Dante Alighieri
Dante Alighieri, or simply Dante (May 14/June 13 1265 – September 13/14, 1321), is one of the greatest poets in the Italian language; with the comic story-teller, Boccaccio, and the poet, Petrarch, he forms the classic trio of Italian authors. Dante Alighieri was born in the city-state Florence in 1265. He first saw the woman, or rather the child, who was to become the poetic love of his life when he was almost nine years old and she was some months younger. In fact, Beatrice married another man, Simone di' Bardi, and died when Dante was 25, so their relationship existed almost entirely in Dante's imagination, but she nonetheless plays an extremely important role in his poetry. Dante attributed all the heavenly virtues to her soul and imagined, in his masterpiece The Divine Comedy, that she was his guardian angel who alternately berated and encouraged him on his search for salvation.
Politics as well as love deeply influenced Dante's literary and emotional life. Renaissance Florence was a thriving, but not a peaceful city: different opposing factions continually struggled for dominance there. The Guelfs and the Ghibellines were the two major factions, and in fact that division was important in all of Italy and other countries as well. The Pope and the Holy Roman Emperor were political rivals for much of this time period, and in general the Guelfs were in favor of the Pope, while the Ghibellines supported Imperial power. By 1289 in the battle of Campaldino the Ghibellines largely disappeared from Florence. Peace, however, did not insue. Instead, the Guelf party divided between the Whites and the Blacks (Dante was a White Guelf). The Whites were more opposed to Papal power than the Blacks, and tended to favor the emperor, so in fact the preoccupations of the White Guelfs were much like those of the defeated Ghibellines. In this divisive atmosphere Dante rose to a position of leadership. in 1302, while he was in Rome on a diplomatic mission to the Pope, the Blacks in Florence seized power with the help of the French (and pro-Pope) Charles of Valois. The Blacks exiled Dante, confiscating his goods and condemning him to be burned if he should return to Florence.
Dante never returned to Florence. He wandered from city to city, depending on noble patrons there. Between 1302 and 1304 some attempts were made by the exiled Whites to retrieve their position in Florence, but none of these succeeded and Dante contented himself with hoping for the appearance of a new powerful Holy Roman Emperor who would unite the country and banish strife. Henry VII was elected Emperor in 1308, and indeed laid seige to Florence in 1312, but was defeated, and he died a year later, destroying Dante's hopes. Dante passed from court to court, writing passionate political and moral epistles and finishing his Divine Comedy, which contains the Inferno, Purgatorio, and Paradiso. He finally died in Ravenna in 1321.
“Apparuit iam beatitudo vestra,”
“Lost are we, and are only so far punished,That without hope we live on in desire.”
“Nessun maggior doloreche ricordarsi del tempo felicenella miseria...”
“I, answering in the end, began: 'Alas,how many yearning thoughts, what great desire,have lead them through such sorrow to their fate?”
“Lo maggior don che Dio per sua larghezzafesse creando, e a la sua bontatepiù conformato, e quel ch'e' più apprezza,fu de la volontà la libertate;di che le creature intelligenti,e tutte e sole, fuore e son dotate.”
“He who sees a need and waits to be asked for help is as unkind as if he had refused it.”
“Justice does not descend from its own pinnacle.”
“Considerate la vostra semenza: fatti non foste viver come bruti, ma per seguir virtute e canoscenza. ”
“Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch'intrate.”
“Omnes relinquite spes, o vos intrantes”
“Before me things created were none, save thingsEternal, and eternal I endure.All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
“And when he had put his hand on mine with a cheerful look, wherefrom I took courage, he brought me within to the secret things. Here sighs, laments, and deep wailings were resounding through the starless air; wherefore at first I wept thereat. Strange tongues, horrible utterances, words of woe, accents of anger, voices high and faint, and sounds of hands with them, were making a tumult which whirls always in that air forever dark, like the sand when the whirlwind breathes.”
“As flowerlets drooped and puckered in the night turn up to the returning sun and spread their petals wide on his new warmth and light-just so my wilted spirits rose again and such a heat of zeal surged through my veins that I was born anew.”
“And following its path, we took no careTo rest, but climbed: he first, then I-- so far,Through a round aperture I saw appearSome of the beautiful things that Heaven bears,Where we came forth, and once more saw the stars.”
“Nature is the art of God.”
“From there we came outside and saw the stars”
“To course across more kindly waters nowmy talent's little vessel lifts her sails,leaving behind herself a sea so cruel; and what I sing will be that second kingdom,in which the human soul is cleansed of sin,becoming worthy of ascent to Heaven.”
“The path to paradise begins in hell.”
