Once again, the Sommo Poeta hijacks my mind for a day. This time, first terzina of the 18th canto of Paradiso:

Già si godea solo del suo verbo

Quello specchio beato, ed io gustava

lo mio, temprando col dolce l'acerbo.

And so that divine mirror

savoured his words, and I mine,

tempering the bitter with the sweet.

The pilgrim has just been told by one of his ancestors in Heaven that long years of exile await him (the bitter), but that his account of this period, the Commedia itself, will provide 'vital nourishment' through the ages for those who read it. Dante clearly had no doubt about the scope and importance of what he was doing, and he was right, so fair dues.

Dante carries on the idea of knowledge and words as food, 'vital nourishment', in the fact that he 'tastes' this prophecy, gustava. The Italian for what the ancestor Cacciaguida is doing, gode(v)a, is literally 'enjoying' or 'taking pleasure in', but considering it's sandwiched between two eating metaphors, I always imagine him 'chewing on' his words with some satisfaction. This verse does a magnificent job of capturing the 'deep silence', perhaps of the moment one rearranges oneself in the light of new knowledge or a profound idea, and also of putting into contrast the pilgrim (uncompleted, an alloy rather than the pure element, implied in temprando) and the already-blessed spirit (whole, pure, solo). Although the mirror is Cacciaguida himself reflecting the Divine essence, he is also reflecting the pilgrim, who understands the whole of himself in the word and presence of his ancestor.

It was playing on my mind probably because the two subjects of word-eating and silence have come up often in one of my classes. We had talked about the book Firmin, about a mouse who learns to read by eating his way through a bookshop, and also extensively about silence - you can find musings on both at ascoltareilsilenzio.blogspot.com. And here in this verse of Dante's we seem to have the two things combined - as usual, he got there first.

It's very difficult to explain how Dante conjures 'deep silence' with these lines. Cacciaguida seems withdrawn, statuesque, self-sufficient, probably because he is satisfied with his speech and his speech alone, solo del suo verbo, originating as it does from God. The pilgrim, as we mentioned above, tastes his fate, a bitter pill to swallow...perhaps eating and silence go hand in hand because we have all been taught - don't speak with your mouth full!