Midway (Tiphereth) upon the journey of our (tree of) life
I found myself (trapped) within a (mental) forest dark,
For (because of renunciation) the straightforward pathway had been lost.
Ah me! how hard a thing it is to say
What was this forest savage, rough, and stern,
Which in the very "thought" renews the fear.
So bitter is it, death is little more;
But of the good to treat, which there I found,
Speak will I of the other things I saw there.
I cannot well repeat how there I entered (and got trapped),
So full was I of slumber at the moment
In which (because of fornication) I had abandoned the true way.
But after I had reached a (second) mountain’s foot,
At that point where the valley terminated,
Which had with consternation pierced my heart (Tiphereth),
Upward I looked, and I beheld its shoulders,
Vested already with that planet’s rays
Which leadeth others right by every road.
Then was the fear a little quieted
That in my heart’s lake had endured throughout
The (spiritual) night, which I had passed so piteously.
And even as he, who, with distressful breath,
Forth issued from the sea upon the shore,
Turns to the water perilous and gazes;
So did (Tiphereth) my soul, that still was fleeing onward,
Turn itself back to re-behold the pass
Which never yet a living person left.
After my weary body I had rested,
The way resumed I on the desert slope,
So that the firm foot ever was the lower.
And lo! almost (in Yesod) where the ascent began,
A panther light and swift exceedingly,
Which with a spotted skin was covered o’er!
And never moved she (Nahemah) from before my face,
Nay, rather did impede so much my way,
That many times I to return had turned.
The time was (sunrise) the beginning of the morning,
And up the sun (Christ) was mounting with those stars
That with him were, what time the Love Divine
At first in motion set those beauteous things;
So were to me occasion of good hope,
The variegated skin of (Nahemah) that wild beast,
The hour of time, and the delicious season;
But not so much, that did not give me fear
(Karma as ) A lion’s aspect which appeared to me.
He seemed as if against me he were coming
With head uplifted, and with ravenous hunger,
So that it seemed the air (Chesed) was afraid of him;
And (Nephesh) a she-wolf, that with all (flesh and bone) hungerings
Seemed to be laden in her meagreness,
And many folk has caused to live forlorn!
She (the animal soul) brought upon me so much heaviness,
With the affright that from her aspect came,
That I the hope relinquished of the height.
And as he is who willingly acquires,
And the time comes that causes him to lose,
Who weeps in all his thoughts and is despondent,.....
Weep not: behold, the Lion of the tribe of Judah,
the Root of David, has prevailed to open the book,
and to loose the seven seals thereof. - Revelation 5: 5