Paradiso, Canto 30
Dante Alighieri · Italian original · new English translation and commentary by Text Atlas
Overview
Paradiso XXX moves from the Primum Mobile into the Empyrean. The angelic triumph around the point fades like stars disappearing before dawn, and Dante turns back to Beatrice because love and blindness compel him. He concedes that her beauty defeats every prior praise and every power of poetic pursuit, then leaves her to a greater proclamation as the poem nears its final matter. Beatrice announces the heaven of pure intellectual light, filled with love, true good, gladness, and sweetness beyond sweetness, and a living light overwhelms Dante in order to strengthen his sight. He sees light in the form of a golden river between spring banks, with living sparks entering flowers and returning to a wondrous whirlpool. Beatrice explains that he must drink with his eyes before his thirst can be satisfied: the river, topazes, and laughing grasses are shadow-bearing prefaces of their truth, limited by his sight rather than by themselves. Once his eyelids drink, the river becomes round and the flowers and sparks are unmasked as the two courts of Heaven. Dante invokes divine splendor to describe the celestial rose: a circular light reflected from the summit of the Primum Mobile, ringed by more than a thousand tiers of blessed souls, so vast that near and far no longer add or subtract where God governs without intermediary. Beatrice draws Dante into the yellow of the eternal rose, shows him the convent of white stoles and the filled city, and points to the crowned seat reserved for Henry VII before Dante's own death. Her final words condemn Italy's blind greed, Clement V's double-dealing against Henry, and the simoniac punishment that will push Boniface VIII of Anagni lower.
Narrative arc
- The angelic triumph around the point fades like stars before dawn, forcing Dante's eyes back to Beatrice
- Dante concedes poetic defeat before Beatrice's beauty and leaves her to a greater proclamation
- Beatrice announces the Empyrean as pure intellectual light, and living light prepares Dante's candle for its flame
- Dante receives new sight and sees the river of light, spring banks, living sparks, flowers, and wondrous whirlpool
- Beatrice explains the shadow-bearing prefaces, Dante drinks with his eyelids, and the river becomes round
- Dante invokes divine splendor and sees the celestial rose beyond the limits of near and far
- Beatrice draws Dante into the eternal rose and shows the white-stoled convent and filled heavenly city
- Beatrice points to Henry VII's crowned seat and closes with judgment on Italy, Clement V, and Boniface VIII
Central themes
- Empyrean
- rose
- community
- contemplation
The angelic triumph around the point fades like stars before dawn, forcing Dante's eyes back to Beatrice XXX.1–15
1Forse semilia miglia di lontano
ci ferve l’ora sesta, e questo mondo
china già l’ombra quasi al letto piano,
quando ’l mezzo del cielo, a noi profondo,
5comincia a farsi tal, ch’alcuna stella
perde il parere infino a questo fondo;
e come vien la chiarissima ancella
del sol più oltre, così ’l ciel si chiude
di vista in vista infino a la più bella.
10Non altrimenti il trïunfo che lude
sempre dintorno al punto che mi vinse,
parendo inchiuso da quel ch’elli ’nchiude,
a poco a poco al mio veder si stinse:
per che tornar con li occhi a Bëatrice
15nulla vedere e amor mi costrinse.
1Perhaps six thousand miles away from us
the sixth hour is burning, and this world
already lowers its shadow almost to a level bed,
when the middle of heaven, deep above us,
5begins to grow such that some star
loses its appearing down to this depth;
and as the sun's brightest handmaid
comes farther on, so heaven closes
from sight to sight, even to the fairest one.
10Not otherwise the triumph that forever plays
around the point that overcame me,
seeming enclosed by what it encloses,
little by little was quenched to my sight;
so that seeing nothing, and love,
15compelled me to turn my eyes back to Beatrice.
Commentary
The opening is a present-tense dawn simile: the stars close before morning as the angelic triumph around the divine point fades from Dante's sight. The translation keeps the six-thousand-mile time signal, the depth of earthly sight, and the point that seems enclosed by what it encloses.
XXX.1–3 The opening present-tense time signal sets dawn in Italy by imagining noon roughly six thousand miles away.
XXX.1–3 The opening present-tense time signal sets dawn in Italy by imagining noon roughly six thousand miles away. Line 1: The opening present-tense time signal sets dawn in Italy by imagining noon roughly six thousand miles away.
XXX.1 The opening present-tense time signal sets dawn in Italy by imagining noon roughly six thousand miles away. The opening present-tense time signal sets dawn in Italy by imagining noon roughly six thousand miles away.
XXX.4–6 The viewpoint is earthly depth looking upward, preparing the fading of stars before the Empyrean transition.
XXX.4–6 The viewpoint is earthly depth looking upward, preparing the fading of stars before the Empyrean transition. Line 4: The viewpoint is earthly depth looking upward, preparing the fading of stars before the Empyrean transition.
XXX.4 The viewpoint is earthly depth looking upward, preparing the fading of stars before the Empyrean transition. The viewpoint is earthly depth looking upward, preparing the fading of stars before the Empyrean transition.
XXX.7–9 The line leaves the handmaid unidentified; there is pressure between Aurora and the morning star. The fairest star is the last visible before dawn; the wording keeps the sight-language active.
XXX.7–9 The line leaves the handmaid unidentified; there is pressure between Aurora and the morning star. Line 7: The line leaves the handmaid unidentified; there is pressure between Aurora and the morning star. Line 9: The fairest star is the last visible before dawn; the wording keeps the sight-language active.
XXX.7 The line leaves the handmaid unidentified; there is pressure between Aurora and the morning star. The line leaves the handmaid unidentified; there is pressure between Aurora and the morning star.
XXX.9 The fairest star is the last visible before dawn; the wording keeps the sight-language active. The fairest star is the last visible before dawn; the wording keeps the sight-language active.
XXX.10–12 The triumph is the angelic procession around the divine point from Paradiso XXVIII. The point continues the fixed divine point and also echoes the poetic-defeat punto at line 23. The line keeps the paradox of the divi.
