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The Divine Comedy
Translated by
James Finn Cotter
PARADISO
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The glory of
Him who sets all things in motion
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Cleaves
through the universe, and it flames again
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In different
places with a different force.
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I have been to
that heaven where His light
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5
Beams brightest and seen things that none,
returning,
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Has the
knowledge or the power to repeat,
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Because, as it
draws near to its desire,
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Our intellect
sinks down to such a depth
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That memory
cannot trace its way back there.
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10
Nevertheless, whatever I could treasure
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Up in my mind
about that sacred kingdom
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Shall now
become the subject of my song.
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O good Apollo,
for this final task,
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Make me such a
vessel of your virtues
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15
I may deserve the gift of your dear laurel.
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So far, one
summit of Parnassus was
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Enough for me,
but now I need both peaks
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On entering
the arena that remains.
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Come into my
breast and breathe in me
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As you did when you drew Marsyas out
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From the
sheath of his own living flesh.
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O divine
power, but lend yourself to me
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So I may show
the shadow of that blessed
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Kingdom which
is embedded in my brain,
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You’ll see me come to your beloved tree,
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And crown me
then with those same laurel leaves
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Of which this
theme and you shall make me worthy.
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So few times,
father, is any laurel gathered
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For the
triumph of a caesar or a poet —
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Through sin and shame of human willfulness —
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That the
Peneian branch should sprout deep joy
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To the
rejoicing Delphic deity
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When it
inspires anyone with longing.
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A little spark
is followed by huge fires:
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Perhaps, after me, prayers will be so raised
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With stronger
voices that Cyrrha may respond.
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The lamp of
the universe rises for mortals
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Through
various passages, but from that point
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Which joins
four circles with three crosses
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It comes out on a more propitious course,
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With happier
stars to temper and seal tight
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The wax of the
world more molded to its imprint.
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Almost at this
outset day had broken there
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And evening
here, and all that hemisphere
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Was whitening while this other side grew dark,
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When I saw
Beatrice turned to her left hand
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And looking
straight into the sun: never
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Had an eagle
so fixed his sight upon it!
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And as a
second ray will break out from
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The reflection of the first and soar up again,
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Just like a
pilgrim yearning to return,
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So by her
action, streaming through my eyes
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Into my
imagination, my act took shape:
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Past mortal
might my eyes stared at the sun.
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Much is permitted to our faculties there
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That’s not
permitted here, thanks to the place
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Made for the
human race as its true dwelling.
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I did not long
endure it, yet not so brief
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But that I
noticed sparks blaze all about,
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Like iron brought out molten from the forge.
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And at once it
seemed that day was added to
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The day, as if
He who has the power to do so
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Had decked the
heavens with another sun.
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Beatrice stood
with her eyes riveted
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Wholly on the eternal spheres, while I
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Fixed my eyes,
drawn from the sky, on hers.
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So gazing on
her I inwardly became
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Like Glaucus
when he tasted of the grass
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Which made him
consort of the other sea-gods.
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This passing-beyond-the human cannot be
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Expressed in
words; let the example then
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Serve him to
whom grace grants the experience.
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If I were only
that soul in me which you
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Created last,
O Love that rules the heavens,
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You know, who lifted me up with your light.
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When that
revolving, which you make unending
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By longing for
you, captured my attention
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With the
harmony you tune and modulate,
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So much of
heaven then seemed to me aflame
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With fire from the sun that rain or river
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Never formed a
lake that spread so wide.
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The
strangeness of the sound and the bright light
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Inflamed in me
an ardor to know their cause,
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Sharper than I
had ever felt before.
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Then she, who saw me as I see myself,
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To still my
agitated mind, opened
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Her lips
before I opened mine to ask,
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And she began,
"You make yourself so dull
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With false
imaginings that you don’t notice
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What you would see if you could shake them off.
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"You are not
now on earth, as you believe;
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But lightning,
fleeing its place on high, never
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Plummeted
faster than you rise up to yours."
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If I was
stripped of my first puzzlement
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By these brief words which she flashed by her smile,
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I now grew
more entangled with new doubts,
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And I said,
"You have set my mind at rest
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On one deep
wonder, but now I wonder how
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I here can
pass up through these airy bodies."
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After a sigh of pity at these words,
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She turned her
eyes toward me with the look
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A mother might
give to a delirious child,
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And she began,
"All things that are have order
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Among
themselves, and it is this their form
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That makes the universe a mirror of God.
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"In this the
higher creatures see the stamp
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Of the eternal
power, which is the goal
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For which the
rule I mentioned has been made.
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"In the order
that I describe, all natures
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Arrange themselves by different destinations,
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In varying
nearness to their single Source.
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"This is the
cause they move to different harbors
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On the great
sea of being, and each one
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Has instinct
given it to bear it on.
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"This one draws fire upward toward the moon,
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This is the
force that moves in mortal hearts,
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This binds the
earth together and makes it one.
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"This bow
shoots at the mark not only for
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Created things
that lack intelligence
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But for those who have intellect and love.
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"The
Providence that sets all this in order
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With its light
makes that heaven always still
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Within which
whirls the fastest-moving sphere,
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"And to it
now, as to a destined spot,
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The power of that bowstring bears us on,
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Aiming what it
propels at a glad target.
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"It is true
that as the form all too often
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Does not
respond to the intent of art,
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Since the
material is deaf to summons,
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"So sometimes the creature wanders from its course,
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For even
though impelled toward the target,
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It has the
power to swerve some other way
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"(Just as fire
from a cloud can be observed
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To fall
downward), if its first impulse,
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Lured by false pleasure, bend it to the earth.
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"If I judge
rightly, you should no more marvel
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At your ascent
than at a stream that falls
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From the top
of a mountain to the bottom.
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"The wonder
would be if, when freed of hindrance,
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You should have settled down and stayed below,
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As though a
live flame on the earth kept still."
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With that she
turned her gaze once more to heaven.
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O you who are
seated in your little skiffs,
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Zealous to
listen, following in the wake
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Behind my ship
that singing plows her way,
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Turn back to
look again on your own shores:
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Don’t put out on the high seas, for, perhaps,
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In losing me
you may run far adrift!
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The flood I
take was never coursed before.
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Minerva blows,
Apollo pilots me,
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And the nine
Muses point me out the Bears.
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You other few who stretched your necks on high
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In time to
taste the bread of angels which
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People here
feed on, but never have their fill,
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You well may
put your boat out on the deep
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By staying in
the furrow of my wake
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Before the water flows back smooth again.
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Those glorious
men who sailed the sea to Colchis,
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When they saw
Jason turned into a plowman,
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Were not as
thunderstruck as you shall be.
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The inborn,
boundless thirst for that kingdom
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Created in God’s image swept us onward
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Almost as
swiftly as the skies you see.
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Beatrice gazed
upward and I gazed on her;
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And in the
time perhaps it takes an arrow
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To strike the
bull’s-eye, fly, and leave the bow,
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I saw myself arrived at a thing of wonder
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Which drew my
sight to it, and therefore she
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From whom my
close concerns could not be hidden
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Turned toward
me, as glad as she was lovely,
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And said,
"Direct your mind with thanks to God
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Who here has made us one with the first star."
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I thought we
were enveloped in a cloud,
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Shining,
solid, dense, and highly polished
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As a diamond
struck by the sun would be.
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The timeless
pearl took us inside itself
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In the same way that water can receive
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A ray of light
while it remains intact.
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If I was body
(and here we can’t conceive
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How one
dimension can contain another,
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Which has to
be when body enters body),
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All the more should longing then inflame us
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To see that
Essence in which we may see
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How our own
nature and God join in one.
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There shall be
seen what we now hold by faith:
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Not proven to
us, but known on its own,
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Like the first truths believed by human beings.
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I answered,
"My lady, with the best devotion
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That I can
summon, I here give thanks to Him
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Who has raised
me up out of the mortal world.
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"But tell me
what those dark traces are
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Upon this body, which down there on earth
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Cause people
to tell stories about Cain?"
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She smiled a
little, and then said to me,
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"If the
opinion of men errs in matters
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Which the key
of our senses won’t unlock,
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"Surely wonder’s arrows should not pierce you
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From this
point on, since even when you follow
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The senses,
you see that reason’s wings fall short.
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"But tell me
what you think to be the cause?"
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And I: "What
differences here appear to us
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I think result from rare and denser bodies."
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And she:
"Surely you’ll see that your thinking
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Is sunk in
falsehood, if you listen well
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To the
argument that I shall give against it.
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"The eighth
sphere shows to you a myriad
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Of lights which by intensity and number
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Are manifestly
different in appearance.
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"If ‘rare and
dense’ alone could have caused
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All this, one
single power, more or less
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Allotted
equally, would be in all.
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"These different powers have to be the fruits
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Of formal
principles which, with one exception,
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Would by your
way of thinking be destroyed.
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"Again, were
rarity the reason for
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The dark you
ask about, either this planet
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Would lack material from place to place,
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"Or else, just
as the lean and fat are layered
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Throughout the
body, so its density
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Would
alternate like pages in a book.
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"The first, if
it were true, would be made plain
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In the sun’s eclipse, by light shining through,
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As when it
strikes rare bodies of all sorts.
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"This is not
so: we must then view the other
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Alternative,
and if I prove that wrong,
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Your theory
will be shown to be untrue.
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"For if rare matter does not riddle through,
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There must be
a limit where the opposite
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Density
prevents its passing farther;
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"And so the
sun’s rays would be reflected back,
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Just as the
color glances off the mirror
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That has lead backing to seal it from behind.
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"Now you will
say that the ray shows up dimmer
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On one place
than on other areas
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Since it’s
reflected there from farther back.
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"From this
objection — should you care to try —
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You can be set free by experiment
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Which is the
source for the rivers of your arts.
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"Take up three
mirrors, and set two of them
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Equally far
from you, and farther still
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Let the third
meet your eyes between the two.
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"Facing toward them, have a light placed at
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Your back, so
that it shines in the three mirrors
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And comes to
you reflected in them all.
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"Although the
farther image may not look
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As large to
you, you will observe that there
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105
It shines with equal brightness as the others.
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"Now, as
beneath the strokes of warming sunbeams
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The
undersurface of the snow lies bare
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Both of its
former color and its coldness,
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"So, with your
intellect swept bare,
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I will inform you with light so alive
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That it will
shimmer as you look on it.
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"Deep in the
heaven of divine peace
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There whirls a
body in whose power rests
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The being of
all things that it contains.
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"The heaven after it, with brilliant stars,
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Distributes
this being to different essences,
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Distinct from
it and yet contained within it.
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"The other
circles by various degrees
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Dispose the
separate powers in themselves
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120
To their own proper ends and propagation.
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"These organs
of the universe proceed,
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As you now
see, from grade to grade, obtaining
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Their power
from above and acting downward.
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"Pay close
attention now to how I travel
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Through this passage to the truth you long for,
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So that you’ll
learn to cross the ford alone.
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"The motion
and the power of sacred spheres
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Must be
inspired by angelic movers,
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Just as the
hammer’s art is by the smith.
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"And that heaven which myriad lights make lovely
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Takes its
image from the deep Mind that turns it
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And of that
image makes itself the seal.
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"And as the
soul within this dust of yours
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Has been
diffused throughout the different members
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To suit each one to some distinctive function,
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"So the
Intelligence deals out its goodness
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By multiplying
itself among the stars
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As it revolves
on its own unity.
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"Varying power
makes up various mixtures
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With the precious bodies which it enlivens
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And in which
it is bound like life in you.
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"Because of
the glad nature from which it flows,
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This mingled
power shines out through the body
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As gladness
does in the eye’s lively pupil.
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"From this power comes the apparent difference
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Between light
and light, not from dense and rare:
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This is the
formal principle which produces,
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"In proportion
to its goodness, the dark and bright."
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That sun which
first inflamed my breast with love
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Uncovered for
me, with proof and refutation,
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The
sweet-shining features of the lovely truth.
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And I, to
confess myself corrected and
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Convinced, so far as was required, raised
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My head up
high to make my words sound clear.
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But there
appeared a vision which held me bound
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So tightly to
itself, to look at it,
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That I gave no
more thought to my confession.
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As through transparent sheets of polished glass
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Or within
crystal-clear and quiet water
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That’s not so
deep its bottom is opaque,
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The outlines
of our faces show so faintly
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That even a
pearl set on a white forehead
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Reflects no less readily in our eyes:
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So I saw many
faces bent to speak
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And fell into
the error opposite
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To that which
made Narcissus love the fountain.
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The instant I
became aware of them,
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Imagining that they were mirrored faces,
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I turned my
eyes to make out whose they were.
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But I saw
nothing. So I looked again
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Straight into
the light of my sweet guide
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Whose holy
eyes were shining as she smiled.
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"Do not wonder," she said, "that I smile
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At your
childish thinking, since as yet
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You do not
trust your foot to rest on truth,
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"But step, as
usual, on empty space.
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These are true
substances that you perceive,
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Located here for failing in their vows.
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"Speak with
them, then, and listen and believe,
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Because the
truthful light that fills them up
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Will not let
them avert their steps from it."
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And I directed
myself to the shade
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Who seemed most bent on talking, and began
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Like one
confused by overwhelming longing:
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"O
well-created spirit who in the beams
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Of the eternal
life savor the sweetness
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Which is never
understood till it is tasted,
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"What pleasure would it give me if you would
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Content me
with your name and destiny!"
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Quick, and
with smiling eyes, she answered this,
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"Our
lovingkindness does not lock the door
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To a just
wish, no more than does the Love
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Which wills that all its court resemble it.
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"I was a
virgin sister in the world,
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And if you
probe your memory with patience,
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My being more
beautiful won’t hide me from you,
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"But you will
recognize I am Piccarda,
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Who, placed here with these other blessed souls,
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Find
blessedness within the slowest sphere.
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"Our hearts’
affections, which are set on fire
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Only in the
Holy Spirit’s pleasure,
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Rejoice to be
conformed to his design.
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"And this selected spot, which seems so lowly,
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Is given us
because of the neglect
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Or some manner
of omission of our vows."
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I then told
her, "In your wondrous faces
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Something
divine shines forth which changes you
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60
From the memory of former days —
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"Therefore I
was not swift in placing you,
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But now what
you have told me helps me so
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That I more
readily recall your features.
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"But tell me:
you who are so happy here,
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Have you a yearning for a higher place,
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To see more
and to make yourselves more loving?"
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First with
those other shades she faintly smiled,
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Then answered
with such gladness that she seemed
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To burn with
the initial flame of love,
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"Brother, the power of love becalms our wills
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And makes us
wish for only what we have
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And whets our
thirst for nothing more than that.
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"Were we to
long for some more lofty height,
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Then our
desires would be discordant with
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The will of Him who has assigned us here.
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"Such strife,
you see, has no place in these spheres
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Since to exist
in love is here required,
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If you will
truly ponder on love’s nature.
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"No, it’s the
essence of this blessed existence
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To hold ourselves within the will of God
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Through which
our own wills are made one with His:
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"So, how we
dwell from threshold up to threshold
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Throughout
this kingdom gladdens the whole kingdom
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And the King,
too, who wills in us what He wills.
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"For in His will is our peace. It is the sea
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To which all
things existing flow, both those
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His will
creates and those that nature makes."
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Clear was it
then to me how everywhere
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In heaven is
paradise, although the grace
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90
Of the highest good rains not alike on all.
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Yet as it
happens when we have been sated
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With one food,
but still hanker for another:
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We pass this
up with thanks and ask for that,
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So I behaved
with gestures and with words,
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95
To learn from her what was the web in which
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She had not
drawn the shuttle to the end.
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"Perfect life
and high worth," she said, "enshrine
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In a higher
heaven a lady by whose rule
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In your world
women take the robe and veil,
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100
"That until death they there may wake and sleep
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Beside the
Bridegroom who receives each vow
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Which love
conforms to fit His will and pleasure.
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"From out the
world I fled to follow her
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While yet a
young girl, and I donned her habit
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105
And pledged to walk the pathway of her order.
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"Then men,
more used to wickedness than good,
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Abducted me by
force from the sweet cloister,
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And God knows
what my life became thereafter.
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"This other
splendor who shows herself to you
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110
At my right side and who is all aglow
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With the
illumination of our sphere
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"Knows what I
say of me is true for her:
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She was a
sister, and also from her head
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The shadow of
the sacred veil was ripped.
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115
"Yet, when against her will and correct custom
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She was turned
back again into the world,
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She never
stripped the veil from off her heart.
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"This is the
light of that mighty Constance
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Who by the
second blast of Swabia
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120
Bore the third and final son of power."
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So she
addressed me, and then began to sing
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Ave Maria,
and singing, disappeared,
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Just like a
solid weight down through deep water.
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My gazing
eyes, which followed her as far
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125
As possible, when she was lost from view,
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Turned to the
target of my deeper longing,
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And their
attention wholly turned to Beatrice;
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But she blazed
out so brightly on my gaze
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That at first
my sight could not endure it;
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130
And this made me the slower with my questions.
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Between two
equidistant and delicious foods
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A man with a
free choice would starve to death
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Before he
might bring either to his mouth;
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So would a
lamb stand still between the cravings
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5
Of two fierce wolves, in equal fear of both;
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So would a
hound stand still between two deer.
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I don’t then
blame myself if I kept silent,
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Pulled equally
in both ways by my doubts,
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Nor, since it
had to be, do I praise myself.
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10
I held my peace, but my desire was painted
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Upon my face,
together with my question,
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In warmer
colors than if framed in words.
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Beatrice now
did what Daniel once had done
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When he freed
Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath
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15
Which had caused him to be unjustly cruel,
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And she said,
"I clearly see how this and that
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Desire draws
you so that your eagerness
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Entangles
itself and then it cannot breathe.
-
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"You reason:
‘If the will remains resolved,
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20
By what right does another’s violence
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Reduce the
measure of my full reward?’
-
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"Again you are
thrown into doubt because
-
The souls seem
to return up to the stars
-
In accordance
with the doctrine taught by Plato.
-
-
25
"These are the questions that weigh equally
-
Upon your
will: and so I shall first treat
-
The one that
is most poisonous for you.
-
-
"The seraphim
who are closest to God,
-
Moses, Samuel,
and either John —
-
30
Choose whom you will — and even Mary
-
-
"Do not have
their seats in any other heaven
-
Than do these
spirits who appeared to you,
-
Nor have they
more or fewer years in being,
-
-
"But all make
the first circle beautiful,
-
35
And yet share the sweet life in different ways
-
By feeling the
eternal breath diversely.
-
-
"They show
themselves here, not because this sphere
-
Is assigned to
them, but to give a sign
-
Of this
celestial state which is least lofty.
-
-
40
"So must the human mind be spoken to,
-
Since only
through the senses can it grasp
-
What then is
fitted to the intellect.
-
-
"That is the
reason Scripture condescends
-
To your
capacity, attributing
-
45
Feet and hands to God, without meaning it;
-
-
"And Holy
Church represents for you
-
With human
features Gabriel and Michael
-
And the one
who made Tobit’s vision sound.
-
-
"What Timaeus
argues about the soul
-
50
Does not resemble what we witness here,
-
Since he seems
to take what he says as truth.
-
-
"He states the
soul returns to its own star,
-
Believing it
to have been cut from it
-
When nature
gave it to be the body’s form.
-
-
55
"But his opinion may be at variance
-
With what his
words express, and should be taken
-
To have a
meaning not for us to scorn.
