God’s Beauty

Poetry

God’s Beauty

O Beauty far beyond
all beauties of the world,
you cut without pain,
and painlessly you ruin
the love of mere creatures.
What a knot you tie
from two unequal things.
I don’t think you could unpick
the bond of good to evil
you fastened with such strength.
You join the mortal—what need not be—
with what must be, Eternal.
Never ending, you end,
never needing to love, you love,
and from nothing, you create.

Hermosura de Dios

¡Oh, Hermosura que excedéis
a todas las hermosuras!
Sin herir dolor hacéis,
Y sin dolor deshacéis
El amor de las criaturas.
¡Oh, ñudo que así juntáis
Dos cosas tan desiguales!
No sé por qué os desatáis,
Pues atado fuerza dais
A tener por bien los males.
Juntáis quien no tiene ser
Con el Ser que no se acaba:
Sin acabar acabáis,
Sin tener que amar amáis,
Engrandecéis vuestra nada.

This poem also appears in the March 2022 issue of U.S. Catholic (Vol. 87, No. 3, page 21). Click here to subscribe to the magazine.

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About the author

Dana Delibovi

Dana Delibovi is a poet, essayist, and translator. Her work has appeared in After the Art, Apple Valley Review, Bluestem, Moria, Noon, Presence, Psaltery & Lyre, Salamander, U.S. Catholic, and a new anthology, 100 Great Catholic Poems from Word on Fire. Delibovi is a Pushcart Prize nominee and a Best American Essays notable essayist. Her book of translations and essays, Sweet Hunter: The Complete Poems of St. Teresa of Ávila, is forthcoming from Monkfish. She is Consulting Poetry Editor at the e-zine Cable Street. Find her on Twitter at @DanaDelibovi and at https://danadelibovi.wordpress.com/.

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