Conclusion of Dante’s Paradiso, and translations

 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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~ Dante