Saturday, April 21, 2007

Latin, asks Princess Haiku


If you have ever longed to read Dante's Paradisio in Latin, this learning space is for you.


“Beauty awakens the soul to act.”

"Beatrice meeting Dante at a marriage feast, denies him her salutation"


Dante received a thorough education in both classical and Christian literature. At the age of 12 he was promised to his future wife, Gemma Donati. Dante had already fallen in love with another girl whom he called Beatrice. She was 9 years old. Years later Dante met Beatrice again. He had become interested in writing verse, and although he wrote several sonnets to Beatrice, he never mentioned his wife Gemma in any of his poems. One of his early sonnets Dante sent to the poet Guido Cavalcanti, which started their friendship. Dante also dedicated his first book to Cavalcanti. The work, LA VITA NUOVA (1292), celebrated Dante's love for Beatrice. The nature of his love had its roots in the medieval concept of "courtly love" and the idealization of women. According to another theory, Beatrice was actually a symbol of 'Santa Sapienza', which united secret societies of the day. Harold Bloom in The Western Canon (1994) sees Beatrice as Dante's greatest muse, his invention, who saved him "by giving him his greatest image for poetry, and he saved her from oblivion, little as she may have wanted such salvation."

8 comments:

Zazie said...

Princess,

thanks a lot for your kindness!

I hope your subconscious has brought you some good messages!

I want to be able to believe in your dream world! I want to hope in it!

Thanks!!!

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I read the "Divina Commedia" when I was at high school...

I think passages about the Paradise are really sensational!

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Have a nice weekend and thanks again!

vanishingword said...

Voila! C'est moi!

Diane Dehler said...

Zazie, I want to believe in my dream world too since I live in it. :)

Unknown said...

my dear princess, it's so hard to keep up with you. look away for a few days, and I have tons to catch up on,..not complaining!

mystic rose said...

interesting!! and wow.. thanks for the link.

Anonymous said...

umm, a not so erudite comment I'm afraid:

Dante's Inferno, summer at the beach, age 22 or so.....

really cured me of all my Dante fantasies ...

But Duras? Colette? Nin? .... now THEY were the ladies to read that summer ...

Why, I can still remember reading portions of Nin out loud to my mother and aunt ... I felt so gloriously 'worldly' ...

hindsight is always 20 / 20, isn't it princess?

Diane Dehler said...

RDG- I do hope you used sun block that summer in purgatory when you read Dante's Inferno. :)

Anonymous said...

Princess,

Considering my age at the time...I am sure it was minimal at best... and i believe i was living out a certain circle of Dante's hell at the time...

<:)

rdg