from Dante’s Paradiso

xxxiii, 46-48, 52-66

As I drew nearer to the end of all desire,

I brought my longing’s ardor to a final height,

Just as I ought. My vision, becoming pure,

.

Entered more and more the beam of that high light

That shines on its own truth. From then, my seeing

Became too large for speech, which fails at a sight

.

Beyond all boundaries, at memory’s undoing—

As when the dreamer sees and after the dream

The passion endures, imprinted on his being

.

Though he can’t recall the rest. I am the same:

Inside my heart, although my vision is almost

Entirely faded, droplets of its sweetness come

.

The way the sun dissolves the snow’s crust—

The way, in the wind that stirred the light leaves,

The oracle that the Sibyl wrote was lost.