C.S. Lewis "Poi si torno all eterna fontana"

[Anonymous]

Hey if anyone could help a student out It would be much appreciated, thanks
Here is the quote again Poi si torno all eterna fontana

It comes from C.S. Lewis's book Grief Observed. It is the last sentence of the whole book and is very powerful but I wanted to know the exact meaning.
thank yo u for the help, Jonny C

 

[Jason210]

Poi si torno all eterna fontana

That looks awfully like Italian to me! But it's not quite how I would expect to see italian written. May be it's very old Italian?

"Poi" is definitely Italian, and means "then".

"si torno" means "he/she returned"

"all'eterna fontana" means "to the eternal fountain", although I would have expected to see it that written as "alla fontana eterna" But I suspect it's an old quote - or a poetical one. Perhaps Dante or someone like that.

So "Then he returned to the eternal fountain". Hope that makes sense in your context - I'm quite certain of the translation.

 

[Jason210]

I was thinking further about this, and checked my dictionary and saw that in Latin the word "fontana" means spring, as in source of a river. It could mean "spring" in Italian too.

I think the sentence is saying that bascially, this person returned to his source - in other words - he died. I suppose that would be down a ending on the story sorry...

 

[Anonymous]

That is Italian, but "si torno" is reflexive: I return myself. "Then I return to the eternal font" would be a basic translation.

 

[Jason210]

That is Italian, but "si torno" is reflexive: I return myself. "Then I return to the eternal font" would be a basic translation.

Thanks David - and I'm glad you brought that up because it is confusing text this. The "si torno"' is something that puzzled me too, and I did think about it.

It is reflexive, but if it was "I return" that would be translated as "mi torno". Si is just wrong in this case. "Si" means himself/herself/itself, and that's why I thought this looked weird.

Since the text uses the word "then" (poi), this gives the imrpession that this is a narrative. That would make a present indicative translation (I return) sound odd. The past definite is the usual form verbs take in a narrative.

"Torno" is indeed the 1st person present indicative form of the verb. However, the past definite form of the verb iin 3rd person is actually very similar - it is "tornò", with a stress accent on the o. So "Si tornò" means "he/she turned himself/herself".

The problem is the absence of punctuation. Since the apostrophy is clearly missing from "all eterna" (should be all'eterna"), weighing up this and all the other evidence we can also assume that the accent is missing from the ò of tornò, hence the confusion.

So the basic translation is:

"Then he (or she) returned to the eternal source."

It's describing a death. The "then" kind of suggests that the person did something just before he died. I'm all curious about the story now!

Jason

 

[Anonymous]

THANK YOU!

Jason and whoever else worked on a reply thankyou so much. If you read the book
Grief Observed by C.S Lewis you will understand the quote better and how much weight it carries. It is a pretty incredible story and I reccomend it to all, especially those who have recently lost someone.
thank you and Peace, Jon Carpenter

 

[Jason210]

Re: THANK YOU!

Jon

Your welcome - and I'm glad to have been of help. I'll keep an eye open for the book.

/Jason

 

[Iynx]

It is Dante: Paradisio XXXI, 93. Ciardi and Mandelbaum have each the identical translation: "Then she turned back to the eternal fountain". The "she" is certainly Beatrice; I think that the eternal fountain is the Divine Presence.

 

[Jason210]

It is Dante: Paradisio XXXI, 93. Ciardi and Mandelbaum have each the identical translation: "Then she turned back to the eternal fountain". The "she" is certainly Beatrice; I think that the eternal fountain is the Divine Presence.

Nice work Inyx. Funny how I always assume "he" in these situations.

"Turned back" works better than "returned".

The only thing that surprises me here is "fountain". I would have thought source / spring might have been better.

 

[Anonymous]

It is Italian.

Any student of CS Lewis has to be great!

It loosly translates to something even better than - just dying.

CS Lewis undestood things far greater than just "life" and the end thereof. He understood that "dying" is in fact a "returning" or even a "continuing" of what has always been.

He lived, he died, he continues....

Aarius

 

[Chiara Maria]

Hello, I know this is a very old conversation, but I thought it would be helpful for other users that might come here in the future if I said something.

I'm Italian and I can confirm that that is Italian (very old Italian); C.S. Lewis quoted Dante.
"Then she turned back to the eternal fountain" is the translation, just like "lynx" said. In the Divine Comedy, this is referred to Beatrice, who smiled at Dante, and then turned back to the "eternal fountain", who is God.

Also, the Italian "fontana" (fountain) indeed comes from the Latin "(aqua) fontana", which means "(water) that gushes from a spring". The nuance between spring and fountain here is not really important.

C.S. Lewis is comparing himself to Dante and H. (his wife) to Beatrice.