Here is a poem from Dante’s Vita Nuova (xix, 31-36). I originally translated it for my book-in-progress that I’m calling Ethics from Fiction: Philosophy and Literature in Dante and Modern Times<\/i>. I recently deleted this particular poem from the manuscript because I decided it was a digression. I don’t actually like it all that much, and I’m not sure that Dante did, either. Ever since Mark Musa’s Dante\u2019s Vita Nuova: A Translation and an Essay<\/i> (Bloomington, 1973), some have interpreted the Vita Nuova as Dante’s self-critique. His main problem is that he doesn’t know the object of his love poems, Beatrice, so his poems are self-indulgent. Here he uses the theme of the “Lady Passes” to praise a woman who is a distant figure him:<\/p>\n
My lady is desired in highest heaven<\/p>\n
And I want you to discern her virtue too.<\/p>\n
If you\u2019d seem a noble lady, I say: Go,<\/p>\n
Walk with her as she passes through the streets,<\/p>\n
For into villainous hearts Love drives ice,<\/p>\n
And all thoughts freeze until they perish;<\/p>\n
And anyone who dares remain and watch<\/p>\n
Must become a noble thing, or else he dies.<\/p>\n
It is better in Italian–click below.<\/p>\n
\nMadonna \u00e8 disiata in sommo cielo:<\/p>\n
or voi di sua virt\u00f9 farvi savere.<\/p>\n
Dico, qual vuol gentil donna parere<\/p>\n
vada con lei, che quando va per via,<\/p>\n
gitta nei cor villani Amore un gelo<\/p>\n
per che onne lor pensero agghiaccia e pere;<\/p>\n
e qual soffrisse di starla a vedere<\/p>\n
diverria nobil cosa, o si morria.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Here is a poem from Dante’s Vita Nuova (xix, 31-36). I originally translated it for my book-in-progress that I’m calling Ethics from Fiction: Philosophy and Literature in Dante and Modern Times. I recently deleted this particular poem from the manuscript because I decided it was a digression. I don’t actually like it all that much, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[16],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5545","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-verse-and-worse"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5545"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5545\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5545"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5545"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/peterlevine.ws\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5545"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}