Song I: The Soul's Craving

Si de mi baja suerte

IF in my lowly state
The flames of love had power
To swallow death,
And should they so increase
As to scorch up the waters of the sea —

And hence ascending,
Should set afire the triple elements,
And in its flames consuming them
Should make of them its fuel —
If all these flames were love,

I do not think that I—
Who feel such living thirst for love —
Could love as I desire !
Nor could the flames I number
But for a moment quench my longing.

For they, compared
With that eternal and transcendent fire,
Are of no more import
Than is an atom to the whole world's bulk,
Or than a drop of water to the ocean !
My heart of miry clay
Hath neither heat, nor more stability
Than hath the flowering grass
Which in the hour it blooms
Is battered by the winds and droops decayed.

For never could
Its fiery blaze ignite
My heart as it desires
That it might reach the heights
Of that eternal Father of all lights.
O wretched fate
Which gives to love wings so inadequate !
Not only do they fail to compass
Flight that is so sublime
As doth that love supreme deserve they should do,

But I perceive, alas !
The powers of my love are so curtailed
That in its feebleness,
With wings close clipped
I hardly reach to see God in the distance.

Yet, if from my base sort
These flames of love could raise me,
Until I reached to gaze on Him,
And brought me to His presence,
So that my God should look upon them-
Oh ! by His fire eternal
Would they be caught, with force unspeakable,
At once absorbed,
Absorbed and swallowed up
And into everlasting flame converted.

Wherein my flames being drawn
Into His flames converted
Consuming in His love,
Mine own flames burnt
Would become one with His most ardent love.

Thus would be realised,
At length the deepest yearning of my breast,
Seeing myself at length made one with Him
With closest tie and wholly satisfied !