Neoplatonism
I saw the beauty of your face,
an emblem born of higher grace;
I heard the beauty of your song.
For harmony my heart did long.
Your eyes in vision ravish me
as signs of truth's eternity;
I am undone by glancing stars
and rise through them to splendors far.
All things of sense must shadows be
of things more real, of hopes more free,
and those who gaze with seeing eyes
know higher truths and thoughts more wise.
The eye of vice, so dark and proud,
is covered over by a cloud;
who would the good and splendid know
must good and splendid surely grow.
All beauty wakes the heart's desire
and flames it ardent; seering fire
then rises higher, above the earth,
to purest light and greatest worth.
Psalm 81, Vulgate
God rises up against the great assembly;
he judges the mighty:
"Will you always judge unjustly,
acting in favor of the wicked?
Give justice to the poor and abandoned,
do justice for the lowly and needy,
rescue those destitute of all,
save those in need from wicked hands."
They do not understand;
nothing do they see;
they stumble through the darkness,
the ground no longer steady.
"This I have proclaimed:
You are mighty,
representing the Highest,
but you shall die as men die;
you shall fall as princes fall."
Rise Lord, judge the world;
to you shall come all peoples.
