San Juan de la Cruz fascina a todos aquellos que se acercan a su vida y a su obra. Figura cumbre del Siglo de Oro español, su personalidad despertó / sentimientos enfrentados en su época. Hombre de fe y de su tiempo, encarnó con Teresa de Jesús la renovación espiritual en busca de la esencia del cristianismo; intelectual y humanista, plasmó en sus escritos una de las más altas cotas del misticismo; difamado y desposeído de sus cargos, murió perdonando a los que le persiguieron. Esta biografía íntima es una reivindicación de ese simple y a la vez inmenso milagro cotidiano que el propio fraile formuló así: «Donde no hay amor, ponga amor y sacará amor».

In 1578, during months of imprisonment for his reformist beliefs, San Juan de la Cruz composed a series of narrative poems inspired by the Biblical Song of Songs—and, the story goes, a popular love song overheard from his cramped cell—that take God as the beloved. Erotically charged, initially scandalous, his mystical poetry engages with the journey of the soul through the darkest trenches of suffering and despair toward an enlightened spiritual connection with God. For hundreds of years, these poems have resonated deeply with those who search for meaning in the dark, and have influenced generations of poets, artists, and philosophers. This bilingual edition of the Complete Poems—including “Dark Night” and both the Sanlúcar and Jaén manuscripts of “Spiritual Canticle”—presents an intimate and exceptionally collaborative new translation from María Baranda and Paul Hoover. Baranda, one of the most distinguished Mexican poets of her generation, lends her deft hand with expansive, meditative poetry. Hoover—the accomplished American poet, editor, and translator—offers his dexterity with form and the possibilities of language. The product is uniquely faithful to image and idea, and loyal to the ecstatic lyricism of this canonical text. A volume that hums with the soul’s longing to find solace, The Complete Poems of San Juan de la Cruz is a collection to be treasured.

Thought and Poetic Structure in San Juan de la Cruz's Symbol of Night is a comprehensive appraisal of the traditional critical perspectives of mysticism: philosophical, theological, literary, and psychological. Examining the a priori limitations of these approaches, the book presents an original definition of the symbol as an integral whole of experience and expression, and concludes that night is the form - the organizing principle - of spiritual life.