The lover’s gaze of appreciation and his verbal rendering of what that gaze sees offer to the beloved his appreciation of her and, in making that offering, give to her a state of being she would not have given herself. That is the condition of being a beloved. … when you are given the gift of being delighted in, you are made new by it, transfigured in its light.
This is Paul J. Griffiths again, commenting on Song of Songs 4:1-7. I love the way he describes the transfigurative effect that love has upon the beloved.
Karl Möller 