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7profit of souls. With this chapter the narrative of her life which she has writtencomes to an end. May it be to the glory of the Lord. AmenLetter written by the Saint to Father García de Toledo when sending him her Life

8TRANSLATOR'S PREFACEIFor some time after completing my translation of the Complete Works of St. John ofthe Cross, in the year 1935, I had no thought of preparing a similar edition of theworks of that other great Carmelite, to whom he owed so much, St. Teresa. Evenwhen the welcome given to the works of el Santo in their new dress showed what anunexpectedly and encouragingly large public there now was for this type ofliterature, it seemed to me that la Santa was on the whole sufficiently well servedby the translations already in existence. But many readers of St. John of the Crosswere not of this opinion: not all St. Teresa's works, they said, had been satisfactorilytranslated; not all of them, even, were based on an up-to-date Spanish text; and, inany case, there was ample room for a fresh, modern version of the Complete Works,made by a single hand, with footnotes of an elucidatory rather than a piouslydiscursive type -- an edition, furthermore, which would facilitate individual study byproviding comprehensive indices.As time went on, this point of view was increasingly pressed upon me, and by agreat variety of people. In Spain, a well-known Academician asked me when acomplete St. Teresa was to appear in English; in the American Southwest, a remotecommunity of Carmelite nuns whom I visited put the same question; in England,the remark became almost a commonplace. At last I began to reconsider theposition. The only easily accessible versions of the Life and the Foundations werestill, though they had been several times revised, essentially the versions made byDavid Lewis in 1870-1: as regards both language and interpretation they couldcertainly be greatly bettered. The Stanbrook Benedictines' translation of theInterior Castle, the Way of perfection and the Minor Works (in prose and verse)dated from the beginning of this century and were much superior to Lewis; yet sincethese volumes had first appeared P. Silverio de Santa Teresa had published hiscomprehensive and critical Spanish edition of the Complete Works, which wouldmake it possible to add a good deal, especially in the Way of perfection, to what wasalready available. The most recently published translation was that made by theBenedictines of Stanbrook of the Letters (4 vols., 1919-24). This excellent piece ofwork was unfortunately completed before P. Silverio's three-volume edition of theLetters appeared, and, though in 1927 its editors brought out an appendix to theirfinal volume consisting of twenty two letters and some fragments to which they hadnot previously had access, there is a good deal in P. Silverio's three volumes which itwould be worth while to pass on to the English reader. None the less, the Letterspresented the least urgent part of the problem.After full consideration, I decided to undertake an edition of the Complete Works,publishing them all, in one series, as soon as might be, with the exception of theLetters, a new edition of which it seemed better to postpone for the present, since itwould be strange if the recent years of upheaval in Spain did not lead to freshdiscoveries. Accordingly, the work was begun in the summer of 1939, continuedthroughout the whole period of the War and is only now completed.

