St John of the Cross, the 16th-century Spanish monk, has long been regarded as one of the greatest mystics. His fervent, limpid and profound poems spring from a human encounter with the strange and awesome mystery of the divine. They are an attempt to express the ineffable and to reflect the saint's own mystical experiences- experiences that required nothing less of him than total surrender to the love of God. These unique poems are published here in parallel text in the original Spanish and in the South African poet Roy Campbell's celebrated English translation.