St John of the Cross The Poems Author:Saint John of the Cross, P. J. Kavanagh Introduction by P. J. Kavanagh. A finely produced, bilingual edition of these celebrated poems. Rejoice, my love, with me And in your beauty see us both reflected: By mountain-slope and lea Where purest rills run free, We'll pass into the forest undetected. -from "Songs Between the Soul and the Bridegroom" St. John of the Cross, a sixteenth-c... more »entury Spanish Carmelite monk, has long been regarded as one of the greatest of Christian mystics. His intensely fervent and profound poems are a reflection of his own unique mystical experiences, which required nothing less than total surrender to the love of God. They are presented here in a beautifully produced, fine-paper edition, both in the original Spanish versions and on facing pages in Roy Campbell's celebrated English translation. Campbell was an intense admirer of all things Spanish and, as Laurie Lee put it, "one of our last pre-technocratic, big-action poets."« less