XXX.10–12 The triumph is the angelic procession around the divine point from Paradiso XXVIII. Line 10: The triumph is the angelic procession around the divine point from Paradiso XXVIII. Line 11: The point continues the fixed divine point and also echoes the poetic-defeat punto at line 23. Line 12: The line keeps the paradox of the divine point appearing enclosed by the angelic circles while actually enclosing them.
XXX.10 The triumph is the angelic procession around the divine point from Paradiso XXVIII. The triumph is the angelic procession around the divine point from Paradiso XXVIII.
XXX.11 The point continues the fixed divine point and also echoes the poetic-defeat punto at line 23. The point continues the fixed divine point and also echoes the poetic-defeat punto at line 23.
XXX.12 The line keeps the paradox of the divine point appearing enclosed by the angelic circles while actually enclosing them. The line keeps the paradox of the divine point appearing enclosed by the angelic circles while actually enclosing them.
XXX.13–15 The return to Beatrice's eyes answers the opening of Paradiso XXVIII, where the angelic vision first appeared through her eyes.
XXX.13–15 The return to Beatrice's eyes answers the opening of Paradiso XXVIII, where the angelic vision first appeared through her eyes. Line 15: The return to Beatrice's eyes answers the opening of Paradiso XXVIII, where the angelic vision first appeared through her eyes.
XXX.15 The return to Beatrice's eyes answers the opening of Paradiso XXVIII, where the angelic vision first appeared through her eyes. The return to Beatrice's eyes answers the opening of Paradiso XXVIII, where the angelic vision first appeared through her eyes.
Dante concedes poetic defeat before Beatrice's beauty and leaves her to a greater proclamation XXX.16–36
16Se quanto infino a qui di lei si dice
fosse conchiuso tutto in una loda,
poca sarebbe a fornir questa vice.
La bellezza ch’io vidi si trasmoda
20non pur di là da noi, ma certo io credo
che solo il suo fattor tutta la goda.
Da questo passo vinto mi concedo
più che già mai da punto di suo tema
soprato fosse comico o tragedo:
25ché, come sole in viso che più trema,
così lo rimembrar del dolce riso
la mente mia da me medesmo scema.
Dal primo giorno ch’i’ vidi il suo viso
in questa vita, infino a questa vista,
30non m’è il seguire al mio cantar preciso;
ma or convien che mio seguir desista
più dietro a sua bellezza, poetando,
come a l’ultimo suo ciascuno artista.
Cotal qual io lascio a maggior bando
35che quel de la mia tuba, che deduce
l’ardüa sua matera terminando,
16If all that has been said of her up to here
were gathered whole into one praise,
it would be too little to serve this turn.
The beauty that I saw passes beyond measure
20not only past us; indeed, I believe
only its Maker wholly enjoys it.
At this passage I concede myself defeated
more than ever, by a point in his theme,
a comic or tragic poet was overcome:
25for as the sun does to the sight that trembles most,
so the remembering of that sweet smile
drains my mind away from my own self.
From the first day I saw her face
in this life, down to this sight,
30my song has never been cut off from following;
but now my pursuit must desist
from following her beauty further in poetry,
as every artist does at his limit.
Such as I leave her to a greater heralding
35than that of my trumpet, which draws out
its arduous matter as it brings it to an end,
Commentary
Dante confesses poetic defeat before Beatrice's beauty. The translation keeps the technical pressure of praise, comic and tragic poets, point/theme, cut-off pursuit, artist's limit, trumpet, and the canto's move toward final matter.
XXX.16–18 The praise formula recalls Dante's lifelong poetry of Beatrice and now marks its limit. Vice is treated as the present turn or occasion, not as moral vice.
XXX.16–18 The praise formula recalls Dante's lifelong poetry of Beatrice and now marks its limit. Line 16: The praise formula recalls Dante's lifelong poetry of Beatrice and now marks its limit. Line 18: Vice is treated as the present turn or occasion, not as moral vice.
XXX.16 The praise formula recalls Dante's lifelong poetry of Beatrice and now marks its limit. The praise formula recalls Dante's lifelong poetry of Beatrice and now marks its limit.
XXX.18 Vice is treated as the present turn or occasion, not as moral vice. Vice is treated as the present turn or occasion, not as moral vice.
XXX.19–21 Trasmoda keeps beauty beyond creaturely measure rather than only beyond human description.
XXX.19–21 Trasmoda keeps beauty beyond creaturely measure rather than only beyond human description. Line 19: Trasmoda keeps beauty beyond creaturely measure rather than only beyond human description.
XXX.19 Trasmoda keeps beauty beyond creaturely measure rather than only beyond human description. Trasmoda keeps beauty beyond creaturely measure rather than only beyond human description.
XXX.22–24 The punto of poetic defeat echoes the divine point that overcame Dante's sight. The genre pair keeps the technical literary register without deciding the Comedy's genre from this line alone.
XXX.22–24 The punto of poetic defeat echoes the divine point that overcame Dante's sight. Line 23: The punto of poetic defeat echoes the divine point that overcame Dante's sight. Line 24: The genre pair keeps the technical literary register without deciding the Comedy's genre from this line alone.
XXX.23 The punto of poetic defeat echoes the divine point that overcame Dante's sight. The punto of poetic defeat echoes the divine point that overcame Dante's sight.
XXX.24 The genre pair keeps the technical literary register without deciding the Comedy's genre from this line alone. The genre pair keeps the technical literary register without deciding the Comedy's genre from this line alone.
XXX.25–27 The memory of Beatrice's smile does to the mind what overpowering sun does to sight.
XXX.25–27 The memory of Beatrice's smile does to the mind what overpowering sun does to sight. Line 27: The memory of Beatrice's smile does to the mind what overpowering sun does to sight.
XXX.27 The memory of Beatrice's smile does to the mind what overpowering sun does to sight. The memory of Beatrice's smile does to the mind what overpowering sun does to sight.
XXX.28–30 The line points back to the Vita nuova and Dante's first sight of Beatrice. Preciso carries a thread-cutting pressure that returns in the poet's final limit.
