Lyrics adapted by Frank DiGiacomo from poem fragments by St. John of the Cross, English Translation by Roy Campbell.

This song was written for the wedding of Dr. and Mrs. John R. Ross, associates and mentors of Mr. DiGiacomo. The piece is the only remaining part of a lost cycle of songs drawn from the poems of St. John of the Cross. It is a mystical love-poem after the manner of the Song of Solomon.
The song was first performed by Donna Miller, accompanied by Frank DiGiacomo, at DiGiacomo in Concert, May 28,1975, at the Everson Museum of Art, in Syracuse, New York.

LYRICS
Rejoice, my love, with me
and in your beauty see us both reflected;
by mountain-slope and lea,
where purest rills run free,
we’ll pass into the forest undetected,
then climb to lofty places
among the caves and boulders of granite,
where every track effaces,
and, entering, leaves no traces,
and revel in the wine of the pomegranate.
Up there, to me you’ll show
what my own soul has longed for all the way,
and there, my love, bestow
the secret which you know
and only spoke about the other day.
The breathing air so keen;
the song of Philomel: the waving charm
of groves in beauty seen;
the evening so serene,
with fire, serene with fire
that can consume but do no harm.
With none our peace offending,
and now the siege is ending;
in the solitude our nest was made,
in the solitude which the wound of love has made.

Poem fragments from Songs between the soul and the bridegroom by St. John of the Cross,
English translation by Roy Campbell, published by Penguin Books Ltd., 1960,
first published by Harvill Press 1951.