Among the German religious poets of the seventeenth century Johann Scheffler, the "Angelus Silesius" (Silesian Angel or Messenger) is the best known to the world at large, though only for one of his works. There seem to be two main reasons for this situation. First, the mystical mode of expression in his major work is recognizable across cultures. Mystical discourse may seem, at first, somewhat exotic to those unfamiliar with it, but once its principles have been grasped it becomes intelligible in many forms and guises. Mysticism recurs throughout the Christian tradition, but there is also a Jewish mysticism that in many respects resembles it despite its different cultural origins; nor is it difficult to sense an affinity between the mystical verse of Angelus Silesius and the Japanese haiku of Zen Buddhism. Second, Scheffler's epigrammatic verse evidently presents a welcome challenge to translators. Surely the writing of no...