According to this passage, based on Three Days to See by Helen Keller:
"I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that "window of the soul," the eye. I can only "see" through my finger tips the outline of a face. I can detect laughter, sorrow, and many other obvious emotions. I know my friends from the feel of their faces. But I cannot really picture their personalities by touch. I know their personalities, of course, through other means, through the thoughts they express to me, through whatever of their actions are revealed to me. But I am denied that deeper understanding of them which I am sure would come through sight of them, through watching their reactions to various expressed thoughts and circumstances, through noting the immediate and fleeting reactions of their eyes and countenance."
- What does the first sentence mean? ("I do not know what it is to see into the heart of a friend through that "window of the soul," the eye.")
- Does "it" refer to the eye?
- It seems that "what" is the object of noun clause, but heart is the object of the verb "see into", so we don't need what when we can use that. Am I making mistake?
Finally, my interpretation of this sentence may help you impart my problems:
I do not know what eye understands from people's hearts because I have never tasted the use of the eye.
Since I am not native English speaker, I apologize for my grammatical errors.