ANGELUS SILESIUS THE CHRISTIAN-MYSTIC SUFI POET A Selection of Rhyming Couplets from the Cherubinic Wanderer Translation and Preface by Paul Smith Angelus Silesius was a mystic of the Counter-Reformation. He was born Johannes Scheffler in 1624 in the province of Silesia, Poland. In 1653, he converted to Catholicism from Lutheranism and spent the rest of his life avidly trying to reconvert the people of Silesia. Today, however, he is known primarily for his mystical poetry, which was written in the form of 1676 'Alexandrines', which are simple rhymed couplets published as The Cherubinic Wanderer. Of course they lose some in translation and many seem quite na ve, but the depth of feeling cannot be denied and many more can be seen to approach Haiku and other short, mystical poetry from around the world including the Dohas and Slokas of the Sufi poets of India Baba Farid and Shah Latif. In fact his way of thinking and his belief is almost identical to the Sufis. Here is a cross-section
