Recital of the Dark Verses by Luis Felipe Fabre (review)

Reviewed by: Recital of the Dark Verses by Luis Felipe Fabre Daniel P. Haeusser Luis Felipe Fabre Recital of the Dark Verses Trans. Heather Cleary. Dallas. Deep Vellum. 2023. 200 pages. IN RECITAL OF THE DARK VERSES, Mexican poet and critic Luis Felipe Fabre takes the famous sixteenth-century verse of Carmelite mystic Juan de la Cruz (John of the Cross) and uses it as foundation for an insightful novel that pairs history with poetic commentary, the spiritual with the bawdy, and comedic adventures with existential reflections of mortality. A bailiff arrives at a monastery in Úbeda, Spain, to secretly transport the body of Saint John to Segovia with the help of his two assistants, Ferrán and Diego. It is 1592, half a year following the death of the venerated mystical poet, but the exhumed body remains inexplicably well preserved, emitting perfumed aromas now cherished by the deceased's Discalced Carmelite brethren. For the long, clandestine journey across the countryside, the bailiff decides the body will need to be first drained and given time to desiccate, lest decomposition set in during the midsummer journey and attract notice. And so the seemingly simple transfer of a body to its intended final resting place starts with the first of many complications for the bailiff and his assistants. Likewise, thus begins the profane corruption of the sacred and venerated by human desires and greed. The seizure of the body by an agent of politics (the bailiff) soon becomes confounded by a seemingly supernatural heist, perhaps divinely ordained, only to thwart intended theft by yet others: local fervent devotees eager to hold onto the remains of their beloved saint. Or, at the very least, parts of him. Along with the saint's body in tow, mystical visions and delirious confusion accompany the three men on their journey, as well as the lines of the mystic's "On a Dark Night" reciting through their minds, mouths, and circumstances. The thoughts and writings of Saint John of the Cross were dominated by an appreciation for the Song of Songs attributed to Solomon, one of the five megillot in the Ketuvim of Jewish scriptures that also became incorporated into the Christian Bible despite the poem's controversy. The erotic nature of the text became interpreted as the love of Christ for the Church, and the reciprocal love of the Christian for Jesus. The sensual fervor of merging the sacred and profane in that text inspired the euphoria in the verse of Saint John of the Cross. Fabre takes hold of those same qualities in writing Recital of the Dark Verses, structuring the novel to incorporate them into layers of invented plot, historical events, and literary criticism. "On a Dark Night" forms the thematic core of the novel, with the lines of St. John of the Cross's poems being recited in full and in parts throughout the text, including one-sentence prefaces to each chapter that anticipate the events to befall the characters: VIII. Wherein, still sheltered by the night of the first verse, having not yet left it behind but with entry swift becoming exit, expounded are its last two lines, which read, "I slipped out unminded / for my house had gone quiet," and—dogged task—an attempt is made to commentate the abyssal silence that rifts this verse from the next. Fabre also includes portions of two of the saint's other best-known poems: "Love's Living Flame" and "Spiritual Canticle." Into these poems St. John incorporated personal experiences of imprisonment [End Page 71] and escape that arose from persecution for his beliefs and writings. These nuances become prophetically paralleled to the events occurring to his body after death while handled by the bailiff and his assistants. Those two assistants, Ferrán and Diego, serve as the comedic core of the novel, hapless and bumbling men of varying intelligence trying to earn some pay in what is supposed to be a simple job, but which instead constantly provokes them with inexplicable happenings and reminding them of their powerless and ignorant existence. Yet even amid mystifying wonder, they ironically resign themselves to experiencing joy in the mundane and lewd, whether taking a relieving piss...