I am Beatrice
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I’ son Beatrice che ti faccio andare; vegno del loco ove tornar disio; amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare.
I am Beatrice, who send you on this errand; I come from the place I long to return to; love moved me, and love makes me speak.
She names herself at last: I am Beatrice, who make you go; I come from the place I long to return to; love moved me, and makes me speak.
The name arrives like a chord: <i>I' son Beatrice</i>. Everything before this has been leading to it, and it explains the light, the voice, the descent into Limbo.
The last line gives the poem its first principle: <i>amor mi mosse, che mi fa parlare</i> — love moved me, and makes me speak. The entire machinery of salvation, from the empyrean down to this shade, runs on love; and love is also the source of speech, of the very words that will carry Dante through Hell.
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