Dante's Final Vision

Now shall my telling of what I remember
Fall far below the babbling of a baby
Still bathing its tongue at the mother’s breast.
Not that there is more than a single semblance
Within that living Light on which I looked
And which is always what it was before,
But by the sight that gathered strength in me
As I gazed on, what was One in appearance
Was altering for me as I was changing.
In the profound and shining-clear Existence
Of the deep Light appeared to me three circles
Of one dimension and three different colors.
One seemed to be reflected by the other,
Rainbow by rainbow, while the third seemed fire
Breathed equally from one and from the other.
O how pale now is language and how paltry
For my conception! And for what I saw
My words are not enough to call them meager.
O everlasting Light, you dwell alone
In yourself, know yourself alone, and known
And knowing, love and smile upon yourself!
That middle circle which appeared in you
To be conceived as a reflected light,
After my eyes had studied it a while,
Within itself and in its coloring
Seemed to be painted with our human likeness
So that my eyes were wholly focused on it.
As the geometer who sets himself
To square the circle and who cannot find,
For all his thought, the principle he needs,
Just so was I on seeing this new vision
I wanted to see how our image fuses
Into the circle and finds its place in it,
Yet my wings were not meant for such a flight —
Except that then my mind was struck by lightning
Through which my longing was at last fulfilled.
Here powers failed my high imagination:
But by now my desire and will were turned,
Like a balanced wheel rotated evenly,
By the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.

-from Dante's Paradiso, Canto XXXIII (Cotter Translation)