Sailing Across The Great Sea of "To Be": PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114

Beatrice has answered Dante's first doubt, but he has another. He can't quite understand how he, maybe in his body, can make his way across the universe.

She doesn't have a quick answer. Instead, she has a theory of how the whole universe works.

Her answers are always bigger than his questions.

And in this case, she brings him out onto the great sea of "to be" as he begins to sail into port.

Let’s explore the first part of her great schematic for the universe: its diverse order is a reflection of its unified creator.

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The segments for this episode of WALKING WITH DANTE:

[01:14] My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114. If you'd like to read along or drop a comment about this episode, scroll down this page.

[03:14] Dante's agitation, Beatrice's smile.

[10:00] His implicit question: my body v. all the heavenly bodies.

[13:25] The first part of her answer about the orderliness of creation.

[20:10] Order and disorder: Dante's and our dualities.

[23:43] Rereading the passage: PARADISO, Canto I, lines 94 - 114.

My English translation of PARADISO, Canto I, Lines 94 - 114:

If I’d been robbed of my first doubts

By her smiling and brief little words,

I was all the more entangled in a new [doubt]

And said, “I was just now happy to be requïevi

From my great amazement, although I’m currently amazed

As to how I can transit through these light bodies.”

At that, offering a sigh full of pity, she turned

Her eyes toward me with the expression

That a mother gives to her babbling son

And said, “All manner of things

Have an order among themselves and this is the formal structure

That makes the universe look like God.

“Here, the high creatures see the stamp

Of its eternal value—that’s the conclusion

For which the structure now mentioned was set forth.

“In that order I’m talking about,

All natures bend toward their diverse fates,

[No matter if] they’re closer or farther from their origin.

“Therefore, they move toward diverse ports

Over the great sea of to be, each

Given an instinct to carry onward.”