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Dante, Paradiso, Canto I
loose English translation by Michael R. Burch

Beatrice instructs Dante on his Nature, the Universe's, and God's

"You are not on earth, as you believe;
                                                          indeed,
lightning flashing forth from its abode
could never match your swiftness, bolting home."

If I was freed from my first frantic doubts
by these enlightening words she beamed at me,
I was also struck by new perplexities

and said: "I was content to cashier my amazement,
to rest from wonder, but now I'm absorbed:
how can my body rise above these lighter orbs?"

Then with a heartfelt sigh of gentle pity,
She regarded me with that same wondering look
a mother casts on her delirious child,
and said: "Created things possess an order
within themselves, and this begets the form
that makes the universe resemble God."

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