Sor Francisca Josefa del Castillo: "El habla delicada" / "The delicate speech"

Introduction

Sor Francisca Josefa del Castillo (1671-1742) was a Poor Clare in what is now Colombia. She was born to weathly parents and, at the age of 18, entered the Monastery of St. Clare in Tunja, her birthplace. There she remained for the rest of her life, taking final vows in 1694, at the age of 23, and being appointed abbess four times. At the instigation of her confessors, she recorded her mystical experiences and feelings in poems and in an autobiography. The following is her most famous poem, #45 in her Afectos espirituales (Spiritual Affections). Another name for the poem is "Deliquios del Divino Amor en el corazón de la criatura, y en las agonías del huerto" ("Swoons of Divine Love in the heart of the creature, and in the agonies of the garden").

"El habla delicada"

The delicate speech I esteem from the Lover milk and honey distills among roses and lyres. His mellifluous word cuts me quick like the dew and there flowers with it the heart withered and drooped. How sweetly there enters His delicate whistle which makes my heart doubt if it's the heart itself. So well He persuades me that He melts just like wax-- by same fire enkindled-- the mountains and the crags. So strong, so sonorous is His divine breath, it wakens the sleeping and resurrects the dead. So sweet and, too, so smooth it appears to my ear; it rejoices the bones, even the most concealed.

Source: Francisco Montes de Oca, ed., Ocho siglos de poesía en lengua española, 6th ed.(Mexico: Editorial Porrua, S.A., 1976), 221.

Translation ©2017 Brandon P. Otto.  Licensed via CC BY-NC.  Feel free to redistribute non-commercially, as long as credit is given to the translator.

Originally published at https://bpotto.github.io/Undusted-Texts/poems/habla_delicada.html.