Journey with Dante

Inferno 6 Upon my mind’s reviving—it had closed on hearing the lament of those two kindred, since sorrow had confounded me completely— I see new sufferings, new sufferers surrounding me on every side, wherever I move or turn about or set my eyes. I am in the third circle, filled with cold, unending, heavy, and accursed rain; its measure and its kind are never changed. Gross hailstones, water gray with filth, and snow come streaking down across the shadowed air; the earth, as it receives that shower, stinks. Over the souls of those submerged beneath that mess, is an outlandish, vicious beast, his three throats barking, doglike: Cerberus. His eyes are bloodred; greasy, black, his beard; his belly bulges, and his hands are claws; his talons tear and flay and rend the shades. That downpour makes the sinners howl like dogs; they use one of their sides to screen the other— those miserable wretches turn and turn. When Cerberus, the great worm, noticed us, he opened wide h...

Inferno 5 So I descended from the first enclosure down to the second circle, that which girdles less space but grief more great, that goads to weeping. There dreadful Minos stands, gnashing his teeth: examining the sins of those who enter, he judges and assigns as his tail twines. I mean that when the spirit born to evil appears before him, it confesses all; and he, the connoisseur of sin, can tell the depth in Hell appropriate to it; as many times as Minos wraps his tail around himself, that marks the sinner’s level. Always there is a crowd that stands before him: each soul in turn advances toward that judgment; they speak and hear, then they are cast below. Arresting his extraordinary task, Minos, as soon as he had seen me, said: “O you who reach this house of suffering, be careful how you enter, whom you trust; the gate is wide, but do not be deceived!” To which my guide replied: “But why protest? Do not attempt to block his fated path: our passage has been wille...

The heavy sleep within my head was smashed by an enormous thunderclap, so that I started up as one whom force awakens; I stood erect and turned my rested eyes from side to side, and I stared steadily to learn what place it was surrounding me. In truth I found myself upon the brink of an abyss, the melancholy valley containing thundering, unending wailings. That valley, dark and deep and filled with mist, is such that, though I gazed into its pit, I was unable to discern a thing. “Let us descend into the blind world now,” the poet, who was deathly pale, began; “I shall go first and you will follow me.” But I, who’d seen the change in his complexion, said: “How shall I go on if you are frightened, you who have always helped dispel my doubts?” And he to me: “The anguish of the people whose place is here below, has touched my face with the compassion you mistake for fear. Let us go on, the way that waits is long.” So he set out, and so he had me enter on tha...

Vita Nova 2 Many people responded to this sonnet and gave various interpretations of it. One of the responses came from somebody whom I consider my best friend, who wrote a sonnet beginning, “You saw, it seems to me, the whole of worth.” His discovery that I was the one who had sent the poem was, so to speak, the beginning of our friendship. The correct interpretation of my dream was not understood by anyone at first, but now it is clear to even the most simple-minded. From the time of this vision, my natural spirit started to be hindered in its functioning, since my soul was completely absorbed in thinking about this most gracious of women. Thus in no time at all I grew so frail and weak that the sight of me weighed on many of my friends. And many spitefully curious sorts of people hunted for ways to find out the very thing about me that I wanted to keep hidden from others. Aware their questions were malicious, I responded to them—through the will of Love, who commanded me in k...

From Vita Nova It was exactly the ninth hour of that day when her intoxicatingly lovely greeting came to me. And since it was the first time her words had reached my ears, I felt such bliss that I withdrew from people as if I were drunk, away to the solitude of my room, and settled down to think about this most graceful of women. And thinking about her, a sweet sleep came over me, in which appeared a tremendous vision. I seemed to see a fiery cloud in my room, inside which I discerned a figure of a lordly man, frightening to behold. And it was marvelous how utterly full of joy he seemed. And among the words that he spoke, I understood only a few, including: “Ego dominus tuus.” §  In his arms I thought I saw a sleeping person, naked but for a crimson silken cloth that seemed to be draped about her, who, when I looked closely, I realized was the lady of the saving gesture, she who earlier that day had deigned to salute me. And in one of his hands it seemed that he held somethi...

Ivan Aivazovsky Stormy Sea at Night 1849 Guido, I wish that Lapo, you, and I were carried off by some enchanter’s spell and set upon a ship to sail the sea where every wind would favour our command, so neither thunderstorms nor cloudy skies might ever have the power to hold us back, but rather, cleaving to this single wish, that our desire to live as one would grow. And Lady Vanna were with Lady Lagia borne to us with her who’s number thirty by our good enchanter’s wizardry: to talk of love would be our sole pursuit, and each of them would find herself content, just as I think that we should likewise be.     (Richard Lansing trans.) Guido, i’ vorrei che tu e Lapo ed io, fossimo presi per incantamento e messi in un vasel ch’ad ogni vento per mare andasse al voler vostro e mio; sì che fortuna od altro tempo rio non ci potesse dare impedimento, anzi, vivendo sempre in un talento, di star insieme crescesse il disio. E monna Vanna e monna Lagi...

A courtyard of an old mosque in Bursa, Water running from the fountain. A wall standing since Orhan’s time A maple tree of the same age; Spreading the calm of the day in all directions And the sorrow of being fragments of a dream… There is something smiling at me A memory coming from a peaceful place… Green fields with blue skies, And the holiest of buildings. Everything named after past victories Capturing eternity in a single moment. Where magic still lives on from days bygone. In every stone there are remnants of that happy dream. Serenity Nostalgia flooding my heart Gumuslu, the victorious morning Muradiye, the reward of perseverance… White lilies symbolize my life Tombs, mosques, gardens… The noble story of thousands of soldiers… The noise of war’s thunder going up to the sky… Tells the story to every passer-by   Bursa sleeping in the bosom of a dream every night. Every morning it wakes up with the same dream, The ear...