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(3) Let my mouth be given to me. Let my mouth be opened by Ptah with that instrument of steel wherewith he openeth the mouths of the gods

(83) And thereupon a word fell into my mouth, and I lifted up (my voice) to cry aloud, and said: 'The earth is destroyed.'

(60) And a great trembling seized me, And fear took hold of me, And my loins gave way, And dissolved were my reins, And I fell upon my face.

(4) Than I upraised at her command my chin; And when she by the beard the face demanded, Well I perceived the venom of her meaning. And as my countenance was lifted up, Mine eye perceived those creatures beautiful Had rested from the strewing of the flowers; And, still but little reassured, mine eyes Saw Beatrice turned round towards the monster, That is one person only in two natures. Beneath her veil, beyond the margent green, She seemed to me far more her ancient self To excel, than others here, when she was here. So pricked me then the thorn of penitence, That of all other things the one which turned me Most to its love became the most my foe. Such self-conviction stung me at the heart O'erpowered I fell, and what I then became She knoweth who had furnished me the cause. Then, when the heart restored my outward sense, The lady I had found alone, above me I saw, and she was saying, "Hold me, hold me." Up to my throat she in the stream had drawn me, And, dragging me behind her, she was moving Upon the water lightly as a shuttle.

(15) Straightway his ears were opened, and the string of his tongue was loosed, and he spake plain.

(1) He saith : Let my mouth be opened by Ptah, and let the muzzles which are upon my mouth be loosed by the god of my domain

(2) As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, So that thou speak no more as one who dreams. Know that the vessel which the serpent broke Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty Think that God's vengeance does not fear a sop. Without an heir shall not for ever be The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, Whence it became a monster, then a prey; For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, From every hindrance safe, and every bar, Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And that same giant who is sinning with her. And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;

(33) And she was ashamed because of him, and released her hand from him, and lie fled.