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I desire to hold the whole and to drink, if it is possible, all the abysses at once; since this is impossible, I tell you I am always thirsty, although in my mouth the water is always flowing, gushing, surrounding. But seeing the abysses, I do not think I am drinking anything at all; desiring to hold the whole, and again having the whole wholly in my hand abundantly, I am always poor, having the whole necessarily joined with the small. A sea, then, is in the drop, and abysses again are joined to this by the abysses; having one drop, then, I have them all joined together. But this drop again, which I tell you I possess, is entirely indivisible, intangible, in every way ungraspable, (182) likewise uncircumscribable, completely hard to behold, or it is God entire. If, then, the divine droplet is thus and such for me, what shall I think I have at all? Truly having, I have nothing. I will say these things to you again in another way: The sun shines from on high, mounting its rays; rather I grasp a ray, I ascend running upward to approach the sun. But when I draw near well and think to touch it, the ray escapes my hands and immediately I am blinded and I fall from both, from the sun and the rays. From on high, then, I fall, I sit and again I weep and seek the former ray. Thus then, as I am, of the night the whole darkness

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Σχεῖν ἐπιθυμῶ τό ὅλον καί πιεῖν, εἰ οἷόν τε, πάσας τάς ἀβύσσους ἅμα˙ ἀδυνάτου τούτου ὄντος πάντοτε διψεῖν σοι λέγω, καίπερ ἐν τῷ στόματί μου πάντοτε τό ὕδωρ ἔστι ῥέον, βλύζον, περικλύζον. Ἀλλά βλέπων τάς ἀβύσσους οὐ δοκῶ τι πίνειν ὅλως˙ σχεῖν ἐπιθυμῶν τό ὅλον, πλουσίως τε πάλιν ἔχων ὅλον ὅλως ἐν χειρί μου, πάντοτε πτωχός ὑπάρχω, μετά τοῦ μικροῦ τό ὅλον συνημμένον πάντως ἔχων. Θάλασσα οὖν τῇ σταγόνι, ἄβυσσοι δέ πάλιν ταύτῃ τῶν ἀβύσσων συνημμέναι˙ μίαν οὖν σταγόνα ἔχων συνημμένας πάσας ἔχω. Ἡ σταγών δέ πάλιν αὕτη, ἥνπερ λέγω σοι κεκτῆσθαι, ἄτμητος ὑπάρχει ὅλη, ἀναφής, ἄληπτος πάντῃ, (182) ἀπερίγραπτος ὡσαύτως, δυσθεώρητος εἰς ἅπαν, ἤ Θεός ὅλος ὑπάρχει. Εἰ οὖν οὕτω καί τοιαύτη ἔστι μοι ῥανίς ἡ θεία, ὅλως ἔχειν τί δοκήσω; Ὄντως ἔχων οὐδέν ἔχω. Ἄλλως πάλιν σοι ταῦτα λέξω˙ Ἥλιος ἀφ᾿ ὕψους λάμπει ἐπιβαίνων ταῖς ἀκτῖσι˙ μᾶλλον δέ κρατῶ ἀκτῖνα, ἀναβαίνω τρέχων ἄνω πλησιάσαι τῷ ἡλίῳ. Ὅτε δέ καλῶς ἐγγίσω καί δοκήσω τοῦ προσψαῦσαι, διαφεύγει μου τάς χεῖρας ἡ ἀκτίς καί εὐθύς τυφλοῦμια καί ἐκπίπτω ἀμφοτέρων, τοῦ ἡλίου καί ἀκτίνων. Ἀπό ὕψους οὖν ἐκπίπτω, κάθημαι καί πάλιν κλαίω καί ζητῶ τήν πρίν ἀκτῖνα. Οὕτως τοίνυν ἔχοντός μου, τῆς νυκτός ὅλον τόν ζόφον