Dante. An essay Part 9

He is saying that he does not wish his Canzoni to be explained in Latin to those who could not read them in Italian: "Che sarebbe sposta la loro sentenzia cola dove elle _non la potessono colla loro bellezza portare_. E per sappia ciascuno che nulla cosa per legame musaico (_i.e._ poetico) armonizzata, si pu della sua loquela in altra tras.m.u.tare senza rompere tutta la sua dolcezza e armonia. E questa e la ragione per che Omero non si mut mai di Greco in Latino, come l'altre scritture che avemo da loro."--_Convito_, i. c. 8, p. 49.

Dr. Carlyle has given up the idea of attempting to represent Dante's verse by English verse, and has confined himself to a.s.sisting Englishmen to read him in his own language. His prose translation is accurate and forcible. And he has added sensible and useful notes.]

Take, again, the _times of the day_, with what is characteristic of them--appearances, lights, feelings--seldom dwelt on at length, but carried at once to the mind, and stamped upon it sometimes by a single word. The sense of _morning_, its inspiring and cheering strength, softens the opening of the _Inferno_; breathes its refreshing calm, in the interval of repose after the last horrors of h.e.l.l, in the first canto of the _Purgatorio_; and prepares for the entrance into the earthly Paradise at its close. In the waning light of _evening_, and its chilling sense of loneliness, he prepared himself for his dread pilgrimage:

Lo giorno se n'andava, e l'aer bruno Toglieva gli animai che sono 'n terra Dalle fatiche loro; ed io sol uno M'apparechiava a sostener la guerra S del cammino, e s della pietate.--_Inf._ 2.

Indeed there is scarcely an hour of day or night, which has not left its own recollection with him;--of which we cannot find some memorial in his poem. Evening and night have many. Evening, with its softness and melancholy--its exhaustion and languor, after the work, perhaps unfulfilled, of day--its regrets and yearnings--its sounds and doubtful lights--the distant bell, the closing chants of Compline, the _Salve Regina_, the _Te lucis ante terminum_--with its insecurity, and its sense of protection from above--broods over the poet's first resting-place on his heavenly road--that still, solemn, dreamy scene--the Valley of Flowers in the mountain side, where those who have been negligent about their salvation, but not altogether faithless and fruitless, the a.s.sembled shades of great kings and of poets, wait, looking upwards, "pale and humble," for the hour when they may begin in earnest their penance. (_Purg._ 7 and 8.) The level, blinding evening beams (_Purg._ 15); the contrast of gathering darkness in the valley or on the sh.o.r.e with the lingering lights on the mountain (_Purg._ 17); the rapid sinking of the sun, and approach of night in the south (_Purg._ 27); the flaming sunset clouds of August; the sheet-lightning of summer (_Purg._ 5); have left pictures in his mind, which an incidental touch reawakens, and a few strong words are sufficient to express. Other appearances he describes with more fulness. The stars coming out one by one, baffling at first the eye:

Ed ecco intorno di chiarezza pari Nascer un l.u.s.tro sopra quel che v'era, A guisa d'orizzonte, che rischiari.

_E s come al salir di prima sera Comincian per lo Ciel nuove parvenze, S che la cosa pare e non par vera_;--_Parad._ 14.[130]

or else, bursting out suddenly over the heavens:

Quando colui che tutto il mondo alluma, De l'emisperio nostro si discende, E 'l giorno d'ogni parte si consuma; Lo ciel che sol di lui prima s'accende, Subitamente si rifa parvente Per molte luci in che una risplende;--_Parad._ 20.[131]

or the effect of shooting-stars:

Quale per li seren tranquilli e puri Discorre ad ora ad or subito fuoco Movendo gli occhi che stavan sicuri, E pare stella che tramuti loco, Se non che dalla parte onde s'accende Nulla sen perde, ed esso dura poco;--_Parad._ 15.[132]

or, again, that characteristic sight of the Italian summer night--the fire-flies:

Quante il villan che al poggio si riposa, Nel tempo che colui che 'l mondo schiara La faccia sua a noi tien men ascosa, Come la mosca cede alla zenzara, Vede lucciole giu per la vallea Forse cola dove vendemmia ed ara.--_Inf._ 26.[133]

[Footnote 130:

And lo, on high, and lurid as the one Now there, encircling it, a light arose, Like heaven when re-illumined by the sun: And as at the first lighting up of eve The sky doth new appearances disclose, That now seem real, now the sight deceive.--WRIGHT.]