-
-
"If he means
that the honor and the blame of
-
Their
influence returns to their gyrations,
-
60
Perhaps his bow has hit upon some truth.
-
-
"This
principle, misunderstood, once so
-
Misled almost
the whole world that it strayed
-
In naming Jove
and Mercury and Mars.
-
-
"The other
doubt disturbing you is less
-
65
Poisonous because its malice could not
-
Lead you
somewhere else away from me.
-
-
"For our
justice to appear unjust
-
In eyes of
mortal men is argument
-
For faith and
not for wicked heresy.
-
-
70
"But since your intelligence is capable
-
Of fully
penetrating to this truth,
-
I will content
you, just as you desire.
-
-
"If it be
violence when the sufferer
-
Contributes
nothing to what forces him,
-
75
These souls had no excuse on that account.
-
-
"For will that
is unwilling can’t be quenched,
-
But stands as
nature does within the flame
-
Though
violence twist it in a thousand ways.
-
-
"For should it
bend itself much or little,
-
80
If follows force: as did these souls when they
-
Had power to
escape back to the cloister.
-
-
"If their will
had remained perfectly whole,
-
Like that
which held Saint Lawrence on the grill
-
And made
Mucius hold his hand in the fire,
-
-
85
"It would have urged them back, no sooner freed,
-
Along the road
where they were dragged away,
-
But such a
steadfast will is all too rare.
-
-
"And by my
words, if you have garnered them
-
As you should
do, the argument is quashed
-
90
That would have many more times troubled you.
-
-
"But now
before your path another pass
-
Confronts your
eyes, so strait that by yourself
-
You would not
get through without growing weary.
-
-
"I have for
certain impressed on your mind
-
95
That the souls in bliss can never lie
-
Since they are
always close to the First Truth;
-
-
"And then you
could learn later from Piccarda
-
That Constance
kept up her love for the veil,
-
So that in
this she seems to contradict me.
-
-
100
"Often before, brother, it has happened
-
That men
unwillingly, to flee from danger,
-
Have done
things that they ought not to have done:
-
-
"Like Alcmaeon
who, at his father’s bidding,
-
Took his own
mother’s life and, so as not
-
105
To fail in piety, was pitiless.
-
-
"At this point
I want you to understand
-
That force
mingles with the will, and they
-
So act that
there is no excuse for wrongs.
-
-
"Absolute will
does not agree to wrong,
-
110
But out of fear that, by withholding, worse
-
Trouble may
befall, the will consents.
-
-
"So when
Piccarda spoke about this matter,
-
She meant the
absolute will, and I the other,
-
So that what
both of us said was the truth."
-
-
115
Such rippling issued from the sacred stream
-
Out of the
fountain from which all truth wells up,
-
Such that it
calmed one longing and the other.
-
-
"O loved of
the First Lover, O divine one,"
-
I said then,
"you whose speech flows over me
-
120
And warms me so that more and more I live,
-
-
"Not all the
depth of my love is sufficient
-
To give you
grace for grace in my return:
-
But may the
One who sees and can — make answer.
-
-
"I clearly see
our intellect may never
-
125
Be sated unless that Truth shines upon it
-
Beyond which
no truth has a further range.
-
-
"In that it
rests, like a wild beast in its den,
-
The instant it
has reached it — and reach it can,
-
Otherwise all
longing would be futile.
-
-
130
"For this cause questions spring up like new shoots
-
At the foot of
truth, and this it is in nature
-
That drives us
to the heights from ridge to ridge.
-
-
"This urge
invites me, this emboldens me,
-
Lady, to
question you with reverence
-
135
About another truth obscure to me.
-
-
"I want to
know, can people compensate
-
For broken
vows with other goods, so as
-
Not to weigh
too lightly in your scales?"
-
-
Beatrice
looked at me with eyes so filled
-
140
With sparks of love and so heavenly
-
That my
powers, overwhelmed, broke loose,
-
-
And, eyes cast down, I almost lost myself.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
"If I flame on
you in the warmth of love
-
Beyond the
measure witnessed in the world
-
And so
overwhelm the power of your eyes,
-
-
"Do not
wonder, for this light proceeds
-
5
From perfect vision which, as it apprehends,
-
So moves its
steps to apprehended good.
-
-
"I plainly see
how in your intellect
-
Already shines
eternal radiance
-
Which, once
seen, alone and always kindles love.
-
-
10
"And should another good seduce your love,
-
It only is
some vestige of this light,
-
Misunderstood,
which still shines through within.
-
-
"You wish to
know if with some other service
-
Such reckoning
can be paid for unkept vows
-
15
That would secure the soul from further suits."
-
-
So Beatrice
began this canto and, like someone
-
Who will not
pause to interrupt a speech,
-
Continued in
this way her sacred discourse:
-
-
"The greatest
gift God’s generosity
-
20
Made in creating and the most conformed
-
To his own
goodness — what he prizes most —
-
-
"Is freedom of
the will, and with this gift
-
The creatures
with intelligence — they all
-
And they alone
— have been and are endowed.
-
-
25
"Now, if you reason from this, you will see
-
The high value
of the vow, if it be such
-
That God gives
his consent when you consent.
-
-
"For in the
compact between God and humans,
-
This treasure
of the will which I describe
-
30
Becomes the sacrifice by its own free act.
-
-
"What can you
render then in restitution?
-
If you think
to make good use of your offering,
-
You wish to do
good with ill-gotten gains.
-
-
"You now have
been assured as to the main point,
-
35
But since here Holy Church grants dispensations,
-
And seems to
contradict the truth I’ve shown you,
-
-
"You’ll have
to sit at table a while longer
-
Because the
tough food which you have been taking
-
Requires
further aid for your digestion.
-
-
40
"Open your mind to what I shall reveal
-
To you, and
keep it there, for to have heard
-
Without
retention does not make for knowledge.
-
-
"The essence
of this sacrifice involves,
-
First, the
matter of which it is made,
-
45
And second, the nature of the final compact.
-
-
"This second
never can be canceled out,
-
Except by
being kept, and on this point
-
My preceding
speech was so precise.
-
-
"To offer
sacrifices was prescribed,
-
50
Then, for the Hebrews, although what was offered,
-
As you must
know, might sometimes be exchanged.
-
-
"The other
part, which you know as the matter,
-
May in fact be
such that there’s no fault
-
If it should
be replaced with other matter.
-
-
55
"But let none shift the weight upon his shoulder
-
At his own
judgment, till he first has turned
-
The lock with
both the gold and silver keys.
-
-
"And let him
think of every change as folly,
-
Unless the
thing that he takes up contains,
-
60
As six does four, the thing that he laid down.
-
-
"So then,
whatever thing through its own worth
-
Weighs so much
that it would tip any scale
-
Can never be
made good by other outlay.
-
-
"Let mortals
never make their vows too lightly.
-
65
Be loyal, but also be not blurry-eyed,
-
As Jephthah
was in his first offering,
-
-
"Who better
would have cried out, ‘I’ve done wrong!’
-
Than, keeping
to his vow, do worse. And you’ll find
-
As big a dolt
the great lord of the Greeks
-
-
70
"Whose Iphigenia wept to be fair of face
-
And made both
wise and foolish weep for her
-
On hearing
such cruel rituals recounted.
-
-
"Christians,
be serious in taking action:
-
Do not be like
a feather to every wind,
-
75
Nor think that every water cleanses you.
-
-
"You have the
New and the Old Testament
-
And the
Shepherd of the Church to guide you:
-
Let this be
all you need for your salvation.
-
-
"If sorry
greed shout anything else at you,
-
80
Be men, do not be senseless sheep, so that
-
The Jew among
you not laugh at you in scorn.
-
-
"Do not be
like the lamb that strolls away
-
From its
mother’s milk and, silly and wanton,
-
Fights with
itself for its own fun and frolic!"
-
-
85
What Beatrice said to me I here write down.
-
Then, all in
longing, she turned toward that point
-
Where the
whole universe is most alive.
-
-
Her quietness
and her transfigured look
-
Made my
inquiring mind lapse into silence
-
90
While it already planned new questionings.
-
-
And like an
arrow that strikes at the target
-
Even before
the bowcord becomes still,
-
So we sped on
into the second kingdom.
-
-
Here I saw my
lady so full of gladness
-
95
When she gave herself into the heaven’s light
-
That the
planet itself now glowed more brightly.
-
-
And if the
star was so transformed and smiled,
-
What then did
I become who by my nature
-
Am subject to
fresh changes of all sorts?
-
-
100
As in a fish-pond that is clear and tranquil,
-
The fish draw
to what drops down from the outside,
-
Believing it
to be some food to feed on,
-
-
So I did see
more than a thousand splendors
-
Drawing toward
us, and in each I heard,
-
105
"Look, someone comes who shall augment our love!"
-
-
And when each
one in turn came up to us,
-
We saw each
shade was filled with happiness
-
By the bright
glow that burst out from within.
-
-
Imagine,
reader, if what I now begin
-
110
Went no further on, how you would feel
-
An anguished
hunger to know more about them,
-
-
And you will
see, all on your own, how I
-
Hungered to
hear more of their condition
-
The moment
they were shown before my eyes.
-
-
115
"O happy-born, to whom grace freely grants
-
Sight of the
thrones of everlasting triumph
-
Before you are
released from earthly warfare,
-
-
"We are
inflamed by the illumination
-
Reaching
through all heaven: if you seek then
-
120
Enlightenment from us, take what you please!"
-
-
These words
were said to me by one of those
-
Gracious
spirits. And Beatrice: "Speak, speak
-
Safely, and
trust in them as you would gods!"
-
-
"I plainly see
how you nest in your light
-
125
And that you draw it out from your own eyes
-
Because light
sparkles in them when you smile,
-
-
"But I do not
know who you are, nor why
-
You, worthy
spirit, have your rank in this sphere
-
Which rays of
sunlight veil from mortal sight,"
-
-
130
This words I said as I turned toward the light
-
Which first
had spoken to me, and at that
-
It beamed out
much more brightly than before.
-
-
Just as the
sun which by excessive light
-
Conceals
itself when heat has all consumed
-
135
The thickly mantling mists that moderate it,
-
-
So by
increasing joy that holy figure
-
Hid itself
from me in its own radiance,
-
And hidden
fast in this way, answered me
-
-
In the manner
which my next canto sings.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
"After
Constantine turned back the eagle
-
Against the
course of heaven which it followed
-
Behind the man
of old who wed Lavinia,
-
-
"The bird of
God two hundred years and more
-
5
Stayed on at Europe’s utmost boundary,
-
Near to the
mountains from which it first flew.
-
-
"And there it
ruled the world beneath the shadow
-
Of its sacred
wings, from hand to hand, until
-
With the
succeeding changes it came to me.
-
-
10
"Caesar I was, Justinian I am,
-
Who, by will
of the First Love that I feel,
-
Rid the laws
of what was gross and empty.
-
-
"Before I set
my whole mind to this work,
-
I held Christ
had one nature and not two,
-
15
And in that faith I was content to rest.
-
-
"But blessed
Agapetus, who was then
-
The supreme
shepherd, by his warning words
-
Directed me
back to the one true faith.
-
-
"I believed
him, and what he held on faith
-
20
I now view quite as clearly as you see
-
How
contradictions are both false and true.
-
-
"So soon as I
set my steps with the Church,
-
It pleased God
by his grace to inspire in me
-
The high task
to which I wholly gave myself.
-
-
25
"I gave my arms to Belisarius
-
Who was so
joined to the right hand of heaven
-
That I took it
for a sign to let mine rest.
-
-
"Here, then,
my answer ends to your first question.
-
Certain
details in my reply, however,
-
30
Require me to add on something more,
-
-
"So that you
may perceive with how much right
-
Men strove
against the sacrosanct ensign,
-
Both those
usurping it and those opposing.
-
-
"You see what
power made the eagle worthy
-
35
Of reverence, beginning from the hour
-
When Pallas
died to give it sovereignty.
-
-
"You know it
made its home in Alba for
-
Three hundred
years and more, till at the end
-
Three heroes
fought against three others for it.
-
-
40
"You know what it achieved through seven kings,
-
From the
Sabine women’s wrong to Lucretia’s woe,
-
While
conquering the countries round about.
-
-
"You know what
it accomplished when borne by
-
The noble
Romans battling Brennus, Pyrrus,
-
45
And the rest, the lords and their alliances.
-
-
"Then came
Torquatus, Quinctius named for
-
His wild curly
locks, the Decii and Fabii
-
Who won the
fame which I am glad to honor.
-
-
"It cast down
to the ground the pride of Arabs
-
50
Who followed Hannibal across the Alps’
-
Rocky crags
from which you, Po, cascade.
-
-
"Beneath it
Scipio and Pompey triumphed
-
While still
young men; and to that hill, below
-
Which you were
born, it showed its cruelty.
-
-
55
"Then, near the time when all of heaven willed
-
To bring the
world back to a state of peace,
-
Caesar took it
up at Rome’s command.
-
-
"And what it
worked from Var up to the Rhine
-
Was witnessed
by the Isere, Loire, and Seine,
-
60
And all the valleys whose streams fill the Rhone.
-
-
"What it
worked next after it left Ravenna
-
And leaped the
Rubicon was such a flight
-
That neither
tongue nor pen might follow it.
-
-
"Around it
wheeled the legions into Spain,
-
65
Then to Durazzo; and it struck Pharsalia
-
So sharply
that the hot Nile felt the blow.
-
-
"Once more it
saw Antandros and the Simois
-
From which it
set forth, and where Hector lies;
-
Then, to
Ptolemy’s grief, it soared again.
-
-
70
"From there, like a thunderbolt, it fell on Juba,
-
And afterward
it turned back to your west
-
Where it had
heard the blast of Pompey’s trumpet.
-
-
"For what it
wrought with its succeeding keeper,
-
Brutus and
Cassius howl in deepest hell,
-
75
And Modena and Perugia wailed for it.
-
-
"Weeping still
is tearful Cleopatra
-
Who, fleeing
its attack, snatched from the asp,
-
Instead of it,
a dark and instant death.
-
-
"With this
Augustus it reached the Red Sea shore;
-
80
With him it spread such peace throughout the world
-
That the
temple of Janus was locked shut.
-
-
"But what that
standard which stirs me to speak
-
Had done
before and afterwards would do
-
Throughout the
mortal kingdom subject to it
-
-
85
"Seems insignificant and shadowy
-
When, with a
clear eye and with pure affection,
-
You mark it in
the hand of the third Caesar,
-
-
"Because the
living Justice which breathes in me
-
Gave it the
glory, in the hand I’ve mentioned,
-
90
Of taking vengeance for the wrath of heaven.
-
-
"Now wonder at
what I unfold for you:
-
It later sped
with Titus to wreck vengeance
-
Upon the
vengeance of the sin of old.
-
-
"And, lastly,
when the Lombard tooth bit down
-
95
On Holy Church, beneath the eagle’s wings
-
Charlemagne
through conquest brought her aid.
-
-
"Now you can
judge the likes of those whom I
-
Accused just
now, and of their sins and failings
-
Which are the
reason for all your misfortunes.
-
-
100
"One side opposes to the public standard
-
The yellow
lilies; the other claims the eagle,
-
So that it’s
hard to see which sins the most.
-
-
"Let the
Ghibellines, let them ply their arts
-
Under another
emblem, for they follow
-
105
This standard ill in severing justice from it.
-
-
"And let the
new Charles with his Guelphs not try
-
To strike it
down, but let him dread the talons
-
That have
stripped off the skins of stronger lions.
-
-
"Sons, many
times before this, have wept for
-
110
Their father’s sins; and let him not believe
-
That God will
change his coat of arms for lilies!
-
-
"This little
star is spangled with the spirits
-
Of those who
strove for good but aimed their actions
-
In order to
acquire fame and honor.
-
-
115
"And when desires deviate off course
-
In that
direction, the rays of their true love
-
Must rise on
upward with less living force.
-
-
"But equal
measuring of our rewards
-
With our
merits is part of our delight,
-
120
Since we see them as neither less nor greater.
-
-
"In this way
living Justice has so sweetened
-
Our own
affections that they never can
-
Be bent aside
to any wickedness.
-
-
"Assorted
voices make sweet melody:
-
125
And so the varied ranking of our lives
-
Renders sweet
harmony among these gyres.
-
-
"Within this
present pearl shines the light
-
Of Romeo,
whose beautiful and noble
-
Endeavor was
so churlishly rewarded.
-
-
130
"But the Provenзals who worked against him
-
Have no last
laugh, for he takes an evil path
-
Who harms
himself through the good deeds of others.
-
-
"Four
daughters, and each one of them a queen,
-
Had Raymond
Berenger, and this was managed
-
135
By Romeo, a low-born man and pilgrim.
-
-
"But then
crooked words caused Berenger to ask
-
A reckoning of
this just man who had ever
-
Returned in
payment to him twelve for ten.
-
-
"At that point
he departed, poor and old,
-
140
And if the world could know the heart he had
-
When begging
his livelihood crust by crust,
-
-
"Much as it praises him, it would praise
him more."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
"Hosanna to the holy Lord of Hosts,
-
Relighting by
your brightness from above
-
The blissful
burning fires of these kingdoms!"
-
-
So, now
revolving to this melody,
-
5
That substance who had spoken I saw sing
-
While over him
the twofold light redoubled.
-
-
And he and
others moved in their one dance,
-
And, like the
swiftest sparks arising upward,
-
With sudden
distance veiled themselves from me.
-
-
10
I stood in doubt, and said, "Tell her, tell her!"
-
Within myself
I said, "Tell her, my lady
-
Who slakes my
thirst with her sweet drops of dew!"
-
-
But that awe
which is mistress of me wholly,
-
By the mere
sound of her name’s Be and ice,
-
15
Bowed me down like someone drowsing off.
-
-
Just for a
short while Beatrice left me so,
-
And she began,
beaming a smile on me
-
To make a man
staked in the fire happy,
-
-
"If I, who
cannot err, have judged correctly,
-
20
Your thoughts have been set pondering on how
-
A just
vengeance could be avenged with justice,
-
-
"But I will
quickly free your mind from doubt;
-
And listen
carefully, because my words
-
Make you a
present of important teachings.
-
-
25
"Since he would bear for his own good no curb
-
Upon his
willpower, that man who was unborn,
-
Damning
himself, damned all his progeny.
-
-
"As a result
the human race below
-
Lay sick for
many centuries in grave error
-
30
Until it pleased the Word of God to come
-
-
"Down where he
joined in person with himself,
-
By the sheer
act of his eternal love,
-
The nature
that had wandered from its Maker.
-
-
"Now turn your
gaze to what I now disclose:
-
35
This nature which was thus joined to its Maker
-
Was, when it
was created, pure and good,
-
-
"But through
itself it had been driven out
-
Of paradise,
because it turned aside
-
From the way
of the truth and from its life.
-
-
40
"The penalty inflicted by the cross —
-
If measured by
the nature so assumed —
-
Never struck
at anyone more justly.
-
-
"Likewise,
there never was a greater wrong,
-
If we look to
the person suffering it,
-
45
In whom that other nature was bound up.
-
-
"From this one
act, then, different things resulted,
-
For one same
death pleased both God and the Jews,
-
And with it
the earth shook and heaven opened.
-
-
"It should no
longer now seem hard to you
-
50
On hearing it declared that a just vengeance
-
Was afterward
avenged by court of justice.
-
-
"But now I see
your mind is tangled up
-
With thought
on thought into a knot from which
-
It awaits
release with deep-felt longing.
