Returning Home Through The Music Of The Spheres: PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93
Our pilgrim finds everything doubled in brightness . . . because he's begun to fly up to the heavens, although he doesn't know it at first.
He's too busy figuring out all that light . . . and listening to the music of the spheres.
But Beatrice is there to set him straight and tell him that his ascent is faster than he could ever understand.
She also redefines "home"--not the Italian peninsula, nor the Garden of Eden, but the highest heaven, where they're headed in this journey to the final vision.
Let’s begin our flight among the planets and stars to head home.
The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:
[00:49] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment to continue the conversation, scroll down this page.
[03:34] Glaucus, the fisherman who becomes a sea-god.
[05:01] Glossing lines 61 - 72: the changing light and pilgrim.
[10:14] Glossing lines 73 - 75: the mind/body problem.
[13:19] Glossing lines 76 - 84: the sempiternal music of the spheres.
[18:55] Glossing lines 85 - 93: Beatrice's answer to an unasked question.
[21:00] How a guy transhumans--and how this guy translates some hard lines.
[28:06] There is always more light.
[30:06] Wonder and awe are not ends in themselves.
[32:03] Life is an on-going redefinition of "home."
[34:30] Rereading PARADISO, Canto I, lines 61 - 93.
My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 61 - 93:
And then suddenly it seemed that day was joined
With [a second] day, as if the one who can
Had bedecked heaven with a second sun.
Beatrice had fully locked her eyes
On the eternal wheels. And I locked my lights
On her, pulling them down from up above.
Looking at her, I was fashioned internally
As Glaucus was fashioned when he tasted the grass
That made him a consort to the other deities in the sea.
How a guy transhumans—to signify it with words
Can’t be done. So let the example be enough
For whomever grace earmarks this experience.
O Love who governs heaven and pulled me up
With your light, you know
If I was only there in that part of me that you created last.
When the desired, wheeling revolutions that you make
Sempiternal had grabbed my attention
With the harmony that you temper and fine-tune,
So much of heaven seemed to be
Ignited by the sun’s fire that neither downpours nor rivers
Ever created such a large lake.
The novelty of the sound and the immensity of the light
Ignited my desire to know their cause—
I’d never felt a sharpness like that.
At which point, before I’d even questioned anything,
She, who saw me as I see myself, parted her lips
To calm my agitated mind
And said, “You’re making yourself fat
With false images, so you can’t see
What tossing them out would show [you].
“You’re not on earth, as you believe.
But lightning, hurrying from its proper place,
Never sped along as quickly as you’re returning to yours.”