Blindness

Meaning

Blindness in the short verse about the threefold yet single good means failure to recognise something already present to sight and touch. The world has it before its eyes and often at hand, yet values it so little that people walk over it. The opposition is therefore between visible availability and understanding, not between an invisible material and successful eyesight. The English preserves this opposition by retaining both “before its eyes” and “in its blindness.” The verse adds the mediating word to recognition, indicating that possession of appearances alone is insufficient to understand or obtain the treasure it praises.