Cantos I to IV: The Moon
all things have order among themselves, and this is the form that makes the universe resemble God
Explanation and analysis
Dante and Beatrice have just left the earth, and Dante still thinks he rises like a heavy body crossing the air. Beatrice corrects the illusion before he says it, with a smile, and tells him that he is no longer on earth. Then comes the second doubt: how does he pass through light bodies, such as air and fire? She sighs with pity, looks at him as a mother looks at a child who is raving, and begins to answer.
The answer does not describe the mechanics of the ascent. It is a thesis about the universe: all things have order among themselves, and it is this order that makes the universe resemble God. Whoever comes to the canticle expecting a travel account finds a metaphysics, and Beatrice speaks like someone who teaches by principles, not by scenes. The resemblance to God is not offered as ornament. It is the reason each thing has a place and a motion of its own, and it is through it that the text goes on to explain the rising fire, the gathering earth, and the creature with intelligence.
The argument that follows completes the sentence. Each nature inclines toward this order, more or less near its principle, and moves to diverse ports across the great sea of being. The creature with intellect and love, however, can turn toward another part, and then a false pleasure overthrows it. Rising is, in this reckoning, what Dante does when nothing hinders him, and the sentence cited is the basis of everything Beatrice will say in the following cantos about degrees, will, and place.
the water I take has never been sailed; Minerva breathes, and Apollo guides me, and nine Muses show me the Bears
Explanation and analysis
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brother, our will is calmed by the virtue of charity, which makes us want only what we have and gives us no thirst for anything else
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it became clear to me then how in every part of heaven is paradise, though the grace of the highest good does not rain there in only one way
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so is born, like a shoot, the doubt at the foot of the true; and it is nature that pushes us up hill after hill
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Cantos V to VIII: Mercury and Venus
the greatest gift God, in his generosity, made in creating, and the most in keeping with his goodness, and the one he prizes most, was the freedom of the will, with which all intelligent creatures, all of them and only them, were and are endowed
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be serious, Christians, when you move; do not be like a feather at every wind, nor believe that every water washes you
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diverse voices make sweet notes; so the diverse seats in our life make sweet harmony among these wheels
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one opposes the public sign with the yellow lilies, and the other appropriates it for a party, so that it is hard to see who errs more
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you made me glad, and so you make me clear, for in speaking you moved me to doubt how, from sweet seed, bitter can come
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Cantos IX to XII: Venus and the Sun
here, however, we do not repent, but laugh, not at the fault, which does not return to the mind, but at the worth that ordered and provided. Here one contemplates the art that adorns so much affection, and discerns the good by which the world above makes the one below turn
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your city, the plant of him who first turned his back on his Creator, and of whom so much envy is wept, produces and spreads the cursed flower that led the sheep and the lambs astray, because it made a wolf of the shepherd
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now, reader, stay on your bench, ruminating on what was only proved, if you wish to be glad long before you are tired
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this one, deprived of her first husband, for a thousand one hundred years and more remained despised and obscure, uninvited, until this one
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not to dispense two or three for six, not the fortune of the first vacant benefice, not the tithes, which belong to the poor of God
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Cantos XIII to XVI: The Sun and Mars
and let this always be lead at your feet, to make you move slowly, like a tired man, both at the yes and at the no that you do not see
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well I perceived it was of high praises, because "Resurge" and "Vince" came to me like one who does not understand and hears
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O my frond, in whom I took delight only in waiting, I was your root: such a beginning, in answering, made me
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Florence, within the old walls, whose bells still marked terce and nones, was at peace, sober and modest
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All your things have their death, just as you do; but this is hidden in some that last a long time, and lives are short. And as the turning of the sphere of the Moon covers and uncovers the shores without pause, so Fortune does to Florence
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Cantos XVII to XX: The prophecy and the Eagle
As Hippolytus left Athens because of his merciless and treacherous stepmother, so it is fitting that you leave Florence
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But, even so, with every lie set aside, make your whole vision manifest; and let the scab itch where it is. For if your voice is unpleasant at first taste, it will afterward leave vital nourishment, once it is digested
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Now you, who are you that would sit in the judge's chair to judge from a thousand miles away with the short sight of a hand's span?
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The kingdom of heaven suffers violence from burning love and living hope, which overcomes the divine will: not as man overcomes man, but it overcomes it because it wants to be overcome, and, overcome, it conquers with its benevolence
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For I saw and heard the beak speak, and in its voice I and mine sounded, when in thought it was we and ours
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Cantos XXI to XXIV: Saturn and the fixed stars
They cover their palfreys with their mantles, so that two beasts go under one hide: O patience, you who bear so much
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The little garden plot that makes us so ferocious, while I turned with the eternal Twins, appeared to me entire, from the hills to the river mouths
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Why does my face so enthrall you that you do not turn to the beautiful garden that blooms under the rays of Christ? There is the rose in which the divine Word became flesh; there are the lilies, by whose fragrance the good path was taken
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So the pen leaps and I do not write it: for our imagination, not only speech, is a color too vivid for such folds
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The broad rain of the Holy Spirit, which pours down on the old parchments and on the new, is the syllogism that concluded it in me so keenly that, before it, every demonstration seems blunt to me
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Cantos XXV to XXVIII: The Three Virtues and the Primum Mobile
May the cruelty that shuts me out of the beautiful fold where I slept as a lamb, enemy of the wolves that make war upon it, be overcome; with another voice now, with other wool, I shall return a poet, and at the font of my baptism I shall take the laurel crown
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Now, my son, not tasting the wood was not in itself the cause of so long an exile, but only stepping across the sign
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So that I saw, beyond Gades, the mad passage of Ulysses, and on this side, near, the shore where Europa became a sweet burden
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In shepherd's garb, rapacious wolves can be seen from up here across all the pastures: O defense of God, why do you still lie? Of our blood, the Cahorsines and the Gascons prepare to drink: O good beginning, to what vile end it is fitting that you should fall!
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If your fingers are not enough for such a knot, it is no wonder: from so much not trying it, it has grown hard!
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Cantos XXIX to XXXIII: The Empyrean
Florence does not have as many Lapi and Bindi as the fables shouted from the pulpit each year, here and there: so that the little sheep, who do not know, come back from the pasture full of wind, and not seeing the harm does not excuse them
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Thus I prayed; and she, as far away as she seemed, smiled and looked at me; then she turned back to the eternal fountain
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The wound that Mary closed and anointed, she who is so beautiful at her feet is the one who opened it and pricked it
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From here on my seeing was greater than speech shows, which yields to such a sight, and memory yields to such excess. Like one who sees in a dream, of whom the impressed emotion remains after the dream, and the rest does not return to the mind
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Lady, you are so great and are worth so much that whoever desires grace and does not turn to you wants his desire to fly without wings