Not medieval, but this post brings to mind the lyrical poem Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross (written in 1584). It's a dialogue of love between the soul and Christ, very much in the spirit of and drawing many images from the Canticle of Canticles.
A sampling of stanzas:
“Reveal your presence,
And may the vision of your beauty be my death;
For the sickness of love
Is not cured
Except by your very presence and image.”
…
“Let us rejoice, Beloved,
And let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty,
To the mountain and to the hill,
To where the pure water flows,
And further, deep into the thicket.”
(from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, ICS Publications)
Thank you for reading and for this lovely comment. Actually, I do consider John of the Cross's poetry to be medieval, and I'll explain why in a future post! I am profoundly moved by his poems and have translated two of them. Both translations, and probably more, will be published on Via Mediaevalis at some point in the future.
This so beautiful! Is there a complete writing one could refer to? Perhaps with original English with modern English side by side? I find myself very drawn to it. (As you can see, I'm reading your first posts to catch up with the current ones - such excellent material.)
So glad you're finding time to read some of the old posts, Shannon! I do not believe that there is a readily available modern-English version of A Talking of the Love of God. The original Middle English version is available, at least in part, in a Middle English text called Companion to the English Prose Works of Richard Rolle: A Selection (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/rollecmp/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext). My university library does have what you're looking for—a complete edition with Middle English and a modern English translation side by side (the translation is good but not always to my liking, and I prefer to use my own translations when writing about this work). However, this edition was intended for scholars, was published over seventy years ago, and must now be extremely rare.
Well then, there’s enough to be going on with in this post. I will make a copy of this for prayer time. I find these writings so helpful and also important- that we remember those good people who came before us and paved a good, holy way that we can learn from. Thanks for your part in this!
Not medieval, but this post brings to mind the lyrical poem Spiritual Canticle of St. John of the Cross (written in 1584). It's a dialogue of love between the soul and Christ, very much in the spirit of and drawing many images from the Canticle of Canticles.
A sampling of stanzas:
“Reveal your presence,
And may the vision of your beauty be my death;
For the sickness of love
Is not cured
Except by your very presence and image.”
…
“Let us rejoice, Beloved,
And let us go forth to behold ourselves in your beauty,
To the mountain and to the hill,
To where the pure water flows,
And further, deep into the thicket.”
(from The Collected Works of St. John of the Cross, tr. Kieran Kavanaugh and Otilio Rodriguez, ICS Publications)
Thank you for reading and for this lovely comment. Actually, I do consider John of the Cross's poetry to be medieval, and I'll explain why in a future post! I am profoundly moved by his poems and have translated two of them. Both translations, and probably more, will be published on Via Mediaevalis at some point in the future.
I will look forward to that!
This so beautiful! Is there a complete writing one could refer to? Perhaps with original English with modern English side by side? I find myself very drawn to it. (As you can see, I'm reading your first posts to catch up with the current ones - such excellent material.)
So glad you're finding time to read some of the old posts, Shannon! I do not believe that there is a readily available modern-English version of A Talking of the Love of God. The original Middle English version is available, at least in part, in a Middle English text called Companion to the English Prose Works of Richard Rolle: A Selection (https://quod.lib.umich.edu/c/cme/rollecmp/1:6?rgn=div1;view=fulltext). My university library does have what you're looking for—a complete edition with Middle English and a modern English translation side by side (the translation is good but not always to my liking, and I prefer to use my own translations when writing about this work). However, this edition was intended for scholars, was published over seventy years ago, and must now be extremely rare.
Well then, there’s enough to be going on with in this post. I will make a copy of this for prayer time. I find these writings so helpful and also important- that we remember those good people who came before us and paved a good, holy way that we can learn from. Thanks for your part in this!