-
-
55
"You say, ‘I make out clearly what I hear,
-
But why God
willed this as the only way
-
Of our
redemption is still hidden from me.’
-
-
"This edict,
brother, has been buried from
-
The eyes of
everyone whose understanding
-
60
Is not matured within the flames of love.
-
-
"Nevertheless,
since there are many who
-
Aim at this
mark and few who sight it rightly,
-
I shall
explain why that way was most fitting.
-
-
"Divine
Goodness, which spurns from itself
-
65
All envy, burning in itself, so sparkles
-
That it
reveals all the eternal beauties.
-
-
"Whatever is
distilled immediately
-
From it is
everlasting, since, once sealed,
-
Its imprint
never can be wiped away.
-
-
70
"Whatever is poured down immediately
-
From it is
wholly free, since Goodness is
-
Not subject to
the power of changing things.
-
-
"The sacred
Flame which shoots its rays through all
-
Is most alive
in what is most like Goodness
-
75
And most pleased by what most resembles it.
-
-
"Human beings
have the advantage of
-
All these
endowments, but if they fail in one
-
They must fall
down from their nobility.
-
-
"Sin alone can
rob them of their birthright
-
80
And render them unlike the highest Good
-
So that they
beam less brightly in its light.
-
-
"They never
can recoup their innocence
-
Unless they
fill up what faults emptied out
-
By paying for
bad pleasures with just pains.
-
-
85
"Your nature when it had sinned totally
-
In its first
seed was reft of that innocence
-
Just as it was
deprived of paradise.
-
-
"Nor could it
win them back, if you consider
-
The matter
carefully, by any other way
-
90
Except by passing one of these two fords:
-
-
"Either that
God, by graciousness alone,
-
Granted
forgiveness, or that by himself
-
Man should
make satisfaction for his folly.
-
-
"Now fix your
eyes intently on the abyss
-
95
Of the eternal Wisdom — fasten them
-
As tightly as
you can to what I say.
-
-
"Bound by his
limits, man could never make
-
Enough amends,
because he was not able
-
By afterwards
obeying, to humbly bend
-
-
100
"As low as he'd mount high by disobeying:
-
This is the
reason why man was shut off
-
From being
able to make amends himself.
-
-
"It was
needed, then, for God in his own ways
-
Of mercy and
of justice to give man back
-
105
Full life — I mean by one way or by both.
-
-
"But since a
deed is more prized by the doer
-
The more it
manifests to others’ eyes
-
The goodness
of the heart from which it springs,
-
-
"The divine
Goodness which imprints its seal
-
110
Upon the world was pleased to move ahead
-
By its own
ways to raise you up once more.
-
-
"Between the
final night and the first day
-
There has not
been nor will there be so mighty
-
And
magnificent an act by either way.
-
-
115
"For God, by giving himself to make man able
-
To raise
himself again, was more generous
-
Than if he
only had remitted sin;
-
-
"And all the
other means would have been short
-
Of justice, if
the Son of God had not
-
120
Humbled himself to be a human being.
-
-
"Now, to
fulfill exactly all your longings,
-
I turn back to
explain a certain passage
-
To enable you
to see it as I do.
-
-
"You say, ‘I
see the water, I see the fire,
-
125
The air, the earth, and all their combinations
-
Fall to
corruption and last but a brief while:
-
-
" ‘And yet
these things were creatures: for this cause,
-
If what you
said of them were really true,
-
They ought to
be secure from such corruption.’
-
-
130
"The angels, brother, and the pure clear country
-
Where you are
now, may be said to be created
-
Just as they
are, in their entire being.
-
-
"But the
elements which you have named to me
-
And all the
things that are compounded from them
-
135
Receive their forms from some created power.
-
-
"Created was
the matter that they have;
-
Created was
the power informing them
-
Within these
stars which whirl about their way.
-
-
"The rays and
motion of the holy lights
-
140
Draw out from its compounded potency
-
The soul of
every animal and plant.
-
-
"But the
sovereign Largesse breathes your life
-
Directly, and
makes it so in love with him
-
That always
afterward it longs for him.
-
-
145
"And from this reasoning you can further prove
-
Your
resurrection, if you would reflect
-
On how the
human body was made then
-
-
"When the
first parents were both formed by him."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Time was, the
world, at its own risk, believed
-
That Venus,
the beautiful Cyprian, whirling
-
In the third
epicycle, rayed down love’s madness.
-
-
For this the
folk of old in their old errors
-
5
Not only offered homage up to her
-
With
sacrifices and with votive cries,
-
-
But also
honored Cupid and Dione,
-
One as her
son, the other as her mother,
-
And they
claimed he had sat in Dido’s lap.
-
-
10
And so from her with whom I start this canto
-
They took the
name of that star the sun woos,
-
Now at dawn’s
nape and now at evening’s brow.
-
-
I had no sense
of rising into it,
-
But I was sure
of being there when I
-
15
Perceived my lady grown more beautiful.
-
-
And as we see
a spark within a flame
-
Or as a voice
sounds in a voice when one
-
Holds steady
while the other comes and goes,
-
-
So I saw in
that light those other lanterns
-
20
Revolving fast or slowly in a circle,
-
Depending, I
think, on their inner vision.
-
-
Winds, whether
visible or not, have never
-
Swept down
from ice-cold clouds so swiftly that
-
They would not
seem impeded or too slow
-
-
25
To one who had observed the heavenly lights
-
Speeding
toward us, leaving behind the circling
-
Begun first by
the lofty seraphim.
-
-
And from the
midst of those appearing foremost
-
Hosanna
sounded in such strains that I
-
30
Have always craved to hear it once again.
-
-
Then one came
closer to us and, alone,
-
Began, "We all
are ready here to do
-
Your pleasure,
that you may rejoice in us.
-
-
"With one
circle, one circling, and one thirst,
-
35
We here swirl round with the celestial princes
-
To whom you
once, when in the world, had said,
-
-
" ‘You whose
intellect moves the third heaven.’
-
We are so full
of love that, if it please you,
-
A moment’s
silence will be no less sweet."
-
-
40
After my eyes had reverently lifted
-
To my lady,
and she had made them sure
-
And satisfied
that she gave her consent,
-
-
They turned
back to the light that promised such
-
Abundance, and
in words stamped with profound
-
45
Affection I called out, "Tell me who you are!"
-
-
And how the
light in size and splendor swelled
-
I saw through
the new joy which now was added
-
To all its
former joys when I said this.
-
-
So changed, it
spoke, "The world held me below
-
50
But a brief time, and had it been prolonged
-
Much evil that
shall be would not have happened.
-
-
"My
joyousness, which beams round about me,
-
Keeps me
concealed from you and holds me hidden
-
Just like a
worm all wrapped up in its silk.
-
-
55
"You loved me much, and had good reason to,
-
For had I
stayed down there, I would have shown
-
My love for
you could yield more than mere leaves.
-
-
"The left bank
of the land bathed by the Rhone,
-
Below where it
has mingled with the Sorgue,
-
60
Expected me in time to be its lord,
-
-
"As did the
corner of Ausonia, which
-
Bari, Gaeta,
and Catona border,
-
From which the
Tronto and Verde flow seaward.
-
-
"Upon my
forehead there already glittered
-
65
The crown of that land which the Danube waters
-
Once it has
left behind its German shores.
-
-
"And the fair
Trinacria, which is blackened —
-
Between
Pachynus and Pelorus, there on
-
The gulf that
is most lashed by the east wind —
-
-
70
"Not by Typhoeus but by rising sulphur,
-
Would even now
have looked to have its kings
-
Descended
through me down from Charles and Rudolph,
-
-
"Had not bad
governance, which ever cuts
-
The hearts of
subject people to the quick,
-
75
Moved Palermo to shout out, ‘Die! Let them die!’
-
-
"And had my
brother seen these things beforehand,
-
By now he’d
shun the greedy poverty
-
Of Catalonia
lest it bring him trouble.
-
-
"For it is
really necessary that he
-
80
Or someone else provide, so that no load
-
Be further
added to his laden ship.
-
-
"His nature —
stingy offspring of a lavish
-
Forebear —
would need a following of knights
-
Who have no
care for filling up their coffers!"
-
-
85
"Since I believe that the deep-seated joy
-
Which now
these words of yours pour into me
-
Is seen by
you, my lord, just as I see it
-
-
"Where every
good has its end and beginning,
-
It is most
welcome, and I hold this dear,
-
90
That you discern it as you gaze on God.
-
-
"You’ve made
me joyful — but explain to me,
-
Because in
speaking you have raised this doubt,
-
How is it
sweet seed can bear bitter fruit?"
-
-
So I asked
him, and he told me, "If I can
-
95
Show you one truth, then you will hold your face
-
Toward what
you ask as now you hold your back.
-
-
"The Good,
which rotates and contents the whole
-
Kingdom that
you climb, makes its providence
-
To be a power
in these brilliant bodies;
-
-
100
"And in the Mind, which is itself perfection,
-
There is
provision not only for these natures
-
But also, in
them all, for their well-being;
-
-
"So that
whatever flies off from this bow
-
Falls readily
to its determined target,
-
105
Just like an arrow aimed right at the mark.
-
-
"Were this not
so, the heavens where you walk
-
Would so bring
into being their effects
-
That they
would not be works of art but ruins.
-
-
"That cannot
be, unless the intellects
-
110
That move these stars be lacking — lacking too
-
The First
Intellect by making them imperfect.
-
-
"Would you
have more light shed upon this truth?"
-
And I: "No — I
see it is impossible
-
That nature
tire of doing what is needed."
-
-
115
Then he once more: "Now say, should men not lead
-
A civic life
on earth, would they be worse?"
-
"Yes," I
replied, "and here I need no proof."
-
-
"And could
they lead it, unless people down
-
Below live
differently with different duties?
-
120
Not if what your master writes is true."
-
-
By close
deduction he had reached this point;
-
Then he
concluded, "The roots of what you do
-
Must, then, be
variously sprung, so that
-
-
"This one is
born Solon, that one Xerxes,
-
125
One is Melchizedek, and yet another
-
He who flew
through the air and lost his son.
-
-
"Circling
celestial nature sets its seal
-
On mortal wax,
performing its art well,
-
But making no
distinction between houses.
-
-
130
"So from the seed of birth, it happens, Esau
-
And Jacob
differ, and Quirinus comes from
-
So base a
father, he’s ascribed to Mars!
-
-
"Begotten
nature would always take the path
-
Which its
begetters followed, were it not
-
135
That divine providence rules otherwise.
-
-
"Now what was
once behind you is before you:
-
But that you
may know I rejoice in you,
-
I want to
cloak you with this corollary.
-
-
"Forever
Nature, should she find that fortune
-
140
Is out of tune with her, like any seed
-
Out of its
climate, comes to a bad end.
-
-
"And if the
world down there would pay attention
-
To the
foundation Nature herself lays,
-
And built on
that, then people would be better.
-
-
145
"But you force into the religious life
-
One born to
bear a sword, and crown a king
-
Someone far
more suited to preach sermons:
-
-
"That’s how
your footprints ramble off the road!"
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Lovely
Clemence, when your Charles had shed
-
Light in my
mind, he told me of the plots
-
That would
defraud his offspring; then he added,
-
-
"Keep silent,
and allow the years to roll":
-
5
So I can say no more
than that real tears
-
Shall follow
on the damage done against you.
-
-
And now the
life within that holy light
-
Had turned it
once more to the sun that fills it,
-
As to that
Good which is the wealth of all.
-
-
10
Ah, misguided souls and impious creatures
-
Who turn your
hearts away from such a Good,
-
Lifting your
faces up to vanity!
-
-
But look!
another of those splendors came
-
Toward me and,
growing brighter outwardly,
-
15
Showed me a sign of wishing to please me.
-
-
The eyes of
Beatrice, firmly fixed on me
-
As they had
been before, gave me assurance
-
Of her own
dear assent to my desire.
-
-
"Come, blessed
spirit," I said, "let me have
-
20
A speedy answer to my wish, and proof
-
That I can
mirror in you what I think."
-
-
At that the
light, which was still new to me,
-
Out of the
depth from which welled up its song,
-
Went on as one
delighted to do favors:
-
-
25
"In evil Italy there lies a region
-
Which runs
between the Rialto and the springs
-
Of both the
Brenta and Piave rivers.
-
-
"A hill looms
there (it is not very high)
-
From which
there once came down a firebrand
-
30
That waged a huge assault against the country.
-
-
"From one same
root both he and I sprang up.
-
Cunizza I was
called, and I blaze here
-
Because the
light of this star conquered me.
-
-
"Yet happily I
here forgive myself
-
35
The reason for my lot, nor does it grieve me,
-
Although this
may seem strange to common people.
-
-
"This
brilliant and beloved jewel who
-
Stands closest
to me in this heaven of ours
-
Left lofty
fame behind: before it dies
-
-
40
"Five times this century shall have passed away.
-
See how man
should make himself so excellent
-
That his first
life might leave life after it!
-
-
"And today’s
crowd, enclosed by the Adige
-
And
Tagliamento, have no thought of this,
-
45
And, though they are whipped hard, do not repent.
-
-
"But soon it
shall befall that Padua
-
At the marsh,
since people shun their duty,
-
Will stain the
waters red that wash Vicenza.
-
-
"And where the
Sile and Cagnano join
-
50
One plays the lord and holds his head up high
-
While all the
time the net is laid to catch him.
-
-
"Feltro shall
yet moan for the treachery
-
Of its
besotted shepherd — a crime so shameful
-
That for the
like none went to Malta prison.
-
-
55
"Huge would be the bucket that could hold
-
The blood of
the Ferrarans: whoever had
-
To weigh it
ounce by ounce would be worn out!
-
-
"This vat the
generous priest shall offer up
-
To prove
himself a supporter of his party:
-
60
Such gifts befit the country’s way of living!
-
-
"Up there are
mirrors — you could call them Thrones —
-
From which in
judgment God beams down on us
-
So that we
think it good to say these things."
-
-
Here she grew
still and had, I thought, the likeness
-
65
Of turning now to other things by wheeling
-
Where she took
up the place she’d left behind.
-
-
The other
bliss, whom I already knew
-
To be beloved,
became before my sight
-
A sparkling
ruby struck by rays of sunlight.
-
-
70
Through their rejoicing, souls gain brilliance there
-
On high, as
here a smile gains light, but below
-
Shades darken
outwardly as minds grow sad.
-
-
"God sees all,
and your sight sinks into his,"
-
I said,
"blissful spirit, and for this reason
-
75
No wish may hide itself away from you.
-
-
"Why does your
voice, then, making heaven glad
-
Forever with
the song of these blest flames
-
Which make
themselves, with their six wings, a cowl,
-
-
"Not fulfill
the longing which I feel?
-
80
I surely would not wait for you to ask
-
Were I in your
mind as you are in mine."
-
-
"The largest
valley in which water spreads
-
Out from the
sea that girdles all the world,"
-
He then began
to speak these words to me —
-
-
85
"Stretches its opposing shores so far
-
Counter to the
sun’s course that its zenith
-
Lies where at
first the sun formed its horizon.
-
-
"I had my
dwelling on that valley’s shore,
-
Between Ebro
and Macra whose short course
-
90
Divides the Tuscans from the Genoese.
-
-
"With almost
the same sunset and same sunrise
-
Stand Bougie
and the city I am from,
-
Which once
made its port warm with its own blood.
-
-
"Folco I was
called then by the people
-
95
Who knew my name, and this heaven having once
-
Signed me at
my birth now bears my signal.
-
-
"For Belus’s
daughter Dido did not burn,
-
In wronging
both Sychaeus and Creusa,
-
More than I
burned, before my locks were clipped;
-
-
100
"Nor the girl from Rhodope when beguiled
-
By Demophoon,
nor Hercules himself
-
When he
enshrined Iole in his heart.
-
-
"But here we
don’t repent; instead, we smile,
-
Not for the
fault, which never comes to mind,
-
105
But for the Power that ordered and foresaw.
-
-
"Here we look
wondering at the art that love
-
Makes
beautiful, and find the good through which
-
The world
below turns to the world above.
-
-
"And that you
may take with you all your longings,
-
110
Which have been born within this sphere, fulfilled,
-
I am obliged
to go on with my discourse.
-
-
"You want to
know who is within this light
-
Which glitters
in this manner next to me,
-
Just like a
sunbeam on the crystal water.
-
-
115
"Now you should know that Rahab rests inside
-
And that, as
soon as she joined with our order,
-
She sealed it
in the loftiest degree.
-
-
"She was swept
upward through this heaven, where
-
The
shadow-cone of your earth casts its point,
-
120
Before any other soul, by Christ in triumph.
-
-
"It was most
fitting to leave her in a heaven
-
To be a palm
of the high victory
-
Won by his one
and by his other palm,
-
-
"Because she
lent her help to Joshua
-
125
With his first glory in the Holy Land —
-
That little
touches the Pope’s memory.
-
-
"Your city,
which was planted by the One
-
Who first
turned his back upon his Maker and
-
Whose envy has
provoked so many tears,
-
-
130
"Produces and spreads far the cursed flower
-
Which caused
the sheep and lambs to go astray
-
Because it
changed the shepherd to a wolf.
-
-
"This is why
the Gospel and Great Doctors
-
Are tossed
aside, and only the Decretals
-
135
Are studied, as their scribbled margins show.
-
-
"On them the
pope and cardinals pore intently
-
And never turn
their thoughts to Nazareth
-
Where Gabriel
unfolded wide his wings.
-
-
"The Vatican,
however, and the other
-
140
Choice parts of Rome which are the burial ground
-
Of the brave
soldiery that followed Peter
-
-
"Will soon be
freed from this adultery."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Contemplating
his Son with the Love
-
Which One and
Other endlessly breathe out,
-
The primal and
ineffable Power
-
-
Made
everything that spins through mind or space
-
5
With such design that he who considers it
-
Cannot exist
without some taste of God.
-
-
Lift up your
eyes then, reader, here with me
-
To the high
spheres, straight to that region where
-
One motion of
the sun strikes on the other.
-
-
10
And begin there to gaze gladly on the art
-
Of that Master
who in himself so loves it
-
That his eye
never wanders from his work.
-
-
Observe how,
from this point, the circle which
-
Obliquely
bears the planets branches off
-
15
To satisfy the world that calls to them.
-
-
For if their
path had not been slanted so,
-
Much of the
heavens' influence would be lost,
-
And almost all
their power dead on earth.
-
-
And if the
path swerved farther or less far
-
20
From the straight course, the order of the world
-
Would in the
sky and on the land be lessened.
-
-
Now, reader,
remain seated at your table,
-
Reflecting on
what here has been a foretaste,
-
That you may
feel delight before you tire.
-
-
25
I set the feast for you: now feed yourself,
-
Because the
subject matter I inscribe
-
Takes all of
my attention to itself.
-
-
The mightiest
minister of nature, which
-
Imprints the
world with power from the sky
-
30
And measures time for us with beams of light,
-
-
Conjoining
with the point that I have mentioned,
-
Went circling
onward throughout all the spirals
-
In which he
rises earlier each day.
-
-
And I was with
him. But of my ascent
-
35
I was no more aware than is a person
-
Conscious of a
thought before it comes.
-
-
Beatrice it is
who guides me in this way
-
From good to
better with such swiftness that
-
Her act does
not extend itself in time.
