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This is a bilingual collection of the poems of Teresa of Avila, one of history’s most influential Christian mystics, newly translated by Dana Delibovi. The collection contains about thirty poems, some ecstatic and some philosophic, in both English the original Spanish.
The book also offers an overall introduction and commentaries on each of the five sections by which the poems are grouped. This provides the reader, particularly a neophyte to the history and theology that inform these poems — such as myself — with background useful to better experiencing the poems. I do enjoy bilingual editions even when they are in a source language that I don’t read because they do allow some insight into rhyme, metering, and other considerations of sound. One can observe to what degree the translator emulates form, even if one remains ignorant of the degree to which meaning is captured.
I enjoyed this collection. If you are interested in the poetry of Christian mystics, I’d recommend you give it a read.
It was many and many a year ago, In a kingdom by the sea, That a maiden there lived whom you may know By the name of Annabel Lee; And this maiden she lived with no other thought Than to love and be loved by me.
I was a child and she was a child, In this kingdom by the sea, But we loved with a love that was more than love -- I and my Annabel Lee -- With a love that the winged seraphs of Heaven Coveted her and me.
And this was the reason that, long ago, In this kingdom by the sea, A wind blew out of a cloud, chilling My beautiful Annabel Lee; So that her highborn kinsman came And bore her away from me, To shut her up in a sepulchre In this kingdom by the sea.
The angels, not half so happy in Heaven, Went envying her and me --- Yes! -- that was the reason (as all men know, In this kingdom by the sea) That the wind came out of the cloud by night, Chilling and killing my Annabel Lee.
But our love it was stronger by far than the love Of those who were older than we -- Of many far wiser than we -- And neither the angels in Heaven above Nor the demons down under the sea Can ever dissever my soul from the soul Of the beautiful Annabel Lee;
For the moon never beams, without bringing me dreams Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And the stars never rise, but I feel the bright eyes Of the beautiful Annabel Lee; And so, all the night-tide, I lie down by the side Of my darling -- my darling -- my life and my bride, In her sepulchre there by the sea -- In her tomb by the sounding sea.
Sweet Hunter: The Complete Poems of St. Teresa of Ávila by St. Teresa
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