DANTE

Inferno 2.73 · 2.73

I will praise you to my Lord

Read the full text in our reader

Quando sarò dinanzi al segnor mio, di te mi loderò sovente a lui”. Tacette allora, e poi comincia’ io:

When I stand before my Lord, I will often praise you to him.” She fell silent then, and I began:

Word by word

QuandoKWAN-dohWhensaròsa-ROI shall bedinanzidee-NAN-tseebeforealalthesegnorseh-NYORLordmioMEE-ohmy,dideeoftetehyoumimeeme, myselfloderòloh-deh-ROI will praisesoventeso-VEN-tehoftenaahtoluiLOO-eehim.Tacetteta-CHET-tehShe fell silentalloraal-LOH-rathen,eehandpoipoythencomincia’koh-meen-CHAbeganioEE-ohI:

The setting

When I stand before my Lord, Beatrice says, I will often praise you to him. Then she fell silent, and Virgil began his reply.

A note on this passage

Beatrice offers Virgil the only reward Heaven can give a soul in Limbo: to be spoken of well before God. It is a delicate, moving promise, and it seals the bargain.

With <i>Tacette allora</i> the frame shifts back one layer — Virgil resumes his own voice, quoting himself answering her. Dante keeps the nested speeches perfectly ordered, so the reader never loses which voice is speaking inside which.

Read the full commentary — and tap any word for its dictionary entry — in the interlinear reader.

Open Inferno 2.73 in the full reader

Always open passages in the reader

From the Great Library

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 2.73 — The Great Library Project interlinear edition · greatlibraryproject.com/book/dante-inferno/2.73/