-
-
40
How luminous that must be of itself
-
Which shone
within the sun where I went in
-
To be revealed
by light and not by color!
-
-
Though I
should call on talent, skill, and practice
-
I could not
find the words to picture it:
-
45
But may you still believe — and crave to see it!
-
-
If our
imaginations fall far short
-
Of such a
height, no wonder, for our eyes
-
Have never
seen a light to match the sun’s.
-
-
Such, here,
was the fourth family of the high
-
50
Father who forever fills them, showing how
-
He breathes
the Spirit and begets the Son.
-
-
And Beatrice
began, "Give thanks! Give thanks
-
To this Sun of
the Angels through whose grace
-
You have been
lifted to the sun of sense!"
-
-
55
Never was heart of mortal so disposed
-
To its
devotion, nor ready to surrender
-
Itself to God
with its full gratitude
-
-
Than mine was
when she spoke these words to me.
-
And all my
love so set itself on Him
-
60
That Beatrice in oblivion was eclipsed.
-
-
Not the least
displeased, she smiled so that
-
The splendor
of her smiling eyes splintered
-
My singleness
of mind in many pieces.
-
-
I saw many
living and surpassing lights
-
65
Surround us in the center of a crown
-
With voices
sweeter than their looks were bright.
-
-
We sometimes
see the daughter of Latona
-
So cinctured
when the saturated air
-
Holds the
threads of light that make her girdle.
-
-
70
In the courts of heaven from which I have come
-
Are myriad
jewels so dear and beautiful
-
They cannot be
transported from that kingdom.
-
-
It was of them
these radiances sang.
-
Whoever wears
no wings to fly up there
-
75
Must wait for news from those whose tongues are
tied.
-
-
When, singing
in this way, those flaming suns
-
Three times
had circled round about us both,
-
Like stars
rotating close to the fixed poles,
-
-
They looked
like ladies pausing in the dance
-
80
To listen to the music silently
-
Until they
catch up to the tune anew.
-
-
And inside one
I heard begin, "Because
-
The beam of
grace by which true love is lit
-
And which
increases afterward with loving
-
-
85
"Shines so much more abundantly in you
-
That it leads
you up along the stairway
-
Which none
steps down except to mount again,
-
-
"Whoever
should refuse to quench your thirst
-
With the wine
from his flask would be no freer
-
90
Than water stopped from flowing to the sea.
-
-
"You want to
know who these bright blossoms are,
-
Flowering this
garland which girds lovingly
-
Round this
fair lady who strengthens you for heaven.
-
-
"I was a lamb
and of the holy flock
- 95
That Dominic leads out along the way
-
Where
fattening is good, unless they stray.
-
-
"Beside me on
the right is one who was
-
My brother and
my master, Albert of
-
Cologne, and I
am Thomas of Aquinas.
-
-
100
"So if you would be sure of all the others,
-
Come, let your
eyesight follow on my words
-
By circling
all about this blessed wreath.
-
-
"That fire
flashing next breaks from the smile
-
Of Gratian who
served both the courts of law
-
105
So perfectly that Paradise is pleased.
-
-
"The nearest
one to ornament our choir
-
Was Peter
Lombard who, like the poor widow,
-
Presented all
his treasure to Holy Church.
-
-
"The fifth
light, and the loveliest among us,
-
110
Breathes with such love that the whole world below
-
Hungers to
learn something new about it.
-
-
"Within it is
the lofty mind, endowed
-
With wisdom so
profound, if truth be truth,
-
No second ever
rose with such wide vision.
-
-
115
"See at its side the shining of that candle
-
Which in the
flesh down there discerned most deeply
-
The nature and
the ministry of angels.
-
-
"In the next
tiny flickering flame there smiles
-
That same
defender of the Christian ages
-
120
Whose discourse proved so useful to Augustine.
-
-
"If you have
followed now with your mind’s eye
-
From light to
light the sequence of my praises,
-
You thirst
already to know about the eighth.
-
-
"Within, for
having seen that all is good,
-
125
The sainted soul, who shows the world’s deceit
-
To all who
listen well to him, rejoices.
-
-
"The body from
which this soul was driven out
-
Rests down in
Cieldauro, and he is come
-
From martyrdom
and exile to this peace.
-
-
130
"See, flashing further on, the burning breath
-
Of Isidore, of
Bede, and of that Richard
-
Who was more
than a man in contemplation.
-
-
"The one from
whom your gaze turns back to me
-
Is the glow of
a soul in whose grave thoughts
-
135
The coming of his death appeared too slow.
-
-
"It is the
neverending light of Siger
-
Who, lecturing
at the rue du Fouarre,
-
Demonstrated
enviable truths."
-
-
Then, like a
clock that chimes us at the hour
-
140
When the Bride of God rises to sing
-
Her matins to
her Spouse to make him love her,
-
-
With one part
pulling and the other pushing,
-
Sounding
ding-dong with notes so dulcet that
-
The
true-devoted spirit swells with love,
-
-
145
Just so I saw the wheel of glory rotate
-
And answer
voice to voice with harmony
-
And sweetness
that can never be conceived
-
-
Except where
joyfulness is everlasting.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
O senseless
the concerns of mortal men!
-
How empty are
the reasonings that force you
-
To flap your
wings and plunge in downward flight!
-
-
Here one
pursues the law, there medicine;
-
5
Another hurries off into the priesthood,
-
And one would
rule by fraud or violence!
-
-
This one looks
to theft and that to business;
-
Another,
caught in pleasures of the flesh,
-
Wears himself
out; one lolls in idleness;
-
-
10
While I, delivered from all these concerns,
-
Am high in
heaven now with Beatrice,
-
Made welcome
in the glory of the blessed.
-
-
When each one
of the spirits had come round
-
To that point
of the circle that he’d left,
-
15
Each rested like a candle in its stand.
-
-
And I heard
from within that radiance
-
Which first
addressed me — all the while it smiled
-
And grew still
brighter — a voice begin to say,
-
-
"Just as in
turn I glitter with these rays,
-
20
So, staring into the Eternal Light,
-
I know your
thoughts and why you’re thinking them.
-
-
"You’re
puzzled and would like me to explain
-
My words in
open and explicit language
-
Aimed at the
level of your comprehension,
-
-
25
"When I just said, ‘Where fattening is good,’
-
And also this:
‘No second ever rose’;
-
And here a
clear distinction must be made.
-
-
"The
Providence that rules over the world
-
With counsel
in which all created sight
-
30
Is overcome before it plumb the depths—
-
-
"So that the
Bride of him who with loud cries
-
Had married
her with his own blessed blood
-
Might move
ahead to meet with her Beloved,
-
-
"Confident in
herself and true to him—
-
35
Sent for her benefit two princes who
-
On this side
and on that would be her guides:
-
-
"The one was
all seraphic in his ardor,
-
The other for
his wisdom was on earth
-
An iridescence
of cherubic light.
-
-
40
"Of one I shall speak, for in praising one—
-
Whichever’s
chosen — I will praise them both,
-
Because their
labors led to one same goal.
-
-
"Between
Topino and the stream that pours
-
Down from the
hill picked by the blest Ubaldo,
-
45
A fertile slope slants from a soaring mountain
-
-
"Which makes
Perugia feel the cold and heat
-
Through Porta
Sole; and for their heavy yoke
-
Gualdo and
Nocera weep behind it.
-
-
"From this
slope, where its steepness tapers off,
-
50
A sun has risen up into the world,
-
Just as it
sometimes rises from the Ganges.
-
-
"Let no one,
then, who seeks to name this place
-
Speak of
Assisi, a word that is too meager,
-
But of the
East, if he would talk correctly.
-
-
55
"He was as yet not too far from his dawning
-
When he began
to make the earth feel fairly
-
Strengthened
by the power of his virtue;
-
-
"For he, while
still a youth, rushed into battle
-
Against his
father for a lady to whom,
-
60
Like death, no one unlocks the door with pleasure.
-
-
"And in the
presence of his spiritual court
-
Before his
father he was wedded to her,
-
And after, day
by day, loved her more deeply.
-
-
"She, for
eleven hundred years and more
-
65
Bereft of her first husband, scorned, obscure,
-
Was left
without a wooer till he came.
-
-
"Nor was it
any help to her to hear
-
That he who
frightened the whole world found her,
-
With Amyclas,
unruffled by his voice.
-
-
70
"Nor was there help in having been so steadfast
-
And fearless
that, when Mary stayed below,
-
She mounted up
with Christ high on the cross.
-
-
"But not to go
on speaking too obscurely,
-
Now, from this
point, take Francis and Poverty
-
75
To be the lovers in my long description.
-
-
"Their harmony
and look of happiness
-
Made love and
wonderment and tender glances
-
The wellspring
of inspired holy thoughts,
-
-
"So that the
venerable Bernard first
-
80
Took off his shoes and ran for such full peace,
-
And in his
running thought himself too slow.
-
-
"Oh unknown
wealthiness! oh fruitful good!
-
Egidius goes
barefoot, Silvester too,
-
Behind the
groom, the bride so pleases them!
-
-
85
"This father and this master then departs
-
With his dear
lady and their family
-
Already
cinctured with the lowly cord:
-
-
"No shame of
heart made him bow down his head
-
For being
Pietro Bernardone’s son,
-
90
Nor for appearing wondrously despised,
-
-
"But royally
he revealed his stern resolve
-
To Innocent,
and he received from him
-
The first seal
of approval for his Order.
-
-
"After a poor
multitude had swelled
-
95
Behind this man whose miracle-making life
-
Were better
sung with hymns in heaven’s glory,
-
-
"The Eternal
Spirit through Honorius
-
Encircled then
the sacred purposes
-
Of the chief
shepherd with a second crown.
-
-
100
"And after that, in thirst for martyrdom,
-
Before the
haughty presence of the Sultan,
-
He preached
Christ Jesus and his followers;
-
-
"And when he
found the people too unripe
-
To be
converted — not to waste his efforts—
-
105
He returned to harvest the Italian fields.
-
-
"Then on a
harsh crag between Tiber and Arno
-
He received
from Christ the last imprinted seal
-
Which for two
years he bore upon his limbs.
-
-
"When He who’d
chosen him for such great good
-
110
Was pleased to draw him up to the reward
-
Which he had
earned by making himself little,
-
-
"To his
brothers as to his rightful heirs
-
He recommended
his most precious lady
-
And ordered
them to love her faithfully;
-
-
115
"And from her bosom the illustrious soul
-
Chose to
depart, returning to the kingdom,
-
And for his
body wished no other bier.
-
-
"Reflect now
what he was who was a worthy
-
Colleague to
him for keeping Peter’s bark
-
120
Straight on its course across the open sea.
-
-
"And such was
Dominic, our patriarch:
-
So you can see
that he who follows him
-
As he commands
transports a priceless cargo.
-
-
"But now his
flock has grown so greedy for
-
125
New tastes in food that it is only found
-
Scattered
throughout the pasture wilderness.
-
-
"The farther
from him his sheep stray afield,
-
Remote and
vagabond, the emptier
-
Of milk are
they, returning to the fold.
-
-
130
"Some sheep there are indeed that, fearing danger,
-
Keep close to
the shepherd, but they are so few
-
That little
cloth can make up all their cowls!
-
-
"Now, if my
words have not been indistinct,
-
If you have
listened to them with attention,
-
135
And if you call to mind what I have said,
-
-
"Your wish to
know is partially fulfilled
-
For you will
see just how the tree is hacked,
-
And you will
see the meaning of the charge:
-
-
" ‘Where
fattening is good, unless they stray.’ "
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
The instant
that the blessed flame had taken
-
To speak this
final word, the sacred millstone
-
Started its
rotation once again;
-
-
And it had not
yet turned completely when
-
5
A second circle closed around the first,
-
Motion matched
with motion, song with song:
-
-
Song that
surpassed in those sweet-sounding pipes
-
The music of
our Muses or our Sirens
-
Much as a ray
surpasses its reflection.
-
-
10
Just as, across the thinned-out clouds two rainbows,
-
Parallel and
alike in color, bend
-
When Juno
gives the order to her handmaid —
-
-
The outer band
formed by the inner one:
-
The way the
words were of the wandering nymph
-
15
Whom love consumed as sunlight consumes vapors —
-
-
And let the
people on earth forecast how,
-
Through the
covenant God made with Noah,
-
Never again
shall the world be flooded.
-
-
Two garlands
of sempiternal roses
-
20
Revolved around us, and in this manner too
-
The outer
circling answered to the inner.
-
-
Now when the
dance and all high festival
-
Of singing and
flaming scintillation
-
Of light with
light in gentleness and gladness
-
-
25
At the same moment and with one accord
-
Had ended,
like the eyes at pleasure’s prompting
-
Compelled in
unison to close and open,
-
-
Out of the
heart of one of these new lights
-
There stirred
a voice which made me like the needle
-
30
In a compass turning to the North Star:
-
-
It began, "The
love that makes me beautiful
-
Draws me to
speak about the other leader
-
For whose sake
mine is so well spoken of.
-
-
"It’s fitting
to bring one in with the other
-
35
That, where they waged war toward one common goal,
-
Their glory
likewise may shine out together.
-
-
"Christ’s
army, which had cost so dear to arm
-
Afresh, was
marching on behind the standard
-
With slow and
straggling steps and scanty numbers,
-
-
40
"When the one Emperor who reigns forever
-
Provided for
his troops who were in peril
-
Through grace
alone, not through their worthiness,
-
-
"And, as you
heard, to help his Bride he sent
-
Two champions
who by their words and actions
-
45
Rallied the people who had gone astray.
-
-
"In that
region where the West Wind rises
-
Sweetly to
open up the leaves in bud
-
Which Europe
sees herself dressed in anew —
-
-
"Not too far
from the crashing of the waves
-
50
Behind which, after his long course, the sun
-
Sometimes
conceals himself from everyone,
-
-
"There lies
the fortunate Calaroga
-
Beneath the
safeguard of the mighty shield
-
Which bears
the lion sovereign and subdued.
-
-
55
"Within this town was born the ardent lover
-
Of Christian
faith, the holy athlete,
-
Kind to his
friends and cruel to his foes.
-
-
"His mind, as
soon as it had been created,
-
So filled with
living virtue that he made,
-
60
From in the womb, his mother prophesy.
-
-
"When he and
Faith exchanged their marriage vows
-
Before the
sacred fountain where for dowry
-
They pledged
each other mutual salvation,
-
-
"The lady who
had acted as his sponsor
-
65
Saw in a dream the wonder-working fruit
-
Which was to
come from him and from his heirs.
-
-
"And that his
name might show his real self,
-
A spirit from
here went to christen him
-
With the
possessive of Him whose he would be:
-
-
70
"Dominic he was called, and I speak of him
-
As of the
husbandman whom Christ has chosen
-
To help him in
the tilling of his garden.
-
-
"Clearly he
seemed Christ’s messenger and friend,
-
For the first
love made manifest in him
-
75
Was after the first counsel that Christ gave.
-
-
"Many times
his nurse discovered him
-
Quiet and
awake upon the ground,
-
As if to say,
‘It is for this I came.’
-
-
"Oh his father
— truly happy Felix!
-
80
Oh his mother — truly graced Joanna,
-
If the roots
of their names mean what men say.
-
-
"Not for the
world for whose sake men now toil,
-
Aping the
Ostian and Thaddeus,
-
But only out
of love of the true manna,
-
-
85
"In short time he became so great a teacher
-
That he began
to labor round the vineyard
-
Which turns
gray if the dresser shirks his work.
-
-
"And of the
Seat which once was kindlier
-
To the devoted
poor — not in itself
-
90
Degraded, but in him who’s seated there —
-
-
"He did not
ask to keep half of his payments,
-
Nor for the
funds of the first vacancy,
-
Nor for the
tithes belonging to God’s poor,
-
-
"But for
permission to fight the errant world
-
95
In defense of the seed from which there sprang
-
The
twenty-four plants that surround you here.
-
-
"Then both
with doctrine and determination,
-
In the
apostolic office he set out,
-
Like a torrent
gushing from a lofty vein;
-
-
100
"And his force struck the stocks of heresy
-
With the most
vehemence in those enclaves
-
Where the
resistance was most obstinate.
-
-
"From him
there flowed out those divergent streams
-
With which the
Catholic garden is so watered
-
105
That its small trees have a more vigorous life.
-
-
"If such was
one wheel of the chariot
-
In which the
Holy Church defends herself
-
And in the
field puts down her civil strife,
-
-
"The
excellence of the other wheel which Thomas
-
110
Extolled so courteously before I came
-
Surely must be
evident to you.
-
-
"But the track
taken by the topmost part
-
Of that
wheel’s rim has now been so abandoned
-
That there is
mold where once there was hard crust.
-
-
115
"His household, which marched out straight ahead
-
With their
feet in his footprints, so turns round
-
That their
toes come down where the heel has been.
-
-
"And soon
there shall be seen what sort of harvest
-
Bad tillage
causes, when the tare complains
-
120
Of being thrown out from the granary bin.
-
-
"I say,
however, should one search our volume
-
Leaf by leaf,
he might still find a page
-
On which he’d
read, ‘I am what I was always.’
-
-
"But not from
Acquasparta or Casale
-
125
Shall that page come, for one ignores the text,
-
The other
reads tight strictures into it.
-
-
"I am the
living soul of Bonaventure
-
From Bagnorea,
who in high office
-
Always put the
temporal cares behind.
-
-
130
"Here are Illuminato and Augustine,
-
Who were among
the first poor barefoot brothers
-
Who with the
cord made themselves friends of God.
-
-
"Hugh of Saint
Victor is here with them as well,
-
And Peter
Comestor and Peter of Spain
-
135
Who down on earth sheds light in his twelve books.
-
-
"Nathan the
prophet, Anselm, Chrysostom
-
The
metropolitan, and that Donatus
-
Who stooped to
put his hand to the art of grammar.
-
-
"Here is
Rabanus, and beside me beams
-
140
Joachim, the abbot of Calabria
-
Who was
endowed with a prophetic spirit.
-
-
"The glowing
courtesy of Brother Thomas
-
And his
well-advised discourse have moved me
-
To celebrate
so fine a paladin,
-
-
145
"And with me it has moved this company."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Imagine, if
you really want to grasp
-
What I now saw
— and hold on to the image
-
Firm as a rock
while I am speaking here —
-
-
Fifteen stars
which in the different quarters
-
5
Liven up the sky with such sharp brightness
-
That they
pierce all the thickness in the air;
-
-
Imagine that
Great Bear which on the breast
-
Of heaven
rests all night and day, so that
-
It does not
vanish with the turning pole;
-
-
10
Imagine also the mouth of that Horn
-
Which starts
at one end of the axle star
-
Around which
the first wheeling daily rotates;
-
-
Imagine all
these patterning out two signs
-
In heaven,
like the constellation of King Minos’ daughter
-
15
Formed when she felt the chill of death upon her,
-
-
One circle
with its rays inside the other,
-
And both so
spinning round the center that
-
One should
turn first and after that the other:
-
-
Then you will
glimpse some shadow of the real
-
20
Constellation and the double dance
-
Revolving on
the spot where I was standing.
-
-
For it’s as
far from our experience
-
As the motion
of the highest swiftest heaven
-
Outspeeds the
sluggish flow of the Chiana.
-
-
25
They sang no Paean there nor hymn to Bacchus,
-
But to Three
Persons in the Godhead’s nature,
-
And God and
human nature in one Person.
-
-
The song and
circling ran to their full measure,
-
And then those
holy lights attended to us,
-
30
Happy to pass from caring to new care.
