------------------------------------------------------------------------ [325] “Sweet colour of oriental sapphire, Which was gathering in the serene aspect Of the sky, pure even to the first circle, To my eyes restored delight, So soon as I had come forth from that dead air, Which had troubled eyes and breast. The fair planet that inspires love Was making all the orient smile, Veiling the Fishes which were in her train.” Alternative rendering of the first three lines:— “Sweet colour of oriental sapphire, Which was diffused over the tranquil scene, From mid-heaven even to the first circle.” _Purg._ i. 13-21. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Strange to say, the beginning of the above beautiful passage which conveys so direct and vivid an impression of blue sky and pure air, presents some difficulties when one comes to translate it word by word, especially as the texts offer more than one reading. By some commentators the “primo giro”[326] has been understood to mean the sphere of the moon,[327] or even the highest sphere (the Primum Mobile); but this is certainly inadmissible, as Dante supposed the atmosphere to reach only as far as the sphere of Fire, which came between it and the moon. The prime circle is here evidently the horizon, the fundamental circle of observers, the First Circle of the astrologers, from which they reckoned all the rest. It is here that the sky usually becomes pale and misty, however blue and clear it may be above. The colour was gathering and deepening,[328] especially in the east, where Dante was looking, as dawn began to appear in a perfectly cloudless sky; for during the darkness of the night it would have appeared almost black. ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [326] First, or prime, circle. [327] _Conv._, II. iv. 1-3. [328] Literally, “was assembling,” or “was being collected.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Dr. Moore thinks the authority better for a different reading, viz. “Dal mezzo”[329] instead of “Dell’ aer.”[330] In this case, we must take “mezzo puro” to mean mid-heaven, that is the zenith, “puro” being used as a noun, and meaning a cloudless sky (like “sereno” in _Purg._ v. 38); and “il sereno aspetto” must mean “the quiet scene.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ [329] “From the middle.” [330] “Of the air.” ------------------------------------------------------------------------ Venus appears again in the _Purgatorio_, shining upon the Mountain from the east before sunrise; and this time she is called Cytherea, after the island near which she was fabled to have risen from the sea, and in which she received a special worship. “Dell’ oriente ... raggiò nel monte Citerea, Che di foco d’amor par sempre ardente.”[331]