For all the beauty there may be
I’ll never throw away my soul
Only for something I don’t know
That one may come on randomly
In savoring the finite joy
The very most one can expect
Is to enfeeble and destroy our taste
and leave the pallet wrecked
For all the sweetness there may be
I’ll never throw away my soul
Only for something I don’t know
That one may come on randomly
For such a lover as the Lord
Tell me if you will be in pain
For his love is the void of taste
Among the things made in this world
Without a foothold you must seek him out
No face nor form alone
Tasting there something I don’t know
That one may come on randomly
And don’t look to your inner eye
Though of vastly greater worth
To find among the joys of earth
The happiness and ecstasy
More than all beauty there may be
Or may have been or can be now
One feeds on something I don’t know
That one may come on randomly
On earth you must never rely
on what the senses understand
Or on all the knowledge you command
Although it rises very high
No grace nor beauty there may be
Will make me throw away my soul
Only for something I don’t know
That one may come on randomly.
Saint John of the Cross