-
-
Then the light
in which the wondrous life
-
Of the poor
man of God was told to me
-
Shattered the
silence of these souls in concord,
-
-
And said,
"Since one sheaf has been beaten out,
-
35
And all its grain is garnered at this time,
-
Sweet love now
bids me to thresh out the other.
-
-
"You believe
that, in the breast from which
-
The rib was
pulled to shape her lovely cheek
-
Whose palate
all the world has paid for dearly,
-
-
40
"And in the breast which, pierced so by the lance,
-
Before and
after made such satisfaction
-
That it
outweighs all evil in the scale,
-
-
"In both, all
of the light that human nature
-
May possess
has been infused in full
-
45
By that Power that formed one breast and the other.
-
-
"You ponder,
therefore, what I have said above
-
When I told
how the excellence enclosed
-
Within the
fifth light never had a second.
-
-
"Now open your
eyes wide to what I answer
-
50
And you will see your thinking and my speaking
-
Become in
truth the center of a circle.
-
-
"Those things
that die and those that cannot die
-
Are but the
splendor of the one Idea
-
Which in his
love our Father has begotten;
-
-
55
"For the same living Light which so streams from
-
The lucent
Source that it is never parted
-
From it or
from the Love which makes them Three
-
-
"Through its
own goodness focuses its rays
-
In nine
existences like nine reflections,
-
60
Itself eternally remaining One.
-
-
"From there to
the remotest potencies
-
Light falls
from act to act until it comes
-
To make now
only brief contingencies.
-
-
"By these
contingencies I understand
-
65
The generated things produced by seeds
-
Or, if without
seeds, by the moving heavens.
-
-
"The wax of
these things and what molds the wax
-
Are not the
same, and so the ideal stamp
-
Shines through
it more or less transparently.
-
-
70
"So it happens that trees of the same species
-
Bear better or
worse fruit, and that by birth
-
Human beings
have diverse endowments.
-
-
"If the wax
were molded to perfection,
-
And were the
heavens at the height of power,
-
75
The light through the whole seal would be apparent,
-
-
"But nature
always gives imperfectly,
-
Working in the
same way as the artist
-
Whose hand
shakes in the practice of his art.
-
-
"But if warm
Love disposes and imprints
-
80
The clear-cut vision of the primal Power,
-
Complete
perfection is accomplished there.
-
-
"So clay was
once made suitable to form
-
The full
perfection of a living man,
-
So was the
virgin made to be with child.
-
-
85
"I give approval, then, to your opinion
-
That human
nature never was nor shall be
-
As perfect as
it was in those two persons.
-
-
"Now if I went
no further than this point,
-
You might well
start to ask, ‘How is it then
-
90
This other one is said to have no equal?’
-
-
"But to make
plain what still is not apparent,
-
Consider who
he was and what moved him
-
To his request
when God said, ‘Choose your gift.’
-
-
"I’ve spoken
like this so you’ll plainly see
-
95
He was a king who chose the gift of wisdom
-
In order to be
worthy of his kingship
-
-
"And not to
know the number of the moving
-
Angels here
above, nor if necessity
-
With a
condition ever proved necessity,
-
-
100
"Nor if there is prime motion, nor if one can
-
Construct a
triangle in a semicircle
-
So that it has
no right angle inside.
-
-
"It follows,
if you note what I have said,
-
That kingly
prudence is the matchless vision
-
105
At which my arrow of intention strikes.
-
-
"And if you
turn your sharp-eyed sight to ‘rose,’
-
You will see
it refers only to kings,
-
Of whom there
are many, but the good are rare.
-
-
"Take my words
on him with this distinction
-
110 And
they are in accord with your belief
-
Regarding the
first father and our Beloved.
-
-
"And let my
words be lead weights to your feet,
-
To slow you,
like a weary man, from hastening
-
To the yes
or no of what you do not see.
-
-
115
"For he is well placed low among the fools
-
Who, whether
in affirming or denying,
-
Does not
distinguish one case from the other.
-
-
"For often it
occurs that one’s opinion,
-
When quickly
formed, leans in the wrong direction,
-
120
And vanity then binds the intellect.
-
-
"It is far
worse than vain to quit the shore
-
To fish for
truth and not possess the skill,
-
Since one
returns worse off than when he left.
-
-
"And here,
Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson,
-
125
And many more who went they knew not where
-
Are open proof
of this folly to the world,
-
-
"As are
Sabellius and Arius,
-
And those
fools who to Scripture were like swords
-
Mirroring
straight faces with distortion.
-
-
130
"Again, let people not be too secure
-
In how they
judge, like someone who would count
-
The ears of
corn before the field is ripe.
-
-
"For I have
seen first, all the winter through,
-
The briar show
itself barbed and unbending,
-
135
And then upon its stem it bears a rose.
-
-
"And I have
seen a ship sail swift and straight
-
Over the vast
sea, through her entire course,
-
To sink at
last while entering the harbor.
-
-
"Let every
Dick and Jane not think, if they
-
140
See someone steal and someone make an offering
-
That they
observe them with divine omniscience,
-
-
"For the thief
may rise up, and the donor fall."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
From center to
rim and rim to center, water
-
Inside a round
bowl moves, depending on
-
Whether it’s
struck from outside or within.
-
-
So this image
all of a sudden dropped
-
5
Into my mind, just as the glorious
-
Life of Thomas
fell back into silence,
-
-
Because of the
resemblance which arose
-
Between this
speech of his and that of Beatrice
-
Who was
pleased to begin by following him:
-
-
10
"This man still needs, although he will not tell you
-
Either by his
talk or yet in thought,
-
To probe
another truth down to its root.
-
-
"Tell him if
the light with which your substance
-
Breaks into
blossoms shall remain with you
-
15
Eternally, just as it now exists;
-
-
"And if the
light remains, then tell him how,
-
When you are
once again made visible,
-
It’s possible
it will not hurt your sight."
-
-
As when those
dancing in a ring, urged on
-
20
And drawn by more delight, from time to time
-
Gladden their
gestures and lift up their voices,
-
-
So at that
eager and devout petition
-
The saintly
circles in their gay gyrations
-
And marvelous
melodies displayed new joy.
-
-
25
Whoever grieves because we must die here
-
To live above
has never witnessed there
-
The sweet
refreshment of the endless shower.
-
-
The One and
Two and Three that lives forever
-
And ever
reigns in Three and Two and One,
-
30
Uncircumscribed and circumscribing all,
-
-
Three times
was sung by each one of the spirits
-
Of those two
rings, with such a melody
-
As would be
fit reward for every merit.
-
-
And I heard in
the most resplendent light
-
35
Of the smaller circle a voice as modest,
-
Perhaps, as
was the angel’s voice to Mary,
-
-
Replying, "As
long as the festival
-
Of paradise
shall last, so long our love
-
Shall radiate
around us like a robe.
-
-
40
"Its brightness is proportioned to our fervor,
-
Our fervor to
our vision, in the measure
-
That each
possesses grace beyond his merit.
-
-
"When our
flesh, made glorious and holy,
-
Shall clothe
us once again, our persons then
-
45
Will be more welcome being all complete.
-
-
"For whatever
unearned light the Highest Good
-
Freely bestows
on us will be increased —
-
Light which
enables us to look on him,
-
-
"So that for
us our vision must increase,
-
50
Our fervor increase kindled by the vision,
-
Our splendor
increase coming from the fervor.
-
-
"But as a coal
in giving off its flame
-
Outshines the
fire with its burning glow,
-
And in this
way keeps its apparent shape,
-
-
55
"So this effulgence now encircling us
-
Shall be
outshone in brilliance by the flesh
-
Which all this
while lies buried in the ground.
-
-
"Nor will so
bright a light cause us fatigue,
-
Since the
organs of our bodies will be strong
-
60
To everything that can bring us delight."
-
-
So ready and
alert to cry Amen
-
One chorus and
the other seemed to me
-
That clearly
they desired their dead bodies,
-
-
Not only for
themselves but for their mothers,
-
65
Their fathers, and the others dear to them
-
Before their
flesh became eternal flame.
-
-
And look! a
lustre of steady brightness rose
-
Around about,
beyond the shining there,
-
Like a horizon
growing ever lighter.
-
-
70
And as at the first rise of early evening
-
New objects
start to show up in the sky,
-
So that their
sight seems, and does not seem, real,
-
-
I thought I
there began to see new beings
-
Approaching to
form still another circle
-
75
Outside the other two’s circumferences.
-
-
O the true
sparkle of the Holy Spirit!
-
How suddenly
full of glory it became
-
Before my eyes
which, beaten, could not bear it!
-
-
But Beatrice
showed herself to me so smiling
-
80
And so beautiful that I must leave it there
-
Among the
sights beyond my memory.
-
-
From this, my
eyes recovered strength to raise
-
Themselves
once more: I saw myself translated
-
Alone with my
lady to a higher bliss.
-
-
85
I clearly grasped that I had risen farther
-
By the
glittering smile of the next planet
-
Which I found
ruddier than usual.
-
-
With all my
heart, and in the tongue which sounds
-
The same in
all, I gave God a burnt offering
-
90
To thank him for this gift of his new grace.
-
-
Nor had the
burning of this sacrifice
-
Yet ended in
my breast when I knew that
-
My offering
had been favorably accepted
-
-
Because, with
such a glow of ruby red,
-
95
Splendors so shone before me in two rays
-
I cried, "O
Helios who adorns them brightly!"
-
-
Just as the
Milky Way, pricked out by greater
-
And lesser
lights, gleams so from pole to pole
-
That even the
wisest minds are thunderstruck,
-
-
100
So constellated, in the depths of Mars
-
Those two
beams formed the venerable sign
-
Which the
crossed quadrant lines made in a circle.
-
-
Here now my
memory outruns my talent,
-
For Christ
flamed from that cross with such a flash
-
105
That I can find no pattern fit for it.
-
-
But he who
takes his cross to follow Christ
-
Will pardon me
for what I leave untold
-
When he looks
at Christ gleaming in that dawn.
-
-
From tip to
tip, between the top and bottom,
-
110
Light-rays were moving, brightly glittering
-
As they all
met together and passed by:
-
-
So here on
earth we see the motes of dust
-
Drift straight
or slanting, swift or slow of motion,
-
Changing in
appearance, long or little,
-
-
115
Sifting through the sunbeams sometimes streaking
-
Through the
shaded rooms which men have built
-
With skill and
talent for their own protection.
-
-
And as a harp
or viol that is strung
-
With many
cords for harmony chimes sweetly
-
120
On ears that cannot catch the melody,
-
-
So from the
lights appearing to me there,
-
A music
swelled throughout the cross and held me
-
Enraptured
though I could not tell the hymn.
-
-
I firmly
marked it was a song of praise
-
125
Because "Rise up," and "Conquer" came to me
-
As one who
hears but does not understand.
-
-
I was so moved
with loving by this strain
-
That nothing
until then that I had felt
-
Had bound my
being with such dulcet fetters.
-
-
130
Perhaps these words of mine appear too daring,
-
Seeming to
slight the bliss of those bright eyes
-
In which my
longing gaze finds its repose.
-
-
But one who
considers how the living seals
-
Of every
beauty grow with their ascent,
-
135
And how I there had not yet turned to them,
-
-
He may excuse
me of my self-accusation
-
So that I can
excuse myself, and see
-
I speak the
truth, for holy joy’s not lost
-
-
By growing
ever purer as one rises.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Gracious will
— in which true-breathing love
-
Always reveals
itself, as evil greed
-
Resolves
itself into a grudging will—
-
-
Hushed to
silence the sweet-sounding lyre
-
5
And stilled the sacred strings that the right hand
-
Of heaven
either slackens or sets tight.
-
-
How shall
these beings be deaf to just prayers
-
Who, to prompt
me in my petitioning them,
-
With one
accord fell mute and left their music?
-
-
10
Rightly should he endlessly lament
-
Who, for the
love of what does not endure
-
Forever, robs
himself of that true love.
-
-
As through the
quiet cloudless evening sky
-
There shoots
from time to time a sudden flame,
-
15
Shifting the eyes that had stared steadily,
-
-
And it seems
that a star is changing place,
-
Except that
where it flares no star is missing
-
And that it
lasts for only a short instant:
-
-
So from the
right-hand tip down to the foot
-
20
Of that bright cross there darted out a star
-
Of the
resplendent constellation’s circle.
-
-
Nor did that
jewel tumble from its ribbon,
-
But ran its
course along the radial line
-
And looked
like fire seen through alabaster.
-
-
25
With like affection did Anchises’ shade
-
Reach out (if
we may trust our greatest muse)
-
When, in
Elysium, he saw his son.
-
-
"O blood of
mine! O overbrimming grace
-
Of God! For
whom was ever heaven’s gate
-
30
Thrown open twice, as it has been for you?"
-
-
So spoke that
light, and I gave it my attention.
-
Then I turned
my gaze once more to my lady
-
And I was
awestruck on one side and the other
-
-
Since her eyes
were ablaze with such a smile
-
35
That I thought with my eyes I’d touched the limit
-
Of all my grace and all
my paradise.
-
-
Then, a pure
joy for listening and for sight,
-
The spirit
added to his earlier words
-
Things past my
grasp, his speech was so profound.
-
-
40
Nor did he hide his sense from me by choice,
-
But of
necessity, because his thoughts
-
Were far above
the mark of mortal mind.
-
-
But when the
bow of his burning affection
-
Was so relaxed
that what he said flew downward
-
45
Toward the target of our intellect,
-
-
This was the
first thing that I understood:
-
"Blessed are
you, both Three and One, who show
-
Such favor to
the seed of my descendants."
-
-
And he went
on, "You have assuaged, my son,
-
50
Within this light through which I speak to you,
-
The long and
cherished hunger which derived
-
-
"From reading
the great book where black and white
-
Are never
changed: for this I give her thanks
-
Who clothed
you with the wings for this high flight.
-
-
55
"For you believe that your thoughts flow to me
-
From Him who
is the First, as five and six,
-
If one is
known, derive from unity.
-
-
"And,
therefore, who I am and why I seem
-
To you more
joyful than the other spirits
-
60
In this gay throng, you do not ask of me.
-
-
"And you
believe the truth, for least and greatest
-
In this life
always gaze into that mirror
-
Where you
reveal your thoughts before you think.
-
-
"But that the
holy love in which I watch
-
65
With ceaseless vision, and which makes me thirst
-
With sweet
desire, may sooner be fulfilled,
-
-
"Let your own
voice, assured and bold and glad,
-
Ring out your
will, ring out your heart’s desire,
-
To which my
answer is already ordered!"
-
-
70
I turned to Beatrice, and before I spoke
-
She heard me,
and she smiled me her assent
-
Which made the
wings of my desire grow.
-
-
Then I began,
"Love and intelligence,
-
When the First
Equality appeared to you,
-
75
Became in all of you equally balanced
-
-
"Because the
Sun that illumined and warmed you
-
Has such
equality of heat and light
-
That all
analogies fall short of it.
-
-
"But mortal
wishes and abilities,
-
80
For reasons that are evident to you,
-
Do not have
equal feathers in their wings.
-
-
"I who am
mortal feel myself in this same
-
Imbalance, so
that only with my heart
-
May I give
thanks for your paternal welcome.
-
-
85
"I do, however, beg you, living topaz
-
That flames
within this precious diadem,
-
To satisfy my
longing with your name."
-
-
"O leaf of
mine, in whom I found my pleasure
-
Only awaiting
you: I was your root."
-
90
In this way he began his answer to me,
-
-
Then said,
"The man from whom your family name
-
Comes down,
and who a hundred years or more
-
Had trudged
around the first ledge of the mountain,
-
-
"Was my son,
and your own grandfather’s father.
-
95
Surely it is right that you should shorten
-
By your good
works his long laborious trial.
-
-
"Florence
within her ancient rounded walls
-
From which she
still hears tierce and nones toll out
-
Lived in
peace, her people chaste and sober.
-
-
100
"There were no necklaces, no coronets,
-
No
lace-embroidered gowns, no silken girdles,
-
Meant to be
looked at rather than the person.
-
-
"Nor did the
daughter at her birth yet cause
-
Fear to her
father, for her age and dowry
-
105
Had not run to excesses either way.
-
-
"No houses
stood vacated by their families.
-
No
Sardanapalus had yet arrived
-
To show what
can be acted in one’s chamber.
-
-
"Not yet had
Montemalo been surpassed
-
110
By your Uccellatoio which in rising,
-
Passed it, so
shall it pass it in its fall.
-
-
"I saw
Bellincione Berti belted
-
In simple bone
and leather, while his wife
-
Stepped from
her mirror with her face unpainted.
-
-
115
"I saw the lords of Nerli and of Vecchio
-
Content to
wear a coat of plain-dressed skins,
-
And their
wives ply the spindle and the flax.
-
-
"O happy
women, each of them assured
-
Of her own
burial spot, and none abandoned
-
120
Yet in her bed because of trips to France!
-
-
"One kept a
constant watch to mind the cradle
-
And soothingly
employed that infant speech
-
Fathers and
mothers first delight in using.
-
-
"Another, as
she drew threads from the distaff,
-
125
Would tell her family household the old stories
-
Concerning
Troy and Rome and Fiesole.
-
-
"Then Lapo
Salterello and Cianghella
-
Would have
been held as strange a marvel as
-
Are
Cincinnatus and Cornelia now.
-
-
130
"To such a restful and a lovely life
-
Among the
citizens, to such a loyal
-
Community, to
such a cordial home,
-
-
"Mary
presented me, called by loud prayers:
-
And I became,
in your old baptistery,
-
135
At once a Christian and a Cacciaguida.
-
-
"Moronto and
Eliseo were my brothers;
-
My wife came
from the valley of the Po,
-
And from that
place your surname is derived.
-
-
"I later
served the Emperor Conrad,
-
140
And with his knighthood he invested me,
-
So highly I
won favor by good deeds.
-
-
"I followed
him to fight against the evil
-
Religion of
those people who usurp,
-
By your
shepherd’s negligence, your rightful lands.
-
-
145
"There finally falling to that filthy horde,
-
I gained
release from that deceitful world,
-
The love of
which debases many souls,
-
-
"And to this
peace I came from martyrdom."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
O our inept
nobility of blood!
-
If you make
people glory in you here
-
On earth where
our affections grow infirm,
-
-
I shall no
longer be surprised at it,
-
5
Since there where appetite is not contorted,
-
I mean in
heaven, I too gloried in you!
-
-
Plainly you
are a mantle that soon shrinks,
-
So that, if
cloth's not let out day by day,
-
Time will go
round and round you with his scissors!
-
-
10
With formal "You" which was first used in Rome
-
And which her
offspring hardly favor now,
-
I once again
began to choose my words
-
-
When Beatrice,
who stood slightly to one side,
-
Smiled, and
seemed to me like her who coughed
-
15
At the first fault they tell of Guinevere.
-
-
"You are my
father," was my opening word;
-
"You give me
my full confidence to speak;
-
You so raise
me I am more than myself.
-
-
"So many
streams fill up my mind with joy
-
20
That now my mind rejoices in itself
-
That it can
bear this gladness and not burst.
-
-
"Tell me then,
dear root from which I spring,
-
Who were your
forefathers and what the years
-
Which were
recorded in your early youth?
-
-
25
"Tell me of the sheepfold of Saint John,
-
How large the
flock was then and who the folk
-
Within it
worthy of the highest places?"
