What Dante Told Me Poem by Paul Hartal

The golden crescent of the moon
was shining through my window
when I fell asleep.
Soon a soft astral darkness enveloped me
bringing along a vivid and strange dream.

A bright sun was shining in the firmament
and I found myself in a Tuscan landscape,
hiking on the old Via Appia.

It was an early afternoon
and suddenly I saw a man in the distance
walking toward me from the south.
As he came closer I recognized him.
It was the poet Dante Alighieri.

'Oh, Sommo Poeta',
I accosted him timidly,
'Please, tell me, does love really exist,
or is it just a romantic figment
of our wishful imagination?
Can love be really perfect,
unconditional and eternal? '

Dante gave me a long inquisitive look.
And then, after a pensive silence
he began to speak:
'Amor himself once told me', he said,
'Ego tanquam centrum circuli,
cui simili modo
se habent circumferentiae partes:
Tu autem non sic! '

But what does this mean? ' I asked.

'It means'. he explained,
'that I'm as the centre of a circle,
to which the parts of the circumference
have a similar relation:
However, you are not so.'

'You forgive me', I said,
'but even in translation
I don't understand it.'

'Well, it means', he said,
'that you shouldn't demand more
than what life can afford to you.'