II.
Edward Kennard Rand translation
Sweet Homer[169] sings the praise Of Phoebus clear and bright, And yet his strongest rays Cannot with feeble light Cast through the secret ways Of earth and seas his sight, Though 'all lies open to his eyes.'[170] But He who did this world devise—
The earth's vast depths unseen From his sight are not free, No clouds can stand between, He at one time doth see What are, and what have been, And what shall after be. Whom, since he only vieweth all, You rightly the true Sun may call."
[169] Cf. Il. iv. 277, Od. xii. 323.
[170] This line renders the Greek with which Boethius begins the poem, adapting Homer's phrase "all surveying, all o'erhearing." See the critical note on p. 372.