John of the CrossThe Dark Night of the SoulThe Low Way · Collection I

Purification in apparent absence

The Dark Night of the Soul

John’s poem and commentary describe the stripping away of familiar consolations. The darkness is not abandonment, but a difficult reorientation of desire toward a union that cannot be possessed.

Format
Web · print · JSON · text
Length
about 43,500 words
Status
Scan/OCR transcription · human proof pass still required

Fresh Low Way edition

One text, many forms.

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What this edition contains

  • The poem and its exposition
  • Book I: The night of sense
  • Book II: The night of the spirit

Edition & provenance

Freshly structured,
not silently modernized.

Translated by David Lewis, with corrections and an introductory essay by Benedict Zimmerman. Thomas Baker, London, 1908.

The historical translation is credited in provenance, but its introductions, commentary, notes, indexes, and publisher matter are not part of the reading text. The underlying edition was published before January 1, 1931 and is public domain in the United States. Copyright status can differ elsewhere.