The Soul Aflame"

Transcript

St. John of the Cross's "The Soul Aflame" · The Daily Poem

• 0:00
  [music]
• 0:05
  SPEAKER_00: Welcome back to The Daily Poem, a podcast from Goldberry Studios.
• 0:09
  SPEAKER_00: I'm Sean Johnson, and today is Wednesday, August 5th, 2026.
• 0:14
  SPEAKER_00: Today's poem is by John of the Cross,
• 0:16
  SPEAKER_00: a 16th century Spanish friar,
• 0:19
  SPEAKER_00: best known for his writings on the dark night of the soul,
• 0:23
  SPEAKER_00: these seasons of spiritual depression and even doubt, which,
• 0:27
  SPEAKER_00: if endured with faith, actually become part of the soul's upward ascent to God.
• 0:33
  SPEAKER_00: He spent a number of years imprisoned by his fellow Spanish friars,
• 0:36
  SPEAKER_00: and during that time he wrote a lot of poetry,
• 0:39
  SPEAKER_00: including today's poem, The Soul of Flame, translated by Roy Campbell.
• 0:45
  SPEAKER_00: In it he expresses his distaste for this life,
• 0:49
  SPEAKER_00: but it's not a hopeless and pessimistic distaste for life.
• 0:53
  SPEAKER_00: It's not the kind of hatred of life that ends in suicide.
• 0:57
  SPEAKER_00: It's rooted in a longing for a greater life to come.
• 1:01
  SPEAKER_00: Here's the poem.
• 1:02
  SPEAKER_00: The Soul Flame Within myself I do not dwell,
• 1:08
  SPEAKER_00: Since without God I cannot live,
• 1:11
  SPEAKER_00: Reft of myself and God as well,
• 1:14
  SPEAKER_00: What serves this life I cannot tell Except a thousand deaths to give,
• 1:19
  SPEAKER_00: Since waiting here for life I lie, And die because I do not die.
• 1:24
  SPEAKER_00: This life I live in vital strength is loss of life unless I win you,
• 1:28
  SPEAKER_00: and thus to die I shall continue until in you I live at length.
• 1:34
  SPEAKER_00: Listen, my God, my life is in you.
• 1:37
  SPEAKER_00: This life I do not want, for I am dying that I do not die.
• 1:41
  SPEAKER_00: Thus in your absence and your lack,
• 1:43
  SPEAKER_00: how can I in myself abide,
• 1:46
  SPEAKER_00: nor suffer here a death more black than ever was by mortal died?
• 1:50
  SPEAKER_00: For pity of myself I've cried, because in such a plight I lie, dying because I do not die.
• 1:57
  SPEAKER_00: The fish that from the stream is lost derives some sort of consolation,
• 2:02
  SPEAKER_00: that in his death he pays the cost at least of death's annihilation.
• 2:07
  SPEAKER_00: To this dread life with which I'm crossed,
• 2:10
  SPEAKER_00: what fell death can compare, since I, the more I live, the more must die.
• 2:20
  SPEAKER_00: This has been The Daily Poem.
• 2:21
  SPEAKER_00: Thanks for listening.
• 2:22
  SPEAKER_00: We'll be back tomorrow with more poetry.
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: Till then,
• 2:25
  SPEAKER_00: find us at dailypoempod.substack.com to listen to past episodes or subscribe
• 2:30
  SPEAKER_00: and support the show.
• 2:32
  SPEAKER_00: For all of us at Goldberry Studios, I'm Sean Johnson wishing you happy reading.