XXX.28–30 The line points back to the Vita nuova and Dante's first sight of Beatrice. Line 28: The line points back to the Vita nuova and Dante's first sight of Beatrice. Line 30: Preciso carries a thread-cutting pressure that returns in the poet's final limit.
XXX.28 The line points back to the Vita nuova and Dante's first sight of Beatrice. The line points back to the Vita nuova and Dante's first sight of Beatrice.
XXX.30 Preciso carries a thread-cutting pressure that returns in the poet's final limit. Preciso carries a thread-cutting pressure that returns in the poet's final limit.
XXX.31–33 The artist's limit is retained as a general law of craft, not only as Dante's private failure.
XXX.31–33 The artist's limit is retained as a general law of craft, not only as Dante's private failure. Line 33: The artist's limit is retained as a general law of craft, not only as Dante's private failure.
XXX.33 The artist's limit is retained as a general law of craft, not only as Dante's private failure. The artist's limit is retained as a general law of craft, not only as Dante's private failure.
XXX.34–36 The greater proclamation may imply the last judgment's trumpet rather than a merely future poet. The line keeps the poem's self-awareness that its hardest matter is now nearing its close.
XXX.34–36 The greater proclamation may imply the last judgment's trumpet rather than a merely future poet. Line 34: The greater proclamation may imply the last judgment's trumpet rather than a merely future poet. Line 36: The line keeps the poem's self-awareness that its hardest matter is now nearing its close.
XXX.34 The greater proclamation may imply the last judgment's trumpet rather than a merely future poet. The greater proclamation may imply the last judgment's trumpet rather than a merely future poet.
XXX.36 The line keeps the poem's self-awareness that its hardest matter is now nearing its close. The line keeps the poem's self-awareness that its hardest matter is now nearing its close.
Beatrice announces the Empyrean as pure intellectual light, and living light prepares Dante's candle for its flame XXX.37–54
37con atto e voce di spedito duce
ricominciò: «Noi siamo usciti fore
del maggior corpo al ciel ch’è pura luce:
40luce intellettüal, piena d’amore;
amor di vero ben, pien di letizia;
letizia che trascende ogne dolzore.
Qui vederai l’una e l’altra milizia
di paradiso, e l’una in quelli aspetti
45che tu vedrai a l’ultima giustizia».
Come sùbito lampo che discetti
li spiriti visivi, sì che priva
da l’atto l’occhio di più forti obietti,
così mi circunfulse luce viva,
50e lasciommi fasciato di tal velo
del suo fulgor, che nulla m’appariva.
«Sempre l’amor che queta questo cielo
accoglie in sé con sì fatta salute,
per far disposto a sua fiamma il candelo».
37with bearing and voice of a clear guide
she began again: "We have come forth
from the greatest body to the heaven that is pure light:
40intellectual light, filled with love;
love of the true good, filled with gladness;
gladness that surpasses every sweetness.
Here you will see both hosts
of Paradise, and one in those aspects
45that you will see at the last justice."
As a sudden lightning-flash that scatters
the spirits of sight, so that it deprives
the eye of action on the strongest objects,
so living light flashed all around me,
50and left me wrapped in such a veil
of its radiance that nothing appeared to me.
"Always the Love that quiets this heaven
welcomes into itself with such a greeting,
to make the candle ready for its flame."
Commentary
The translation keeps the exit from the greatest body into pure intellectual light, the gradation of light-love-good-joy-sweetness, the two hosts, and the living light that prepares Dante's candle for its flame.
XXX.37–39 The greatest body is the Primum Mobile; the Empyrean is not another material sphere.
XXX.37–39 The greatest body is the Primum Mobile; the Empyrean is not another material sphere. Line 39: The greatest body is the Primum Mobile; the Empyrean is not another material sphere.
XXX.39 The greatest body is the Primum Mobile; the Empyrean is not another material sphere. The greatest body is the Primum Mobile; the Empyrean is not another material sphere.
XXX.40–42 The gradation through light, love, true good, gladness, and sweetness is preserved line by line.
XXX.40–42 The gradation through light, love, true good, gladness, and sweetness is preserved line by line. Line 40: The gradation through light, love, true good, gladness, and sweetness is preserved line by line.
XXX.40 The gradation through light, love, true good, gladness, and sweetness is preserved line by line. The gradation through light, love, true good, gladness, and sweetness is preserved line by line.
XXX.43–45 The two hosts are the angels and the blessed souls. The souls will be shown in an accommodated image of their last-judgment bodily aspect.
XXX.43–45 The two hosts are the angels and the blessed souls. Line 43: The two hosts are the angels and the blessed souls. Line 45: The souls will be shown in an accommodated image of their last-judgment bodily aspect.
XXX.43 The two hosts are the angels and the blessed souls. The two hosts are the angels and the blessed souls.
XXX.45 The souls will be shown in an accommodated image of their last-judgment bodily aspect. The souls will be shown in an accommodated image of their last-judgment bodily aspect.
XXX.46–48 The lightning image continues Paradiso's pattern of overpowering light that both blinds and prepares sight. The spiriti visivi belong to medieval visual psychology and are not normalized into modern optics.
XXX.46–48 The lightning image continues Paradiso's pattern of overpowering light that both blinds and prepares sight. Line 46: The lightning image continues Paradiso's pattern of overpowering light that both blinds and prepares sight. Line 47: The spiriti visivi belong to medieval visual psychology and are not normalized into modern optics.
XXX.46 The lightning image continues Paradiso's pattern of overpowering light that both blinds and prepares sight. The lightning image continues Paradiso's pattern of overpowering light that both blinds and prepares sight.
XXX.47 The spiriti visivi belong to medieval visual psychology and are not normalized into modern optics. The spiriti visivi belong to medieval visual psychology and are not normalized into modern optics.
XXX.49–51 Circunfulse carries a Pauline conversion/transfiguration pressure through encircling light.
