Free Will Turns Personal: PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142

Beatrice has answered the pilgrim's two unasked questions . . . but she doesn't yet know the one he really wants to ask.

Having heard her doctrines about free will and unfulfilled vows, the pilgrim Dante winds himself up through flattery and intellectual curiosity to ask perhaps a personal question about his own unfulfilled vows.

Let’s at the ways Beatrice's discussions of free will have only caused the pilgrim Dante more problems, even as they've satisfied his intellect.

The segments of this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:35] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this episode, please scroll down this page.

[04:20] The journey of the intellect is the journey of the desire that arises from doubt.

[12:37] The pilgrim Dante flatters Beatrice . . . maybe too much.

[17:43] Who is addressed in this passage? Isn't it too much to attribute to Beatrice?

[20:26] The poet mixes the metaphors to further push truth into poetic space.

[22:51] Dante asks a personal question about his unfulfilled vow . . . maybe.

[26:24] Beatrice, Francesca, Dante, and Nebuchadnezzar.

[30:11] Rereading PARADISO, Canto IV, lines 115 - 142.

My English translation of PARADISO, Canto IV, Lines 115 - 142:

Such was the holy river’s deluge

That came from the fountain from which all truths are derived,

Such [was the way] she brought peace to one and the other of my desires.

“O beloved of the first lover, o divine one,”

I then said, “You whose speech bathes me

And warms me, giving more and more life,

“My affection is not yet deep enough

To return to you grace for grace,

But let the one who sees and who can answer for it [return it].

“I really see how our intellect is never sated
Unless it’s illuminated by the [type of] truth

Outside of which there’s no room for another truth.

“There, as soon as it’s reached it, [our intellect] is at rest,

Like a beast in its lair. And it can reach [that lair].

If [it could] not, every desire would be frustra.

“In this way, doubt is born in the guise of a flowering

At the foot of every truth, and it’s our nature

That drives us to the summit from peak to peak.

“This invites me, this even assures me,

Lady, to ask you with reverence

About another truth that is hidden from me.

“I would like to know if a person can satisfy

Unfulfilled vows with other good works,

So that it all won’t be underweight when it’s put on your scales.”

Beatrice looked at me with eyes so full

Of the sparks of love, like divinity itself,

That my conquered powers turned to run—

And with my eyes cast downward, I almost lost myself.