" "Calogrenant," the Queen then
says, "do not mind the attack of my lord Kay the seneschal. He
is so accustomed to evil speech that one cannot punish him for
it. I command and request you not to be angered because of him,
nor should you fail on his account to say something which it will
please us all to hear; if you wish to preserve my good-will, pray
begin the tale anew." "Surely, lady, it is a very unwelcome
command you lay upon me. Rather than tell any more of my tale
to-day, I would have one eye plucked out, if I did not fear your
displeasure. Yet will I perform your behest, however distasteful
it may be. Then since you will have it so, give heed. Let your
heart and ears be mine. For words, though heard, are lost unless
understood within the heart. Some men there are who give consent
to what they hear but do not understand: these men have the
hearing alone. For the moment the heart fails to understand, the
word falls upon the ears simply as the wind that blows, without
stopping to tarry there; rather it quickly passes on if the heart
is not so awake as to be ready to receive it. For the heart
alone can receive it when it comes along, and shut it up within.
The ears are the path and channel by which the voice can reach
the heart, while the heart receives within the bosom the voice
which enters through the ear.
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