Purgatorio: Canto VIII

Twas now the hour that turneth back desire
   In those who sail the sea, and melts the heart,
   The day they've said to their sweet friends farewell,

And the new pilgrim penetrates with love,
   If he doth hear from far away a bell
   That seemeth to deplore the dying day,

When I began to make of no avail
   My hearing, and to watch one of the souls
   Uprisen, that begged attention with its hand.

It joined and lifted upward both its palms,
   Fixing its eyes upon the orient,
   As if it said to God, "Naught else I care for."

"Te lucis ante" so devoutly issued
   Forth from its mouth, and with such dulcet notes,
   It made me issue forth from my own mind.

And then the others, sweetly and devoutly,
   Accompanied it through all the hymn entire,
   Having their eyes on the supernal wheels.
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