TRACY MCDONNELL: ARS POÉTICA

Millennium Solo Recordings, 2000-2023 (Vol. 2)

Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD between 2000 & 2023. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA.  Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. All rights reserved.

Cover Art: "Hagia Sophia" by Brian Haverlock. © Brian Haverlock. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

www.TracyMcDonnell.com

"Do not commit your poems to pages alone. 
Sing them, I pray you." ~Virgil

Ars Poética

LE NOYER (The Walnut Tree)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)

Arbre, toujours au milieu
De tout ce qui l’entoure–
Arbre qui savoure
La voûte entière des cieux,

Toi, comme aucun autre
Tourné vers partout:
On dirait un apôtre
Qui ne sit pas d’où

Arbre, toujours au milieu
De tout ce qui l’entoure–
Arbre qui savoure
La voûte entière des cieux,

Dieu lui va apparaître....
Or, pour qu’il soit sûr,
Il développe en rond son être
Et lui tend des cras mûrs.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Tree, ever at the center of whatever it surrounds–
tree that savors the entire vault of heaven
you, like nothing else, turned in all directions:
as if you’re an apostle who doesn’t know from whence
God will appear to him.... So, in order to be sure,
he develops himself round, and tends Him tempered arms.

*   *   *
Text: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), translation by A. Poulin, Jr. ©1979, 1982, 1984, 1986.  Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Piano: Tracy McDonnell. Tenor Saxophone: Bruce Swaim. Acoustic Bass: Jon Nazdin. Drums: David Lopez. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. All rights reserved.

Le Noyer (The Walnut Tree)

DIRAIT-ON (So They Say)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)

Abandon entouré d’abandon,
Tendresse touchant aux tendresses...
C’est ton intérieur qui sans cesse
Se carese, dirait-on;

Se caress en soi-même,
Par son propre reflet éclairé.
Ainsi tu inventes le thème
Du Narcisse exaucé.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Abandon surrounding abandon, 
Tenderness touching tenderness...
Your oneness endlessly caresses itself, so they say;
Self-caressing through its own clear reflection.
Thus you invent the theme of Narcissus fulfilled.

* * *
Text: Rainer Maria Rilke (1875-1926), from the collection "Les Roses" (The Roses). Music: Morten Johannes Lauridsen, from the choral cycle "Les Chansons des Roses." © 1995 by Southern Music Publishing Co., Inc. Arranged for voice & flutes by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Synth Harp: Tracy McDonnell. Classical Flutes: Bruce Swaim. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Cover Art: "Pink Rose" by Jan Voerman (1890-1976). All rights reserved.

Dirait-On (So They Say)

VIRGINIA
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)
	
O rain at seven, 
paycheck at eleven--
Keep smiling the boss away,
Mary (what are you going to do?)
Gone seven - gone eleven
And I’m still waiting you

O blue-eyed Mary with the claret scarf, 
Saturday Mary, mine!

It’s high carillon
From the popcorn bells!
Pigeons by the million–
And Spring in Prince Street 
Where green figs gleam
By oyster shells!

O Mary, leaning from the high wheat tower, 
Let down your golden hair.  
  
High in the noon of May
On cornices of daffodils
The slender violets stray.
Crap-shooting gangs in Bleecker reign
Peonies with pony manes –
Forget-me-nots at windowpanes:
Out of the way-up nickel-dime tower shine,
Cathedral Mary, shine!

Text: Hart Crane, from "The Bridge: A Poem by Hart Crane" (New York: Horace Liveright, 1930). Music: Ross Taylor. © 1990 by Ross Taylor. Arranged & adapted by Tracy McDonnell. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Rhythm Guitar / Synth Organ: Tracy McDonnell. Slide Guitar: Gantt Mann Kushner. Acoustic Bass: Jon Nazdin. Drums: David Lopez. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA.  Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. All rights reserved.

Virginia (Hart Crane/Ross Taylor)

O MISTRESS MINE
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)

O Mistress Mine, where are you roaming?
O stay and hear, your true love’s coming
That can sing both high and low.

Trip no further, pretty sweeting,
Journey’s end at lover’s meeting
Ev’ry wise man’s son doth know.

What is love?  ‘Tis not hereafter –
Present mirth hath present laughter
What’s to come is still unsure.

In delay there lies no plenty --
Then come kiss me, sweet and twenty;
Youth’s a stuff will not endure.

