Tutti lo miran, tutti onor li fanno:
quivi vid'io Socrate e Platone,
che 'nnanzi a li altri più presso li stanno;

There all look up to him, all do him honor:
there I beheld both Socrates and Plato,
closest to him, in front of all the rest;

io dico d'Aristotile e di Plato
e di molt'altri"; e qui chinò la fronte,
e più non disse, e rimase turbato.

I speak of Aristotle and of Plato—
and many others." Here he bent his head
and said no more, remaining with his sorrow.

Ancor di dubitar ti dù cagione
parer tornarsi l'anime a le stelle,
secondo la sentenza di Platone.

And you are also led to doubt because
the doctrine Plato taught would find support
by souls' appearing to return to the stars.

That which Timaeus said in reasoning
of souls does not describe what you have seen,
since it would seem that as he speaks he thinks.

He says the soul returns to that same star
from which— so he believes— it had been taken
when nature sent that soul as form to body;

but his opinion is, perhaps, to be
taken in other guise than his words speak,
intending something not to be derided.

Multa namque per intellectum videmus quibus signa vocalia desunt; quod satis Plato insinuat in suis libris per assumptionem metaphorismorum, multa enim per lumen intellectuale vidit quae sermone proprio nequivit exprimere.

For we see many things with our mind for which vocal signs are lacking, as Plato tells us well in his books by taking on metaphors, for he saw many things with the light of his mind which he was not able to express in his own words.