“Here sighs and cries and shrieks of lamentation echoed throughout the starless air of Hell;at first these sounds resounding made me weep:tongues confused, a language strained in anguishwith cadences of anger, shrill outcriesand raucous groans that joined with sounds of hands,raising a whirling storm that turns itselfforever through that air of endless black,like grains of sand swirling when a whirlwind blows.And I, in the midst of all this circling horror,began, "Teacher, what are these sounds I hear?What souls are these so overwhelmed by grief?"And he to me: "This wretched state of beingis the fate of those sad souls who lived a lifebut lived it with no blame and with no praise.They are mixed with that repulsive choir of angelsneither faithful nor unfaithful to their God,who undecided stood but for themselves.Heaven, to keep its beauty, cast them out,but even Hell itself would not receive them,for fear the damned might glory over them."And I. "Master, what torments do they sufferthat force them to lament so bitterly?"He answered: "I will tell you in few words:these wretches have no hope of truly dying,and this blind life they lead is so abjectit makes them envy every other fate.The world will not record their having been there;Heaven's mercy and its justice turn from them.Let's not discuss them; look and pass them by...”
“As little flowers, which the chill of night has bent and huddled, when the white sun strikes, grow straight and open fully on their stems, so did I, too, with my exhausted force.”
“One ought to be afraid of nothing other then things possessed of power to do us harm, but things innoucuous need not be feared.”
“As the geometer intently seeksto square the circle, but he cannot reach, through thought on thought, the principle he needs, so I searched that strange sight.”
“In the middle of the journey of our life I found myself within a dark woods where the straight way was lost.”
“The wisest are the most annoyed at the loss of time.”
“No sadness is greater than in misery to rehearse memories of joy.”
“e quindi uscimmo a riveder le stelle" ("and thence we came forth to see again the stars")”
“O human race, born to fly upward, wherefore at a little wind dost thou so fall?”
“The experience of this sweet life.”
“In His will, our peace.”
“The hottest places in hell are reserved for those who, in times of great moral crisis, maintain their neutrality.”
“All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
“And as he, who with laboring breath has escaped from the deep to the shore, turns to the perilous waters and gazes.”
“Into the eternal darkness, into fire and into ice. ”
“Io ritornai da la santissima ondarifatto sì come piante novellerinnovellate di novella fronda, puro e disposto a salire alle stelle.”
“Do not be afraid; our fateCannot be taken from us; it is a gift.”
“I felt for the tormented whirlwindsDamned for their carnal sinsCommitted when they let their passions rule their reason.”
“There is no greater sorrowThan to recall a happy timeWhen miserable.”
“Through me you go into a city of weeping; through me you go into eternal pain; through me you go amongst the lost people”
“Through me you pass into the city of woe:Through me you pass into eternal pain:Through me among the people lost for aye.Justice the founder of my fabric moved:To rear me was the task of power divine,Supremest wisdom, and primeval love.Before me things create were none, save thingsEternal, and eternal I shall endure.All hope abandon, ye who enter here.”
“In that book which is my memory,On the first page of the chapter that is the day when I first met you,Appear the words, ‘Here begins a new life’.”
“Amor, ch'al cor gentile ratto s'apprendeprese costui de la bella personache mi fu tolta; e 'l modo ancor m'offende.Amor, che a nullo amato amar perdona,Mi prese del costui piacer sì forte,Che, come vedi, ancor non m'abbandona...""Love, which quickly arrests the gentle heart,Seized him with my beautiful formThat was taken from me, in a manner which still grieves me.Love, which pardons no beloved from loving,took me so strongly with delight in himThat, as you see, it still abandons me not...”
“Noi leggeveamo un giorno per dilettoDi Lancialotto, come amor lo strinse;Soli eravamo e senza alcun sospettoPer più fiate gli occhi ci sospinseQuella lettura, e scolorocci il viso;Ma solo un punto fu quel che ci vinse.Quando leggemmo il disiato risoEsser baciato da cotanto amante,Questi, che mai da me non fia diviso,La bocca mi baciò tutto tremante.Galeotto fu il libro e chi lo scrisse:Quel giorno più non vi leggemmo avante."""We were reading one day, to pass the time,of Lancelot, how love had seized him.We were alone, and without any suspicionAnd time and time again our eyes would meetover that literature, and our faces paled,and yet one point alone won us.When we had read how the desired smilewas kissed by so true a lover,This one, who never shall be parted from me,kissed my mouth, all a-tremble.Gallehault was the book and he who wrote itThat day we read no further.”
“No fuisteis criados para vivir como bestias sino para seguir en pos de la virtud y la sabiduría. ”
“No hay mayor dolor en el infortunio que recordar el tiempo feliz.”
“Perceive ye not that we are worms, designedTo form the angelic butterfly, that goesTo judgment, leaving all defence behind?Why doth your mind take such exalted pose,Since ye, disabled, are as insects, meanAs worm which never transformation knows?”