XXX.49–51 Circunfulse carries a Pauline conversion/transfiguration pressure through encircling light. Line 49: Circunfulse carries a Pauline conversion/transfiguration pressure through encircling light.
XXX.49 Circunfulse carries a Pauline conversion/transfiguration pressure through encircling light. Circunfulse carries a Pauline conversion/transfiguration pressure through encircling light.
XXX.52–54 The Empyrean is quiet because it is beyond the moving heavens and rests in Love. Salute keeps the resonance of greeting and salvation around Beatrice's earlier role. The candle image marks the soul's faculty being pre.
XXX.52–54 The Empyrean is quiet because it is beyond the moving heavens and rests in Love. Line 52: The Empyrean is quiet because it is beyond the moving heavens and rests in Love. Line 53: Salute keeps the resonance of greeting and salvation around Beatrice's earlier role. Line 54: The candle image marks the soul's faculty being prepared for the flame it will receive.
XXX.52 The Empyrean is quiet because it is beyond the moving heavens and rests in Love. The Empyrean is quiet because it is beyond the moving heavens and rests in Love.
XXX.53 Salute keeps the resonance of greeting and salvation around Beatrice's earlier role. Salute keeps the resonance of greeting and salvation around Beatrice's earlier role.
XXX.54 The candle image marks the soul's faculty being prepared for the flame it will receive. The candle image marks the soul's faculty being prepared for the flame it will receive.
Dante receives new sight and sees the river of light, spring banks, living sparks, flowers, and wondrous whirlpool XXX.55–69
55Non fur più tosto dentro a me venute
queste parole brievi, ch’io compresi
me sormontar di sopr’ a mia virtute;
e di novella vista mi raccesi
tale, che nulla luce è tanto mera,
60che li occhi miei non si fosser difesi;
e vidi lume in forma di rivera
fulvido di fulgore, intra due rive
dipinte di mirabil primavera.
Di tal fiumana uscian faville vive,
65e d’ogne parte si mettien ne’ fiori,
quasi rubin che oro circunscrive;
poi, come inebrïate da li odori,
riprofondavan sé nel miro gurge,
e s’una intrava, un’altra n’uscia fori.
55No sooner had these brief words
come within me than I understood
that I was rising beyond my own power;
and I was rekindled with a new sight
so that no light is so pure
60that my eyes would not have been proof against it;
and I saw light in the form of a river,
golden with radiance, between two banks
painted with wondrous spring.
From that stream living sparks issued,
65and on every side they set themselves in the flowers,
like rubies that gold encircles;
then, as if made drunk by the fragrances,
they plunged themselves again into the wondrous whirlpool,
and if one entered, another came out.
Commentary
The new sight, river of light, golden radiance, spring banks, living sparks, rubies set in gold, and wondrous whirlpool make up the passage. The translation treats the river as accommodated vision of procession and return rather than decorative water.
XXX.55–57 Dante's faculty is exceeded and strengthened rather than self-sufficient.
XXX.55–57 Dante's faculty is exceeded and strengthened rather than self-sufficient. Line 57: Dante's faculty is exceeded and strengthened rather than self-sufficient.
XXX.57 Dante's faculty is exceeded and strengthened rather than self-sufficient. Dante's faculty is exceeded and strengthened rather than self-sufficient.
XXX.58–60 The strengthened eyes can now bear pure light that would otherwise overpower them.
XXX.58–60 The strengthened eyes can now bear pure light that would otherwise overpower them. Line 60: The strengthened eyes can now bear pure light that would otherwise overpower them.
XXX.60 The strengthened eyes can now bear pure light that would otherwise overpower them. The strengthened eyes can now bear pure light that would otherwise overpower them.
XXX.61–63 The river of light begins the accommodated image that will become the circular rose. The translation follows the fulvido reading as golden or tawny radiance.
XXX.61–63 The river of light begins the accommodated image that will become the circular rose. Line 61: The river of light begins the accommodated image that will become the circular rose. Line 62: The translation follows the fulvido reading as golden or tawny radiance.
XXX.61 The river of light begins the accommodated image that will become the circular rose. The river of light begins the accommodated image that will become the circular rose.
XXX.62 The translation follows the fulvido reading as golden or tawny radiance. The translation follows the fulvido reading as golden or tawny radiance.
XXX.64–66 The sparks will be named as topazes at line 76 and revealed as part of the heavenly courts. Ruby and gold imagery stresses brightness, value, and love rather than a simple color code.
XXX.64–66 The sparks will be named as topazes at line 76 and revealed as part of the heavenly courts. Line 64: The sparks will be named as topazes at line 76 and revealed as part of the heavenly courts. Line 66: Ruby and gold imagery stresses brightness, value, and love rather than a simple color code.
XXX.64 The sparks will be named as topazes at line 76 and revealed as part of the heavenly courts. The sparks will be named as topazes at line 76 and revealed as part of the heavenly courts.
XXX.66 Ruby and gold imagery stresses brightness, value, and love rather than a simple color code. Ruby and gold imagery stresses brightness, value, and love rather than a simple color code.
XXX.67–69 Miro gurge is kept as a wondrous depth or whirlpool, turning earlier dangerous water imagery toward beatitude. The continual entering and issuing enacts heavenly procession and return.
XXX.67–69 Miro gurge is kept as a wondrous depth or whirlpool, turning earlier dangerous water imagery toward beatitude. Line 68: Miro gurge is kept as a wondrous depth or whirlpool, turning earlier dangerous water imagery toward beatitude. Line 69: The continual entering and issuing enacts heavenly procession and return.
XXX.68 Miro gurge is kept as a wondrous depth or whirlpool, turning earlier dangerous water imagery toward beatitude. Miro gurge is kept as a wondrous depth or whirlpool, turning earlier dangerous water imagery toward beatitude.
XXX.69 The continual entering and issuing enacts heavenly procession and return. The continual entering and issuing enacts heavenly procession and return.
