What Dante Told Me

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.'