|
Heavenly spirits beyond the fixed stars-- in vast clear brightness there are no secrets only joy everywhere--you bathe in God's kindness, an immense sea whose smallest drops trickled into this bitter tubulent world's waters can quench the parched heart's thirst, tear these fragile nets which yet choke, and quiet those passions whose losses and pain ravage the blind. No more can Jesus' blood wash stains sunk and dyed into flesh; it cannot reach inadequacy's core, so pray to Him that the voices, sounds God once called man to Him with, might wake us--from this sloth, this drugged heavy sleep of the inner better self. |
An image of the Italian text from Visconti's 1840 edition |
|
Notes: From V IX:395 and B S2:32:193; MS's L, V2 (Ve2?); MS CASI, RA. A fourth 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 |