-
-
As at the
breathing of the winds a coal
-
Quickens into
flame, so did I see
-
30
That light glow brighter with my reverent words.
-
-
And as it grew
still lovelier to my eyes,
-
So with a
sweeter and a softer voice,
-
But not in
today’s idiom, he said,
-
-
"From that day
whereon Ave was first uttered
-
35
Unto that birth when my now sainted mother
-
Was lightened
of me with whom she had been ladened,
-
-
"This fiery
planet came five hundred times
-
And fourscore
to the Lion to rekindle
-
Its radiance
beneath the burning paw.
-
-
40
"My forebears and I had our birthplace there
-
Where those
who run within your annual race
-
First reach
the farthest parish of the city.
-
-
"Thus much to
hear suffices for my forebears;
-
For who they
were and whence they hither came,
-
45
Silence is more honorable than speech.
-
-
"All those fit
to bear arms who at that time
-
Were present
there between Mars and the Baptist
-
Were but the
fifth of those who now are living.
-
-
"But then the
citizenry, whose blood now mixes
-
50
With Campi and Certaldo and Figline,
-
Ran pure down
to the lowest artisan.
-
-
"O how much
better were it that those folk
-
Of whom I
speak were neighbors and you shared
-
Galluzzo and
Trespiano for your boundaries
-
-
55
"Than to have them within and bear the stench
-
Of Aguglione’s
boor and Signa’s churl
-
Whose eye by
now is keen for bartering!
-
-
"For had the
folk who in this world are most
-
Degenerate not
been a stepmother to Caesar
-
60
But, like a mother, been kindly toward her son,
-
-
"Then one who
has become a Florentine
-
And trafficker
and trader would have lived
-
At Simifonti
where his grandsire begged.
-
-
"The counts
would still possess Montemurlo,
-
65
The Cerchi would be in Acone parish,
-
And the
Buondelmonti still in Valdigreve.
-
-
"Confusion of
its persons has been ever
-
The prime
source of malignance to the city,
-
As an excess
of food is to the body.
-
-
70
"And a blind bull falls to the ground more headlong
-
Than the blind
lamb, and frequently one sword
-
Cuts more
deeply and oftener than five.
-
-
"If you
consider Luni and Orbisaglia,
-
How they have
perished and how after them
-
75
Chiusi and Senigallia now follow,
-
-
"No longer
will you find it strange or hard
-
To hear how
families finally come to fail
-
When even
cities meet a fatal end.
-
-
"All things
pertaining to you have their death,
-
80
As have yourselves, but some conceal their end
-
By lasting
long, whereas your lives are short.
-
-
"And as the
wheeling of the moon in heaven
-
Veils and
unveils the shore unceasingly,
-
In such a
manner Fortune deals with Florence;
-
-
85
"Wherefore it should appear no wondrous matter,
-
What I shall
tell of the great Florentines
-
Whose
reputation is obscured by time.
-
-
"I saw the
Ughi and the Catellini,
-
Filippi,
Greci, Ormanni, Alberichi,
-
90
Illustrious families, already in decline.
-
-
"And I saw
too, as grand as they were ancient,
-
Dell’Arca with
Della Sannella — also
-
Soldanieri,
Ardinghi, and Bostichi.
-
-
"Above the
gate which at the present time
-
95
Is laden with new felony so heavy
-
That jettison
will soon drift from the ship,
-
-
"The Ravignani
lived, from whom descended
-
Count Guido
and whoever since that day
-
Has taken the
high name of Bellincione.
-
-
100
"Already Della Pressa knew the way
-
To rule, and
Galigaio had already
-
The gilded
hilt and pommel in his house.
-
-
"Great was the
vair of Pigli arms already,
-
Sacchetti,
Giuochi, Fifanti, and Barucci,
-
105
Galli, and those who blush for the false bushel.
-
-
"The stock
whence the Calfucci sprang was great
-
Already, and
the Sizii and Arrigucci
-
Were raised
already to the curule chairs.
-
-
"O what grand
men I saw who are now ruined
-
110
By their own pride! Lamberti’s globes of gold
-
Festooning
Florence in all her mighty feats!
-
-
"So did the
fathers of the Visdomini
-
Who, when a
vacancy comes in your church,
-
Fatten by
stalling in the consistory.
-
-
115
"The overweening breed that plays the dragon
-
To one who
runs off, but to one who shows
-
His teeth — or
purse — is docile as a lamb
-
-
"Were on the
rise already, but so low
-
That Ubertin
Donato was not pleased
-
120
To have his father-in-law make them his kin.
-
-
"Already
Caponsacco had come down
-
To the market
from Fiesole; then Giuda
-
And Infangato
were good citizens.
-
-
"One thing I
tell, incredible but true:
-
125
You entered the small circuit of old walls
-
Through a gate
named for the Della Pera.
-
-
"Each one who
bears the handsome coat of arms
-
Of the great
Baron whose name and whose renown
-
The feastday
of Saint Thomas keeps alive
-
-
130
"Had knighthood from him and its privilege,
-
Though he who
borders those arms now with gold
-
This day is
siding with the multitude.
-
-
"There the
Gualterotti and Importuni dwelt
-
Already, and
the Borgo would be quiet still
-
135
If they had rid themselves of their new neighbors.
-
-
"The house
from which your weeping has its birth,
-
The Amidei, in
their just resentment
-
Slaying you
and ending your glad life,
-
-
"Was honored
for itself and for its consorts.
-
140
O Buondelmonte, how ill of you to fly
-
From plighted
troth at promptings of another!
-
-
"Many who now
mourn would have rejoiced
-
If God had
thrown you to the Ema river
-
The first day
you arrived before the city!
-
-
145
"But it was fitting, in her final peace,
-
That Florence
should then sacrifice a victim
-
Unto the
broken stone which guards the bridge.
-
-
"With all
these folk and all the others with them
-
I saw Florence
in such assured repose
-
150 That
she still had no reason to lament.
-
-
"With all
these folk I saw her populace:
-
So glorious,
so righteous, that the lily
-
Had never hung
reversed upon the lance,
-
-
"Nor yet been
dyed vermilion by division."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Like him who
came to Clymene to learn
-
If what he
heard against himself were true,
-
Who still
makes fathers cautious toward their sons,
-
-
Such was I and
such was I seen to be
-
5
Both by Beatrice and by the holy lamp
-
That changed
its place before to meet with me.
-
-
With that my
lady said to me, "Send forth
-
The flame of
your desire so that it may
-
Come clearly
printed with its inner stamp.
-
-
10
"Not that our knowledge ever will increase
-
By what you
say, but that you may learn how
-
To tell your
thirst, and someone give you drink."
-
-
"O my dear
root, who raise yourself so high
-
That, as our
mind can grasp, a triangle
-
15
Cannot contain two obtuse angles in it,
-
-
"So do you see
contingent things before
-
They come to
be themselves, with your deep gazing
-
Upon the Point
to which all time is present,
-
-
"While I was
in the company of Virgil
-
20
High on the mountain that heals many souls,
-
And while I
climbed down through the world of death,
-
-
"Foreboding
words were said to me concerning
-
My future
life, although I feel myself
-
So squarely
set to face the blows of chance
-
-
25
"That I willingly would be content to hear
-
What fortune
now draws near for me, because
-
An arrow seen
beforehand has less shock."
-
-
I spoke this
answer to that same bright light
-
That
previously had spoken to me, and so,
-
30
As Beatrice wished, my own wish was confessed.
-
-
Not in dark
sayings, with which foolish people
-
Of old were
once ensnared, before the Lamb
-
Of God who
takes away our sins was slain,
-
-
But in clear
words and with exact discourse
-
35
That fatherly love made his reply to me,
-
Contained in
and shown out of his own smile:
-
-
"Contingency,
which does not stretch beyond
-
The meager
volume of your world of matter,
-
Is fully
pictured in the eternal vision;
-
-
40
"Yet thence it takes on no necessity,
-
No more than
would a ship which sails downstream
-
Depend upon
the eyes which mirror it;
-
-
"And thence,
as to the ear sweet harmony
-
Comes from an
organ, to my sight the time
-
45
Comes that already waits in store for you.
-
-
"As Hippolytus
was driven out of Athens
-
Through the
treachery and spite of his stepmother,
-
So you are
destined to depart from Florence.
-
-
"Thus it was
willed and thus already plotted,
-
50
And soon it shall be done by him who plans it
-
There where
Christ every day is bought and sold.
-
-
"The common
cry, as is the wont, will blame
-
The injured
party, but the vengeance which
-
The truth
demands will witness to the truth.
-
-
55
"You shall leave everything most dearly loved:
-
This is the
first one of the arrows which
-
The bow of
exile is prepared to shoot.
-
-
"You shall
discover how salty is the savor
-
Of someone
else’s bread, and how hard the way
-
60
To come down and climb up another’s stairs.
-
-
"And what will
weigh down on your shoulders most
-
Will be the
bad and brainless company
-
With whom you
shall fall down into this ditch.
-
-
"For all shall
turn ungrateful, all insane
-
And impious
against you, but soon after
-
65
Their brows, and not your own, shall blush for it.
-
-
"Their own
behavior will prove their brutishness,
-
So that it
shall enhance your reputation
-
To have become
a party to yourself.
-
-
70
"First refuge and first place of rest for you
-
Shall be in
the great Lombard’s courtesy,
-
Who bears the
sacred bird perched on the ladder
-
-
"And who shall
hold you in such kind regard
-
That between
you, in contrast with the others,
-
75
The granting will be first and asking last.
-
-
"With him you
shall see one who at his birth
-
Was so
imprinted by this star of strength
-
That men will
take note of his noble deeds.
-
-
"Not yet have
folk observed his worthiness
-
80
By reason of his age: these wheeling spheres
-
Have only for
nine years revolved around him.
-
-
"But ere the
Gascon cons high-riding Henry,
-
Some sparks of
virtue shall show forth in him
-
By hard work
and by caring naught for money.
-
-
85
"His bounty shall be so widespread hereafter
-
That the
tongues, even of his enemies,
-
Will not be
able to keep still about him.
-
-
"Look you to
him and his beneficence.
-
Through him
shall many folk find change of fortune,
-
90
Rich men and beggars shifting their positions.
-
-
"And you shall
bear this written in your mind
-
Of him, but
tell it not..." — and he told things
-
Beyond belief
of those who witness them.
-
-
Then added,
"Son, these are the glossaries
-
95
On what was told to you: behold the snares
-
Concealed by a
few circlings of the sun!
-
-
"Yet be not
envious against your neighbors,
-
For your life
shall extend much longer than
-
The punishment
of their perniciousness."
-
-
100
When this saintly soul showed by his silence
-
That he had
set the woof across the warp
-
Which I had
held in readiness for him,
-
-
I ventured,
like someone who seeks advice,
-
In his
confusion, from another person
-
105
Who sees and wills straightforwardly and loves:
-
-
"I clearly
see, my father, how time spurs
-
Toward me to
strike me such a blow as falls
-
The heaviest
on him who heeds it least.
-
-
"So it is well
I arm myself with foresight,
-
110
That if the dearest place be taken from me,
-
I’ll not lose
all the others, through my verse.
-
-
"Down in that
endlessly cruel world below
-
And on that
mountain from whose lovely summit
-
The eyes of my
own lady lifted me,
-
-
115
"And afterward, from light to light, through heaven,
-
I have learned
things which, if I repeat them,
-
Will give a
bitter taste to many people.
-
-
"Yet, should I
be a timid friend to truth,
-
I fear I will
not live among those who
-
120
Shall call this present time the ancient past."
-
-
The light in
which the treasure I had found
-
Kept smiling
started to flash out at first,
-
Just like a
golden mirror in the sun;
-
-
Then he
replied, "A conscience overclouded
-
125
Either with its own or others’ shame
-
Will certainly
feel that your speech is harsh.
-
-
"But
nonetheless — all falsehood set aside —
-
Show plainly
everything that you have seen:
-
Then let them
scratch wherever it may itch!
-
-
130
"For though your voice be bitter at first smack,
-
Yet later on
when it has been digested,
-
It shall leave
vital nourishment behind.
-
-
"This cry of
yours shall strike as does the wind
-
Which hits
against the highest peaks the hardest,
-
135
And that shall be no petty proof of honor.
-
-
"Therefore you
have been shown within these spheres,
-
Upon the
mountain, and in the woeful valley,
-
Only the souls
of those known for their fame.
-
-
"For the mind
of the listener never rests
-
140
And will not build its faith on an example
-
Whose roots
remain unknown or undiscovered,
-
-
"Nor on any
other proof that is not lucid."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
By now that blissful mirror only brightened
-
At his own
thoughts, and I too tasted mine,
-
Tempering the
bitter with the sweet,
-
-
When the lady
who was leading me to God
-
5
Said, "Shift your thoughts and think on how I am
-
Near Him who
lifts the burden of all wrongs."
-
-
I turned
around at the melodious sound
-
Of my soul’s
comfort, and what love I saw
-
Then in those
saintly eyes I leave unsaid:
-
-
10
Not only do I distrust my own speech,
-
But memory
cannot turn back so far
-
Above itself,
unless Another guide it.
-
-
This much I
can recount about that moment,
-
That while I
looked upon her my affection
-
15
Was liberated from all other longing,
-
-
While the
eternal joy that rayed straight down
-
On Beatrice
filled me with contentment in
-
The lovely
eyes with their reflected joy.
-
-
She
overwhelmed me with light from her smile,
-
20
And said to me, "Turn around and listen,
-
For paradise
is not just in my eyes."
-
-
As here on
earth one sometimes notices
-
Affection in a
look that is so striking
-
That the whole
soul is swept up in one glance,
-
-
25
So in the flaming of that holy brilliance
-
To which I
turned I recognized in him
-
The wish to
talk to me a short time longer.
-
-
He spoke, "In
this, the fifth tier of the tree
-
Which takes
life from the top and which bears fruit
-
30
Forever and which never sheds its leaves,
-
-
"Bloom blessed
spirits who, before they came
-
To heaven, had
below such wide renown
-
That any muse
would find a wealth in them.
-
-
"Gaze,
therefore, on the bright horns of the cross,
-
35
And he whom I shall name there will flash forth
-
Swift as the
fire of lightning from a cloud."
-
-
I saw a light
streak out along the cross
-
The instant
Joshua was named aloud,
-
Nor did I
catch the sound before the motion.
-
-
40
And at the name of the high Maccabee
-
I saw leap out
another spinning light —
-
Elation was
the whip that spun that top!
-
-
Two more I
followed with my craving sight
-
When
Charlemagne and Roland were called out,
-
45
As the eye tracks the falcon in its flight.
-
-
William of
Orange next, and Renouart,
-
And then Duke
Godfrey, drew my eager gaze
-
Along that
cross, and Robert Guiscard too.
-
-
Then moving
and mingling with the other lights,
-
50
The soul who’d spoken to me let me hear
-
His art among
the singers of that heaven.
-
-
I turned
around once more to my right side
-
To see in
Beatrice what I ought to do
-
By giving me a
sign in word or gesture,
-
-
55
And I saw her eyes light so joyfully,
-
So clearly,
that her likeness now outshone
-
All it had
been till then, even the latest.
-
-
And as a man,
through feeling more delight
-
In doing good,
from day to day becomes
-
60
Aware that he advances in his virtue,
-
-
Even so was I
aware my circling round
-
With heaven
went in ever widening arcs
-
When I
perceived her wonder still more dazzling.
-
-
And like the
change that comes on in a moment
-
65
In a fair-skinned lady, when her face is free
-
From the
burden of its bashfulness,
-
-
Such was the
change for my eyes when I turned,
-
Because of the
soft whiteness of the sixth
-
Star which
enfolded me within itself.
-
-
70
I saw the Jovial torch within its cresset
-
Shoot sparks
of love that had its dwelling there,
-
Patterning out
our language to my eyes.
-
-
And as birds,
risen from a river bank,
-
As though
rejoicing in their pasture, fly
-
75
Now in a circle, now in one long line,
-
-
So in those
lights were holy creatures singing
-
While they
were flying, and in their figures
-
Formed
letters: now D, now I, and now
L.
-
-
At first they
moved in rhythm with their song,
-
80
But then, as they became one of those letters,
-
They stopped
for a brief interval in silence.
-
-
O Pegasean
goddess, you give glory
-
To the
talented and offer them long life
-
Which by your
aid they give to kingdoms, cities,
-
-
85
Shed your light on me that I may set forth
-
These figures
as I have conceived their shape,
-
And let your
power show through these few verses!
-
-
In five times
seven vowels and consonants
-
They then
displayed themselves, and I took note
-
90
Of characters that I seemed to see spoken.
-
-
DILIGITE
JUSTITIAM were the first
-
Verb and noun
of all depicted there;
-
QUI JUDICATIS
TERRAM were the last.
-
-
After, they
formed the M of the fifth word,
-
95
Which stayed so placed that Jupiter appeared
-
Silvery behind
that spot stitched out with gold.
-
-
And I saw
other lights descend to where
-
The top of the
M rose, and come to rest
-
There,
singing, I believe, the Good that draws them.
-
-
100
Then, as innumerable sparks fly up
-
With a
striking blow at burning logs
-
(From this the
foolish try to tell their fortunes),
-
-
More than a
thousand lights appeared to rise
-
From there and
soar, some higher and some lower,
-
105
To where the Sun that kindles them appoints.
-
-
And when each
one had nestled in its place,
-
I saw the head
and shoulders of an eagle
-
Presented in
the patterned points of flame.
-
-
He who paints
there has no need of a guide:
-
110
He guides Himself, and from Him has derived
-
That
instinctive power that builds nests.
-
-
The rest of
the blest souls who seemed at first
-
Content to
form a lily on the M
-
With a slight
movement finished the design.
-
-
115
O dulcet star! how numerous and bright
-
The gems that
made it clear to me our justice
-
Comes from the
heaven which you so bejewel!
-
-
Therefore I
pray the Mind in which begin
-
Your motion
and your power to attend
-
120
To where the smoke that blocks your rays arises,
-
-
So that once
more he may be angry with
-
The buying and
the selling in the temple
-
Whose walls
were built by miracles and martyrs.
-
-
O soldiery of
heaven on whom I gaze,
-
125
Pray for all who stray from the straight path
-
By following
bad example down on earth!
-
-
Men used to
make war at one time with swords,
-
But now they
make it by taking here and there
-
The bread the
kindly Father keeps from no one.
-
-
130
But you, who inscribe only to cross out,
-
Recall that
Paul and Peter, who died for
-
The vineyard
you lay waste, are still alive!
-
-
You may well
say, "I have so set my passion
-
On him who
wished to live alone and who
-
135
For a girl’s dance was dragged to martyrdom
-
-
"That I don’t
know the Fisherman or Paul."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Before me now
with outspread wings appeared
-
The gorgeous
image which those weaving souls,
-
Delighting in
their sweet enjoyment, made.
-
-
Each one of
them seemed like a little ruby
-
5
In which the sun’s rays burst with such bright flame
-
That it
reflected light straight to my eyes.
-
-
And what I now
am called on to recount
-
Never has
voice spoken nor ink written,
-
Nor has
imagination ever grasped it.
-
-
10
For I saw and I heard the beak speak up
-
And sound out
with its voice both I and Mine
-
When really it
intended We and Our.
-
-
"For being
just and dutiful," it began,
-
"I am exalted
to that height of glory
-
15
Which no desire is able to outreach,
-
-
"While, there
on earth, I left a memory
-
Which even
evildoers wish to praise,
-
Although they
do not follow its example."
