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Oh you heavenly lights who dwell with God you bear the heart up steps we can't perceive, whirling stars, steep rings of tapering flame we can't climb--nor is this the kind of thing we should aspire to. You offer strength, lovely thoughts to the anxious, the frightened, the broken--frail sick souls stretch their wings but not in vain--they rebuild, breath your vital splendor. Blessed light--whose penumbra can scatter these dark false shadows--the longer I gaze the more simple truth emerges more clearly. And blessed are those who can fix their thoughts and act so as to be praised, remembered, live forever in that light. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
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Notes: From V CVII:267 and B S1:126:148; MS CASI; Valgrisi 127. A first of four to the elect souls in Paradise. It reflects contemporary theological thought. See, e.g., Carlo Ossola, introd. Valdés, Juan de. Lo Evangelio di San Matteo, ed. Anna Maria Cavallarin. Roma: Bolzoni, 1985; and Paolo Simoncelli, Evangelismo italiano del Cinquecento: Questione religiosa e nicodemismo . Roma: Istituto Storico italiano per l'età moderna e contemporanea: 1979 Key |
