Saturday, April 21, 2012

Envy


“That high light which is the only object of your longing.”
-Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, C.XIII. 86-87


It was a light like early morning,
like late afternoon. Yellow
and white and glowing.
Shimmering, fringed with fire;
Everything was holy.

He told me in a letter, in a look
that there was another. How good
to feel my heart change within me, loosened,
plied by love, consoled by the promise
of what I could not buy.

The corridor stretched its walls of glass, molten in sun,
leading me to the next house with its wooden stairs.
She knelt at his feet, her hands weaving.
I could be glad for them. I can, I will.
I am.




Quote: “Plied by love” – Dante Alighieri, Purgatorio, C.XIII. 39
English translation by Allen Mandelbaum.

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