-
-
As many embers
make one single heat,
-
20
So many loves sound out one single voice
-
Which issues
from one image of them all.
-
-
Then I
addressed them, "O perennial flowers
-
Of everlasting
happiness! you cause
-
All your
perfumes to seem to me one scent!
-
-
25
"Breathe out and free me from the mighty fast
-
That for too
long has kept me hungering,
-
Finding no
food on earth to ease the pain.
-
-
"I know well
that if there are other kingdoms
-
Which here in
heaven mirror God’s high justice,
-
30
Yours does not reflect it through a veil.
-
-
"You know how
eagerly I ready myself
-
To listen, and
you know the question which
-
From days of
old has made me fast with doubt."
-
-
Just as a
falcon, slipping from its hood,
-
35
Rears and shakes its head and flaps its wings,
-
Showing its
spirit, making itself handsome,
-
-
So I saw move
that banner which was woven
-
With praises
for the grace of God, with songs
-
Such as they
know who there rejoice on high.
-
-
40
The voice began then, "He who turned his compass
-
Around the
limits of the world, and in it
-
Marked out
much that is hidden and revealed,
-
-
"Could not so
stamp his power on the whole
-
Universe, but
that his Word must still
-
45
Remain in infinite superiority.
-
-
"The proof of
this is in that first proud angel
-
Who was the
pinnacle of every creature
-
And who fell
unripe, not waiting for the light:
-
-
"So we can see
that every lesser nature
-
50
Is too slight a container for that Good
-
Which is
self-measuring and limitless.
-
-
"Your vision,
then, which of necessity
-
Is only one of
the rays of the Mind
-
Which
permeates all things with plenitude,
-
-
55
"Can never, by its nature, lack the power
-
But that it
should perceive its origin
-
Is far beyond
all that occurs to it.
-
-
"The sight,
then, that is granted to your world
-
May penetrate
within eternal justice
-
60
No further than the eye into the sea.
-
-
"Though from
the shore the eye can see the bottom,
-
It does not
see it on the open sea;
-
Yet it is
there, but hidden in the depths.
-
-
"Light is not
light unless it come from that
-
65
Serene and cloudless Source: else it is darkness,
-
The shadow and
the poison of our flesh.
-
-
"Now then, the
hiding-place, which has concealed
-
From you the
living justice you so often
-
Called into
question, lies well open to you.
-
-
70
"For you would say, ‘A man’s born on the bank
-
Along the
Indus, and no one is there
-
Who ever
speaks or reads or writes of Christ.
-
-
" ‘Yet
everything he wills or does is good,
-
So far as
human reason can perceive,
-
75
Without a sin in living or in speaking.
-
-
" ‘Unbaptized
he dies, and without faith.
-
Where is the
justice that condemns this man?
-
What is his
fault if he does not believe?’
-
-
"Now who are
you to sit upon the seat
-
80
Of judgment at a thousand miles away
-
When your
short sight sees just a foot ahead?
-
-
"Surely, were
Scriptures not set over you
-
As guide, for
him who would split hairs with me
-
There would be
wondrous chance for questioning.
-
-
85
"O animals of earth, O gross of mind!
-
Good in
itself, the primal Will has never
-
Moved from
itself which is the highest Good.
-
-
"All in accord
with it is just, and no
-
Created good
draws this Will to itself
-
90
Unless, by raying down, the Will directs it."
-
-
Just as the
stork wheels round above her nest
-
After she has
fed her young their food,
-
And as each
bird she fed looks up at her,
-
-
So did the
blessed emblem turn, and so
-
95
I lifted up my eyes, while it, impelled
-
By many
inspirations, moved its wings.
-
-
Wheeling it
sang, and said, "As are my notes
-
To you who do
not comprehend them, such
-
Is the eternal
judgment to you mortals."
-
-
100
After the Holy Spirit’s glowing flames
-
Had quieted,
the voice still in the ensign
-
Which made the
Romans awesome to the world
-
-
Began again,
"None ever mounted to
-
This kingdom
who did not believe in Christ,
-
105
Before or since he was nailed to the tree.
-
-
"But mark
this: many who cry out ‘Christ, Christ,’
-
Will be less
close to him on Judgment Day
-
Than someone
who may not have known of Christ.
-
-
"The Ethiopian
shall damn such Christians
-
110
When the two companies shall be divided,
-
One rich
forever and the other poor.
-
-
"What will the
Persian then say to your kings
-
When they
shall see the volume opened wide
-
In which their
infamies are all recorded?
-
-
115
"There shall be seen among the deeds of Albert
-
One act which
soon will set the pen in motion,
-
By which the
realm of Prague will turn a desert.
-
-
"There shall
be seen the grief brought on the Seine
-
By that man
who will counterfeit the coinage
-
120
And whom the blow of a wild boar will kill.
-
-
"There shall
be seen the pride that sharpens thirst
-
And makes the
Scot and Englishman so mad
-
That neither
one can stay within his borders.
-
-
"Seen too
shall be the lusting and soft living
-
125
Of both kings of Bohemia and Spain,
-
Who never knew
courageousness or wished to.
-
-
"Seen too the
Cripple of Jerusalem
-
Whose goodness
is enough to dot an i,
-
While his
misdeeds would fill an alphabet.
-
-
130
"Seen too shall be the greed and cowardice
-
Of him who was
the ward of Fire Island
-
On which
Anchises ended his long life.
-
-
"And to help
you discern his paltriness,
-
His record
shall be written with few letters
-
135
Which will note down a great deal in small space.
-
-
"And the foul
acts of his uncle and his brother,
-
Which heaped
shame on so famed a lineage
-
And on two
crowns, shall be made plain to all.
-
-
"And both
kings of Norway and of Portugal
-
140
Shall be known there, and seen the lord of Rascia
-
Who conned the
coins of Venice to his loss.
-
-
"O happy
Hungary, if she can preserve
-
Herself from
more mishandling! O happy Navarre,
-
If she can
make herself a mountain stronghold!
-
-
145
"And all should credit that, in pledge of this,
-
Already
Nicosia and Famagosta
-
Complain and
wail because their beast of burden
-
-
"Will not
break off from the rest of the herd."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
When he who
lights up our whole world comes down
-
Out of our
hemisphere, so that the day
-
In all
directions fades away to dark,
-
-
The sky, which
he alone inflamed before,
-
5
All of a sudden shows itself once more
-
With many
lights lit by his single blaze:
-
-
So this shift
in the sky came to my mind
-
When the sign
of the world and of its leaders
-
Fell back to
silence with its blessed beak,
-
-
10
Because, of all those living luminaries,
-
Shining more
brightly, each began to sing
-
Hymns that
have slipped out of my memory.
-
-
O dulcet love,
whose mantle is a smile,
-
How glowingly
you sounded in those flutes,
-
15
Filled only with the breath of saintly thoughts!
-
-
When all the
precious and pellucid stones
-
With which I
saw the sixth star all bejeweled
-
Had stilled
the chiming of those angelic bells,
-
-
I seemed to
hear the murmuring of a river
-
20
Clearly coursing down from rock to rock,
-
Attesting to
the richness of its source.
-
-
And as the
notes resounding from the lute
-
Take shape
within its neck, and as the wind
-
Sounds at the
opening of the bagpipe it inflates,
-
-
25
So, with no further time spent idly waiting,
-
That murmuring
whisper of the eagle rose
-
Up through the
neck, as if the neck were hollow.
-
-
There it
turned to a voice, and through the beak
-
It issued in
the form of words, such words
-
30
As the heart on which I wrote them waited for.
-
-
"That part in
me which can see in earthly eagles
-
And can endure
the sun," the voice began,
-
"There
steadfastly you must now fix your gaze.
-
-
"For of the
fires from which I take shape,
-
35
Those with which the eye glitters in my head
-
Are the chief
souls within all of their ranks.
-
-
"The one
shining in the middle as the pupil
-
Was the singer
of the Holy Spirit,
-
Who took the
ark about from town to town.
-
-
40
"Now he knows here the merit of his song:
-
How much of it
resulted from his talent,
-
By the reward
proportionate to it.
-
-
"Of those five
that make up my eyebrow’s arch,
-
The one who is
the nearest to my beak
-
45
Gave comfort to the widow for her son.
-
-
"Now he knows
the dear price men have to pay
-
Not to follow
Christ, by his experience
-
Of this sweet
life and of its opposite.
-
-
"And he who
follows on the upper arc
-
50
Of the circumference of which I speak
-
Has put off
death by his true penitence.
-
-
"Now he knows
that the everlasting judgment
-
Remains
unchanged, when worthy prayer on earth
-
Makes what
should be today take place tomorrow.
-
-
55
"The next who follows, to give way to the shepherd,
-
With good
intentions that bore rotten fruit,
-
Removed to
Greece, taking the laws and me.
-
-
"Now he knows
how the evil that arose
-
From his good
action does not harm him here,
-
60
Although the world be devastated by it.
-
-
"The fourth
you see within the lower arc
-
Was William,
for whom that land goes in mourning
-
That weeps for
Charles and Frederick yet alive.
-
-
"Now he knows
how an upright king is loved
-
65
In heaven, as he still makes evident
-
By the
effulgent likeness of his glory.
-
-
"Who would
believe down in the erring world
-
That Ripheus
the Trojan was the fifth
-
Of the saintly
splendors in that circle?
-
-
70
"Now he knows much about the grace of God
-
That your
world cannot see, although his sight
-
May not make
out the bottom of the sea."
-
-
Just like the
lark that soars into the air,
-
First singing
and then silent in contentment
-
75
With the last sweetness sated by its song,
-
-
So seemed to
me the image stamped out sharply
-
By the eternal
Pleasure, through whose will
-
All things
become what they are in their being.
-
-
And though my
questioning showed through me there
-
80
Like colors shining through the coated glass,
-
I could not
bear to wait in silence longer,
-
-
But from my
lips burst, "How can these things be?"
-
Forced out by
the sheer pressure of its weight.
-
At that I saw
a feast of flashing lights.
-
-
85
And right then, not to hold me in suspense
-
And wonder,
its eye burning ever brighter,
-
The blessed
emblem answered me again:
-
-
"I see that
you believe these things because
-
I tell you
about them, but you do not see how,
-
90
So that they stay concealed while still believed.
-
-
"You act like
one who clearly apprehends
-
A thing by
name, but cannot grasp its essence
-
Unless it is
explained by someone else.
-
-
"The kingdom
of heaven suffers violence
-
95
From all the fervent love and living hope
-
Which
vanquishes the will of the Most High:
-
-
"Not in the
way men vanquish other men;
-
It conquers
because His will lets it conquer,
-
And,
vanquished, vanquishes with its own kindness.
-
-
100
"The first and the fifth spirits of my brow
-
Make you
amazed, since you perceive the region
-
Of the angels
here adorned with them.
-
-
"They quit
their bodies not as you think, pagans,
-
But Christians
with firm faith, one in the feet
-
105
To be pierced, the other, that were pierced.
-
-
"For one
returned to flesh and bones from hell
-
Where no one
ever can regain goodwill,
-
And that was
the reward of living hope:
-
-
"Of living
hope that rendered powerful
-
110
Prayers offered up to God to raise him new
-
So that his
will be able to be moved.
-
-
"The glorious
soul of whom I speak, come back
-
For a short
period to his own body,
-
Believed in
Him who has the power to help:
-
-
115
"Believing, he burst out in such a blaze
-
Of the true
love that at his second death
-
He was worthy
to be welcomed to this mirth.
-
-
"The other, by
the grace that wells up from
-
So deep a
fountain that no creature yet
-
120
Has ever cast eyes down to its first wave,
-
-
"Placed all
his love on earth in doing right;
-
And God, from
grace to grace, so opened up
-
His eyes to
our redemption still to come
-
-
"That he
believed in Christ, and from then on
-
125
Would not endure the stench of paganism,
-
And for it he
reproved those perverse people.
-
-
"The three
ladies at the chariot’s right wheel
-
(You saw them)
sponsored him in baptism
-
A thousand
years before baptismal rites.
-
-
130
"O predestination, how far removed
-
Your root lies
from the eyesight of those people
-
Who do not see
the First Cause as a whole!
-
-
"And, mortals,
show restraint in making judgments,
-
For even we
who look on God himself
-
135
Do not yet know all those who are elect.
-
-
"And such a
failing is a sweet thing to us,
-
Since in this
good is our own good refined,
-
That what God
wills is what we will as well."
-
-
So, thanks to
that divine emblazoned form,
-
140
There I received this soothing medicine
-
To clear my
eyes of their shortsightedness.
-
-
And as a
skillful lutanist can make
-
The strings
vibrate in tune with a skilled singer
-
And in this
way add pleasure to the song,
-
-
145
So, I remember, while the eagle spoke,
-
I saw the two
blest lights together move,
-
Just as the
eyelids blink with one accord,
-
-
Causing their
flames to quiver to the words.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
By now my eyes
fixed once more on the face
-
Of my own
lady, and with them my mind,
-
And it
withdrew from every other thought.
-
-
She did not
smile, but, "If I were to smile,"
-
5
She said to me, "why then you would become
-
Like Semele
when she turned into ashes,
-
-
"Because my
beauty which, as you have seen,
-
All up the
steps of the eternal palace
-
Is more
inflamed the higher we ascend
-
-
10
"So burns that, if it were not tempered here,
-
Your mortal
powers would shatter at its flash,
-
Just like a
branch struck by a lightning bolt.
-
-
"We have
wafted upward to the seventh splendor
-
Which
underneath the burning Lion’s breast
-
15
Beams down below now mingling might with might.
-
-
"Fasten your
mind on where your eyes are fixed
-
And make them
mirrors for the figure which
-
Within this
mirror shall be shown to you."
-
-
Whoever will
recall how gladly I
-
20
Pastured my sight upon her blissful face,
-
When I now
turned my thoughts to a new field,
-
-
Shall know how
deep the joy that I then felt,
-
In so obeying
my celestial guide,
-
By balancing
one side and then the other.
-
-
25
Within the crystal, circling round the world,
-
That bears the
name of its beloved leader
-
During whose
rule all wickedness lay dead,
-
-
I saw a
ladder, glimmering like gold
-
Lit by a
sunbeam, running up so high
-
30
That my sight could not trace it to the top.
-
-
I saw so many
splendors stepping down
-
On all its
rungs that I thought every star
-
In heaven was
cascading down from it,
-
-
And just as
jackdaws at the break of day
-
35
Through natural instinct fly about together
-
In order to
warm up their frigid feathers,
-
-
Then some,
without returning, soar away,
-
Some wheel
around to where they started off,
-
While others
stay on circling in the sky:
-
-
40
Such flights, it seemed to me, the sparkling swarm
-
Which gathered
all together now performed,
-
As soon as it
had touched a certain rung.
-
-
The soul that
halted closest to us both
-
Became so
bright that I said in my thought,
-
45
"I clearly see the love you signal me.
-
-
"But she from
whom I await the how and when
-
Of speech and
silence, holds her peace, so I,
-
Against my
wishes, do well not to question."
-
-
At this, then,
she, who saw my silent caution
-
50
In her vision of Him who sees all things,
-
Observed to
me, "Set free your fervent wish."
-
-
And I began,
"No merit of my own
-
Will make me
worthy of your answering me,
-
But for her
sake who lets me question you,
-
-
55
"O blessed life that lies concealed inside
-
Your own
elation, please reveal to me
-
The reason you
are placed so close to me,
-
-
"And tell me
why within this wheeling sphere
-
The sweet
symphony of paradise is silent,
-
60
Which through the spheres below sounds so devoutly."
-
-
"You have the
sight and hearing of a mortal,"
-
He answered
me; "there is no singing here
-
For the same
reason Beatrice has not smiled.
-
-
"Down on the
holy ladder’s rungs I stepped
-
65
So far to offer you warm-hearted welcome
-
With my talk
and the light that mantles me:
-
-
"It was not
stronger love that made me swifter,
-
For love as
strong or stronger burns up there,
-
As all these
flaming stars declare to you,
-
-
70
"But the high charity which makes us prompt
-
To serve the
wisdom governing the world
-
Assigns us to
our place as you perceive."
-
-
"I plainly
see," I said, "O sacred lamp,
-
How liberal
love is ample in this court
-
75
For following eternal providence,
-
-
"But this is
what seems hard for me to grasp:
-
Why you alone
of all your company
-
Were so
selected to perform this office."
-
-
I scarcely
finished saying this last word
-
80
When, using its own center as an axis,
-
The light went
whirling round like a fast millstone.
-
-
The love from
in that midpoint then replied,
-
"Divine light
comes to focus here on me
-
By piercing
through the beams embracing me:
-
-
85
"Its power, fusing with my sight, uplifts
-
My soul so
high above itself, I see
-
The Supreme
Being from which it flows out.
-
-
"From this
sight comes the joy with which I flame,
-
For as my
seeing sharpens, so I match
-
90
The sharpness of my flame to equal it.
-
-
"But that soul
who in heaven burns the brightest,
-
That seraph
with his eye most fixed on God,
-
Could not
resolve the question you have asked,
-
-
"For what you
seek lies hidden down so deep
-
95
In the abyss of the eternal bidding,
-
It is cut off
from all created vision.
-
-
"And when you
go back to the mortal world,
-
Take this news
with you, that none may presume
-
To move his
feet toward so profound a goal.
-
-
100
"The mind is light here, on earth it is smoke.
-
Consider,
then, how it can do down there
-
What it cannot
do up here with heaven’s help."
-
-
His words put
such a limit on me that
-
I left the
question and withdrew myself
-
105
So far as to ask humbly who he was.
-
-
"Between the
coasts of Italy and not
-
Too distant
from your homeland, peaks rise up
-
So high that
thunder sounds far lower down
-
-
"And form a
hump that is called Catria,
-
110
Beneath which lies a sacred hermitage
-
Once wholly
given over to pure worship."
-
-
So he began to
speak to me a third time,
-
Then added,
"In that cloister I became
-
So steadfast
in the service of our God
-
-
115
"That with food seasoned just with olive-juice
-
Lightheartedly
I bore both heat and cold,
-
Content with
thoughtful prayers of contemplation.
-
-
"That
monastery used to yield a harvest
-
Of rich
abundance to these heavens — now,
-
120
How bare it has become must soon be shown!
-
-
"I was, in
that place, Peter Damian,
-
And Peter the
Sinner, in the Abbey of
-
Our Lady on
the Adriatic shore.
-
-
"Little was
left me of my mortal life
-
125
When I was called and forced to wear the hat
-
That’s always
handed down from bad to worse.
-
-
"Cephas once
came, and came the mighty vessel
-
The Holy
Spirit chose, barefoot and lean,
-
Eating their
food at any wayside inn.
-
-
130
"Now modern pastors need people to prop
-
Their heavy
bodies, on this side and on that,
-
With one to
lead and one to hold their trains.
-
-
"They spread
out their fur mantles on their palfreys
-
So that two
beasts trot on beneath one hide.
-
135
O patience, that you put up with so much!"
-
-
With these
words I saw more flames stepping down
-
From rung to
rung and whirling while they came,
-
And every
whirl intensified their beauty.
-
-
They flocked
around this spirit and stood still
-
140
And lifted up a shout so deep in sound
-
That nothing
heard on earth resembles it.
