Guide to the canto Where we are Dante and Beatrice arrive in the sphere of the Moon, the first of Paradise, the one closest to the Earth. Dante is still disoriented: he believed he was on the mountain of Purgatory, and now he finds himself within a luminous body. It is here that the first great question of the celestial journey arises, posed directly to Beatrice.
Whom we meet Beatrice is the guide of the canto and the only figure on the scene. She does not tell of herself: she becomes here Beatrice-the-teacher, and explains to Dante why the spots of the Moon do not depend on bodies more or less dense, but on a distinct formal principle, bound to the intelligence that moves the heaven. Her word is philosophical thought, not feeling.
What to expect After this first lesson, the journey will continue from sphere to sphere, with new encounters of the blessed and new questions. The greatest test remains open: how long the human intellect will be able to sustain an ever more intense light and truth.
O Ye, who in some pretty little boat,
1 Eager to listen, have been following
2 Behind my ship, that singing sails along,
3 Turn back to look again upon your shores;
4 Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure,
5 In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.
6 Turn back to look again upon your shores: do not venture out onto the open ocean, because perhaps, if you lose sight of me, you would remain disoriented. · Verses 4-6
The sea I sail has never yet been passed;
7 Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,
8 And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.
9 Ye other few who have the neck uplifted
10 Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which
11 One liveth here and grows not sated by it,
12 Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea
13 Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you
14 Upon the water that grows smooth again.
15 Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed
16 Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be,
17 When Jason they beheld a ploughman made!
18 The con-created and perpetual thirst
19 For the realm deiform did bear us on,
20 As swift almost as ye the heavens behold.
21 Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her;
22 And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt
23 And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself,
24 Beatrice was rising upward, and I was gazing at her; perhaps in the time it takes a crossbow-bolt to rest on the nut, fly, and leave the stock. · Verses 22-24
Arrived I saw me where a wondrous thing
25 Drew to itself my sight; and therefore she
26 From whom no care of mine could be concealed,
27 Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful,
28 Said unto me: "Fix gratefully thy mind
29 On God, who unto the first star has brought us."
30 It seemed to me a cloud encompassed us,
31 Luminous, dense, consolidate and bright
32 As adamant on which the sun is striking.
33 It seemed to me that a cloud, luminous, dense, solid, and polished, was covering us, like a diamond struck by the sun. · Verses 31-33
Into itself did the eternal pearl
34 Receive us, even as water doth receive
35 A ray of light, remaining still unbroken.
36 If I was body, (and we here conceive not
37 How one dimension tolerates another,
38 Which needs must be if body enter body,)
39 More the desire should be enkindled in us
40 That essence to behold, wherein is seen
41 How God and our own nature were united.
42 If I was a body, and here one cannot conceive how one dimension could suffer another, which must happen if a body enters a body, this should kindle in me all the more the desire to behold that essence in which it is seen how our nature and God were united. · Verses 37-42
There will be seen what we receive by faith,
43 Not demonstrated, but self-evident
44 In guise of the first truth that man believes.
45 There will be seen what we now hold by faith, not demonstrated, but known of itself, like the first truth that man believes. · Verses 43-45
I made reply: "Madonna, as devoutly
46 As most I can do I give thanks to Him
47 Who has removed me from the mortal world.
48 But tell me what the dusky spots may be
49 Upon this body, which below on earth
50 Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain?"
51 I answered: "My lady, as devoutly as I can be, I give thanks to him who has taken me from the mortal world. But tell me: what are the dark marks on this body, which down there on earth make everyone invent the tale of Cain?" · Verses 46-51
Somewhat she smiled; and then, "If the opinion
52 Of mortals be erroneous," she said,
53 "Where'er the key of sense doth not unlock,
54 Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce thee
55 Now, forasmuch as, following the senses,
56 Thou seest that the reason has short wings.
57 She smiled a little, and then said to me: "If the opinion of mortals errs where the key of sense does not unlock, surely the arrows of wonder should no longer sting you, since you see that reason has short wings compared to the senses. But tell me what you think about it yourself." · Verses 52-57
But tell me what thou think'st of it thyself."
58 And I: "What seems to us up here diverse,
59 Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense."
60 And she: "Right truly shalt thou see immersed
61 In error thy belief, if well thou hearest
62 The argument that I shall make against it.
63 Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you
64 Which in their quality and quantity
65 May noted be of aspects different.
66 And she: "Surely you will see your belief fall deep into falsehood, if you listen carefully to the arguments I shall bring against it. The eighth sphere shows you many lights, which, both in their where and in their how much, can be noted as differing in size." · Verses 61-66
If this were caused by rare and dense alone,
67 One only virtue would there be in all
68 Or more or less diffused, or equally.
69 Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits
70 Of formal principles; and these, save one,
71 Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed.
72 "If rarity and density produced so great an effect, there would be a single quality in all of them, distributed more or less but still the same. Different qualities must be the result of different formal principles, and these, except for one, would be destroyed by your reasoning." · Verses 67-72
Besides, if rarity were of this dimness
73 The cause thou askest, either through and through
74 This planet thus attenuate were of matter,
75 Or else, as in a body is apportioned
76 The fat and lean, so in like manner this
77 Would in its volume interchange the leaves.
78 "Moreover, if the cause of that dark color you ask about were rarity, either this planet would be starved of its matter in some part, or, as a body distributes fat and lean, so this one would shift its arrangement within its volume." · Verses 73-78
Were it the former, in the sun's eclipse
79 It would be manifest by the shining through
80 Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused.
