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| (1) [1]. Patruus vester Alexander, comes illustris, qui diebus proximis celestem unde venerat secundum spiritum remeavit ad patriam, dominus meus erat et memoria eius usque quo sub tempore vivam dominabitur michi, quando magnificentia sua, que super astra nunc affluenter dignis premis muneratur, me sibi ab annosis temporibus sponte sua fecit esse subiectum. Hec equidem, cunctis aliis virtutibus comitata in illo, suum nomen pre titulis Ytalorum ereum illustrabat. | (1) This letter was written by Dante Alighieri to the Counts Oberto and Guido da Romena, after the death of their uncle, Count Alessandro da Romena, to condole with them on his decease. Your uncle, the illustrious Count Alessandro, who in these last days returned, after the spirit, to the heavenly fatherland whence he came, was my Lord, and his memory will have dominion over men so long as my life shall last in this world; for his nobility of soul, which now is richly recompensed with meet rewards beyond the stars, for long years past, as he willed, made me his servant. And verily this quality, accompanied as it was in him by all the other virtues, caused his name to stand out, as it were in bronze, above the fame of other Italians. | |
| (2) Et quid aliud heroica sua signa dicebant, nisi «scuticam vitiorum fugatricem ostendimus»? Argenteas etenim scuticas in purpureo deferebat extrinsecus, et intrinsecus mentem in amore virtutum vitia repellentem. | (2) And what else did his heroic escutcheon proclaim, but that 'we display the scourge that drives away vice'? for as his outward blazon he bore silver scourges on a purple field, and inwardly a mind repellent of vice in its love of virtue. | |
| (3) Doleat ergo, doleat progenies maxima Tuscanorum, que tanto viro fulgebat, et doleant omnes amici eius et subditi, quorum spem mors crudeliter verberavit; inter quos ultimos me miserum dolere oportet, qui a patria pulsus et exul inmeritus infortunia mea rependens continuo cara spe memet consolabar in illo. | (3) Lament, therefore, lament, thou noblest of the houses of Tuscany, that shone with the light of so great a man! Lament, all ye his friends and servants, whose hope death hath so cruelly stricken; and among the last, woe is me! must I too lament, who, driven from my country, in undeserved exile, was wont, as I brooded over my unhappy fate with unceasing anxiety, to console myself with the hope which I rested in him. | |
| (4) [2]. Sed quanquam, sensualibus amissis, doloris amaritudo incumbat, si considerentur intellectualia que supersunt, sane mentis oculis lux dulcis consolationis exoritur. | (4) But although the bitterness of grief weigh upon us for the loss of corporeal things, yet, when we consider the intellectual things which remain, surely before the eyes of the mind must arise the light of sweet consolation. | |
| (5) Nam qui virtutem honorabat in terris, nunc a Virtutibus honoratur in celis; et qui Romane aule palatinus erat in Tuscia, nunc regie sempiterne aulicus preelectus in superna Ierusalem cum beatorum principibus gloriatur. | (5) For he, by whom virtue was honoured on earth, is now held in honour of the Virtues in heaven; and he who was a Palatine of the Court of Rome in Tuscany now glories as a chosen courtier with the princes of the Blest in the everlasting palace of the Jerusalem which is above. | |
| (6) Quapropter, carissimi domini mei, supplici exhortatione vos deprecor quatenus modice dolere velitis et sensualia postergare, nisi prout vobis exemplaria esse possunt; et quemadmodum ipse iustissimus bonorum sibi vos instituit in heredes, sic ipsi vos, tanquam proximiores ad illum, mores eius egregios induatis. | (6) Wherefore, my beloved Lords, with humble exhortation I beseech you to grieve not overmuch, and to put behind you bodily concerns, save in so far as they may serve you for examples; and as he himself, a most just man, appointed you to be the heirs of his possessions, so do you, as those nearest to him, clothe yourselves with his most excellent qualities. | |
| (7) [3]. Ego autem, preter hec, me vestrum vestre discretioni excuso de absentia lacrimosis exequiis; quia nec negligentia neve ingratitudo me tenuit, sed inopina paupertas quam fecit exilium. | (7) But I must add a word on my own behalf, in appeal to your judgement, to excuse myself, as your servant, for my absence from the mournful ceremony; for it was neither neglect nor ingratitude which kept me away, but the unlooked-for poverty brought about by exile. | |
| (8) Hec etenim, velut effera persecutrix, equis armisque vacantem iam sue captivitatis me detrusit in antrum, et nitentem cunctis exsurgere viribus, hucusque prevalens, impia retinere molitur. | (8) Poverty, like a vindictive fury, has thrust me, deprived of horses and arms, into her prison den, where she has set herself relentlessly to keep me in durance; and though I struggle with all my strength to get free, she has hitherto prevailed against me. | |