Beatrice explains the shadow-bearing prefaces, Dante drinks with his eyelids, and the river becomes round XXX.70–96
70«L’alto disio che mo t’infiamma e urge,
d’aver notizia di ciò che tu vei,
tanto mi piace più quanto più turge;
ma di quest’ acqua convien che tu bei
prima che tanta sete in te si sazi»:
75così mi disse il sol de li occhi miei.
Anche soggiunse: «Il fiume e li topazi
ch’entrano ed escono e ’l rider de l’erbe
son di lor vero umbriferi prefazi.
Non che da sé sian queste cose acerbe;
80ma è difetto da la parte tua,
che non hai viste ancor tanto superbe».
Non è fantin che sì sùbito rua
col volto verso il latte, se si svegli
molto tardato da l’usanza sua,
85come fec’ io, per far migliori spegli
ancor de li occhi, chinandomi a l’onda
che si deriva perché vi s’immegli;
e sì come di lei bevve la gronda
de le palpebre mie, così mi parve
90di sua lunghezza divenuta tonda.
Poi, come gente stata sotto larve,
che pare altro che prima, se si sveste
la sembianza non süa in che disparve,
così mi si cambiaro in maggior feste
95li fiori e le faville, sì ch’io vidi
ambo le corti del ciel manifeste.
70"The high desire that now inflames and urges you
to have knowledge of what you see
pleases me the more, the more it swells;
but of this water you must drink
before such thirst in you is satisfied":
75so the sun of my eyes said to me.
She added also: "The river and the topazes
that enter and come out, and the grasses' laughter,
are shadow-bearing prefaces of their truth.
Not that these things in themselves are unripe;
80but the defect is on your side,
for your sight is not yet raised so high."
There is no infant who so suddenly rushes
with his face toward the milk, if he wakes
much later than his usual time,
85as I did, to make better mirrors still
of my eyes, bending down to the wave
that flows forth so one may be bettered there;
and as the eaves of my eyelids drank of it,
so it seemed to me
90to have become round from its length.
Then, like people who have been under masks,
who seem other than before when they strip off
the semblance not their own in which they vanished,
so the flowers and the sparks were changed for me
95into greater festivity, so that I saw
both courts of Heaven made manifest.
Commentary
The translation keeps desire swelling, Beatrice's pleasure in that desire, the shadow-bearing prefaces, the defect in Dante's sight, the infant-at-milk simile, eyes as better mirrors, eyelids drinking, and the river becoming round.
XXX.70–72 Beatrice approves Dante's swelling desire for knowledge because it is ordered toward true vision.
XXX.70–72 Beatrice approves Dante's swelling desire for knowledge because it is ordered toward true vision. Line 70: Beatrice approves Dante's swelling desire for knowledge because it is ordered toward true vision.
XXX.70 Beatrice approves Dante's swelling desire for knowledge because it is ordered toward true vision. Beatrice approves Dante's swelling desire for knowledge because it is ordered toward true vision.
XXX.73–75 The thirst is satisfied through sight, not through a literal mouth-drinking scene. Beatrice remains Dante's sun even as she guides him into the Empyrean's direct light.
XXX.73–75 The thirst is satisfied through sight, not through a literal mouth-drinking scene. Line 74: The thirst is satisfied through sight, not through a literal mouth-drinking scene. Line 75: Beatrice remains Dante's sun even as she guides him into the Empyrean's direct light.
XXX.74 The thirst is satisfied through sight, not through a literal mouth-drinking scene. The thirst is satisfied through sight, not through a literal mouth-drinking scene.
XXX.75 Beatrice remains Dante's sun even as she guides him into the Empyrean's direct light. Beatrice remains Dante's sun even as she guides him into the Empyrean's direct light.
XXX.76–78 The topazes are the living sparks, named now as precious brightness. The laughing grasses preserve Dante's high use of a familiar poetic metaphor. Umbriferi prefazi is kept visibly as shadow-bearing prefaces, not flat.
XXX.76–78 The topazes are the living sparks, named now as precious brightness. Line 76: The topazes are the living sparks, named now as precious brightness. Line 77: The laughing grasses preserve Dante's high use of a familiar poetic metaphor. Line 78: Umbriferi prefazi is kept visibly as shadow-bearing prefaces, not flattened into mere symbols.
XXX.76 The topazes are the living sparks, named now as precious brightness. The topazes are the living sparks, named now as precious brightness.
XXX.77 The laughing grasses preserve Dante's high use of a familiar poetic metaphor. The laughing grasses preserve Dante's high use of a familiar poetic metaphor.
XXX.78 Umbriferi prefazi is kept visibly as shadow-bearing prefaces, not flattened into mere symbols. Umbriferi prefazi is kept visibly as shadow-bearing prefaces, not flattened into mere symbols.
XXX.79–81 The limitation is not in the heavenly things themselves but in Dante's present faculty.
XXX.79–81 The limitation is not in the heavenly things themselves but in Dante's present faculty. Line 79: The limitation is not in the heavenly things themselves but in Dante's present faculty.
XXX.79 The limitation is not in the heavenly things themselves but in Dante's present faculty. The limitation is not in the heavenly things themselves but in Dante's present faculty.
XXX.82–84 The infant simile makes desire urgent and bodily without making the heavenly water ordinary nourishment.
XXX.82–84 The infant simile makes desire urgent and bodily without making the heavenly water ordinary nourishment. Line 82: The infant simile makes desire urgent and bodily without making the heavenly water ordinary nourishment.
XXX.82 The infant simile makes desire urgent and bodily without making the heavenly water ordinary nourishment. The infant simile makes desire urgent and bodily without making the heavenly water ordinary nourishment.
XXX.85–87 The eyes become better mirrors, emphasizing strengthened vision rather than mouth-drinking. The line keeps the uncommon improvement verb as bettered, tied to expanded capacity for sight.
XXX.85–87 The eyes become better mirrors, emphasizing strengthened vision rather than mouth-drinking. Line 85: The eyes become better mirrors, emphasizing strengthened vision rather than mouth-drinking. Line 87: The line keeps the uncommon improvement verb as bettered, tied to expanded capacity for sight.
