form a regular meditation in the manner approved by the Catholic Church, and it is therefore meet that it should rise from a concrete, tangible object as it is recommended to the faithful. To this concrete character of its origin, the poem owes much of its suggestiveness, as witness the following passage quoted here, with a translation sadly unworthy of the original, as being the clearest link between the poetical meditation and the main thought that underlies all the work and the life of Unamuno. NUBE NEGRA O es que una nube negra de los cielos ese negror le dió a tu cabellera de nazareno, cual de mustio sauce de una noche sin luna sobre el río? ¿Es la sombra del ala sin perfiles del ángel de la nada negadora, de Luzbel, que en su caída inacabable --fondo no puede dar--su eterna cuita clava en tu frente, en tu razón? ¿Se vela, el claro Verbo en Ti con esa nube, negra cual de Luzbel las negras alas, mientras brilla el Amor, todo desnudo, con tu desnudo pecho por cendal? BLACK CLOUD Or was it then that a black cloud from heaven Such blackness gave to your Nazarene's hair, As of a languid willow o'er the river Brooding in moonless night? Is it the shadow Of the profileless wing of Luzbel, the Angel Of denying nothingness, endlessly falling-- Bottom he ne'er can touch--whose grief eternal He nails on to Thy forehead, to Thy reason? Is the clear Word in Thee with that cloud veiled --A cloud as black as the black wings of Luzbel-- While Love shines naked within Thy naked breast?