Dante Dancing

I

When he dances of meeting Beatrice that first time,

he is a youth, his body has no real language,

and his heart understands nothing of what has

started. Love like a summer rain after drought,

like the thin cry of a red-tailed hawk, like an angel

sinking his teeth into our throat. He has only

beginner steps to tell of the sheen inside him.

The boy Dante sees her first with the absolute love

possible only when we are ignorant of each other.

Arm cross his face, he runs off. Years go by.

II

The next dance is about their meeting again. He does

an enchaînement around her. Beatrice’s heavy hair is

dark and long. She watches with the occhi dolci.

His jumps are a man’s jumps. His steps have become

The moves of a dancer who understands the dance.

A man who recognizes the body’s greed. She is deep

In her body’s heart. He is splendid. She is lost

And is led away by the aunt. Her family is careful

After that. She goes by in a carriage. He rises,

On his toes, port de bras, his eyes desperate.

Then she is at an upstairs window of the palace.

He dances his sadness brilliantly in the moonlight

below on the empty piazza, concentrating. She moves

the curtain a little to the side, and he is happy.

It is a dream we all know, the perfection of love

That is not real. There is a fountain behind him.

III

It is a few years later and they are finally

in his simple room. His long dance of afterward

is a declaration of joy and of gratitude and devotion.

She dances strangely, putting on her clothes.

A delicate goodbye. Her soul is free now from that

Kind of love. He stands motionless, bewildered,

Watching her go. Then dances his grief wonderfully.

IV

We see Dante as an old man. He is a dancer who can

manage only the simple steps of the beginning.

He dances the romance lost, the love that never was,

And the great love missed because of dreaming.

First position, entrechat, and the smallest jumps.

The passionate quiet. The quieter and strongest.

The special sorrow of a happy, imperfect heart

That finally knows well how to dance. But does not.