Dante

Dante Alighieri (c.1265-1321)

 This is a pendant to the last post. Ted Hughes' mention of Dante made me think of Dante's beautiful sonnet from Vita Nuova :


As I rode out one day not long ago
by narrow roads, and heavy with the thought
of what compelled my going, I met Love
in pilgrim's rags coming the other way.
All his appearance seemed to speak such grief
as kings might feel upon the loss of crown;
and ever sighing, bent with thought, he came,
his eyes averted from all passers-by.
Yet as we met he called me by my name
and said to me,'I come from that far land,
where I had sent your heart to serve my will;
I bring it back to court a new delight.'
And then so much of him was fused with me,
he vanished from my sight, I know not how.


- Vita Nuova, 9. trans. Mark Musa (0192839357), p.15-16