Mine eyes beheld the blessed pity spring
Into thy countenance immediately
A while agone, when thou beheldst in me
The sickness only hidden in grief can bring;
And then I knew wast considering
How abject and forlorn my life must be;
And I became afraid that thou shouldst see
My weeping, and account it a base thing.
Therefore I went out from thee; feeling how
The tears were straightway loosened at my heart
Beneath thine eyes' compassionate control;
And afterwards I said within my soul:
'Lo! with this Lady dwells the counterpart
Of the same Love who holds me weeping now.'
Dante Alighieri translated by Dante Gabriel Rossetti
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