Story Behind the Song
The Dark Night of the Soul is a book, written by the 16th-century Spanish Carmelite mystic San Juan de la Cruz (St John of the Cross), and is a detailed commentary on a poem called "On a Dark Night." This poem is included in virtually every anthology of religious poetry. The commentary explains the various images in the poem as allegories for stages in development of the spiritual life. But if you read the poem with queer sensibilities, it is obviously an account of an homosexual encounter.
Lyrics
1. On a dark night, Kindled in love with yearnings —oh, happy chance!—
I went forth without being observed, My house being now at rest.
2. In darkness and secure, By the secret ladder, disguised —oh, happy chance!—
In darkness and in concealment, My house being now at rest.
3. In the happy night, In secret, when none saw me,
Nor I beheld aught, Without light or guide, save that which burned in my heart.
4. This light guided me More surely than the light of noonday
To the place where he (well I knew who!) was awaiting me—
A place where none appeared.
5. Oh, night that guided me, Oh, night more lovely than the dawn,
Oh, night that joined Beloved with lover, Lover transformed in the Beloved!
6. Upon my flowery breast, Kept wholly for himself alone,
There he stayed sleeping, and I caressed him, And the fanning of the cedars made a breeze.
7. The breeze blew from the turret As I parted his locks;
With his gentle hand he wounded my neck And caused all my senses to be suspended.
8. I remained, lost in oblivion; My face I reclined on the Beloved.
All ceased and I abandoned myself, Leaving my cares forgotten among the lilies.
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