XLII.
After this, two gentle ladies sent to ask me to send to them some of these rhymed words of mine; wherefore I, thinking on their nobleness, resolved to send to them, and to make a new thing which I would send to them with these, in order that I might fulfill their prayers with the more honor. And I devised then a sonnet which relates my condition, and I sent it to them accompanied by the preceding sonnet, and by another which begins, “To hearken now.” The sonnet which I made then is, “Beyond the sphere,” etc.
This sonnet has five parts. In the first, I say whither my thought goes, naming it by the name of one of its effects. In the second, I saw wherefore it goes on high, namely, who makes it thus to go. In the third, I say what it sees, namely, a lady in honor. And I call it then a pilgrim spirit; since spiritually it goes on high, and as a pilgrim who is out of his own country. In the fourth, I say how he sees her such, namely, of such quality, that I cannot understand it; that is to say, that my thought rises into the quality of her to a degree that my understanding cannot comprehend it; since our understanding is in regard to those blessed souls as weak as our eye is before the sun; and this the Philosopher says in the second book of his Metaphysics. In the fifth, I say that, although I cannot understand there where my thought transports me, namely, to her marvellous quality, at least I understand this, namely, that this my thought is wholly of my lady, for I often hear her name in my thought. And at the end of this fifth part I say “Ladies dear,” to indicate that it is to ladies that I speak. The second part beings, :A new Intelligence;” the third, “When at;” the fourth, “He sees her such;” the fifth, “But at that gentle one.” It might be divided still more subtilely, and its meaning be more fully set forth, but it can pass with this division, and therefore I do not concern myself to divide it further.
Beyond the sphere that widest orbit hath
Passeth the sigh which issues from my heart:
A new Intelligence doth Love impart
In tears to him, which leads him on his path.
When at the wished-for place his flight he stays,
A lady he beholds in honor dight,
Who so doth shine that through her splendid light
The pilgrim spirit upon her doth gaze.
He sees her such that his reporting words
To me are dark, his speech so subtile is
Unto the grieving heart which makes him tell.
But of that gentle one he speaks, I wis,
Since of the Beatrice’s name records;
Thus, ladies dear, I understand him well.