Original subtitles

mr. Galilei my name is full Garcia I'm a

student of physics for three nights I

have been unable to sleep I can't

reconcile the decree of the Holy Office

which I've read with the satellites of

Jupiter which I've seen so this morning

I decided to perform Mass and then come

to see you to tell me Jupiter has no

moons no the decree has shocked me into

realizing that unrestricted research is

dangerous I've decided to give up

astronomy but first I felt I had to tell

you my reasons

such reasons are familiar to me you mean

of course certain pressures exerted by

the church but there is something else

I'd like to talk to you about my family

I don't come from the great city my

parents are peasants in the Campania

they know about growing olives but not

much about anything else often these

days as I observe the phases of Venus I

can see my mother and father and sister

sitting by the stove at home and a

rafters blackened by the smoke of

centuries I can see the spoons in their

roughened hands they're very poor but

underlying their poverty there is a sort

of order routine rhythm

my father's back wasn't bowed all at

once but little by little each year

regularly year after year childbearing

made my mother more and more sexless

what gives them the strength to sweat

with loaded baskets of the stony paths

to bear children even to eat is the

sense of stability of necessity which

they get from the sight of the trees

turning green every year from the sight

of the soil and the little church

they've been told the eye of God is on

them and that the whole pageant of the

world was written around them that they

might be saved

well what would they say if I told them

that they're living on a little chunk of

stone spinning an empty space around a

second-rate star what would be the use

of their patience then of their

acquiescence in their misery what

comfort would there be in Holy Scripture

which demonstrates the necessity of

their submission and they sweat if Holy

Scripture is shown to be full of error

no they feel they've been cheated I can

see their eyes waver I can see them put

down their spoons on the table hunger is

just going without food not a test of

strength they'd say effort is just

bending and carrying not a virtue

so can you wonder if I see in the decree

of the Holy Office and Noble and

motherly compassion a great magnanimity

well at least you found out that the

crux of the matter is not the satellites

of Jupiter but the peasants of the

companion and don't talk to me about the

beauty that radiates from suffering do

you know our peril develops in an oyster

the jagged grain of sand gets inside the

oyster shell and makes its life

unbearable the oyster exudes slime to

cover the grain of sand and that

eventually hardens into a pearl the

oyster nearly dies in the process

to hell with a pearl give me the healthy

oyster virtue of the monopoly of poverty

if your parents were prosperous and

happy they could develop the virtues of

happiness and prosperity do you want me

to lie to your people

we must be silent from the highest of

motives the inward piece of less

fortunate souls if I condoned this

decree and left your parents undisturbed

my motives might not be entirely

disinterested easy life no persecution

and so on would you like to see a

Shalini timepiece that Cardinal Bella

means coachman delivered here this

morning and as a reward for leaving your

mother and father's peace untroubled the

government offers me the wine they

produce by the sweat of their brow the

brow which as you know was made in God's

image

mr. Galilei I am a priest you're also

physicist you can see that Venus has

phases can you machinery be devolved to

control rivers if physicists are

forbidden to study the greatest

machinery of all the mechanism of the

Stars bodies with the tracks of witches

riding on broomsticks you don't think if

it is true would make its way without us

truth prevails as far as we make it

they don't rose themselves and learn to

think the best irrigation systems in the

world can't help them I can see their

divine patience but where is their

divine love they're tired you were

physicist here is what draws the ocean

when it absent flows let it line there

thou shalt not read

already you are a physicist an apple of

the tree of knowledge he can't wait he

will sit down he'll rot in hell for all

eternity and yet look at him where are

his manners sometimes I think I would

willingly be imprisoned in a dungeon

fathoms under the earth if in exchange I

could find out one thing what is light

and the worst of it is I find something

out I have to tell others about it like

I don't understand this sentence I'll

explain it

I

Ludovico likes entertaining this is for

the long dining table it's got to be

perfect

his mother notices every stage she's not

too happy about father's books any more

than father Jack ammu oh he hasn't

written a book for years in Rome a long

time ago very important ecclesiastic

tell me things about astronomy Virginia

I want to talk to you about your

marriage you're such a young thing you

have no mother and your father just puts

pieces of ice and water the marriage is

too serious a business I wouldn't ask

your father questions about your

marriage

he always says such dreadful things and

always at mealtimes with a young man a

bear

he hadn't half a screw des worth of

shame in him never has had I'm thinking

what the future has in store I think you

should go to see a real astronomer at

the University and have him cast your

horoscope so you know where you stand

what does that beam already tell me I've

got to be very careful for the next

three months because the Sun is in Aries

but after that I get a very favorable

ascendant and the clouds will part and

as long as I don't lose sight of Jupiter

I may go on any journey I please because

I'm an Aries easily

miss Galilee listing just thought I'd

bring you a book that might interest

your father it's about the great issue

of the moment for heaven's sake don't

disturb mr. Galilee I can't help feeling

that every minute taken from that great

man is a minute stolen from Italy I just

put the book in your little hand and

disappear