Pike County Ballads and Other Poems Part 19

AMOR MYSTICUS.

FROM THE SPANISH OF SOR MARCELA DE CARPIO.

Let them say to my Lover That here I lie!

The thing of His pleasure, His slave am I.

Say that I seek Him Only for love, And welcome are tortures My pa.s.sion to prove.

Love giving gifts Is suspicious and cold; I have all, my Beloved, When Thee I hold.

Hope and devotion The good may gain; I am but worthy Of pa.s.sion and pain.

So n.o.ble a Lord None serves in vain, For the pay of my love Is my love's sweet pain.

I love Thee, to love Thee,-- No more I desire; By faith is nourished My love's strong fire.

I kiss Thy hands When I feel their blows; In the place of caresses Thou givest me woes.

But in Thy chastising Is joy and peace.

O Master and Love, Let Thy blows not cease.

Thy beauty, Beloved, With scorn is rife, But I know that Thou lovest me, Better than life.

And because thou lovest me, Lover of mine, Death can but make me Utterly Thine.

I die with longing Thy face to see; Oh! sweet is the anguish Of death to me!