All 9 Uses
discern
in
Dante's Inferno — translated by Longfellow
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- 'Since thou wouldst fain so inwardly discern,
Briefly will I relate,' she answered me,
'Why I am not afraid to enter here.†Canto 1.1-11discern = notice or understand something - People I saw on a great river's bank;
Whence said I: "Master, now vouchsafe to me,
That I may know who these are, and what law
Makes them appear so ready to pass over,
As I discern athwart the dusky light."†Canto 1.1-11 - Obscure, profound it was, and nebulous,
So that by fixing on its depths my sight
Nothing whatever I discerned therein.†Canto 1.1-11 *discerned = noticed something that is not obvious - We were a little distant from it still,
But not so far that I in part discerned not
That honourable people held that place.†Canto 1.1-11 - And he to me: "Across the turbid waves
What is expected thou canst now discern,
If reek of the morass conceal it not."†Canto 1.1-11discern = notice or understand something - And I: "Its mosques already, Master, clearly
Within there in the valley I discern
Vermilion, as if issuing from the fire
They were."†Canto 1.1-11 - But truly, if I well discern, a little
Before His coming who the mighty spoil
Bore off from Dis, in the supernal circle,
Upon all sides the deep and loathsome valley
Trembled so, that I thought the Universe
Was thrilled with love, by which there are who think
The world ofttimes converted into chaos;
And at that moment this primeval crag
Both here and elsewhere made such overthrow.†Canto 1.12-22 - "If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,"
Replied I to him, "not yet would you be
In banishment from human nature placed;
For in my mind is fixed, and touches now
My heart the dear and good paternal image
Of you, when in the world from hour to hour
You taught me how a man becomes eternal;
And how much I am grateful, while I live
Behoves that in my language be discerned.†Canto 1.12-22discerned = noticed something that is not obvious - Inferno: Canto XXXIV
"'Vexilla Regis prodeunt Inferni'
Towards us; therefore look in front of thee,"
My Master said, "if thou discernest him."†Canto 1.23-34discernest = notice or understand somethingstandard suffix: Today, the suffix "-est" is dropped, so that where they said "Thou discernest" in older English, today we say "You discern."
Definitions:
-
(1)
(discern) to notice or understand something -- often something that is not obvious
- (2) (meaning too rare to warrant focus)