Little flowers at dawn
Read the full text in our reader
Quali fioretti dal notturno gelo chinati e chiusi, poi che ’l sol li ’mbianca, si drizzan tutti aperti in loro stelo,
As little flowers, bent and closed by the night's frost, straighten and open wide on their stems once the sun brightens them,
A simile of recovery: as little flowers, bent and closed by the night's frost, straighten and open on their stems once the sun whitens them,
The canto's fear finally breaks into one of Dante's loveliest images. Flowers shut tight by the cold night reopen the instant the sun touches them — a picture of the soul thawing from dread into courage.
The <i>fioretti</i> do not decide to open; they respond, helplessly, to warmth. So Dante's recovery is not willed but drawn out of him by the sun of Virgil's words and the love behind them. The simile hands the change over to grace, gently.
Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.
Open Inferno 2.127 in the full reader
Always open passages in the reader
You are reading a page of the Inferno — the whole book is free in our interlinear reader.
The Great Library Project presses the classics in their original languages, glossed word by word — free to read, always. Browse the whole library.
Also on our shelves:
Inferno 2.127 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.127/