And I: “As by a signet is the wax
Which does not change the figure stamped upon it,My brain is now imprinted by yourself.
But wherefore so beyond my power of sightSoars your desirable discourse, that ayeThe more I strive, so much the more I lose it?”
“That thou mayst recognize,” she said, “the schoolWhich thou hast followed, and mayst see how farIts doctrine follows after my discourse,
And mayst behold your path from the divineDistant as far as separated isFrom earth the heaven that highest hastens on.”
Whence her I answered: “I do not rememberThat ever I estranged myself from you,Nor have I conscience of it that reproves me.”
“And if thou art not able to remember,”Smiling she answered, “recollect thee nowThat thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe;
And if from smoke a fire may be inferred,Such an oblivion clearly demonstratesSome error in thy will elsewhere intent.
Truly from this time forward shall my wordsBe naked, so far as it is befittingTo lay them open unto thy rude gaze.”
And more coruscant and with slower stepsThe sun was holding the meridian circle,Which, with the point of view, shifts here and there
When halted (as he cometh to a halt,Who goes before a squadron as its escort,If something new he find upon his way)
The ladies seven at a dark shadow’s edge,Such as, beneath green leaves and branches black,The Alp upon its frigid border wears.