Ciardi Translation Quotes

“Thus it was up to God, to Him alone
in His own ways - by one or both, I say -
to give man back his whole life and perfection.

But since a deed done is more prized the more
it manifests within itself the mark
of the loving heart and goodness of the doer,

the Everlasting Love, whose seal is plain
on all the wax of the world was pleased to move
in all His ways to raise you up again.

There was not, nor will be, from the first day
to the last night, an act so glorious
and so magnificent, on either way.

For God, in giving Himself that man might be
able to raise himself, gave even more
than if he had forgiven him in mercy.

All other means would have been short, I say,
of perfect justice, but that God's own Son
humbled Himself to take on mortal clay.

-Paradiso, Canto VII”
― Dante Alighieri, The Divine Comedy: Inferno - Purgatorio - Paradiso