* * *
Text: William Shakespeare (1565-1616), from "Twelfth Night," public domain. Music: Emma Lou Diemer. © 1962 by Boosey & Hawkes. Arranged & adapted by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Lead & Harmony Vocals /  Rhythm Guitar / Synth Hurdy Gurdy: Tracy McDonnell. Lead Guitar: Gantt Mann Kushner. Acoustic Bass: Jon Nazdin. Drums: Andy Hamburger. Adapted and arranged by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell, © 2000 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Cover Art: "Portrait of a Flower" by Brian Haverlock, © 2000. Used with permission. All rights reserved.

O Mistress Mine (From "Twelfth Night")

THE TYGER
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)

Tyger Tyger, burning bright, 
In the forests of the night; 
What immortal hand or eye, 
Could frame thy fearful symmetry?

In what distant deeps or skies. 
Burnt the fire of thine eyes?
On what wings dare he aspire?
What the hand, dare seize the fire?

And what shoulder, & what art,
Could twist the sinews of thy heart?
And when thy heart began to beat.
What dread hand? & what dread feet?

What the hammer? what the chain,
In what furnace was thy brain?
What the anvil? what dread grasp.
Dare its deadly terrors clasp?

When the stars threw down their spears 
And water'd heaven with their tears:
Did he smile his work to see?
Did he who made the Lamb make thee?

Tyger Tyger burning bright,
In the forests of the night:
What immortal hand or eye,
Dare frame thy fearful symmetry?

* * *
Text: William Blake (1757-1827), from "Songs of Experience," public domain. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Piano: Tracy McDonnell. Lead Guitar, Background Vocal & Synth Drums: Gantt Mann Kushner. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA.  Produced by Tracy McDonnell.  © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. All rights reserved.

The Tyger (For Magalie Roman Salas)

THE LAMB
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)

Little lamb, who made thee?
Dost thou know who made thee,
Gave thee life, and bid thee feed
By the stream and o'er the mead;
Gave thee clothing of delight,
Softest clothing, woolly, bright;
Gave thee such a tender voice,
Making all the vales rejoice? 
Little lamb, who made thee? 
Dost thou know who made thee?

Little lamb, I'll tell thee;
Little lamb, I'll tell thee:
He is called by thy name,
For He calls Himself a Lamb.
He is meek, and He is mild,
He became a little child.
I a child, and thou a lamb,
We are called by His name. 
Little lamb, God bless thee! 
Little lamb, God bless thee!

* * *
Text: William Blake (1757-1827), "Songs of Innocence," public domain. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Vocal / Synth Harp: Tracy McDonnell. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA.  Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Photo: Source unknown. All rights reserved.

The Lamb (for Magalie Roman Salas)

A POISON TREE
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)

I was angry with my friend; 
I told my wrath, my wrath did end.
I was angry with my foe: 
I told it not, my wrath did grow. 

And I waterd it in fears,
Night & morning with my tears: 
And I sunned it with smiles,
And with soft deceitful wiles. 

And it grew both day and night. 
Till it bore an apple bright. 
And my foe beheld it shine,
And he knew that it was mine. 

And into my garden stole, 
When the night had veild the pole; 
In the morning glad I see; 
My foe outstretched beneath the tree.

* * *
Text: William Blake (1757-1827), "Songs of Experience," public domain. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Synth Rhodes: Tracy McDonnell. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA.  Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Illustration by William Blake, c. 1794 (public domain). All rights reserved.

A Poison Tree (For Magalie Roman Salas)

O LIVING FLAME OF LOVE (Oh llama de amor viva)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)
(Suite San Juan, Movement V)

O living flame of love, 
How tenderly you wound my soul
In her profoundest core!
You are no longer shy.  Do it now, I ask you: 
Break the membrane of our sweet union.

O soothing cautery!
O wound that is a joy!  
O gentle hand!  O delicate touch!
Tasting of eternity, repaying every debt.   
Killing, you turn my death to life.

O lamps of human fire, in deep transparency
The lowest caverns of the senses, once shadowy and blind
Flare in light and warmth 
And wake the lover with amazing joy!

How lovingly and soft you make my heart recall 
Where you alone lie secretly
And with your honeyed breath
Replete with grace and glory
How tenderly you make me love!

O lamps of human fire, in deep transparency 
The lowest caverns of the senses, once shadowy and blind
Flare in light and warmth 
And wake the lover with amazing joy!

