To cover the soul
I was given the task by a friend of choosing 10 songs that greatly influenced me. I will post one song per day, for 10 consecutive days. Each song draws the picture more clearly, showing what has inspired me or just given me solace.
Today is a song whose words were written by a 16th century Spanish soldier-poet — one of the more famous of them, Garcilaso de la Vega.
His poem was set to music several years ago by Z. Randall Stroop, and the resulting song is sometimes performed in concerts.
The music is gentle, sometimes soaring, sometimes plaintive, but it wraps the words of the poem like a lover wraps the beloved.
For you see, it is a song about love.
The soldiers of Spain who followed the tradition of service and honor sometimes used poetry to express their devotion. It is hard to decide when we read them to know whether they speak of devotion to a beloved person in their lives or to a God who is distant to them but still alluring.
This is one of the songs I heard in concert ten years ago, and yes, it is in wild contrast to U2 and Kirk Franklin. But it is still a milestone, a song about love and devotion and yearning, to find the Beloved and in so doing finding one’s home.
For me it is a song about the longing for God in my life. A longing expressed in The Planets. In Move Over. Even in Sam Cooke and Kirk Franklin:
I want you as a garment for my soul.
Amor De Mi Alma
Words by Garcilaso de la Vega, “Sonnet V”
Music by Z. Randall Stroop
Yo no naci, sino para quereros;
Mi alma os ha cortado a su medida;
Habito del alma misma, del alma misma os quiero.
Escrito esta en mi alma vuestro gesto;
Yo lo leo tan solo que aun de vos me guardo en esto.
Quanto tengo, confiesso yo de veros;
Y por vos naci, por vos tengo la vida,
Habito del alma misma os quiero.
Y por vos e de morir,
Y por vos muero.
Por vos.
You Are the Love of my Soul (English translation)
I was born to love only you;
My soul has formed you to its measure;
I want you as a garment for my soul.
Your very image is written on my soul;
Such indescribable intimacy, I hide even from you.
All that I have, I owe to you;
For you I was born, and for you I live,
I want you as a garment for my soul.
And for you I must die,
And for you I give my last breath.
For you.