Glosa: an early Renaissance form that was developed by poets of the Spanish court in the 14th and 15th centuries. In a glosa, tribute is paid to another poet. The opening lines, called a cabeza, is by another poet, and each of the cabeza lines are embedded elsewhere in the glosa.
This poem takes me back to my days of studying and reading in Spanish. I’m a little rusty, but I enjoyed trying to understand this Spanish poem, Glosa de el mismo (Poem of myself) by San Juan de la Cruz.
sin luz y a oscuras viviendo
todo me voy consumiendo.
I
Mi alma está desasida
de toda cosa criada
y sobre sà levantada
y en una sabrosa vida
sólo en su Dios arrimada.
II
Por eso ya se dirá
la cosa que más estimo
que mi alma se ve ya
sin arrimo y con arrimo.
III
Y aunque tinieblas padezco
en esta vida mortal
no es tan crecido mi mal
porque si de luz carezco
tengo vida celestial
porque el amor da tal vida
cuando más ciego va siendo
que tiene al ama rendida
sin luz y a oscuras viviendo.
IV
Hace tal obra el amor
después que le conocÃ
que si hay bien o mal en mÃ
todo lo hace de un sabor
y al alma transforma en sÃ
y asà en su llama sabrosa
la cual en mà estoy sintiendo
apriesa sin quedar cosa,
todo me voy consumiendo.
living without light, in darkness,
I am wholly being consumed.
I
My soul is disentangled
from every created thing
and lifted above itself
in a life of gladness
supported only in God.
II
So now it can be said
that I most value this:
My soul now sees itself
without support yet with support.
III
And though I suffer darknesses
in this mortal life,
that is not so hard a thing;
for even if I have no light
I have the life of heaven.
For the blinder love is
the more it gives such life,
holding the soul surrendered,
living without light in darkness.
IV
After I have known it
love works so in me
that whether things go well or badly
love turns them to one sweetness
transforming the soul in itself.
And so in its delighting flame
which I am feeling within me,
swiftly, with nothing spared,
I am wholly being consumed.
Here’s another translation I found at First Things, by Rhina P. Espaillat.