Paradiso: Canto 33: ll 115 – 145
Ne
la profonda e chiara sussistenza
de l'alto lume parvermi tre giri
di tre colori e d'una contenenza;
e l'un
da l'altro come iri da iri
parea reflesso, e 'l terzo parea foco
che quinci e quindi igualmente si spiri.
Oh
quanto e` corto il dire e come fioco
al mio concetto! e questo, a quel ch'i' vidi,
e` tanto, che non basta a dicer 'poco'.
O
luce etterna che sola in te sidi,
sola t'intendi, e da te intelletta
e intendente te ami e arridi!
Quella
circulazion che si` concetta
pareva in te come lume reflesso,
da li occhi miei alquanto circunspetta,
dentro
da se', del suo colore stesso,
mi parve pinta de la nostra effige:
per che 'l mio viso in lei tutto era messo.
Qual
e` 'l geometra che tutto s'affige
per misurar lo cerchio, e non ritrova,
pensando, quel principio ond'elli indige,
tal
era io a quella vista nova:
veder voleva come si convenne
l'imago al cerchio e come vi s'indova;
ma
non eran da cio` le proprie penne:
se non che la mia mente fu percossa
da un fulgore in che sua voglia venne.
A
l'alta fantasia qui manco` possa;
ma gia` volgeva il mio disio e 'l velle,
si` come rota ch'igualmente e` mossa,
l'amor
che move il sole e l'altre stelle.
To God the Father
Great
God: within whose simple essence, we
Nothing
but that which is thyself can find:
When
on thyself thou did'st reflect thy mind
Thy
thought was God, which took the form of thee:
And
when this God thus born, thou lov'st, & he
Loved
thee again, with passion of like kind,
(As
lovers' sighs, which meet, become one wind)
Both
breathed one spright of equal deity.
Eternal
father, whence these two do come
And
wil'st the title of my father have,
As
heavenly knowledge in my mind engrave,
That
it thy son's true Image may become:
And
sence my heart with sighs of holy Love,
That
it the temple of the Spright may prove.
~ Henry
Constable
Within the
clear profound Light's aureole
Three
circles from its substance now appeared,
Of three
colours, and each an equal whole.
One its
reflection on the next conferred
As rainbow
upon rainbow, and the two
Breathed
equally the fire that was the third.
To my
conception O how frail and few
My words!
and that, to what I looked upon,
Is such that
'little' is more than is its due.
O Light
Eternal, who in thyself alone
Dwell'st and
thyself know'st, and self-understood,
Self-understanding,
smilest on thine own!
That circle
which, as I conceived-it, glowed
Within thee
like reflection of a flame,
Being by
mine eyes a little longer wooed,
Deep in
itself, with colour still the same,
Seemed with
our human effigy to fill,
Wherefore
absorbed in it my sight became.
As the
geometer who bends all his will
To measure
the circle, and how so e'er he try
Fails, for
the principle escapes him still,
Such at this
mystery new-disclosed was I,
Fain to
understand how the image doth alight
Upon the
circle, and with its form comply.
But these my
wings were fledged not for that flight,
Save that my
mind a sudden glory assailed
And its wish
came revealed to it in that light.
To the high
imagination force now failed;
But like to
a wheel whose circling nothing jars
Already on
my desire and will prevailed
The Love
that moves the sun and the other stars.
~ Laurence Binyon trans.of Dante
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