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Home  »  Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)

Samuel Waddington, comp. The Sonnets of Europe. 1888.

“Beyond the sphere that hath the widest gyre”

Dante Alighieri (1265–1321)

Translated by James Russell Lowell
From the “Vita Nuova”

BEYOND the sphere that hath the widest gyre

Passeth the sigh that leaves my heart below;

A new intelligence doth love bestow

On it with tears that ever draws it higher;

When it wins thither where is its desire,

A Lady it beholds who honour so

And light receives, that, through her splendid glow,

The pilgrim spirit sees her as in fire;

It sees her such, that, telling me again

I understand it not, it speaks so low

Unto the mourning heart that bids it tell;

Its speech is of that noble One I know,

For “Beatrice” I often hear full plain,

So that, dear ladies, I conceive it well.