4 Around him were the great Ahasuerus, Esther, his wife, and the just Mordecai, 30 who was so blameless in word and deed. And as this image burst of itself, in manner of a bubble 33 for which the water fails, under which it was formed, there rose in my vision a maiden, weeping bitterly, and she was saying: “O queen, 36 wherefore through anger hast thou willed to be naught? Thou hast slain thyself in order not to lose Lavinia; now thou hast lost me: I am she that grieves, 39 mother, at thy destruction, before that of another.” As sleep is broken, when of a sudden the new light strikes the closed eyes, 42 and, broken, quivers before it wholly dies, so my imagining fell down, soon as a light struck my face, 45 greater by far than that to which we are accustomed. I was turning to see where I was, when a voice said: “Here is the ascent”: 48 and this withdrew me from every other object of attention, and made my will so eager to behold who it was that was speaking, 51 that it never rests till it is face to face. But, as before the sun which weighs down our sight, and by excess veils its own shape, 54 so here my power failed.
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MTIyMjQzNA==