* * *
Text: St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) from the poem “¡Oh llama de amor viva!” as translated by Willis Barnstone. © 1972 by Willis Barnstone & © 1968 by Indiana University Press. Adapted & arranged by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. All rights reserved. Used by permission. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Piano: Tracy McDonnell. Acoustic Guitars: Gantt Mann Kushner. Acoustic Bass: Jon Nazdin. Drums: David Lopez. © 1999 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell.  Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Icon: "San Juan de la Cruz" (St. John of the Cross) by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. © Seraphic Icons, courtesy of Trinity Stores, trinitystores.com. All rights reserved.

O Living Flame Of Love (Oh llama de amor viva)

I CAME INTO THE UNKNOWN  (Beyond All Science)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)
(Suite San Juan, Movement III)

 "There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy."  ~Hamlet I,v, 166-167

"A little science estranges men from God, much science leads them back to Him."  ~Louis Pasteur

"The most beautiful thing we can experience is the mysterious. It is the source of all true art and science. He to whom this emotion is a stranger, who can no longer pause to wonder and stand rapt in awe, is as good as dead: his eyes are closed." ~Albert Einstein

* * *
I came into the unknown, and stayed there,
Unknowing –
Rising beyond all science.

I did not know the door but when I found the way
Unknowing where I was, I learned enormous things, 
But what I felt I cannot say

It was the perfect realm of holiness and peace
In deepest solitude I found the narrow way
A secret giving such release

That I was stunned and stammering
Rising beyond all science, rising beyond all science
Rising, rising, rising, ah!

I was so far inside, so dazed and far away
My senses were released from feelings of my own
My mind had found a surer way

And he who does arrive collapses as in sleep 
For all he knew before now seems a lowly thing
And so his knowledge grows so deep

That he remains unknowing 
Rising beyond all science, rising beyond all science 
Rising, rising, rising, ah!

The higher he ascends the darker is the wood
The shadowy cloud clarifies the night so the one who understood 
Remains always unknowing

Rising, rising, crossing a blazing height
Though formal reason tries, it crumbles in the dark, 
But one who would control the night
By knowledge of unknowing, will rise, rise, rise.

This knowledge by unknowing is such a soaring force
That scholars argue long, but never leave the ground:
Their knowledge always fails the source

And if you wish to hear, the highest science leads 
To an ecstasy of the most holy Being
From his mercy comes his deed:

To let us stay unknowing
Rising beyond all science, rising beyond all science 
Rising, rising, rising, ah!

* * *
Text: St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) from the poem “Entréme donde no supe” as translated by Willis Barnstone. © 1972 by Willis Barnstone & © 1968 by Indiana University Press. Adapted & arranged by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Used by permission. All rights reserved. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Piano: Tracy McDonnell. Violin: Susan Jones. Acoustic Bass: Jon Nazdin. Drums: David Lopez. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Icon: "San Juan de la Cruz" by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. © Seraphic Icons, courtesy of Trinity Stores, trinitystores.com. All rights reserved.

I Came Into The Unknown (Beyond All Science)

DARK NIGHT (Noche Oscura)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)
(Suite San Juan, Movement II)

On a dark and secret night, 
starving for love and steeped in flame
Waiting for what seemed like years 
until belovéd darkness came
Finally free from light 
Disguised and down a secret way
In fever I escaped
Silently I slipped away

O happy lucky flight! 

On that night of secret sweetness 
no one saw me through the dark
No other light to mark my way 
but fire pounding my heart
That flaming guided me more firmly,
More firmly than the noonday sun
And waiting there was he I knew so well, 
who shone where no one appeared to come

O happy lucky flight! 

O night, my guide!  O night, my joy!  
O night more welcome than the dawn!
O tender night, tying lover 
and loved one, fused as one!
Upon my flowering heart gladly saved for him alone
Like a child he slept, cradled in my love
As gentle cedars breathed 
and fanned the perfumed air above

O happy lucky flight!
 
