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Romance of the Rose – translated by Frances Horgan

 I drew near to the spring and on reaching it, bent down to see the running water and the gravel, brighter than fine silver, that seethed in its depths.  All that can be said of the spring is that there was none so beautiful in all the world.  The water is always cool and fresh and gushes out day and night in great waves through two channels, bright and deep.  Because of the water, the dense grass all around grows thick and strong and cannot die in winter, just as the water cannot dry up or cease to flow.

Down at the bottom of the spring were two crystals which I gazed at most attentively.  And I shall tell you something that will, I think, seem marvellous to you when you hear it.  When the all seeing sun sends down its rays into the spring, and light descends into its depths, more than a hundred colours appear in the crystal, which turns blue and yellow and red in the sunlight.  The crystal is so marvellous and has such power that the whole place, with its trees and flowers and everything adorning the garden is revealed there in due order……. The crystal truly discloses the whole of the garden to him who gazes into the water… and so there is nothing so small, so secret, or so hidden that it is not displayed there as if it were etched in the crystal.