Today, Forese’s response to Dante’s first poem. There are a few useful things to know here: Alighiero di Bellincione, Dante’s father, was a moneylender, and his appearance here is probably supposed to be spectral. Also, Solomon’s knot is an ancient design, represented above, and was a symbol of natural perfection for medievals.

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Forese to Dante

The other night I got a bad cough
because I had no clothes to wear.
And so, as soon as it was day, I set out
to earn some money however I could.
Now listen to the luck I managed:
thinking I’d discovered pearls in a boxwood
and florins coined from red gold,
instead I found Alighiero down among the graves,
bound by a knot whose name I don’t know—
it might have been Solomon’s, or the work of some other sage.
I crossed myself before the rising sun,
and then he cried, “For the love of Dante,
untie me!” But I couldn’t see how,
so I left him there and went on my way.

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L’altra notte mi venne una gran tosse,
perch’i’ non avea che tener a dosso;
ma incontanente che fu di’, fui mosso
per gir a guadagnar ove che fosse.
Udite la fortuna ove m’addosse:
ch’i’ credetti trovar perle in un bosso
e be’ fiorin coniati d’oro rosso;
ed i’ trovai Alaghier tra le fosse,
legato a nodo ch’i’ non saccio il nome,
se fu di Salamone o d’altro saggio.
Allora mi segna’ verso ‘l levante:
e que’ mi disse: “Per amor di Dante,
scio’mi”. Ed i’ non potti veder come:
tornai a dietro, e compie’ mi’ vïaggio.