Wind from the castle wall 
like my fingers winding through his hair
Its hand so peaceful ‘round my neck, 
my senses vanished in the air
I lay, forgot my being
And on my love I leaned my face
My every care fading away in his embrace
A midnight lily blooming in her secret place

* * *
Text: St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) from the poem “Noche oscura” as translated by Willis Barnstone. © 1972 by Willis Barnstone & © 1968 by Indiana University Press. Adapted & arranged by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals / Piano: Tracy McDonnell. Acoustic Guitars: Gantt Mann Kushner. Acoustic Bass: Jon Nazdin. Drums: David Lopez. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Icon: "San Juan de la Cruz" (St. John of the Cross) by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. © Seraphic Icons, courtesy of Trinity Stores, trinitystores.com. All rights reserved.

Dark Night (Noche oscura)

CÁNTICO DOLOROSO (Canticle of Sorrow)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell (2023)
(Suite San Juan, Movement I)

¿A dónde te escondiste,
amado, y me dejaste con gemido?
Como el ciervo huiste,
habiéndome herido;
salí tras tí clamando, y eras ido.

Y todos cuantos vagan,
de ti me dan mil gracias refiriendo
y todos más me llagan,
y déjame muriendo
un no sé qué que quedan balbuciendo.

Pastores, los que fuerdes
allá por las majadas al otero,
si por ventura vierdes
aquel que yo más quiero,
decidle que adolezco, peno y muero.

Allí me dio su pecho,
allí me enseñó ciencia muy sabrosa,
y yo le di de hecho
a mí, sin dejar cosa;
allí le prometí de ser su esposa.

Mi alma se ha empleado,
y todo mi caudal en su servicio:
ya no guardo ganado,
ni ya tengo otro oficio;
que ya sólo en amar es mi ejercicio.

¡Oh cristalina fuente,
si en esos tus semblantes plateados,
formases de repente
los ojos deseados,
que tengo en mis entrañas dibujados!

Apártalos, amado, 
que voy de vuelo.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

Where have you hidden away?
You left me whimpering, my love.
Wounding me you vanished
like the stag.  I rushed out
shouting for you–but you were gone.

All those who wander here
inform me of your thousand graces,
yet each word is a blow,
and they keep babbling bits
of mystery–leaving me near death.
 
Shepherds, you who climb
with your sheep high across the slope,
if by chance you see
the one I love most deeply,
tell him I suffer, grieve and die.

He held me to his chest
and taught me a sweet science.
Instantly I yielded all
I had – keeping nothing –
and promised then to be his bride.

I gave my soul to him
and all the things I owned were his:
I have no flock to tend
nor any other trade
and my one ministry is love.

O crystal brook, if on
the silver surface of the water
you instantly might form
the eyes I most desire!
I feel them in me like a scar!

Look away, my love,
Look away, my love,
Look away, my love –
I’m going to fly.

* * *
Text: St. John of the Cross (1542-1591) from the poem “Cántico Espiritual” as translated by Willis Barnstone. © 1972 by Willis Barnstone & © 1968 by Indiana University Press. Adapted & arranged by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. A Cappella Vocal: Tracy McDonnell. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Icon: "San Juan de la Cruz" by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM. © Seraphic Icons, courtesy of Trinity Stores, trinitystores.com. All rights reserved.

Cántico Doloroso (Canticle of Sorrow)

WIND SONGS
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell

* * *
Chuang Tzu would have agreed with St. John of the Cross, that you enter upon this kind of way when you leave all ways and, in some sense, get lost.  ~Thomas Merton, "The Way of Chuang Tzu"

In the beginning, when God created the heavens and the earth, the earth was a formless wasteland, and darkness covered the abyss, while a mighty wind swept over the waters.  ~Genesis 1:1-2

I am the hole in a flute that the Christ's breath moves through...listen, listen to the music.  ~Hafiz

***
Who has seen the wind?
Neither I nor you.
But when the leaves hang trembling,
The wind is passing through.

* * *
When great Nature sighs, we hear the winds
Which, noiseless in themselves,
Awaken voices from other beings,
Blowing on them.
From every opening
Loud voices sound. Have you not heard
This rush of tones?

There stands the overhanging wood
On the steep mountain:
Old trees with holes and cracks
Like snouts, maws, and ears,
Like beam-sockets, like goblets,
Grooves in the wood, hollows full of water:
You hear mooing and roaring, whistling
Shouts of command, grumblings,
Deep drones, sad flutes.
 
One call awakens another in dialogue.
Gentle winds sing timidly,
Strong ones blast on without restraint.
Then the wind dies down. The openings
Empty out their last sound.
Have you not observed how all then trembles and subsides?

