{"corpus":"steiner","locus":"GA 14/ga014-2_scene05/p020","lang":"en","edition":"APC1925","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"text":"*Felicia:*  \nSo be it then. There once did live a boy,  \nThe only child of needy forest-folk,  \nWho grew up in the woodland solitudes;  \nFew souls he knew beside his parents twain.  \nHis build was slender, and his skin wellnigh  \nTransparent; marvels of the spirit hid  \nDeep in his eye; long could one gaze therein.  \nAnd though few human beings ever came  \nInto the circle of his daily life,  \nThe lad was well befriended none the less.  \nWhen golden sunshine bathed the neighbouring hills,  \nWith thoughtful eyes he drew the spirit-gold  \nInto his soul, until his heart became  \nKin to the morning glory of the sun.  \nBut when the morning sunshine could not break  \nThrough dense dark banks of cloud, and heaviness  \nLay on the hills around, his eye grew sad,  \nAnd sorrow took possession of his heart.  \nThus his attention only centred on  \nThe spirit-fabric of his narrow world,  \nA world that seemed as much a part of him  \nAs did his limbs and body. Woodlands all  \nAnd trees and flowers he felt to be his friends;  \nFrom crown and calyx and from tops of trees,  \nThe spirit beings spake full oft to him,  \nAnd all their whisperings were lucid speech.  \nMarvels and wonders of the hidden worlds  \nDisclosed themselves unto the boy when he  \nHeld converse in his soul with many things  \nBy men deemed lifeless. Evening often fell,  \nAnd still the boy would be away from home,  \nAnd cause his loving parents much concern.  \nAt such times he was at a place near by  \nIn which a spring rose gushing from the rocks,  \nTo fall in misty spray upon the stones.  \nWhen silver moonbeams would reflect themselves,  \nA miracle of colour and of light,  \nFull in the rush of hasting waterdrops,  \nThe boy could spend beside the rock-born spring  \nHour after hour, till spirit-shapes appeared  \nBefore the vision of the youthful seer  \nWhere moonbeams shivered on the falling drops.  \nThey grew to be three forms in woman's shape,  \nWho spoke to him about those things in which  \nHis yearning soul made known its interest.  \nAnd when upon a gentle summer night  \nThe lad was once more sitting by the spring,  \nA myriad particles one woman took  \nFrom out the coloured web of waterdrops  \nAnd to the second woman handed them.  \nShe fashioned from the watery particles  \nA gleaming chalice with a silver sheen  \nAnd handed it in turn unto the third.  \nShe filled the vessel with the silver rays  \nOf moonlight and then gave it to the boy,  \nWho had beheld all this with inner sight.  \nDuring the night which followed this event  \nHe dreamed a dream in which he saw himself  \nRobbed of this chalice by some dragon wild.  \nAfter this night had passed, the boy beheld  \nBut three times more the marvel of the stream.  \nThen the three women stayed away from him  \nAlthough he sat and mused beside the spring  \nThat gushed beneath the moonlight from the rock.  \nAnd when three times three hundred sixty weeks  \nHad passed, the boy had long become a man,  \nAnd left home, parents, and his woodland nook  \nTo live in some strange city. There one eve  \nHe sat and thought, tired with the day's hard toil,  \nMusing on what life held in store for him,  \nWhen suddenly he felt himself caught up  \nAnd set again beside that rock-bound spring;  \nThe women three, he there beheld once more,  \nAnd this time clearly he could hear them speak.  \nThese were the words the first one spake to him:  \n‘Think of me always whensoe'er thou art  \nO'ercome by loneliness, for I am she  \nWho lures the inner vision of mankind  \nTo starry realms and heavenly distances.  \nAnd whosoever wills to feel my sway  \nTo him I give a draught of life and hope  \nOut of the magic goblet which I hold.’  \nThe second also spake these words to him:  \n‘Forget me not at times when thou art nigh  \nTo losing courage on life's battlefield.  \nI lead men's yearning hearts to depths of soul  \nAnd also up to lofty spirit-heights.  \nAnd whosoever seeks his powers from me,  \nFor him I forge unwavering faith in life  \nShaped by the magic hammer which I wield.’  \nThe third one gave her message in these words  \n‘Lift up thy spirit's eye to gaze on me  \nWhen by life's riddles thou art overwhelmed.  \n'Tis I who spin the threads of thought that lead  \nThrough labyrinths of life and depths of soul.  \nAnd whosoever puts his trust in me  \nFor him I weave the rays of living love  \nUpon this magic loom at which I sit.’  \nThus it befell the man, and in the night  \nThat followed on his visions he did dream,  \nHow that a dragon wild in circles crept  \nRound him, but was not able to draw near.  \nHe was protected from that dragon's claws  \nBy those same beings whom he saw of old  \nSeated beside the spring among the rocks,  \nWho had gone with him, when he left his home,  \nTo guard him in his strange environment.","text_trust":"verbatim","quote_safe":true,"title":"The Soul's Probation: Scene 5","site_heading":null,"date":null,"location":null,"word_count":842,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene05/p020","alignment_confidence":"low","alignment_reason":"count_diverges","two_voice_volume":false,"translation_credit":null,"edition_coverage":{"de":["original"],"en":["APC1925"]},"available_versions":[{"lang":"en","edition":"APC1925","edition_basis":null,"is_original":false,"is_default_edition":true,"url":"https://anthroposophy.ai/v1/steiner/en/ga/14/ga014-2_scene05/p020"}],"witness_completeness":{"ratio":1.2,"band":"comparable","note":null,"word_count":3164,"original_word_count":2633,"may_be_abridged":false},"witness_quality":{"translator":{"status":"unknown","warning":"No translator is recorded for this edition. An unattributed translation cannot be weighed as a witness: you cannot tell which hand made the choices in it. Cite the German for anything load-bearing."},"entity_parity":{"status":"not_checkable","note":"No verified paragraph alignment covers this passage, so its names cannot be compared with the German."},"note":"quote_safe certifies the bytes of this text. This block is about the translation as a WITNESS: who made it, and whether it carries the same names as the original. See witness_completeness for how much of the original this witness holds."}}