Racing Into the Light of Mercury: PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 85 - 114

Dante and Beatrice now head to the second sphere of the heavens: Mercury's realm.

Everything gets brighter. Desire gets more intense. And a crowd of souls appear, first as metaphors, then as brilliant lights, eager to see . . . maybe the pilgrim but maybe Beatrice.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:25] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 85 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment on this passage, please scroll down this page.

[03:59] The increasing brightness of the second realm in Paradise.

[07:49] The souls as fish in a pond: metaphoric sight before actual sight.

[10:15] The tight poetic craft of using repeated words to link the tercets.

[13:35] Splendors or shades: the souls in Mercury.

[16:45] Increasing their loves . . . but how?

[20:19] Self-conscious poetry that may alter the contract with its reader (or even break that contract).

[26:02] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto V, lines 85 - 114.

My English translation of PARADISO, Canto V, Lines 85 - 114:

Just as Beatrice [told] me, so I’m writing [it down].

Then still full of desire, she turned
To that part of the world that’s most alive.

Her stopped speech and transformed appearance

Forced a silence on my enthusiastic mental faculties,

Which already had new questions out in front.

And just like a shaft that hits its target

[Even] before the bowstring is quiet,

So we raced into the second realm.

There, I saw my lady so happy

When she moved into that heaven’s light

That the planet was more radiant because of it.

And if the star changed and laughed,

What happened to me since purely by my nature

I can be transformed in every respect?

As in a fish pond that’s calm and pure,

The fish come closer to what comes from outside,

In the way that they recognize it as their food,

So I saw more than a thousand splendors

Traveling toward me and from each I heard:

“Behold, one who will increase our loves.”

As each of these got closer to us,

We could see that the shades [were] full of happiness

By the radiance that came from them.

Think, reader, if what was begun here

Went no further, how anxious and starved

You’d feel to know more.

In any case, you’ll see in this way

How I was in great desire to hear about their condition

Right when they were manifested before my eyes.