In this book all songs to be declared are put first. Then each song is declared by itself, putting each of them before its declaration, and then each verse is declared by itself, also putting it at the beginning.
In the first two songs the effects of the two spiritual purges of the sensitive part of man and of the spiritual are declared. In the other six various and admirable effects of spiritual illumination and union of love with God are declared.
SONGS OF THE SOUL
1. On a dark night, anxiously, inflamed in love, oh blessed fortune! I went out without being noticed, my house already being calm.
2. In the dark and safe, by the secret ladder, disguised, oh happy chance!, in the dark and in the cell, my house already being calm.
3. In the happy night, in secret, that no one saw me, nor did I look at anything, with no other light and guide but the one that burned in my heart.
4. Here it guided me more certain than the midday light, where someone who knew me was waiting for me, partly where no one seemed.
5. Oh night you guided! oh kind night more than the dawn! Oh, night that you joined Beloved with Beloved, Beloved transformed into the Beloved!
6. In my flowery chest, which was kept entirely for him alone, he fell asleep there, and I gave him a gift, and the cedar vent gave air.
7. The air of the battlement, when I scattered his hair, with his serene hand on my neck hurt and all my senses suspended.
8. I stayed and I forgot myself, my face rested on the Beloved, everything ceased and I left myself, leaving my care among the forgotten lilies.
END