Already on my Lady’s face mine eyes 1769 Again were fastened, and with these my mind, And from all other purpose was withdrawn; And she smiled not; but “If I were to smile,” She unto me began, “thou wouldst become Like Semele, when she was turned to ashes. 1770 Because my beauty, that along the stairs Of the eternal palace more enkindles, As thou hast seen, the farther we ascend, If it were tempered not, is so resplendent That all thy mortal power in its effulgence Would seem a leaflet that the thunder crushes. We are uplifted to the seventh splendor, 1771 That underneath the burning Lion’s breast Now radiates downward mingled with his power. Fix in direction of thine eyes the mind, And make of them a mirror for the figure That in this mirror shall appear to thee.” He who could know what was the pasturage My sight had in that blessed countenance, When I transferred me to another care,
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