O you, who in some pretty boat, Eager to listen, have been following Behind my ship, that singing sails along Turn back to look again upon your own shores; Tempt not the deep, lest unawares, In losing me, you yourselves might be lost. The sea I sail has never yet been passed; Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. You other few who have neck uplifted Betimes to the bread of angels upon Which one lives and does not grow sated, Well may you launch your vessel Upon the deep sea.
Dante AlighieriPure essence, and pure matter, and the two joined into one were shot forth without flaw, like three bright arrows from a three-string bow.
Dante AlighieriImagination, that dost so abstract us That we are not aware, not even when A thousand trumpets sound about our ears!
Dante AlighieriThus you may understand that love alone is the true seed of every merit in you, and of all acts for which you must atone.
Dante AlighieriThose ancients who in poetry presented the golden age, who sang its happy state, perhaps, in their Parnassus, dreamt this place. Here, mankind's root was innocent; and here were every fruit and never-ending spring; these streams--the nectar of which poets sing.
Dante Alighieri