Lachrimae Amantis

This is a beautiful 16th century Spanish poem by Lope de Vega Carpio, translated by Geoffrey Hill. The title means “Tears of the Lover.” I recently had to comment on it in a theology exam. The poem is about a soul distant from God, living in the cold darkness, yet God continues to seek this soul every night hoping He will be allowed to enter it. The soul does not understand why God should love it so much and its rejection of God makes Christ’s wounds “bleed anew” out of love. At the end, the soul rejects God’s search for it in a bittersweet statement, hoping that tomorrow it will be able to welcome Him.

“Lachrimae Amantis“
Lope de Vega Carpio (1562-1613)
What is there in my heart that you should sue
so fiercely for its love? What kind of care
brings you as though a stranger to my door
through the long night and in the icy dew

seeking the heart that will not harbor you,
that keeps itself religiously secure?
At this dark solstice filled with frost and fire
your passion’s ancient wounds must bleed anew.

So many nights the angel of my house
has fed such urgent comfort through a dream,
whispered ‘your lord is coming, he is close’

that I have drowsed half-faithful for a time
bathed in pure tones of promise and remorse:
‘tomorrow I shall wake to welcome him.’