CANTO 1
Dante states his supreme theme as Paradise itself and invokes the aid not only of the Muses but of Apollo.
Dante and Beatrice are in the Earthly Paradise. Dante sees Beatrice turn her eyes to stare straight into the sun and reflexively imitates her gesture. At once it is as if a second sun had been created, its light dazzling his senses, and Dante feels the ineffable change of his mortal soul into Godliness.
Beatrice must explain to him what he himself has not realized: that he and Beatrice are soaring toward the height of Heaven at an incalculable speed. So they pass through the Sphere of Fire, and so Dante first hears the Music of the Spheres.
Beatrice stared at the eternal spheres
entranced, unmoving; and I looked away
from the sun's height to fix my eyes on hers.
Canto 1, verse 64-66
Diese von mir 1999 erstmals angegebenen Verse beschreiben
genau Dalís Illustration.
These verses, used for the first time by my Princeton paper 1999, closely describe Dalí's
illustration.
CANTO 2
Dante and Beatrice are soaring to the Sphere of the Moon at a speed approaching that of light. Dante warns back the shallow reader: only those who have eaten of the knowledge of God may hope to follow him into the last reaches of his infinite voyage, for it will reveal such wonders as only faith can grasp.
He and Beatrice enter the Sphere of the Moon and pass into the substances of the moon as light into water, as God incarnated himself into man, or as a saved soul enters into God. Dante does not understand how there can appear on the diamond-smooth surface of the moon those markings we know as the "Man in the Moon". Beatrice asks for his explanation, refutes it, and proceeds to explain the truth of the moon's markings.
From this source only, not from rare and dense,
comes that by which one light and another differs --
the formal principle whose excellence,
conforming to its own purposes, makes appear
those markings you observe as dark and clear.
Canto 2, verse 147-148
Statt der zwei von mir angegebenen Verse sind hier fünf
zitiert.
Five verses are quoted here instead of the stated two as suggested in my paper.
CANTO 3
As Dante is about to speak to Beatrice he sees the dim traceries of human faces and takes them to be reflections, he turns to see what souls are being so reflected. Beatrice explains that those pallid images are the souls themselves. They are the "Inconstant", the souls of those who registered holy vows in Heaven, but who broke or recanted them.
Among them Picardia Donati identifies herself, and then identifies the Empress Constance. Both had taken vows as nuns but were forces to break them in order to contract a political marriage.
As in clear glass when it is polished bright,
or in a still and limpid pool whose waters
are not so deep that the bottom is lost from sight,
a footnote of our lineaments will show,
so pallid that our pupils could as soon
make out a pearl upon a milk-white brow--
Canto 3, verse 14-15
Statt meiner zwei sind hier die sechs Verse 10-15 zitiert.
Instead of my two verses, the six verses 10-15 are quoted.
CANTO 6
Hier wird zum ersten Mal deutlich, dass Dalí viele Canti gar nicht illustrierte! Deshalb ist auch die
Inhaltsangabe des Gesangs aus dem Zusammenhang gerissen. Meine Bücher kommentieren deshalb auch die nicht
illustrierten Canti.
This is the first evidence that Dalí left many Canti without illustration. This also explains why the
contents appear out of context. My books give contents also for the omitted Canti.
The Spirit identifies itself as the soul of the Emperor Justinian and proceeds to recount its life on earth. It proceeds next to a discourse on the history of the Roman Eagle.
76 JUSTINIAN
Caesar I was, Justinian I am.
By the will of the First Love, which I now feel,
I pruned the law of waste, excess, and sham.
Canto 6, verse 10
Drei statt des einen genannten Verses zitiert.
Three verses quoted instead of the one referenced.
CANTO 14
Hier ist die Lücke in den illustrierten Canti noch größer, die Inhaltsangabe wieder
unzusammenhängend.
Here the gap between illustrated Canti is even larger, the contents quite incoherent.
Thomas Aquinas has finished speaking. Now, anticipating the wish Dante has not yet realized is his own, Beatrice begs the double circle of Philosophers and Theologians to explain to Dante the state in which the blessed will find themselves after the Resurrection of the Flesh.