9IIIt might be thought that St. Teresa -- so often colloquial and matter-of-fact in herlanguage -- would be a great deal easier to translate than St. John of the Cross, butthe truth is very nearly the exact opposite. There are certainly passages andphrases in St. John of the Cross which present the greatest difficulty, but they arerelatively few: for all the sublimity of his teaching, his expression is, as a rule,crystal-clear, and at every turn the translator is assisted by his logical and orderlymind and by his great objectivity. Much of St. Teresa's work, on the other hand, isautobiographical narrative, and, even in that part of it which is not, every pagebears the indelible impress of her forceful and vivid personality. In addition to thedifficulty of interpreting that personality by means of a translation there arestylistic difficulties of a kind presented by few, if any, other Spanish writers of thefirst rank. As an appreciation of these two points will help us to a fullerunderstanding of the qualities of the work of St. Teresa, it will be worth our while toconsider them in greater detail.1. To Spaniards there is no writer whose personality communicates itself withgreater immediacy and intensity than does that of St. Teresa -- and this bothbecause of her almost complete disregard of the literary conventions and because innothing that she wrote could her strong individuality ever be concealed. Notranslator could hope to convey that impression as fully and forcibly as do theoriginal words, but he is not therefore exempted from the obligation to convey asmuch of it as possible. In an attempt to do this I have denied to her vigorous andpugnacious phrases the superfluous words in which another age might have clothedthem. In such passages as these we can hear the authentic and virile note of a saintunlike any to be found in a stained-glass window:"Rest, indeed!" I would say. "I need no rest; what I need is crosses."1*We can make use only of a single cell -- what do we gain by its beingvery large and well built? What, indeed? We have not to spend all ourtime looking at the walls.2"Oh, the devil, the devil!" we say, when we might be saying "God! God!"and making the devil tremble. Of course we might, for we know hecannot move a finger unless the Lord permits it. Whatever are wethinking of? I am quite sure I am more afraid of people who arethemselves terrified of the devil than I am of the devil himself.3If Thou wilt (prove me) by means of trials, give me strength and letthem come.4In rendering these and similar phrases I have had always in my mind the Teresawhom I have come to know through close contact with her over many years. Awoman who made her decisions and then stuck to them regardless of theconsequences:1Life, Chap. XIII (p. 140).* Special Note: The references for the works of St. Teresa (except for Life) used in the footnotesthroughout this work refer to Complete Works of St. Teresa, translated and edited by E. AllisonPeers, 3 vols., Sheed & Ward, New York, 1957.2Foundations, Chap. XIV (Vol. III, p. 66).3Life, Chap. XXV (p. 243).4Way of perfection, Chap. XXXII (Vol. II, p. 138).

10I was well aware that there was ample trouble in store for me, but, asthe thing was now done, I cared very little about that.5Who, if she ever thought she was afraid of the Inquisition, would "go and pay it avisit of (her) own accord."6 And who counselled her nuns to be like herself:Strive like strong men until you die in the attempt, for you are here fornothing else than to strive.7Again, St. Teresa has continual outbursts of sanctified commonsense, humour andirony. "I just laughed to myself" is a type of phrase which we continually meet in herwork and she has left us an excellent specimen of her sustained laughter in the"Judgment . . . upon various writings". 8 She particularly disliked pretentiousness,even in what was good, and castigated it with those most effective weapons. Eveninto that sublime commentary on the Song of Songs entitled the Conceptions of theLove of God, creeps a delightfully shrewd description of the lady whose selfimportance was so intimately mingled with her devoutness. She, and others likeher,were saints in their own opinion, but, when I got to know them, theyfrightened me more than all the sinners I have ever met.9Some of her stories are shot through and through with an allusive humour which itneeds all one's ingenuity to render -- such are the accounts of her visit to Duruelo,with Fray Antonio sweeping out the porch and the depression caused in thebusiness men who came with her from Medina by all those crosses and skulls10; herefforts to address a great lady as befitted her rank and how she "got it wrong'';11poor María del Sacramento and her attack of nerves on All Souls' eve in the sparselyfurnished convent at Salamanca12; the group of devout ladies at Villanueva, onlyone of whom could read with any ease, who tried to recite their Office usingdifferent versions of the Breviary: "God will have accepted their intention andlabour, but they can have said very little that was correct."13 No less apt to evadeone are innumerable little natural touches which, in the English, if carelesslyrendered, might easily pass unnoticed:I was . . . ashamed to go to my confessor . . . for fear he might laugh atme and say: "What a Saint Paul she is, with her heavenly visions!Quite a Saint Jerome!"14Blessed be Thou, Lord, Who hast made me so incompetent andunprofitable!155Life, Chap. XXXVI (pp. 344-5).6Life, Chap. XXXIII (p. 312).7Way of perfection, Chap. XX (Vol. II, p. 86).8Vol. III, pp. 229-31.9Conceptions of the Love of God, Chap. II (Vol. II, p. 375).10Foundations, Chap. XIV (Vol. III, p. 66).11Way of perfection, Chap. XXII (Vol. II, p. 94).12Foundations, Chap. XIX (Vol. III, p. 94).13Foundations, Chap. XXVIII (Vol. III, p. 164).14Life, Chap. XXXVIII (p. 361).15Life, Chap. XIII (p. 147).

