Stars Citations in Dante's Paradiso

Stars Citations in Dante's Paradiso

Compiled by Peter Y. Chou
WisdomPortal.com

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for Professor John Freccero's
Dante's Paradiso class
Stanford University, Spring 2001

Allen Mandelbaum's translation (1980)

Raphael, Dante

Gustave Doré, Paradiso 28

1.40	con miglior corso e con migliore stella esce congiunta, e la mondana cera più a suo modo tempera e suggella.	joined to a better constellation and along a better course, and it can temper and stamp the world's wax more in its own manner.
2.30	volta ver' me, sì lieta come bella, "Drizza la mente in Dio grata", mi disse, "che n'ha congiunti con la prima stella".	to me (her gladness matched her loveliness): "Direct your mind to God in gratefulness," she said; "He has brought us to the first star."
2.137	così l'intelligenza sua bontate multiplicata per le stelle spiega, girando sé sovra sua unitate.	unfold and multiply its bounty through the varied heavens, though that Intellect itself revolves upon its unity.
4.23	Ancor di dubitar ti dà 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.
4.52	Dice che l'alma a la sua stella riede, credendo quella quindi esser decisa quando natura per forma la diede;	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;
5.97	E se la stella si cambiò e rise, qual mi fec'io che pur da mia natura trasmutabile son per tutte guise!	And if the planet changed and smiled, what then did I— who by my very nature am given to every sort of change— become?
6.112	Questa picciola stella si correda di buoni spirti che son stati attivi perché onore e fama li succeda:	This little planet is adorned with spirits whose acts were righteous, but who acted for the honor and the fame that they would gain:
7.138	Creata fu la materia ch'elli hanno; creata fu la virtù informante in queste stelle che 'ntorno a lor vanno.	The matter they contain had been created, just as within the stars that wheel about them, the power to give form had been created.
8.11	perché non corra che virtù nol guidi; sì che, se stella bona o miglior cosa m'ha dato 'l ben, ch'io stessi nol m'invidi.	that it not run where virtue does not guide; so that, if my kind star or something better has given me that gift, I not abuse it.
8.110	e ciò esser non può, se li 'ntelletti che muovon queste stelle non son manchi, e manco il primo, che non li ha perfetti.	That cannot be unless the Minds that move these planets are defective and, defective, the First Mind, which had failed to make them perfect.
9.33	D'una radice nacqui e io ed ella: Cunizza fui chiamata, e qui refulgo perché mi vinse il lume d'esta stella;	Both he and I were born of one same root: Cunizza was my name, and I shine here because this planet's radiance conquered me.
10.78	Poi, sì cantando, quelli ardenti soli si fuor girati intorno a noi tre volte, come stelle vicine a' fermi poli,	After those ardent suns, while singing so, had wheeled three times around us, even as stars that are close to the fixed poles, they seemed
12.29	del cor de l'una de le luci nove si mosse voce, che l'ago a la stella parer mi fece in volgermi al suo dove;	then from the heart of one of the new lights there came a voice, and as I turned toward it, I seemed a needle turning to the polestar;
13.4	quindici stelle che 'n diverse plage lo ciel avvivan di tanto sereno che soperchia de l'aere ogne compage;	in heaven's different parts, those fifteen stars that quicken heaven with such radiance as to undo the air's opacities;
14.86	Ben m'accors'io ch'io era più levato, per l'affocato riso de la stella, che mi parea più roggio che l'usato.	lady; and I was sure that I had risen because the smiling star was red as fire— beyond the customary red of Mars.
15.16	e pare stella che tramuti loco, se non che da la parte ond'e' s'accende nulla sen perde, ed esso dura poco:	a star that shifts its place, except that in that portion of the heavens where it flared, nothing is lost, and its own course is short—
17.77	Con lui vedrai colui che 'mpresso fue, nascendo, sì da questa stella forte, che notabili fier l'opere sue.	You shall— beside him— see one who, at birth, had so received the seal of this strong star that what he does will be remarkable.
18.68	tal fu ne li occhi miei, quando fui vòlto, per lo candor de la temprata stella sesta, che dentro a sé m'avea ricolto.	such change I, turning, saw: the red of Mars was gone— and now the temperate sixth star's white heaven welcomed me into itself.
18.115	O dolce stella, quali e quante gemme mi dimostraro che nostra giustizia effetto sia del ciel che tu ingemme!	O gentle star, what— and how many— gems made plain to me that justice here on earth depends upon the heaven you engem!
22.112	O gloriose stelle, o lume pregno di gran virtù, dal quale io riconosco tutto, qual che si sia, il mio ingegno,	O stars of glory, constellation steeped in mighty force, all of my genius— whatever be its worth— has you as source:
23.92	e come ambo le luci mi dipinse il quale e il quanto de la viva stella che là sù vince come qua giù vinse,	And when, on both my eye— lights, were depicted the force and nature of the living star that conquers heaven as it conquered earth,
24.147	Quest'è 'l principio, quest'è la favilla che si dilata in fiamma poi vivace, e come stella in cielo in me scintilla".	This is the origin, this is the spark that then extends into a vivid flame and, like a star in heaven, glows in me."
25.70	Da molte stelle mi vien questa luce; ma quei la distillò nel mio cor pria che fu sommo cantor del sommo duce.	This light has come to me from many stars; but he who first instilled it in my heart was the chief singer of the Sovereign Guide.
28.19 28.21 (2)	e quale stella par quinci più poca, parrebbe luna, locata con esso come stella con stella si collòca.	and any star that, seen from earth, would seem to be the smallest, set beside that point, as star conjoined with star, would seem a moon.
28.87	così fec'io, poi che mi provide la donna mia del suo risponder chiaro, e come stella in cielo il ver si vide.	become after my lady had supplied her clear response to me, and— like a star in heaven— truth was seen. And when her words
30.5	quando 'l mezzo del cielo, a noi profondo, comincia a farsi tal, ch'alcuna stella perde il parere infino a questo fondo;	so that the span of heaven high above begins to alter so, that some stars are no longer to be seen from our deep earth;
31.28	O trina luce, che 'n unica stella scintillando a lor vista, sì li appaga! guarda qua giuso a la nostra procella!	O threefold Light that, in a single star sparkling into their eyes, contents them so, look down and see our tempest here below!
32.108	Così ricorsi ancora a la dottrina di colui ch'abbelliva di Maria, come del sole stella mattutina.	So, once again, I called upon the teaching of him who drew from Mary beauty, as the morning star draws beauty from the sun.
33.145	A l'alta fantasia qui mancò possa; ma già volgeva il mio disio e 'l velle, sì come rota ch'igualmente è mossa, l'amor che move il sole e l'altre stelle.	Here force failed my high fantasy; but my desire and will were moved already— like a wheel revolving uniformly— by the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.