"And I was in the sun" by Dante

And I was in the sun, no more aware
of my ascent than one can be aware
of how a thought will come before it comes.

She it is, Beatrice, guides our climb
from good to better instantaneously -
her action has no measurement in time.

How brilliant in its essence must have been
what shone within the sun, where I had come,
not with its colour but light on light!

Even if I called on genius, art, and skill
I could not make this live before your eyes -
a man must trust and long to see it there.

If our imagination cannot rise
to such a height, no need to be surprised.
No eye has known light brighter than the sun's...


(from Paradise, trans. Mark Musa)



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