XXX.85 The eyes become better mirrors, emphasizing strengthened vision rather than mouth-drinking. The eyes become better mirrors, emphasizing strengthened vision rather than mouth-drinking.
XXX.87 The line keeps the uncommon improvement verb as bettered, tied to expanded capacity for sight. The line keeps the uncommon improvement verb as bettered, tied to expanded capacity for sight.
XXX.88–90 The homely eaves image keeps the synesthetic conceit of drinking through the eyes. The river's length becoming round marks the transition from linear image to circular rose.
XXX.88–90 The homely eaves image keeps the synesthetic conceit of drinking through the eyes. Line 88: The homely eaves image keeps the synesthetic conceit of drinking through the eyes. Line 90: The river's length becoming round marks the transition from linear image to circular rose.
XXX.88 The homely eaves image keeps the synesthetic conceit of drinking through the eyes. The homely eaves image keeps the synesthetic conceit of drinking through the eyes.
XXX.90 The river's length becoming round marks the transition from linear image to circular rose. The river's length becoming round marks the transition from linear image to circular rose.
XXX.91–93 The mask simile names the earlier river image as an accommodated appearance now removed.
XXX.91–93 The mask simile names the earlier river image as an accommodated appearance now removed. Line 91: The mask simile names the earlier river image as an accommodated appearance now removed.
XXX.91 The mask simile names the earlier river image as an accommodated appearance now removed. The mask simile names the earlier river image as an accommodated appearance now removed.
XXX.94–96 The two courts correspond to the hosts named at lines 43-45.
XXX.94–96 The two courts correspond to the hosts named at lines 43-45. Line 96: The two courts correspond to the hosts named at lines 43-45.
XXX.96 The two courts correspond to the hosts named at lines 43-45. The two courts correspond to the hosts named at lines 43-45.
Dante invokes divine splendor and sees the celestial rose beyond the limits of near and far XXX.97–123
97O isplendor di Dio, per cu’ io vidi
l’alto trïunfo del regno verace,
dammi virtù a dir com’ ïo il vidi!
100Lume è là sù che visibile face
lo creatore a quella creatura
che solo in lui vedere ha la sua pace.
E’ si distende in circular figura,
in tanto che la sua circunferenza
105sarebbe al sol troppo larga cintura.
Fassi di raggio tutta sua parvenza
reflesso al sommo del mobile primo,
che prende quindi vivere e potenza.
E come clivo in acqua di suo imo
110si specchia, quasi per vedersi addorno,
quando è nel verde e ne’ fioretti opimo,
sì, soprastando al lume intorno intorno,
vidi specchiarsi in più di mille soglie
quanto di noi là sù fatto ha ritorno.
115E se l’infimo grado in sé raccoglie
sì grande lume, quanta è la larghezza
di questa rosa ne l’estreme foglie!
La vista mia ne l’ampio e ne l’altezza
non si smarriva, ma tutto prendeva
120il quanto e ’l quale di quella allegrezza.
Presso e lontano, lì, né pon né leva:
ché dove Dio sanza mezzo governa,
la legge natural nulla rileva.
97O splendor of God, through which I saw
the high triumph of the true kingdom,
give me power to tell how I saw it!
100There is light up there that makes visible
the Creator to that creature
whose peace is only in seeing him.
It stretches itself in a circular figure,
so far that its circumference
105would be too wide a belt for the sun.
All its appearance is made of a ray
reflected from the summit of the first moving heaven,
which takes from it life and power.
And as a hillside mirrors itself in water at its base,
110as if to see itself adorned,
when it is rich in green and little flowers,
so, above the light all around,
I saw mirrored in more than a thousand tiers
as many of us as have made return up there.
115And if the lowest rank gathers into itself
so great a light, how great is the breadth
of this rose in its outermost leaves!
My sight, in the breadth and in the height,
was not lost, but took in all
120the quantity and quality of that gladness.
Near and far, there, neither add nor subtract:
for where God governs without intermediary,
natural law has no force.
Commentary
The translation keeps divine splendor as the aid to speech, the reflected ray from the summit of the Primum Mobile, the thousand tiers, the rose's outer leaves, and the suspension of near/far where God governs without intermediary.
XXX.97–99 The invocation asks for divine aid precisely at the threshold of describing the rose. The triple vidi rhyme in the Italian concentrates the canto's seeing motif.
XXX.97–99 The invocation asks for divine aid precisely at the threshold of describing the rose. Line 97: The invocation asks for divine aid precisely at the threshold of describing the rose. Line 99: The triple vidi rhyme in the Italian concentrates the canto's seeing motif.
XXX.97 The invocation asks for divine aid precisely at the threshold of describing the rose. The invocation asks for divine aid precisely at the threshold of describing the rose.
XXX.99 The triple vidi rhyme in the Italian concentrates the canto's seeing motif. The triple vidi rhyme in the Italian concentrates the canto's seeing motif.
XXX.100–102 The light is the lumen gloriae through which the Creator becomes visible to blessed creatures. Peace is explicitly tied to vision of God, in keeping with the interpretive frame of perfected desire.
XXX.100–102 The light is the lumen gloriae through which the Creator becomes visible to blessed creatures. Line 100: The light is the lumen gloriae through which the Creator becomes visible to blessed creatures. Line 102: Peace is explicitly tied to vision of God, in keeping with the interpretive frame of perfected desire.
XXX.100 The light is the lumen gloriae through which the Creator becomes visible to blessed creatures. The light is the lumen gloriae through which the Creator becomes visible to blessed creatures.
XXX.102 Peace is explicitly tied to vision of God, in keeping with the interpretive frame of perfected desire. Peace is explicitly tied to vision of God, in keeping with the interpretive frame of perfected desire.
XXX.103–105 The circumference comparison signals both scale and brilliance.
XXX.103–105 The circumference comparison signals both scale and brilliance. Line 105: The circumference comparison signals both scale and brilliance.
XXX.105 The circumference comparison signals both scale and brilliance. The circumference comparison signals both scale and brilliance.
