Her eyes like stars
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Lucevan li occhi suoi più che la stella; e cominciommi a dir soave e piana, con angelica voce, in sua favella:
Her eyes shone brighter than the star, and she began to speak to me, gentle and clear, with an angelic voice, in her own tongue:
Her eyes shone brighter than the star, and she began to speak to Virgil, gentle and clear, with an angelic voice, in her own tongue.
Beatrice is described only by light and sound: eyes that outshine <i>la stella</i>, a voice called <i>angelica</i>. Dante withholds her name and gives her radiance instead, so that she arrives as a being of heaven before she is a person.
<i>Soave e piana</i> — sweet and plain — is how grace speaks: not overwhelming but clear, meeting the listener where he is. The line hands the speaking over to her, and the next tercets are her voice inside Virgil's, inside Dante's.
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