Translations

Rime of the Ancient Mariner, Introduction

I can easily believe, that there are more invisible than visible Beings in the universe. But who shall describe for us their families? and their ranks and relationships and distinguishing features and functions? What they do? where they live? The human mind has always circled around a knowledge of these things, never attaining it. I do not doubt, however, that it is sometimes beneficial to contemplate, in thought, as in a Picture, the image of a greater and better world; lest the intellect, habituated to the trivia of daily life, may contract itself too much, and wholly sink into trifles. But at the same time we must be vigilant for truth, and maintain proportion, that we may distinguish certain from uncertain, day from night.

-- T. Burnet, Archaeol. Phil. p. 68 (1692)

Reason, Dante quote

Thanks to Gabriele Ricchiardi for the translation!, which both makes sense and sticks closely to the word order of the original (and also thanks to Ken Cluff and Greg Gross for other translations, partly included here) --

--``tu stesso, ti fai grosso
You yourself, you make yourself ignorant/rough/gross/stupid
Col falso immaginar, sì che non vedi
With false dreaming, so that you do not see
or - By imagining what isn't, ...

Ciò che vedresti, se l'avessi scosso.''
What you could/would see if you would have shaken off [that dreaming, or shaken yourself awake, or could shake it off].

Beatrice (a complex character, partly related to the author's biography) is speaking, while accompanying Dante from the Purgatorio to the Paradiso, in the original--tho' that's probably not all that relevant to Coleridge's use of the quote (probably as relevant as the fact that some of his friends called him Col).

So the entire poem, in English, would be (interpretation up to you):

Whene'er the mist, that stands 'twixt God and thee,
[Sublimates] to a pure transparency,
That intercepts no light and adds no stain--
There Reason is, and then begins her reign!
But alas!

--You yourself, you make yourself stupid
With false dreaming, so that you do not see
What you could see if you would have shaken off [that delusion].

(And why was this so important? --Mostly because here was a poem, half of which was in Italian, which I don't know and which seemed to contain the main point - and I had no idea whether he was reinforcing or contradicting the first half of the poem. Besides, it bugs me not to know things.)

The Æolian Harp, Citoyenne Roland quote

The atheist is not in my eyes a false spirit; I can live with him as well as if not better than with the devotee, because he (i.e., the atheist) reasons better, but he is missing feeling, and my soul is not completely in harmony with his: he is cold to the most charming show, and he is seeking syllogism when I am just transported. An Appeal to Impartial Posterity: A Collection of Pieces Written by her during her Confinement in the Prisons of the Abbey, and St Pélagie, by Citizeness Roland (2 vols., London, 1795), part 3, page 67.

(Thanks to Brigitte Carrabin for the translation!)

Kubla Khan, Greek quote

I'll sing you a sweeter song another day. --Theocritus, I. 145.

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