XXX.106–108 The visible rose derives from reflected divine light rather than from ordinary material illumination. The mobile primo is rendered descriptively to keep the Primum Mobile's function visible.
XXX.106–108 The visible rose derives from reflected divine light rather than from ordinary material illumination. Line 106: The visible rose derives from reflected divine light rather than from ordinary material illumination. Line 107: The mobile primo is rendered descriptively to keep the Primum Mobile's function visible.
XXX.106 The visible rose derives from reflected divine light rather than from ordinary material illumination. The visible rose derives from reflected divine light rather than from ordinary material illumination.
XXX.107 The mobile primo is rendered descriptively to keep the Primum Mobile's function visible. The mobile primo is rendered descriptively to keep the Primum Mobile's function visible.
XXX.109–111 The hillside mirror simile prepares the rose's tiers as a reflected, contemplative image.
XXX.109–111 The hillside mirror simile prepares the rose's tiers as a reflected, contemplative image. Line 109: The hillside mirror simile prepares the rose's tiers as a reflected, contemplative image.
XXX.109 The hillside mirror simile prepares the rose's tiers as a reflected, contemplative image. The hillside mirror simile prepares the rose's tiers as a reflected, contemplative image.
XXX.112–114 Soglie is rendered as tiers to keep the amphitheater-like rose visible. Return language keeps earthly exile and heavenly homecoming active.
XXX.112–114 Soglie is rendered as tiers to keep the amphitheater-like rose visible. Line 113: Soglie is rendered as tiers to keep the amphitheater-like rose visible. Line 114: Return language keeps earthly exile and heavenly homecoming active.
XXX.113 Soglie is rendered as tiers to keep the amphitheater-like rose visible. Soglie is rendered as tiers to keep the amphitheater-like rose visible.
XXX.114 Return language keeps earthly exile and heavenly homecoming active. Return language keeps earthly exile and heavenly homecoming active.
XXX.115–117 This is the first explicit naming of the celestial rose, whose image dominates the next cantos.
XXX.115–117 This is the first explicit naming of the celestial rose, whose image dominates the next cantos. Line 117: This is the first explicit naming of the celestial rose, whose image dominates the next cantos.
XXX.117 This is the first explicit naming of the celestial rose, whose image dominates the next cantos. This is the first explicit naming of the celestial rose, whose image dominates the next cantos.
XXX.118–120 The scholastic pair quanto and quale keeps the fullness of extent and nature in the vision.
XXX.118–120 The scholastic pair quanto and quale keeps the fullness of extent and nature in the vision. Line 120: The scholastic pair quanto and quale keeps the fullness of extent and nature in the vision.
XXX.120 The scholastic pair quanto and quale keeps the fullness of extent and nature in the vision. The scholastic pair quanto and quale keeps the fullness of extent and nature in the vision.
XXX.121–123 Distance no longer changes perception in the non-spatial Empyrean. The line marks the Empyrean's direct divine governance beyond ordinary optical and spatial law.
XXX.121–123 Distance no longer changes perception in the non-spatial Empyrean. Line 121: Distance no longer changes perception in the non-spatial Empyrean. Line 123: The line marks the Empyrean's direct divine governance beyond ordinary optical and spatial law.
XXX.121 Distance no longer changes perception in the non-spatial Empyrean. Distance no longer changes perception in the non-spatial Empyrean.
XXX.123 The line marks the Empyrean's direct divine governance beyond ordinary optical and spatial law. The line marks the Empyrean's direct divine governance beyond ordinary optical and spatial law.
Beatrice draws Dante into the eternal rose and shows the white-stoled convent and filled heavenly city XXX.124–132
124Nel giallo de la rosa sempiterna,
125che si digrada e dilata e redole
odor di lode al sol che sempre verna,
qual è colui che tace e dicer vole,
mi trasse Bëatrice, e disse: «Mira
quanto è ’l convento de le bianche stole!
130Vedi nostra città quant’ ella gira;
vedi li nostri scanni sì ripieni,
che poca gente più ci si disira.
124Into the yellow of the eternal rose,
125which slopes by degrees and widens and breathes
fragrance of praise to the Sun that always makes spring,
like one who is silent and wants to speak,
Beatrice drew me, and said: "Look
how great is the convent of the white stoles!
130See how far our city circles;
see our seats so filled,
that few people more are still awaited here.
Commentary
This passage covers this sequence: Beatrice draws Dante into the eternal rose and shows the white-stoled convent and filled heavenly city.
XXX.124–126 The yellow center belongs to the rose's luminous, eternal figure. Sempre verna is kept as perpetual springing under the divine Sun.
XXX.124–126 The yellow center belongs to the rose's luminous, eternal figure. Line 124: The yellow center belongs to the rose's luminous, eternal figure. Line 126: Sempre verna is kept as perpetual springing under the divine Sun.
XXX.124 The yellow center belongs to the rose's luminous, eternal figure. The yellow center belongs to the rose's luminous, eternal figure.
XXX.126 Sempre verna is kept as perpetual springing under the divine Sun. Sempre verna is kept as perpetual springing under the divine Sun.
XXX.127–129 The convent language keeps the heavenly assembly as an ordered religious community, not only a crowd.
XXX.127–129 The convent language keeps the heavenly assembly as an ordered religious community, not only a crowd. Line 129: The convent language keeps the heavenly assembly as an ordered religious community, not only a crowd.
XXX.129 The convent language keeps the heavenly assembly as an ordered religious community, not only a crowd. The convent language keeps the heavenly assembly as an ordered religious community, not only a crowd.
XXX.130–132 The rose is now named as our city, preparing the ideal civic and imperial close. The nearly filled seats imply the approach of the Last Judgment in Dante's historical horizon.
XXX.130–132 The rose is now named as our city, preparing the ideal civic and imperial close. Line 130: The rose is now named as our city, preparing the ideal civic and imperial close. Line 132: The nearly filled seats imply the approach of the Last Judgment in Dante's historical horizon.
XXX.130 The rose is now named as our city, preparing the ideal civic and imperial close. The rose is now named as our city, preparing the ideal civic and imperial close.
