August 10, 2004
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But all things then were oracle and secret.
Remember the night when,
lost, returning, we turned back
Confused, and our headlights
singled out the fox?
Our thoughts went with it then,
turning and turning back
With the same terror,
into the deep thicket Beside the highway,
at home in the dark thicket.
I say the wood within is the dark wood….
In memory of Justice,
Dante excerpts:
Canto I
Nel mezzo del cammin di nostra vita
mi ritrovai per una selva oscura,
che la diritta via era smarrita.
Ahi quanto a dir qual era é cosa dura
esta selva e selvaggia e aspra e forte
che nel pensier rinova la paura!
Midway in the journey of our life
I found myself in a dark wood,
for the straight way was lost.
Ah, how hard it is to tell what that
wood was, wild, rugged, harsh;
the very thought of it renews the fear!
Canto III
Per me si va ne la città dolente,
per me si va ne l’etterno dolore,
per me si va tra la perduta gente.
Giustizia mosse il mio alto fattore;
fecemi la divina podestate,
la somma sapïenza e ‘l primo amore.
Dinanzi a me non fuor cose create
se non etterne, e io etterno duro.
Lasciate ogne speranza, voi ch’intrate.
Through me you enter the woeful city,
through me you enter eternal grief,
through me you enter among the lost.
Justice moved my high maker;
the divine power made me,
the supreme wisdom, and the primal love.
Before me nothing was created
if not eternal, and eternal I endure.
Abandon every hope, you who enter.
– Translation by Charles S. Singleton,
selection by Paul J. Viscuso
Justice moved my high maker…
From the day Justice died,
Friday, August 6, 2004,
The Feast of the Metamorphosis:
