Sero te amávi, pulchritúdo tam antíqua et tam nova, sero te amávi!
Et ecce intus eras
et ego foris et ibi te quærébam
et in ista formósa quæ fecísti,
defórmis irruébam.
Mecum eras, et tecum non eram.
Ea me tenébant longe a te,
quæ si in te non essent, non essent.
Vocásti et clamásti et rupísti surditátem meam,
coruscásti, splenduísti et fugásti cæcitátem meam,
flagrásti, et duxi spíritum et anhélo tibi,
gustávi et esúrio et sítio.
Tetigísti me, et exársi in pacem tuam.

Late have I loved you, Beauty so ancient and so new, late have I loved you!
Lo, you were within,
but I outside, seeking there for you,
and upon the shapely things you have made
I rushed headlong – I, misshapen.
You were with me, but I was not with you.
They held me back far from you,
those things which would have no being,
were they not in you.
You called, shouted, broke through my deafness;
you flared, blazed, banished my blindness;
you lavished your fragrance, I gasped; and now I pant for you;
I tasted you, and now I hunger and thirst;
you touched me, and I burned for your peace.

(St Augustine, Confessions, Bk 10)