XXX.132 The nearly filled seats imply the approach of the Last Judgment in Dante's historical horizon. The nearly filled seats imply the approach of the Last Judgment in Dante's historical horizon.
Beatrice points to Henry VII's crowned seat and closes with judgment on Italy, Clement V, and Boniface VIII XXX.133–148
133E ’n quel gran seggio a che tu li occhi tieni
per la corona che già v’è sù posta,
135prima che tu a queste nozze ceni,
sederà l’alma, che fia giù agosta,
de l’alto Arrigo, ch’a drizzare Italia
verrà in prima ch’ella sia disposta.
La cieca cupidigia che v’ammalia
140simili fatti v’ha al fantolino
che muor per fame e caccia via la balia.
E fia prefetto nel foro divino
allora tal, che palese e coverto
non anderà con lui per un cammino.
145Ma poco poi sarà da Dio sofferto
nel santo officio; ch’el sarà detruso
là dove Simon mago è per suo merto,
e farà quel d’Alagna intrar più giuso».
133And in that great seat on which you hold your eyes
because of the crown already set above it,
135before you dine at these nuptials,
will sit the soul, which down below will be imperial,
of high Henry, who to set Italy upright
will come before she is ready.
The blind greed that bewitches you
140has made you like the little child
who dies of hunger and drives away the nurse.
And then there will be such a prefect in the divine forum
that, openly and covertly,
he will not walk one road with him.
145But not long afterward will he be suffered by God
in the holy office; for he will be thrust down
where Simon Magus is for what he earned,
and will make the one from Anagni enter lower."
Commentary
This passage covers this sequence: Beatrice points to Henry VII's crowned seat and closes with judgment on Italy, Clement V, and Boniface VIII.
XXX.133–135 The crown marks the seat reserved for Henry VII before he has appeared in Dante's 1300 journey. The wedding feast anticipates Dante's death and entrance into the blessed assembly.
XXX.133–135 The crown marks the seat reserved for Henry VII before he has appeared in Dante's 1300 journey. Line 134: The crown marks the seat reserved for Henry VII before he has appeared in Dante's 1300 journey. Line 135: The wedding feast anticipates Dante's death and entrance into the blessed assembly.
XXX.134 The crown marks the seat reserved for Henry VII before he has appeared in Dante's 1300 journey. The crown marks the seat reserved for Henry VII before he has appeared in Dante's 1300 journey.
XXX.135 The wedding feast anticipates Dante's death and entrance into the blessed assembly. The wedding feast anticipates Dante's death and entrance into the blessed assembly.
XXX.136–138 Agosta is kept as august/imperial language for Henry's earthly office. Drizzare Italia keeps Italy personified as needing to be set upright, not merely administratively repaired. Italy's lack of disposition is polit.
XXX.136–138 Agosta is kept as august/imperial language for Henry's earthly office. Line 136: Agosta is kept as august/imperial language for Henry's earthly office. Line 137: Drizzare Italia keeps Italy personified as needing to be set upright, not merely administratively repaired. Line 138: Italy's lack of disposition is political, moral, and providentially tragic in Dante's imperial frame.
XXX.136 Agosta is kept as august/imperial language for Henry's earthly office. Agosta is kept as august/imperial language for Henry's earthly office.
XXX.137 Drizzare Italia keeps Italy personified as needing to be set upright, not merely administratively repaired. Drizzare Italia keeps Italy personified as needing to be set upright, not merely administratively repaired.
XXX.138 Italy's lack of disposition is political, moral, and providentially tragic in Dante's imperial frame. Italy's lack of disposition is political, moral, and providentially tragic in Dante's imperial frame.
XXX.139–141 The plural you addresses Italy or Italians, not Dante alone. The starving infant reverses the earlier infant rushing rightly toward milk.
XXX.139–141 The plural you addresses Italy or Italians, not Dante alone. Line 139: The plural you addresses Italy or Italians, not Dante alone. Line 141: The starving infant reverses the earlier infant rushing rightly toward milk.
XXX.139 The plural you addresses Italy or Italians, not Dante alone. The plural you addresses Italy or Italians, not Dante alone.
XXX.141 The starving infant reverses the earlier infant rushing rightly toward milk. The starving infant reverses the earlier infant rushing rightly toward milk.
XXX.142–144 The prefect is Clement V as pope, framed through the legal-political language of the divine forum. The line keeps both public and hidden opposition to Henry VII. The road language keeps political action in the poem's wi.
XXX.142–144 The prefect is Clement V as pope, framed through the legal-political language of the divine forum. Line 142: The prefect is Clement V as pope, framed through the legal-political language of the divine forum. Line 143: The line keeps both public and hidden opposition to Henry VII. Line 144: The road language keeps political action in the poem's wider path motif.
XXX.142 The prefect is Clement V as pope, framed through the legal-political language of the divine forum. The prefect is Clement V as pope, framed through the legal-political language of the divine forum.
XXX.143 The line keeps both public and hidden opposition to Henry VII. The line keeps both public and hidden opposition to Henry VII.
XXX.144 The road language keeps political action in the poem's wider path motif. The road language keeps political action in the poem's wider path motif.
XXX.145–147 The brief interval points to Clement V's death soon after Henry VII's. The simony reference sends Clement V to the bolgia of Inferno XIX.
XXX.145–147 The brief interval points to Clement V's death soon after Henry VII's. Line 145: The brief interval points to Clement V's death soon after Henry VII's. Line 147: The simony reference sends Clement V to the bolgia of Inferno XIX.
XXX.145 The brief interval points to Clement V's death soon after Henry VII's. The brief interval points to Clement V's death soon after Henry VII's.
XXX.147 The simony reference sends Clement V to the bolgia of Inferno XIX. The simony reference sends Clement V to the bolgia of Inferno XIX.
XXX.148 The one from Anagni is Boniface VIII, pushed lower in the simoniac succession. The one from Anagni is Boniface VIII, pushed lower in the simoniac succession.