Bokelskere.no

As I rode out one day not long ago
By narrow roads, and heavy with the thought
Of what compelled my going, I met Love
In pilgrim’s rags coming the other way.
All his appearance seemed to speak such grief
As kings might feel upon the loss of crown;
And ever sighing, bent with thought he came,
His eyes averted from all passers-by.
Yet as we met he called to me by name
And said to me, “I come from that far land,
Where I had sent your heart to serve my will;
I bring it back to court a new delight.”
And then so much of him was fused with me,
He vanished from my sight, I know not how.

— Dante Alighieri, La Vita Nuova translated by Mark Musa (Bloomington, 1962)