Poem XIX

1At morning-tide a moon appeared in the sky,And descended from the sky and gazed on me.

2Like a falcon which snatches a bird at the time of hunting,That moon snatched me up and coursed over the sky.

3When I looked at myself, I saw myself no more,Because in that moon my body became by grace even as soul.

4When I travelled in soul, I saw nought save the moon,Till the secret of the eternal Theophany was all revealed.

5The nine spheres of heaven were all merged in that moon,The vessel of my being was completely hidden in the sea.

6The sea broke into waves, and again Wisdom roseAnd cast abroad a voice; so it happened and thus it befell.

7Foamed the sea, and at every foam-fleckSomething took figure and something was bodied forth.