The characters of the “Divine Comedy” by Dante appear throughout Borges's entire work. At the end of his life, the writer even dedicates a series of lectures to Dante, including the cycle “Nine Essays on Dante.” Being a master of accurate and capacious writing, Borges notes that he learnt from Date a technique of expressing an idea with a single gesture, which may have a story behind. Drawing on the broad tradition of literary criticism of Dante's works, Borges states that poetry about Beatrice's smile is one of the key parts in the poem. The analysis of this scene allows Borges to reconsider the content of the poem itself and its place in Dante's life.