Cuore di Dante (Dante’s Heart), drawn by Iluá Hauck da Silva, on the day/night of the 700th anniversary of his death.
Through me you go to the healthy city
Through me to everlasting wellbeing you go
Through me you go and pass among saved souls
Justice inspired my exalted Creator.
I am a creature of the Holiest Power,
of Wisdom in the Highest and of Primal Love.
Nothing until I was made was made, only
eternal beings. And I eternally bless.
Embrace all your hope, you who enter here.
These words of bright tone
I saw written on the summit of a door.
I turned: ‘Their meaning, sir, for me is hard.’
And he, seeing through me, sharply answered:
‘You needs must here surrender all your doubts.
All taint of cowardice must here be dead.
We now have come here, as I have said, you will see
in blissfulness the souls of those who’ve found
the good that heart and mind desire to win.’
And then he placed his hand on mine,
while smiling, to comfort me,
and set on to enter shared things,
Differences that, here, are compassionately accepted
and genuinely understood.
Poetry & art by Iluá Hauck da Silva
