Guiding Light to Love

 That light guided me

More surely than the noonday sun

To the place where He was waiting for me,

Whom I knew well,

And where none appeared.

O, guiding night;

O, night more lovely than the dawn;

O, night that has united

The lover with his Beloved

and changed her into her love.

Saint John of the Cross, The Dark Night of the Soul, Stanza 4 & 5

So as we read on, again before getting any explanation from the poet, we are reminded of the light of passion, love, and devotion that is in the speaker's heart as they continue into the night towards their destination. Now this love is so bright, brighter than the noonday sun, it offers the guiding light needed to get there. So even when the dark night with its confusion and uncertainty there is a light, and that light is the light within. It is our desire for God that can lead us forward.  

How do we know it is God the speaker is seeking?  By the capitalization of the pronoun He.  The poet goes on "where He was waiting for me, whom I knew well...(The male God image is used as is understandable considering the time and context in which the poem was written). God is not a stranger to the speaker...he/she/they know Him more than they know themselves ...and He was always waiting for the lover to come to Him. 

This next part is cool: the  speaker goes on to say, and where none appeared.  I wonder if this line signifies there were no other beings to witness or if the speaker is saying ...none, as in there was no visible physical form to this He that was waiting?  Again, showing the internal, esoteric nature of this arrival, of this He that the speaker is meeting?

In the next stanza the speaker praises the night...as a lovely, guiding source,  as to which without the speaker would never have reached the Beloved. We see the necessity of the night for this union. The night  is responsible for getting the speaker there. The dark night of the soul is a means of helping us to arrive. 

Now, the next line I find confusing, just because of the use of pronouns...united the lover with His beloved and changed her into her love. Hmmm! So God is the lover and the speaker is the beloved.  Why was Saint John using "her"?  That was my question, so I went back to the other translation in the book I am reading and see that there was no gender pronoun used.  This, I assume. must have been this particular  translator's bias on translation?  It was translated in 1900 and due to the almost erotic imagery of the union maybe, the translator assumed , it had to be between a male and a female.  I don't imagine, sadly, that homosexual imagery would have been acceptable.  Hmm!Anyway...regardless the two are "united"...not "reunited" as one would expect if the speaker knew Him well?  

And changed her into her love is pretty profound...I see the message here to mean, we are not people who love...not the lover but we are love. And when we reach this level of Self-realization, emergence with God ...we are transformed into God's love. 

Anyway...lovely.  Of course, my interpretation might be totally different than what was intended lol. The more I read the poem, however, the more I am feeling at peace and even grateful for this dark night I am experiencing.

All is well

Saint John of the Cross/ Translated by David Lewis. ( 1908) Dark Night of the Soul. Poetry Foundation.  https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poems/157984/the-dark-night-of-the-soul