339. ‘Conobbi, quanto il ciel li occhi m’aperse,’

I knew, when Heaven opened my eyes,

when I learnt and Love unfurled my wings,

new gracious things, but mortal,

that the stars showered on one alone:

the rest of her was so other, so various

in form, noble, heavenly and immortal,

that my intellect was all unequal to it,

my weak sight could not endure it.

And whatever I have said of her or written,

so that now for that praise she prays to God

for me, was a little drop in an infinite ocean:

because our style cannot rise beyond our wit:

and when a man fixes his eyes on the sun,

the brighter it shines the less that he can see.