Beatrice Quotes in Paradiso
I see full well that human intellect
can never be content unless that truth
beyond which no truth soars shines down on it.
[…] Born of that will, there rise up, like fresh shoots,
pure doubts. These flourish at the foot of truth.
From height to height, they drive us to the peak.
This beckons me.
Between the last great night and first of days
there’s never been nor shall be, either way,
a process soaring, so magnificent.
For God, in giving of Himself to make
humanity sufficient to restore itself,
gave more than, granting pardon, He’d have done.
All other means, in justice, would have come
far short, had not the very Son of God
bowed humbly down to take on human flesh.
As bolts of fire, unlocked from thunder clouds,
expand beyond containment in those bounds,
then fall to ground […]
so, too, surrounded by this solemn feast,
my own mind, grown the greater now, went forth
and can’t remember what it then became.
‘Open your eyes and look at what I am!
You have seen things by which you’re made so strong,
you can, now, bear to look upon my smile.’
The order in the natural spheres that stills
the central point and moves, round that, all else,
here sets its confine and begins its rule.
This primal sphere has no “where” other than
the mind of God. The love that makes it turn
is kindled there, so, too, the powers it rains.
Brightness and love contain it in one ring,
as this, in turn, contains the spheres below.
And only He who binds it knows the bond.
Beatrice Quotes in Paradiso
I see full well that human intellect
can never be content unless that truth
beyond which no truth soars shines down on it.
[…] Born of that will, there rise up, like fresh shoots,
pure doubts. These flourish at the foot of truth.
From height to height, they drive us to the peak.
This beckons me.
Between the last great night and first of days
there’s never been nor shall be, either way,
a process soaring, so magnificent.
For God, in giving of Himself to make
humanity sufficient to restore itself,
gave more than, granting pardon, He’d have done.
All other means, in justice, would have come
far short, had not the very Son of God
bowed humbly down to take on human flesh.
As bolts of fire, unlocked from thunder clouds,
expand beyond containment in those bounds,
then fall to ground […]
so, too, surrounded by this solemn feast,
my own mind, grown the greater now, went forth
and can’t remember what it then became.
‘Open your eyes and look at what I am!
You have seen things by which you’re made so strong,
you can, now, bear to look upon my smile.’
The order in the natural spheres that stills
the central point and moves, round that, all else,
here sets its confine and begins its rule.
This primal sphere has no “where” other than
the mind of God. The love that makes it turn
is kindled there, so, too, the powers it rains.
Brightness and love contain it in one ring,
as this, in turn, contains the spheres below.
And only He who binds it knows the bond.