11I only wish I could write with both hands, so as not to forget one thingwhile I am saying another.16From foolish devotions may God deliver us. 17And in her less frequent ironical passages, such as the description in the Way ofperfection of how the devil invents "laws by which we (nuns) go up and down inrank, as people do in the world",18 or the animadversions in the Life upon theniceties of worldly etiquette:-- the title "Illustrious" has to be given to a man who formerly was noteven described as "Magnificent".19The style here is so sedate that one has to pause for quite a long time beforepressing the button lest the photograph should fail to catch the twinkle in the eye.Then there are the thousand touches which reveal the temperamentally greatwriter who never became, or wanted to become, a professional one -- the geniusborn, not made. This trait in herself St. Teresa never allows us to forget -- which isjust as well for the translator who might otherwise conventionalize her. She is"stupid", "incompetent" and always busy with really "important" things like herspinning-wheel. She has "no learning", suffers from "noises" in the head, a badmemory, and a "rough" and "heavy" style. It is useless for her to write anything onmystical theology, for -- "I am unable to use the proper terms". She cannot preventherself from digressing if she feels like it: otherwise, her writing "worries" her.20"How I do let myself wander!" begins Chapter XXIII of the Way of perfection.21 Asfor the dates she quotes -- "you must always understand (them) to be approximate -they are of no great importance."22 And she scribbles at breakneck speed and withtremendous intensity, never revising her work -- nor even rereading it to see whatshe has said last.23 All the time the translator has to remember that he is dealingwith this unique kind of woman -- it would be nothing short of a tragedy if heturned her into a writer of text-books.2. The second type of difficulty which should be referred to will perhaps be ofgreater interest to the student than to the general reader. In her "rough style", shesays comfortingly at the end of Chapter XVI of the Way of perfection, her argumentwill be better understood "than in other books which put it more elegantly."24 Thatno doubt was true, and may still be true, so far as the general trend of the argumentis concerned -- and one has constantly to be on one's guard, when there is some"elegant" word that exactly expresses her meaning, against using it -- but itcertainly does not apply to the exact sense of particular passages. Even Spaniardsfamiliar with her books are continually baffled when asked the precise meaning ofphrases which at first sight may seem perfectly simple. Vivid, disjointed, elliptical,paradoxical and gaily ungrammatical, the nun of Ávila continually confounds the16Way of perfection, Chap. XX (Vol. II, p. 88).17Life, Chap. XIII (p. 145).18Ibid., Chap. XXXVI (Vol. II, p. 156).19Life, Chap. XXXVII (p. 360).20Such references as these are to be found everywhere. See, for example, p. 151, Vol. II, pp. 68, 234,291, Vol. III, pp. xxii, xxiii.21In the Escorial manuscript. See Vol. II, p. 97, n. 6.22Foundations, Chap. XXV (Vol. III, p. 132 ).23Way of perfection, Chap. XIX (Vol. II, p. 76).24Vol. II, p. 68.

12successors of those "learned men," to whom in her life she turned so often forenlightenment. One often has frankly to guess at her exact meaning, and half adozen people may make half a dozen different guesses, none of which anybody canpick out as definitely correct.To illustrate these characteristics of her style, I have, for the sake of brevity,selected examples in which her meaning is fairly evident. When to the difficulty ofrendering her words without paraphrasing them is added that of deciding betweenseveral possible meanings it can be imagined how much the task is magnified.In the course of a discussion on melancholy in nuns, in the seventh chapter of theFoundations, St. Teresa observes that lack of discipline is often more to blame thantemperament:Digo en algunas, porque he visto, que cuando hay a quien temer, se vana la mano y pueden.(Lit.: I mean in some, for I have seen that, when there is whom to fear,they become docile and can.)This, in English, has to be expanded somewhat as follows:I know it is so in some; for, when they have been brought before aperson they are afraid of, I have seen them become docile, so I knowthat they can.25Again, in the Interior Castle (VI, viii), she has been considering how a person can besure whether some vision is of Christ or of a saint:Aun ya el Señor, cuando habla, más fácil parece; mas el santo que nohabla, sino que parece le pone el Señor allí por ayuda de aquel alma ypor compañía, es más de maravilla.(Lit.: Even now the Lord, when He speaks, [it] seems easier; but thesaint who speaks not, but seems to have been placed there by the Lordfor aid to that soul and for company, is more remarkable.)Which means:When it is the Lord, and He speaks, it is natural that He should beeasily recognized; but even when it is a saint, and no words are spoken,the soul is able to feel that the Lord is sending him to be a help and acompanion to it; and this is (still) more remarkable.26Then there are shorter phrases, couched in a staccato, almost telegraphic style,hard enough to translate without a weakening of their generally considerable force-Con esto, mal dormir, todo trabajo, todo cruz!(Lit.: With this, bad sleep, all trial, all cross!)And then, the scant sleep they get: nothing but trials, nothing butcrosses!27 --25Vol. III, p. 39.26Vol. II, p. 312.27Life, Chap. XIII (p. 147).

