| Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888. | | | | Lux Umbra Dei | | By Giambattista Marino (1569–1625) |
| | Translated by Baroness von Gilsa
WHERE shadowy wreaths of floating vapour ’bide, | |
| Buried in floods of unapproachëd light, | |
| In clouds of silence folded out of sight, | |
| Eternal wisdom doth her treasures hide; | |
| And whoso with rash hand would draw aside | 5 |
| Her veil, and read her laws, his vain and slight | |
| And human mind is crushed, and dazzled quite | |
| By lightning flash and thunder rolling wide. | |
| O thou invisible Sun, who from our gaze, | |
| In that abyss of light no eye hath scann’d, | 10 |
| That glory veilest with thine own bright rays, | |
| Shine thou on me where poor and blind I stand, | |
| And let my dark night blossom to thy praise,— | |
| I know thee most when least I understand. | | | | |
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