Staring at the Sun: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60

The plot gets underway in PARADISO.

Our pilgrim Dante turns to Beatrice . . . who is paying him no attention. She's staring at the sun.

So he does the same! He hasn't even left earth, yet the miraculous nature of his story is already in high gear.

As is his understanding of the universe ahead of him. Join me, Mark Scarbrough, as we experience Beatrice's return to the poem and the pilgrim's new mode of reflecting her glory.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:19] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60. If you'd like to read along or continue the conversation with me through a comment on this episode, scroll down this page.

[03:23] In PARADISO plot comes second.

[06:06] Where are we? Cosmology and geography in the first three tercets.

[12:26] Dante explains the vernal equinox by the geocentric crossings of various circles around the globe.

[16:16] PARADISO is based on locations that its readers can observe in real time.

[19:18] Beatrice returns to the poem and manifests her ray of light.

[26:07] The pilgrim wishes to return home--but where is that?

[28:21] PARADISO excels at unanswered questions.

[30:24] The sparks fly from the sun . . . or from the sphere of fire.

[34:00] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto I, lines 37 - 60.

My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 37 - 60:

For mortals, the lamp of the world rises

From various entry points. But from that point

Which joins four circles with three crosses,

It comes out of a better entry point and is connected

To better stars. It tempers and seals

The waxy world more in its own way.

From such an entry point, it had made morning over there

And evening back here. And that hemisphere was white

And this other part [was] black.

That’s when I saw Beatrice had turned to her left

And was staring into the sun—

An eagle had never so fixed its gaze on it.

And as a second ray will come out of

A first one and rise again to its source—

Like a pilgrim’s wish to return home—

So her attitude, streaming through my eyes

And into my image-receiving faculty, made itself into my own.

That is, I fixed my eyes onto the sun, contrary to our usual practices.

Much is permitted there that our abilities

Are not allowed here, thanks to the place

That was made fit for the human race.

I couldn’t withstand it for long, yet not so little [a time]

That I couldn’t see its sparking all around,

Like iron that boils over a fire.