" "
34
And in a tiny second’s space should not
Our resolution fail, all will be changed.
'Twill be as light unto the man born blind,
Invisible – the man who à unnts his years
A century iseneor, richer far
In hope than we, who yesterday put off
our blildi sh garments. Can you understand?
(Beatrice nods)
When these have flickered into the suckets
(Points to candles)
We, Beatrice, you and I, also will have gone -
Your lovely body pulsing with hot blood,
Burning in my embrace, will be like stone
As cold and Kickless. though what lies here
Will bear your semblance still tomorrow morn.
In one short day thou 'llt be a thing abhorred
A loathsome sight, breeding pestilance,
Quick mustled off to lie, deep down
Mong rotting carcasses. How I would shrink
And shudder. I, who hold you in my arms,
And breathe the perfume of your hair,
an¬d garments. Do you understand, Beatrice?
Beatrice
Yes, Filippo, I understand.
Filippo
When we speak of death and of eternity
Words are enadequate to voise the deep Hmotions
Which they stir within us, when all suddenly,
Right in the glare of life we face that
Unimagined and too awful void.
In this supremest hour, a thousand fear,
Assail the mind. What lies within the gloom,
Perchange, not peace, but torture ever worse.
Mayhap the troubles which we now relure,
would seem in that black clouded space,
As thin dissolving mist, but none can tell us,
None who have journeyed forth upon that vast,
Unfathomed sea of space have yet returned,
To tell the tale to us.
Beatrice
(Clinging to him)
But take me in your arms.