Paradiso: Canto IV
Project Gutenberg EPUB3 edition
Dante Alighieri and Longfellow, Henry Wadsworth
My own affection is not so profound As to suffice in rendering grace for grace; Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond.
Well I perceive that never sated is Our intellect unless the Truth illume it, Beyond which nothing true expands itself.
It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair, When it attains it; and it can attain it; If not, then each desire would frustrate be.
Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot, Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature, Which to the top from height to height impels us.
This doth invite me, this assurance give me With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you Another truth, which is obscure to me.
I wish to know if man can satisfy you For broken vows with other good deeds, so That in your balance they will not be light.”
Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes Full of the sparks of love, and so divine, That, overcome my power, I turned my back
And almost lost myself with eyes downcast.