Dark Night by John of the Cross, translated by Martha Sprackland
Poetry Book Society Translation Choice Summer 2026 Rachel McCarthy ‘“It’s the job of the

‘“It’s the job of the senses to turn into words”

And She Was demands our attention

wild horses and bulls

mixing hurt with hope

Dark Night by John of the Cross, translated by Martha Sprackland <br><b>Poetry Book Society Translation Choice Summer 2026</b> Rachel McCarthy ‘“It’s the job of thePublished 21 May 2026 O living flame of love, how tenderly you scorch me The poetry of the sixteenth century Spanish mystic, John of the Cross, has inspired and consoled for hundreds of years, influencing writers from James Joyce to Seamus Heaney, Geoffrey Hill to T. S. Eliot and Mary Oppen. This new edition of his essential works, in a sensitive and luminous translation by Martha Sprackland, gathers John of the Crosss complete poems and a selection