A poem by St. John of the Cross, translated by Willis Barnstone.

I Came Into The Unknown I came into the unknown and stayed there unknowing, rising beyond all science.

I did not know the door but when I found the way, unknowing where I was, I learned enormous things, but what I felt I cannot say, for I remained unknowing, rising beyond all science.

It was the perfect realm of holiness and peace In deepest solitude I found the narrow way: a secret giving such release that I was stunned and stammering, rising beyond all science.

I was so far inside, so dazed and far away my senses were released from feelings of my own. My mind had found a surer way: a knowledge by unknowing, rising beyond all science.

And he who does arrive collapses as in sleep, for all he knew before now seems a lowly thing, and so his knowledge grows so deep that he remains unknowing, rising beyond all science.

The higher he ascends the darker is the wood; it is the shadowy cloud that clarified the night, and so the one who understood remains always unknowing, rising beyond all science.

This knowledge by unknowing is such a soaring force that scholars argue long but never leave the ground. Their knowledge always fails the source: to understand unknowing, rising beyond all science.

This knowledge is supreme crossing a blazing height; though formal reason tries it crumbles in the dark, but one who would control the night by knowledge of unknowing will rise beyond all science.

And if you wish to hear: the highest science leads to an ecstatic feeling of the most holy Being; and from his mercy comes his deed: to let us stay unknowing, rising beyond all science.