Chapter 26

 I lived with visions¹ for my company

Instead of men and women, years ago,

And found them gentle mates², nor thought to know

A sweeter music than they played to me.

But soon their trailing purple was not free

Of this world’s dust, their lutes did silent grow,

And I myself grew faint and blind below

Their vanishing³ eyes.  Then thou didst come—to be,

Belov?d, what they seemed.  Their shining fronts,

Their songs, their splendours, (better, yet the same,

As river-water hallowed into fonts)

Met in thee, and from out thee overcame

My soul with satisfaction of all wants:

Because God’s gifts put man’s best dreams to shame.

1 visions   

视力( vision的名词复数 )； 眼力； 想像（力）； 美景

参考例句：

• I had visions of us getting hopelessly lost. 我产生了我们完全迷失了方向的幻觉。
• Finally he strode home reluctantly, with his poor head full of visions. 后来他终于极不情愿地朝家走去，他那可怜的脑瓜子里充满了各种各样的幻想。

2 mates   

[英]伙伴( mate的名词复数 )； 同伴； （非正式）配偶； （熟练工人的）助手

参考例句：

• He's out boozing with his mates. 他和他的朋友们喝酒去了。
• They've been best mates since school. 他们从上学时期以来就是最要好的朋友。

3 vanishing   

消失，消没，等于零

参考例句：

• Many of the ranchers themselves see all this tourism as a cheeky attempt to commercialise a real and vanishing culture. 在很多农场主看来，这种旅游完全是一种厚颜无耻的行径，它试图让一个行将消失的、真正意义上的文化成为商品。
• His vanishing sum suggested that he would need sustenance. 他那逐渐消失的钱提醒他，需要找点生计了。 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