The Consolation of Philosophy

shame. My eyes, drowned in tears and unable to recognize this Lady, whose authority was so absolute, my gaze fixed upon the ground, and quite pensive, I waited to see what she would do. At that same time, she approached me, leaning on the edge of my bed; and looking at my face, which sadness pinned to the floor of my room, she began thus to lament my troubles. The narrator describes himself as being physically and spiritually weighed down; the phrase "pinned to the floor" (original French: "colloit au paué") vividly illustrates the paralyzing effect of deep depression and grief.

II. POETRY.

OH! God, how this pure flame,
Which shone in the depths of our Soul:
Is covered by a thick night,
Since a mournful sadness
Disturbs us with its noise,
And comes to tempt our weakness. In this poem, Philosophy laments the loss of the narrator's intellectual and spiritual clarity. The "pure flame" represents his former reason, now obscured by the "thick night" of his despair.

This spirit which used to follow the turns
Of the clouds as they run their course,
Driven by the wind and the storms,
Upon the highest peak of the air,
And which, without fear, sees the ravages,
Both of the thunderbolt and the lightning.

He who used to run the path
Of that uneven Courier, The "uneven Courier" refers to the Moon, whose path and phases are variable compared to the other celestial bodies.
Who consoles the long weariness
That the day causes by its absence,
And who favors the nights
With the treasure of her influence.

He who measured with his eye,
The vast globe of the Sun,

And