42 Questions

A pure white hind appeared to me
with two gold horns, on green grass,
between two streams, in a laurel's shade,
at sunrise, in the unripe season.

Her aspect was so sweet and proud
I left all my labour to follow her:
as a miser, in search of treasure,
makes his toil lose its bitterness in delight.

'Touch me not,' in diamonds and topaz,
was written round about her lovely neck:
'It pleased my Lord to set me free.'

The sun had already mounted to mid-day,
My eyes were tired with gazing, but not sated,
When I fell into the water, and she vanished.