[Footnote 131:

When he, who with his universal ray The world illumines, quits our hemisphere, And, from each quarter, daylight wears away; The heaven, erst kindled by his beam alone, Sudden its lost effulgence doth repair By many lights illumined but by one.--IBID.]

[Footnote 132:

As oft along the pure and tranquil sky A sudden fire by night is seen to dart, Attracting forcibly the heedless eye; And seems to be a star that changes place, Save that no star is lost from out the part It quits, and that it lasts a moment's s.p.a.ce.--WRIGHT.]

[Footnote 133:

As in that season when the sun least veils His face that lightens all, what time the fly Gives place to the shrill gnat, the peasant then, Upon some cliff reclined, beneath him sees Fire-flies innumerous spangling o'er the vale, Vineyard or tilth, where his day-labour lies.--CARY.]

Noon, too, does not want its characteristic touches--the lightning-like glancing of the lizard's rapid motion:

Come il ramarro sotto la gran fersa Ne' d canicular cangiando siepe Folgore par, se la via attraversa;--_Inf._ 25.[134]

the motes in the sunbeam at noontide (_Par._ 14); its clear, diffused, insupportable brightness, filling all things:

E tutti eran gia pieni Dell'alto d i giron del sacro monte.--_Purg._ 19.

and veiling the sun in his own light:

Io veggio ben s come _tu t'annidi Nel proprio lume_.

S come 'l sol che si cela egli stessi Per troppa luce, quando 'l caldo ha rose Le temperanze de' vapori spessi.--_Parad._ 5.

[Footnote 134:

As underneath the dog-star's scorching ray The lizard, darting swift from fence to fence, Appears like lightning, if he cross the way.--WRIGHT.]

But the sights and feelings of morning are what he touches on most frequently; and he does so with the precision of one who had watched them with often-repeated delight: the scented freshness of the breeze that stirs before daybreak:

E quale annunziatrice degli albori Aura di maggio muovesi ed olezza Tutta impregnata dall'erba e da' fiori; Tal mi senti' un vento dar per mezza La fronte;--_Purg._ 24.[135]

the chill of early morning (_Purg._ 19); the dawn stealing on, and the stars, one by one, fading "infino alla piu bella" (_Parad._ 30); the brightness of the "trembling morning star"--

Par tremolando mattutina stella;--

the serenity of the dawn, the blue gradually gathering in the east, spreading over the brightening sky (_Parad._ 1); then succeeded by the orange tints--and Mars setting red, through the mist over the sea:

Ed ecco, qual sul presso del mattino Per li grossi vapor Marte rosseggia Giu nel ponente, sopra 'l suol marino, Cotal m'apparve, s'io ancor lo veggia, Un lume per lo mar venir s ratto Che 'l muover suo nessun volar pareggia;--_Purg._ 2.[136]

the distant sea-beach quivering in the early light:

L'alba vinceva l'ora mattutina Che fuggia innanzi, s che di lontano Con.o.bbi _il tremolar della marina_;--_Purg._ 1.[137]

the contrast of east and west at the moment of sunrise, and the sun appearing, clothed in mist:

Io vidi gia nel cominciar del giorno La parte oriental tutta rosata E l'altro ciel di bel sereno adorno; E la faccia del sol nascere ombrata S che per temperanza di vapori L'occhio lo sostenea lunga fiata;--_Purg._ 3.[138]

or breaking through it, and shooting his beams over the sky:

Di tutte parti saettava il giorno Lo sol ch'avea con le saette conte Di mezzo 'l ciel cacciato 'l Capricorno.--_Purg._ 2.[139]

[Footnote 135:

As when, announcing the approach of day, Impregnated with herbs and flowers of Spring, Breathes fresh and redolent the air of May-- Such was the breeze that gently fann'd my head; And I perceived the waving of a wing Which all around ambrosial odours shed.--WRIGHT.]

[Footnote 136:

When lo! like Mars, in aspect fiery red Seen through the vapour, when the morn is nigh Far in the west above the briny bed, So (might I once more see it) o'er the sea A light approach'd with such rapidity, Flies not the bird that might its equal be.--WRIGHT.]

[Footnote 137:

Now 'gan the vanquish'd matin hour to flee; And seen from far, as onward came the day, I recognised the trembling of the sea.--IBID.]

[Footnote 138:

Erewhile the eastern regions have I seen At daybreak glow with roseate colours, and The expanse beside all beauteous and serene: And the sun's face so shrouded at its rise, And temper'd by the mists which overhung, That I could gaze on it with stedfast eyes.--WRIGHT.]