How long the orbs of sight were dark, and I deprived of ease.
And thus I thought: “If now, indeed, I were to find relief,
’Twere not too much to bear the pain, to bear the present grief.”
Then the words of kindness which I heard sunk deep into my soul,
And free from fear I gave myself to the foreigner’s control.
His silver needle sought the lens, and quickly from it drew
The opaque and darksome fluid, whose effect so well I knew;
His golden probe soon clear’d the lens, and then my eyes he bound,
And laved with water sweet as is the dew to thirsty ground.
Three days thus lay I, prostrate, still; no food then could I eat;