Yu replied: I understand:
The music of earth sings through a thousand holes.
The music of man is made on flutes and instruments.
What makes the music of heaven?

Master Ki said: Something is blowing on a thousand different holes.
Some power stands behind all this and makes the sounds die down.
What is this power?

* * *
Who has seen the wind?
Neither you nor I.
But when the trees bow down their heads,
The wind is passing by.

O wind blowing all day long
O wind that sings so loud a song

* * *
Texts: Christina Georgina Rossetti (1830-1894), "Who Has Seen the Wind?" Thomas Merton (1915-1968), excerpts from “The Breath of Nature / The Way of Chuang Tzu," © 1965 Abbey of Gethsemani.  Robert Louis Stevenson (1850-1894), excerpt from "The Wind."  Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Lead & Harmony Vocals/Piano: Tracy McDonnell. Spoken Word: Joe "Padrino" Munoz. Cane Flutes: Ron Warren. Classical Flutes: Bruce Swaim. Acoustic Guitar/Electric Bass/Percussion/Nature Sounds: Gantt Mann Kushner. Recorded @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2023 Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Cover Art: Zephyr & Chloris (detail from "The Birth of Venus) by Sandro Botticelli, c. 1485. All rights reserved.

Wind Songs (For Joe "Padrino" Munoz)

CÁNTICO DE GOZO  (CANTICLE OF JOY)
From the Album "Ars Poética" by Tracy McDonnell
(Suite San Juan, Movement IV)

La noche sosegada
en par de los levantes de la aurora,
la música callada,
la soledad sonora,
la cena que recrea y enamora.

Debajo del manzano,
allí conmigo fuiste desposada,
allí te di la mano,
y fuiste reparada,
donde tu madre fuera violada.

En sólo aquel cabello,
que en mi cuello volar consideraste,
mirástele en mi cuello,
y en él preso quedaste,
y en uno de mis ojos te llagaste.

La blanca palomica
al arca con el ramo se ha tornado,
y ya la tortolica
al socio deseado
en las riberas verdes ha hallado.

Gocémonos, amado,
y vámonos a ver en tu hermosura
al monte o al collado,
do mana el agua pura;
entremos más adentro en la espesura.

Y luego a las subidas
cavernas de la piedra nos iremos,
que están bien escondidas,
y allí nos entraremos,
y el mosto de granadas gustaremos.

El aspirar del aire,
el canto de la dulce filomena,
el soto y su donaire,
en la noche serena
con llama que consume y no da pena.

ENGLISH TRANSLATION

The night of total calm
before the rising winds of dawn,
the music of a silence,
the sounding solitude,
the supper that renews our love.

Under the apple tree
you came and were engaged to me;
there I gave you my hand
and you were then redeemed
where once your mother had been raped.

You stared at that one lock
of windblown hair you saw against
my nape, and on my neck
you were a prisoner
gashing yourself in one of my eyes.

The white tiny dove
flew to the Ark carrying a frond
and now the turtledove
has come upon her mate
on the green borders of the river.

Let us be happy, darling,
and see us mirrored in your beauty
on mountains and the hills
where limpid waters plash;
let us go deeper in the wood.

And then we’ll climb high, high
to peaks riddled with stony caves
safely hidden away,
and there we’ll go inside
and taste the pomegranate wine.

The breathing of the air,
song of a tender nightingale,
the fresh exquisite grove,
serene and secret night
of flame that burns and gives no pain.

***
Text: Excerpts from the poem “Cántico Espiritual” by St. John of the Cross (1542-1591), as translated by Willis Barnstone, © 1972 by Willis Barnstone & © 1968 by Indiana University Press. Adapted and arranged by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Used with permission. All rights reserved. Music: Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Spoken Word: Tracy McDonnell & Carlos Perozo. Cane Flutes: Ron Warren. Nature sounds: Gantt Mann Kushner. Recorded by Gantt Mann Kushner @ Gizmo Recording Company, Silver Spring, MD. Mixed by Tracy McDonnell & Gantt Mann Kushner. Mastered by Bill Wolf @ Wolf Productions, Alexandria, VA. Produced by Tracy McDonnell. © 2016 by Tracy Alexandra McDonnell. Iconography: "San Juan de la Cruz" by Br. Robert Lentz, OFM.  Used with permission. All rights reserved.

Spiritus

Cántico de Gozo (Canticle of Joy)

Song-Poems Ancient & New
www.TracyMcDonnell.com