Saturday 10 August 2013

The Dark Night Of The Soul

"The Dark night of the Soul" is the theme for my up comming songs that I'm working on at the moment.

The song with the same name interpreted by the Canadian singer Loreena McKennitt catched my attention so that I'm motivated to do a new version of this old topic.
The journey is called ‘The Dark Night’, because darkness represents the hardships and difficulties the soul meets in detachment from the world and reaching the light of the union with the Creator. 1

The following poem from the writings of Saint John of the Cross, a Carmelite priest in the 16th century, gives the framework of inspiration on my songs.

  1. One dark night,
    fired with love's urgent longings
    - ah, the sheer grace! -
    I went out unseen,
    my house being now all stilled.
  2. In darkness, and secure,
    by the secret ladder, disguised,
    - ah, the sheer grace! -
    in darkness and concealment,
    my house being now all stilled.
  3. On that glad night,
    in secret, for no one saw me,
    nor did I look at anything,
    with no other light or guide
    than the one that burned in my heart.
  4. This guided me
    more surely than the light of noon
    to where he was awaiting me
    - him I knew so well -
    there in a place where no one appeared.
  5. O guiding night!
    O night more lovely than the dawn!
    O night that has united
    the Lover with his beloved,
    transforming the beloved in her Lover.
  6. Upon my flowering breast
    which I kept wholly for him alone,
    there he lay sleeping,
    and I caressing him
    there in a breeze from the fanning cedars.
  7. When the breeze blew from the turret,
    as I parted his hair,
    it wounded my neck
    with its gentle hand,
    suspending all my senses.
  8. I abandoned and forgot myself,
    laying my face on my Beloved;
    all things ceased; I went out from myself,
    leaving my cares
    forgotten among the lilies.

This might lead to just one song or an entire album.
My feeling say there is enough material for various songs.

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