The New Life (La Vita Nuova) — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
The New Life (La Vita Nuova)
Dante Alighieri · en
“And I became so humble in my grief,
Seeing in her such deep humility,
That I said: ‘Death, I hold thee passing good
Henceforth, and a most gentle sweet relief,
Since my dear love has chosen to dwell with thee:
Pity, not hate, is thine, well understood.
Lo! I do so desire to see thy face
That I am like as one who nears the tomb;
My soul entreats thee, Come.’
Then I departed, having made my moan;
And when I was alone
I said, and cast my eyes to the High Place:
‘Blessed is he, fair soul, who meets thy glance!’
... Just then you woke me, of your complaisaùnce.”
_This poem has two parts. In the first, speaking to a person undefined,
I tell how I was aroused from a vain phantasy by certain ladies, and
how I promised them to tell what it was. In the second, I say how I
told them. The second part begins here, “I was a-thinking.” The first
part divides into two. In the first, I tell that which certain ladies,
and which one singly, did and said because of my phantasy, before I had
returned into my right senses. In the second, I tell what these ladies
said to me after I had left off this wandering: and it begins here,
“But uttered in a voice.” Then, when I say, “I was a-thinking,” I say
how I told them this my imagination; and concerning this I have two
parts. In the first, I tell, in order, this imagination. In the second,
saying at what time they called me, I covertly thank them: and this
part begins here, “Just then you woke me.”_
After this empty imagining, it happened on a day, as I sat thoughtful,
that I was taken with such a strong trembling at the heart, that it
could not have been otherwise in the presence of my lady. Whereupon I
perceived that there was an appearance of Love beside me, and I seemed
to see him coming from my lady; and he said, not aloud but within my
heart: “Now take heed that thou bless the day when I entered into thee;
for it is fitting that thou shouldst do so.” And with that my heart was
so full of gladness, that I could hardly believe it to be of very truth
mine own heart and not another.