The 16th century Spanish Carmelite monk, St. John of the Cross, is not only one of the greatest of all Christian mystics. He is also considered by many to be Spain's finest religious poets His intense and profound poetry, marked by an extraordinary lyrical fervour, reflects his own mystical experiences and his aim to renounce all and surrender himself totally to the love of God. Only then, he believed, could the soul, purified of the taint of the material world, reach a state of grace. The finest English translation of the poems, a work of poetic art in its own right, was made by the South African Roy Campbell (1901 - 1957) who succeeded in recreating the extraordinarily subtle music of the original verse and echoing their remarkable blend of sensuality and spirituality. In this bilingual edition the original Spanish poems are published, accompanied by Campbell's translation on facing pages.