I will return a poet, and on the font of my baptism will I take the (laurel) crown. CANTO XXVI, Lines 85-90. As the bough that bends its top at the passing of the wind, and then lifts itself by its own virtue which draws it on high, so did I in amazement while she was speaking; and then a desire to speak, with which I was burning, restored my courage. CANTO XXVII, Lines 4-6. What I was seeing seemed to me a smile of the universe; for my intoxication entered both through the hearing and the sight. Lines 91-96. And if nature in human flesh or art in its paintings has made bait to catch the eyes in order to possess the mind, all united would seem naught compared with the divine delight which shone upon me when I turned to her smiling face. Lines 121-135. O cupidigia, che i mortali affonde Si sotto te, che nessuno ha podere Di trarre gli occhi fuor delle tue onde! Ben fiorisce negli uomini il volere; Ma la pioggia continua converte In bozzacchioni le susine vere. Fede ed innocenzia son reperte Solo nei parvoletti; poi ciascuna Pria fugge, che le guance sien coperte. Tale, balbuziendo ancor, digiuna, Che poi divora, con la lingua sciolta, Qualunque cibo per qualunque luna; E tal, balbuziendo, ama ed ascolta La madre sua, che, con loquela intera, Disia poi di vederla sepolta. CANTO XXX, Lines 16-33. Se quanto infino a qui di lei si dice Non pur di là da noi, ma certo io credo Lines 121-135. O covetousness, which dost so whelm mortals under thee that none has power to draw his eyes forth from thy waves! Well flourishes the will in men, but the continual rain changes the true plums into sloes. Faith and innocence are found only in children; then each takes flight before the cheeks are covered. One while yet he lisps fasts, and when his tongue is free he devours any food in any month. And another while he lisps loves and listens to his mother and afterwards, when his speech is perfect, longs to see her buried. CANTO XXX, Lines 16-33. If what has been said of her up to this point were all included in a single praise, scant would it be to furnish out this turn. The beauty which I saw is beyond measure, not beyond us only, but verily I believe Che solo il suo fattor tutta la goda. Più che giammai da punto di suo tema Chè, come sole il viso che più trema, La mente mia da sè medesma scema. Non è fantin che si subito, rua Col volto verso il latte, se si svegli Molto tardato dall'usanza sua, Come fec'io, per far migliori spegli Ancor degli occhi, chinandomi all'onda Che si deriva, perchè vi s'immegli. Lines 109-114. E come clivo in acqua di suo imo Si specchia, quasi per vedersi adorno, that its maker alone can enjoy it all. By this passage I confess myself vanquished more than ever comic or tragic poet was overcome by the crisis of his theme. For as the sun does to the sight that trembles most, so the remembrance of the sweet smile cuts my mind off from itself. From the first day that I saw her face in this life until this view my song has not had its pursuit cut short, but now my pursuit must needs desist from further following her beauty in my verse, as must every artist at his uttermost. Lines 82-87. There is no babe that so quickly springs with face towards the milk, if he awake much later than his wont, as did I, to make yet better mirrors of my eyes, stooping to the wave which flows down that one may be bettered in it. Lines 109-114. And as a hill mirrors itself in water at its base, as if to see itself adorned, |