2 Recall to mind, Reader, if ever on the alps a cloud closed round thee, through which thou couldst see 3 not otherwise than the mole through its skin, how, when the humid and dense vapors begin to dissipate, the orb 6 of the sun enters feebly through them; and thy imagination will be swift in coming to see, how I saw again 9 the sun at first, which was already at its setting. Thus matching mine to the trusty steps of my Master, I issued forth from such a cloud 12 to the rays already dead on the low shores. O faculty of imagination, that so steal us dost some times from outward things that a man heeds it not, 15 although around him a thousand trumpets are sounding, who moves thee if the sense afford thee naught? Thee moves a light, which is formed in the heavens, 18 by itself, or by a will which guides it downward. Of the pitilessness of her who changed her form into the bird that most delights in singing, 21 appeared in my imagination the vestige. And here was my mind so shut up within itself that from without came 24 nothing which then might be received by it. Then there rained down within my raised fantasy, one crucified, despiteful and fierce 27 in his look, and thus was he dying.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTIyMjQzNA==