went talking ever of Beatrice, saying, "I seem already to see her
eyes."

A voice was guiding us, which was singing on the other side, and we,
ever attentive to it, came forth there where was the ascent. "Venite,
benedicti Patris mei" [Come, ye blessed of my Father], sounded within a
light that was there such that it overcame me, and I could not look on
it. "The sun departs," it added, "and the evening comes; tarry not, but
hasten your steps so long as the west grows not dark."

The way mounted straight, through the rock, in such direction that I cut
off in front of me the rays of the sun which was already low. And of few
stairs had we made essay ere, by the vanishing of the shadow, both I and
my Sages perceived behind us the setting of the sun. And before the
horizon in all its immense regions had become of one aspect, and night
had all her dispensations, each of us made of a stair his bed; for the
nature of the mountain took from us the power more than the delight of
ascending.

As goats, who have been swift and wayward on the peaks ere they are fed,
become tranquil as they ruminate, silent in the shade while the sun is
hot, watched by the herdsman, who on his staff is leaning and leaning
guards them; and as the shepherd, who lodges out of doors, passes the
night beside his quiet flock, watching that the wild beast may not
scatter it: such were we all three then, I like a goat, and they like
shepherds, hemmed in on this side and on that by the high rock. Little
of the outside could there appear, but through that little I saw the
stars both brighter and larger than their wont. Thus ruminating, and
thus gazing upon them, sleep overcame me, sleep which oft before a deed
be done knows news thereof.

At the hour, I think, when from the east on the mountain first beamed
Cytherea, who with fire of love seems always burning, I seemed in dream
to see a lady, young and beautiful, going through a meadow gathering
flowers, and singing; she was saying, "Let him know, whoso asks my name,
that I am Leah, and I go moving my fair hands around to make myself a
garland. To please me at the glass here I adorn me, but my sister Rachel
never withdraws from her mirror, and sits all day. She is as fain to
look with her fair eyes as I to adorn me with my hands. Her seeing, and
me doing, satisfies."[18]

And now before the splendors which precede the dawn, and rise the more
grateful unto pilgrims as in returning they lodge less remote[19]