As Solomon finishes his discourse and the souls about him cry "Amen!" Dante becomes aware of a third circle of souls, higher and more radiant even than the first two. Its radiance dawns slowly and indistinctly at first, and then suddenly bursts upon him. Only then does he realize that he and Beatrice have been ascending and that he has entered the Fifth Sphere, Mars. There Dante beholds, shining through the sphere of Mars, the vision of Christ on the Cross.
And here memory
outruns my powers. How shall I write
that from that cross there glowed a vision of Christ?
What metaphor is worthy of that sight?
Canto 14, verse 104-105
Statt der angegebenen zwei die vier Verse102-105 zitiert.
Four verses 102-105 quoted instead of the referenced two.
CANTO 32
His eyes fixed blissfully on the vision of the Virgin Mary, Bernard recites the orders of the Mystic Rose, identifying the thrones of the most blessed.
Mary's throne is on the topmost tier of the Heavenly Stadium. Directly across from it rises the throne of John the Baptist. From her throne to the central arena descends a line of Christian saints. These two radii form a diameter that divides the stadium. On one side are enthroned those who believe in Christ to Come; on the other, those who believed in Christ Descended. The lower half of the Rose contains, on one side, the pre-Christian children saved by Love, and on the other, the Christian children saved by baptism.
Through all these explanations, Bernard has kept his eyes fixed in adoration upon the Virgin. Having finished his preliminary instruction of Dante, Bernard now calls on him to join in a Prayer to the Virgin.
98 VIRGIN AND GABRIEL
Zu diesem Bild gehören die beiden Druckplatten, die www.dante-2000.de/xylograp.pdf zeigt und auf
die von meiner home page ein Link unter Xylographie verweist. Sie zeigen, dass gar nicht von
'Holzschnitten' oder gar 'Original Holzschnitten' gesprochen werden kann, wie das der Anfang der
Internetseite tut!!
This image was printed using among others the two print plates shown by
www.dante-2000.de/xylograp.pdf, accessible from the home page by the link under Xylography.
They give evidence that there can be no speaking of 'woodcuts' or even 'original woodcuts' as claimed
by the introduction to the Internet page.
The self-same Love that to her first descended
singing "Ave Maria, gratia plena"
stood before her with its wings extended.
Canto 32, verse 94-95
Zwei genannt, drei zitiert.
Two referenced, three quoted.
Remember grace must be acquired through prayer.
Therefore I will pray that blessed one
who has the power to aid you in your need.
Canto 32, verse 147-148
Zwei genannt, drei zitiert.
Two referenced, three quoted.
CANTO 33
St. Bernard offers a lofty prayer to the Virgin, asking her to intercede in Dante's behalf, and in answer Dante feels his soul swell with new power and grown calm in rapture as his eyes are permitted the direct vision of God.
There can be no measure of how long the vision endures. It passes, and Dante is once more mortal and fallible. Raised by God's presence, he had looked into the Mystery and had begun to understand its power and majesty. Returned to himself, there is no power in him capable of speaking the truth of what he saw. Yet the impress of the truth is stamped upon his soul, which he now knows will return to be one with God's Love.
"Virgin Mother, daughter of thy son;
humble beyond all creatures and more exalted;
predestined turning point of God's intention;
thy merit so ennobled human nature
that its divine Creator did not scorn
to make Himself the creature of His creature.
Canto 33, verse 1
Statt eines kennzeichnenden Verses sind gleich sechs zitiert.
Two full tercets are quoted instead of the one characteristic, beginning verse referenced.
Here my powers rest from their high fantasy,
but already I could feel my being turned--
instinct and intellect balanced equally
as in a wheel whose motion nothing jars--
by the Love that moves the Sun and the other stars.
Canto 33, verse 142-145
Hier ist zwar nur der Inhalt der von mir genannten Verse zitiert, aber in einer Übersetzung, die
daraus merkwürdiger Weise fünf Zeilen gemacht hat...
This quotation, surprisingly, gives the contents of the four referenced, final verses in five lines...