13but quite devastating when the clipt phraseology makes one doubtful of themeaning. And there are words which St. Teresa uses in a sense entirely her own,and conjunctions which do not in the least mean what they say -- e.g., "and" for"but", and vice versa, not to mention the conjunction que, which can stand foralmost any other.One has also to watch for, and preserve, the Saint's colloquialisms. Even in talkingwith God, she tells us, she has a "silly way"in which I often speak to Him without meaning what I am saying; for itis love that speaks, and my soul is so far transported that I take nonotice of the distance that separates it from God.28How much more unconventional, then, is she likely to be with her readers! Not onlyin her modes of address, but in the introduction of everyday, semi-proverbialphrases, some of which are no longer in use in Spain and might be unintelligible didshe not thoughtfully accompany them with an "as one might put it" or "as they say".It would not be hard to turn into current English slang such phrases as:They see that these things are considered, as one might say, "allright". 29(I am) so peevish and ill tempered that I seem to want to snapeveryone up.30We had not so much as a scrap of brushwood to broil a sardine on.31So with her homely and vivid metaphors: the Christian making progress "at a hen'space" or even "like hens with their feet tied"; his adversary the devil "clapping hishands to his head" in despair of ever vanquishing him; love finding an outlet andnot being "allowed to boil right over like a pot to which fuel has been appliedindiscriminately";32 worldly aids to devotion being of no more use to lean upon than"dry rosemary twigs" which break at the slightest pressure.33 All these -- and thereare hundreds of them enlivening her narratives and illumining her expositions -can be so easily spoiled in translation.Another stumbling block is repetition, a practice to which St. Teresa was greatlyaddicted. Some of her repetitions of words are merely careless and clumsy -- as inher constant use of the word "great"34 -- and these I have been content to indicaterather than reproduce every time they occur. When she repeats phrases it isgenerally for emphasis -Oh, what terrible harm, what terrible harm is wrought . . . when thereligious life is not properly observed!35and, except occasionally where our language necessitates another formula for theconveying of the effect, her phraseology can as a rule be reproduced as it stands. Butoften the same word is repeated in a different sense, sometimes so pointedly that it28Life, Chap. XXXIV (p. 324).29Life, Chap. VII (p. 98 ).30Life, Chap. XXX (p. 282 ).31Foundations, Chap. XV (Vol. III, p. 74).32Life, Chaps. XIII, XXXVII, XXVI, XXIX (p. 140, 380, 244, 273).33Relations, III (Vol. I, p. 316).34See, for a typical example, Life, Chap. XXXVIII (p. 362).35Life, Chap. VII (p. 98).

14produces an obvious play upon the word's two or more meanings. Some of theseusages cannot be conveyed in En

AN OUTLINE OF THE LIFE OF ST. TERESA GENERAL INTRODUCTION TO THE WORKS OF ST. TERESA THE LIFE OF THE HOLY MOTHER TERESA OF JESUS INTRODUCTION CHAPTER I. -- Describes how the Lord began to awaken her soul in childhood to a love of virtue and what a he