Noche Oscura
Amancio Prada
Dark Night
On a dark night
With eager love inflamed
Oh blissful fortune!
I went out unseen
My house being now at rest
In darkness and secure
By the secret ladder disguised
Oh blissful fortune!
In darkness and concealed
My house being now at rest
In the blissful night
In secret, where no one saw me
Nor I beheld aught
Without other light or guide
Save that which in my heart burned
This guided me
More surely than the noonday sun
To where he awaited me
Him whom I well knew
In a place where no one appeared
Oh night that guided!
Oh night more lovely than the dawn!
Oh night that joined
Lover with beloved
Beloved in the lover transformed!
In my blossoming breast
Which I kept wholly for him alone
There he lay sleeping
And I caressing him
And the fanning of the cedars made the air
The air from the battlements
When I spread his tresses
With his gentle hand
He wounded my neck
And suspended all my senses
I remained, lost in oblivion
My face reclined on the beloved
All ceased, and I abandoned myself
Leaving my cares
Among the lilies forgotten