81 This is not so; hence we must scan the other,
82 And if it chance the other I demolish,
83 Then falsified will thy opinion be.
84 "If it were the first case, during an eclipse of the sun the light would be seen shining through, as happens in another rare body that receives it. But this is not so; therefore the other hypothesis must be examined, and if I reject it, your view will be proved false." · Verses 79-84
But if this rarity go not through and through,
85 There needs must be a limit, beyond which
86 Its contrary prevents the further passing,
87 And thence the foreign radiance is reflected,
88 Even as a colour cometh back from glass,
89 The which behind itself concealeth lead.
90 "If it is true that this rarity does not pass through the body, there must be a boundary beyond which its opposite cannot go; and from there the ray of the other substance is reflected back, as a color returns through a glass whose back is hidden by lead." · Verses 85-90
Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself
91 More dimly there than in the other parts,
92 By being there reflected farther back.
93 From this reply experiment will free thee
94 If e'er thou try it, which is wont to be
95 The fountain to the rivers of your arts.
96 "Now you will say that there the ray appears darker than in other parts, because it is refracted more backward. From this objection experience can set you free, if you ever try it, which is usually the source of the streams of your knowledge." · Verses 91-96
Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove
97 Alike from thee, the other more remote
98 Between the former two shall meet thine eyes.
99 Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back
100 Be placed a light, illuming the three mirrors
101 And coming back to thee by all reflected.
102 "Take three mirrors; and place two of them at an equal distance from you, and the third, set farther away, so that your eyes meet the two nearer ones. Turned toward them, arrange it so that behind you there stands a light that sets the three mirrors glowing and is reflected back to you from them all." · Verses 97-102
Though in its quantity be not so ample
103 The image most remote, there shalt thou see
104 How it perforce is equally resplendent.
105 Now, as beneath the touches of warm rays
106 Naked the subject of the snow remains
107 Both of its former colour and its cold,
108 "Even though the more distant sight does not reach as far in quantity, there you will see that the light must shine equally. Now, as beneath the blows of the warm rays the subject of the snow is left bare, stripped of both its color and its former cold." · Verses 103-108
Thee thus remaining in thy intellect,
109 Will I inform with such a living light,
110 That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee.
111 Within the heaven of the divine repose
112 Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies
113 The being of whatever it contains.
114 "So, with your mind left free of that image, I want to inform you with a light so vivid that it will quiver in your sight before you. Within the heaven of divine peace a body turns, in whose power lies the being of everything it contains." · Verses 109-114
The following heaven, that has so many eyes,
115 Divides this being by essences diverse,
116 Distinguished from it, and by it contained.
117 The other spheres, by various differences,
118 All the distinctions which they have within them
119 Dispose unto their ends and their effects.
120 "The heaven that follows, which has so many visible aspects, distributes that being through different natures, drawn forth from it and held within it. The other circles, through their various differences, arrange the distinctions they hold within themselves toward their ends and their origins." · Verses 115-120
Thus do these organs of the world proceed,
121 As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade;
122 Since from above they take, and act beneath.
123 Observe me well, how through this place I come
124 Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter
125 Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford
126 "These organs of the world go forward in this way, as you now see, from degree to degree, receiving from above and acting below. Observe well now how I proceed through this place toward the truth you desire, so that afterward you may know how to cross the ford on your own." · Verses 121-126
The power and motion of the holy spheres,
127 As from the artisan the hammer's craft,
128 Forth from the blessed motors must proceed.
129 The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair,
130 From the Intelligence profound, which turns it,
131 The image takes, and makes of it a seal.
132 "The motion and the power of the holy circles must flow, as from the smith the art of the hammer, from the blessed movers; and the heaven that so many lights make beautiful takes the image from the deep mind that turns it and makes of itself a seal." · Verses 127-132
And even as the soul within your dust
133 Through members different and accommodated
134 To faculties diverse expands itself,
135 So likewise this Intelligence diffuses
136 Its virtue multiplied among the stars.
137 Itself revolving on its unity.
138 "And as the soul within your dust distributes itself through different members, suited to different powers, so the intelligence unfolds its goodness, multiplied, through the stars, turning upon its own unity." · Verses 133-138
Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage
139 Make with the precious body that it quickens,
140 In which, as life in you, it is combined.
141 From the glad nature whence it is derived,
142 The mingled virtue through the body shines,
143 Even as gladness through the living pupil.
144 "A different power forges a different bond with the precious body that it quickens, in which, as life in you, it binds itself. By the joyful nature from which it springs, the mingled power shines through the body, as gladness through a living pupil." · Verses 139-144
From this proceeds whate'er from light to light
145 Appeareth different, not from dense and rare:
146 This is the formal principle that produces,
147 According to its goodness, dark and bright."
148 "From it comes what appears different from light to light, not from density or rarity: it is the formal principle that produces, in keeping with its goodness, both the dark and the bright." · Verses 145-148
The list of places is under editorial review.
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