Dante's Divine comedy: poetry reading

Dante's Divine comedy: poetry reading transcript

From ‘Paradiso', the third part of Dante’s Divine comedy, translated by Laurence Binyon

Into the flower descending from the height
Through rank on rank they breathed the peace, the glow,
They gathered as they fanned their sides in flight.
And, spite of the interposing to and fro
Of such a throng 'twixt high heaven and the flower,
Vision and splendour none had to forgo;
For the divine light pierceth with such power
The world, in measure of its complement
Of worth, that naught against it may endure.
This realm of unimperilled ravishment
With spirits thronged from near times and from far
Had look and love all on the one mark bent.