φῶς ἀφεγγές, light which, for the blind, is no light: cp. “"darkness of life"” in Tennyson's lines quoted on 33: “σκότον βλέπειν, ἐν σκότῳ ὁρᾶν” （O. T. 419), 1273). The dying bid farewell to the sunlight, as
. So here the blind man, for whom light has long been changed to darkness, bids farewell to his memory of it. πρόσθε, before he blinded himself (cp. O. T. 1183). The full thought is,— “"Once I saw thee, but for long I have only felt thee, and now I feel thee for the last time."” Whitelaw cp.“σὲ δ̓, ὦ φαεννῆς ἡμέρας τὸ νῦν σέλας
… προσεννέπω
πανύστατον δή
”
And“Thee I revisit safe,
”
And feel thy sovran vital lamp; but thou
Revisit'st not these eyes.Par. Lost 3. 21,
“Might I but live to see thee in my touch,
”
I'd say I had eyes again.Lear 4. 1. 23
