Dolce color d’oriental zaffiro, che s’accoglieva nel sereno aspetto del mezzo, puro infino al primo giro, a li occhi miei ricominciò diletto, tosto … - Dante Alighieri

When any of our faculties retains
a strong impression of delight or pain,
the soul will wholly concentrate on that,
neglecting any other power it has;
and thus, when something seen
or heard secures the soul in stringent grip,
time moves and yet we do not notice it.

Those things that have the power to hurt are to be feared: not those other things that are not fearful. I am made such, by God’s grace, that your suffering does not touch me, nor does the fire of this burning scorch me.

You must take a different route
if you expect to escape this wilderness, because the beast that makes you cry for help
lets none pass on her path, but cuts him off95 at every step until at last it kills him; and her nature is so wicked and perverse
that her voracity is never sated,
for feeding only whets her appetite. Many she’s mated with among the living100 and will with many more, until the greyhound
arrives to make her die a painful death.