-
-
The thunder dashed me so, I could not
grasp it.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Struck with
amazement, I turned to my guide,
-
Like a small
child that always runs back where
-
The person it
trusts most is to be found.
-
-
And she, like
a mother who is quick to calm
-
5
Her pale and panting son with her soft voice
-
Which often
reassures him, said to me,
-
-
"Do you not
know that you are now in heaven?
-
Do you not
know that heaven is all holy,
-
And that what
is done here springs from true zeal?
-
-
10
"Now you can comprehend how they by song
-
And I by
smiling would have changed your soul,
-
When just this
shout has moved you so profoundly.
-
-
"By this cry,
had you understood their prayers,
-
You might have
known already of the vengeance
-
15
Which you shall see down there before you die.
-
-
"The sword of
heaven does not cut in haste
-
Nor strike too
late, except in the opinion
-
Of those who
wait in fear or longing for it.
-
-
"But turn now
to the others gathered here,
-
20
For you will notice many famous spirits,
-
If you direct
your gaze as I instruct you."
-
-
Just as she
pleased, I turned my eyes and saw
-
A hundred
little spheres which all together
-
Made
themselves beautiful with rays they shared.
-
-
25
I stood as someone curbing in himself
-
The prick of
his desire, who does not dare
-
To question,
he so dreads to overdo.
-
-
And the most
brilliant and magnificent
-
Of those
bright pearls came forward from its cluster
-
30
To make content my wish concerning it.
-
-
Then I heard
from within it, "Could you see,
-
As I can see,
the love that burns among us,
-
You would have
found expression for your thoughts.
-
-
"But that more
waiting may not hold you from
-
35
Your goal on high, I will make my response,
-
Just to the
thought that you keep to yourself.
-
-
"The mountain
on whose slope Cassino lies,
-
Was, on its
summit, visited of old
-
By a deluded
and perverted people,
-
-
40
"And I am he who was the first to carry
-
Up there the
name of Him who brought to earth
-
The truth that
lifts us up so loftily,
-
-
"And such
abundant grace shone down on me
-
That I led the
surrounding towns away
-
45
From impious cults which have seduced the world.
-
-
"These other
flames were all contemplatives
-
Enkindled by
the heat which brings to birth
-
The
sanctifying flowers and their fruits.
-
-
"Here is
Macarius, here is Romualdus,
-
50
Here are my brothers who kept steadfast hearts
-
And planted
their feet within the cloister walls."
-
-
And I told
him, "The affection you display
-
In speaking to
me, and the kindliness
-
That I observe
in every glowing spirit,
-
-
55
"Have made my confidence spread as the sun
-
Opens the rose
when it becomes full-blown
-
And its heart
swells with fresh capacity.
-
-
"I therefore
beg you, father, to assure me,
-
If I am able
to obtain such grace,
-
60
That I may look upon your unveiled figure."
-
-
He then said,
"Brother, your exalted longing
-
Shall be
fulfilled up in the final sphere
-
Where mine and
all desires are fulfilled.
-
-
"There every
wish is perfect, ripe, and whole.
-
65
There only, in that highest point of heaven,
-
Is every part
where it has always rested.
-
-
"That sphere
is not in space, it has no pole,
-
And our bright
ladder reaches up to it
-
So far that it
must vanish from your view.
-
-
70
"The patriarch Jacob saw it stretching
-
To its top
rung, when it appeared to him
-
Thronged full
of angels pressing up and down.
-
-
"But no one
now lifts his foot from the ground
-
To climb it,
and my rule is left there like
-
75
Waste scraps of paper to be tossed aside.
-
-
"The walls
which formerly enclosed an abbey
-
Now house a
den of thieves, and the monks’ cowls
-
Are sacks
stuffed to the brim with rotten flour.
-
-
"But even
heavy usury violates less
-
80
Against God’s pleasure than the tempting fruit
-
That makes the
hearts of monks so mad for it,
-
-
"For what the
Church possesses is for all
-
The people who
request it in God’s name,
-
Not for
relations or others who are worse.
-
-
85
"The flesh of mortal creatures is so soft
-
That good
beginnings on earth will not last
-
From seeding
of the oak to acorn-bearing.
-
-
"Peter began
his movement without gold
-
Or silver; I
mine, with prayers and fasting;
-
90
Francis his, with pure humility:
-
-
"And if you
look at each of their beginnings,
-
And then look
back again to where it strayed,
-
You will see
that the white has turned to black.
-
-
"Yet, Jordan
driven back against its course
-
95
And the Red Sea divided, when God willed,
-
Would be less
wondrous sights than help is here."
-
-
These words he
said to me, and then rejoined
-
His company,
and the company closed ranks.
-
Then like a
whirlwind they were all swooped up.
-
-
100
My own sweet lady, simply with a sign,
-
Thrust me on
up the ladder after them,
-
My nature was
so vanquished by her power.
-
-
Never on
earth, where we descend and climb
-
By nature’s
law, has motion been so rapid
-
105 That
it could be compared to my winged flight.
-
-
As I hope,
reader, to return to that
-
Solemn triumph
for whose sake I often
-
Weep for my
sins and beat my breast in sorrow:
-
-
You could not
put your finger in the fire
-
110
And pull it out as swiftly as I saw
-
The sign that
trails the Bull and stood inside it.
-
-
O stars of
glory, O light teeming full
-
With mighty
power from which I obtain
-
All of
whatever talent I may have,
-
-
115
Rising with you and setting with you was
-
The Sun that
is father of all mortal life,
-
When first I
felt the air of Tuscany,
-
-
And when the
grace was granted then to me
-
To enter the
high sphere that wheels you round,
-
120
Your region was the one assigned to me!
-
-
To you my soul
devotedly now sighs
-
That she may
gain the influencing power
-
For the hard
pass which draws her to itself.
-
-
"You are so
close now to the final solace,"
-
125
Beatrice began, "that it is necessary
-
For your eyes
to be vigilant and clear.
-
-
"And so,
before you go in any farther,
-
Look down and
see how vast a universe
-
I have already
set beneath your feet,
-
-
130
"So that your heart, rejoicing to the full,
-
May present
itself to the triumphant throng
-
Which comes
with joy through this ethereal zone."
-
-
I traveled
back in gazing down through all
-
The seven
spheres, and then I saw this globe
-
135
So paltry that I smiled at its appearance.
-
-
And that
opinion I approve as best
-
Which holds
the earth as least, and he whose thought
-
Is elsewhere
may be named as truly upright.
-
-
I saw the
daughter of Latona glowing
-
140
Without that shadow which was once the reason
-
Why I believed
that she was rare and dense.
-
-
I there
sustained the bright face of your son,
-
Hyperion; and,
Maia and Dione,
-
I saw your
children circling close to him.
-
-
145
Then I observed Jove’s tempering between
-
His son and
father, and I clearly saw
-
The variations
they make in their orbits.
-
-
And all the
seven spheres displayed to me
-
How grand they
are and how swift in their motion
-
150
And how apart in distance from each other.
-
-
As I revolved
with the eternal Twins,
-
I saw revealed
from hills to river outlets
-
The
threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious.
-
-
Then my eyes
turned back to the eyes of beauty.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Just as the
bird that, in the friendly leaves,
-
Has sat upon
the nest of her sweet chicks
-
Throughout the
night that hides all things from us,
-
-
And, so that
she can see their eager looks
-
5
When she has found the food to feed them with
-
(For she takes
pleasure in her toiling hard),
-
-
Anticipates
the day on an open branch
-
And in the
glow of love awaits the sun
-
With her sight
fastened for the break of day:
-
-
10
So my lady stood, attentive and erect,
-
Turning toward
the quarter of the sky
-
Beneath which
the sun travels with less haste,
-
-
And so I,
seeing her alert and longing,
-
Became like
one who in his wish would have
-
15
More than he has, but is content to hope.
-
-
Yet time was
brief between the when and when,
-
The when’s,
I mean, of waiting and of seeing
-
The sky
increase with more and more resplendence.
-
-
And Beatrice
cried, "Look on the glittering legions
-
20
Of Christ in triumph and on all the fruit
-
Harvested by
the turning of these spheres!"
-
-
Her face
seemed all aflame as I gazed on her,
-
And her eyes
looked so full of ecstasy
-
That I must
pass this by without description.
-
-
25
As at the full moon in the calm clear sky,
-
Trivia smiles
among the immortal nymphs
-
That paint the
scene of heaven to its heights,
-
-
I saw, above a
million burning lamps,
-
A Sun that
kindled every one of them
-
30
As our sun lights the stars we glimpse on high;
-
-
And through
its living light the shining Substance
-
Glowed out so
brightly down upon my gaze
-
That my eyes
dazzled and could not endure it.
-
-
O Beatrice, my
sweet and cherished guide!
-
35
You said to me, "What overwhelms you here
-
Is a power for
which there is no defense:
-
-
"In this One
is the wisdom and the power
-
That opened up
the path from earth to heaven
-
For which the
men of old had yearned so long."
-
-
40
Just as lightning
bursts out from a cloud
-
Because it so
expands it has no room left,
-
And crashes to
the ground against its nature,
-
-
Just so my
mind, becoming more enlarged
-
At this rich
banquet, broke free from itself,
-
45
And cannot now recall what it became.
-
-
"Open your
eyes and look at what I am,
-
For you have
seen such things that you are able
-
Now to
withstand the vision of my smile!"
-
-
I was like one
who wakes up from a dream
-
50
That he has half forgotten and who strives
-
Without
success to bring it back to mind
-
-
When I heard
this directive, so deserving
-
Of gratitude
that it can never be
-
Blotted from
the book that pens the past.
-
-
55
If all those tongues should sound to aid me now
-
Which
Polyhymnia and her sister muses
-
Made all the
richer with their sweetest milk,
-
-
It would not
touch a thousandth of the truth
-
In singing of
her saintly smile and how
-
60
It lighted up her saintly countenance.
-
-
And so, in my
depicting paradise,
-
This sacred
poem is forced to take a leap,
-
Like someone
who finds his path blocked before him.
-
-
Whoever marks
this weighty theme, however,
-
65
And the mortal shoulders loaded down with it,
-
Will not blame
if they quake beneath the burden.
-
-
This is no
voyage for a little skiff,
-
This course my
daring prow cuts as it sails,
-
Nor for a
helmsman sparing himself pains!
-
-
70
"Why are you so enamored with my face
-
You do not
turn to see the lovely garden
-
Full
blossoming beneath the beams of Christ?
-
-
"Here is the
Rose in whom the Word of God
-
Took on our
flesh, and here are all the lilies
-
75
Whose fragrance pointed out the true straight road."
-
-
So Beatrice;
and I, all in readiness
-
For her
command, prepared myself once more
-
To struggle to
lift up my feeble eyelids.
-
-
As in a ray of
sunlight pouring purely
-
80
Down through a rifted cloud, my eyes in shadow
-
Have sometimes
seen a shining field of flowers,
-
-
So I saw there
a myriad host of splendors
-
Lit brightly
from above by blazing rays,
-
Although I
could not see the source of brilliance.
-
-
85
O gracious Power that stamps them all with light,
-
You raised
yourself on high to make room there
-
For my eyes
which were powerless to look!
-
-
The name of
the lovely Flower I call on,
-
Morning and
evening, focused all my mind
-
90
As I fixed my gaze on the brightest Flame.
-
-
And when both
of my eyes had seen depicted
-
The size and
brilliance of the living Star
-
That conquers
there as down below she conquered,
-
-
I saw come
down from heaven a bright torch
-
95
That shaped a circlet like a diadem
-
Girdling her
and wheeling round about her.
-
-
The
sweetest-sounding melody on earth,
-
Which draws
the soul the closest to its strains,
-
Would seem to
be a thunder-shattered cloud
-
-
100
Compared to the tuned music of the lyre
-
That crowns
the most beautiful of sapphires
-
By which the
brightest heaven is bejeweled.
-
-
"I am angelic
love who wheel around
-
The exalted
gaiety breathed from the womb
-
105
Which was the inn of all the world’s desire;
-
-
"And, Lady of
Heaven, I will wheel until
-
You follow
your Son to the highest sphere
-
To make it
more divine by entering it!"
-
-
In this way
the encircling melody
-
110
Came to a close, and all the other lights
-
Rang out with
echoes of the name of Mary.
-
-
The royal
mantle which enfolds the orbits
-
Of all the
worlds, most burning and most living
-
Within the
breath of God and in his ways,
-
-
115
Withdrew its inner shore so far above us
-
That any sight
of it, from where I stood,
-
As yet
remained impossible for me.
-
-
My eyes did
not possess the power, then,
-
To follow the
crowned Flame in upward flight
-
120
As she soared into heaven toward her Son.
-
-
And as an
infant, after taking milk,
-
Stretches out
its arms toward its mother,
-
Because the
soul burns to express itself,
-
-
Each radiance
reached upward with its flame,
-
125
So that the deep affection which they felt
-
For Mary was
revealed to me in full.
-
-
Then they
remained there, still within my sight,
-
Singing
Regina Coeli with such sweet voices
-
That my
delight in it has never left me.
-
-
130
O how abundant is the harvest heaped
-
In those rich
storage-bins of souls who were,
-
While down on
earth, the sowers of good seed!
-
-
Here they live
rejoicing in the treasure
-
Which they
have won with tears shed in their exile
-
135
In Babylon where they held gold in scorn.
-
-
Here lives,
triumphant in his victory,
-
Beneath the
exalted Son of God and Mary,
-
With those of
the ancient and new covenants,
-
-
He who holds
the keys of all this glory.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
"O fellowship
called to the lavish supper
-
Of the blest
Lamb who feeds you with such food
-
That you are
always filled with what you want,
-
-
"Since by the
grace of God this man receives
-
5
A foretaste of what falls from your full table
-
Before death
sets a limit to his lifetime,
-
-
"Open your
mind to his tremendous craving
-
And sprinkle
him with dew: you drink forever
-
Out of the
fountain from which his thinking flows."
-
-
10
So Beatrice; and those elated spirits
-
Formed
themselves in spheres around fixed poles,
-
Flashing out
like comets while they whirled.
-
-
And as wheels
turn within the works of clocks,
-
So that the
largest seems, to the observer,
-
15
To stand still while the smallest seems to fly,
-
-
Just so those
singing rings, to different measures
-
Dancing in
swift circles and in slow,
-
Enabled me to
judge their wealth of joy.
-
-
From the one I
observed to be the richest
-
20
I saw burst out a flame so joyful that
-
None ever
shone with sharper brilliancy.
-
-
And three
times it revolved around Beatrice
-
With so divine
a song, there is no way
-
For my
imagination to record it:
-
-
25
So my pen leaps ahead and shall write nothing,
-
Since our
imagining, as well as speech,
-
Is much too
bright to color in such shades.
-
-
"O my holy
sister who so devoutly
-
Do pray to us,
by your own burning love
-
30
You loosen me from out that lovely sphere!"
-
-
When it had
stopped, that fire of blessedness
-
Breathed out
these words directly to my lady,
-
Exactly as I
have repeated them.
-
-
And she: "O
eternal light of the great man
-
35
To whom Our Lord entrusted the same keys
-
Of wondrous
gladness that he brought below,
-
-
"Examine this
man on the main and minor
-
Points of the
faith, just as it pleases you:
-
That faith
which let you walk upon the sea.
-
-
40
"If he loves well and hopes well and believes,
-
It is not
hidden from you, since you set
-
Your sights on
where all things are seen reflected.
-
-
"But as this
kingdom gained its citizens
-
By the true
faith, it is good for its glory
-
45
That he should have the chance to tell of it."
-
-
Much as the
graduate readies his defense
-
And keeps
still till his mentor puts the question,
-
To offer proof
and not to settle it:
-
-
So I made
myself ready with every reason
-
50
While she was speaking, that I be prepared
-
For such a
questioner and such profession.
-
-
"Tell me, good
Christian, give your declaration:
-
What is
faith?" With that I raised my forehead
-
Up to the
light from which these words breathed out.
-
-
55
I turned to Beatrice then, and she straightway
-
Showed me a
sign that I should pour the water
-
Out of the
inward spring that welled up in me.
-
-
"May the grace
which grants me," I began,
-
"To make
confession to the chief commander
-
60
Result in my thoughts being rightly stated!"
-
-
And I went on,
"Just as the truthful pen
-
Of your dear
brother wrote about it, father,
-
Who, with you,
once put Rome on the right road:
-
-
"Faith is the
substance of things that are hoped for
-
65
And the evidence of things that are not seen,
-
And this
appears to me to be its essence."
-
-
Then I heard,
"Your perception is correct,
-
If you clearly
follow why he placed it first
-
With substance
and then with evidence."
-
-
70
And I in my response: "The profound things
-
That here
permit me to catch sight of them
-
Are so
concealed away from eyes down there
-
-
"That they
exist there only in belief,
-
On which the
height of hope is firmly founded;
-
75
And therefore it is called a basic substance.
-
-
"And we must
start our reasoning with belief,
-
Without our
seeing any more than that;
-
And therefore
it is known as evidence."
-
-
Then I heard,
"If all that is held below
-
80
As doctrine were so understood by others,
-
There would be
no place left for clever sophists."
-
-
Those words
were breathed out from the burning love
-
That then
continued, "You have studied soundly,
-
For now, the
weight and content of this coinage,
-
-
85
"But tell me: have you such coin in your purse?"
-
To that I:
"Yes, I do: so round, so shining,
-
That I do not
have doubts about its minting."
-
-
Then from the
deep light that was blazing there
-
These words
rang out to me: "This precious jewel
-
90
And this foundation stone of every virtue,
-
-
"Whence did it
come to you?" And I: "The streaming
-
Rain of the
Holy Spirit that pours down
-
On pages of
the ancient and new Book
-
-
"Makes such a
sharp conclusive syllogism,
-
95
It proved to me that, by comparison,
-
All other
demonstrations seem abstruse."
-
-
Then I heard,
"These ancient and new propositions
-
Which draw you
in this way to your conclusion,
-
Why do you
take them as divinely written?"
-
-
100
And I: "The proof that shows the truth to me
-
Is in the
works that followed: nature never
-
For such
wonders heated iron nor beat anvil."
-
-
In answer to
me: "Tell me, who assures you
-
There are such
works? The Truth that must be proved
-
105
— And nothing else — asserts that they were so."
-
-
"If without
miracles the whole world turned
-
To
Christianity," I said, "that miracle
-
A hundred
times is greater than the rest:
-
-
"For poor and
fasting you went in the field
-
110
To sow the good seed of the plant that once
-
Had been a
vine and now’s become a bramble."
-
-
This ended,
through the spheres the saintly court
-
On high
resounded "Te Deum," praising God
-
With melodies
such as they sing up there.
-
-
115
And that lord-baron, who examining me
-
From branch to
branch had drawn me on until
-
Already we
approached the topmost leaves,
-
-
Again began,
"The Grace, which with your mind
-
Keeps up a
dialogue of love, till now
-
120
Has opened so your lips to right responses
-
-
"That I
approve what has poured out of them;
-
But now you
must proclaim what you believe,
-
And whence
these truths came to you for belief."
-
-
"O holy
father, spirit who now sees
-
125
What you believed so strongly, you outran
-
Up to the tomb
feet younger than your own,"
-
-
I then began,
"you want me here to show
-
The form of my
unhesitating faith,
-
And you have
also asked to know its cause.
-
-
130
"And I reply: I believe in one God,
-
Sole and
eternal, who, himself unmoving,
-
Moves all the
heavens by love and desire.
-
-
"And for this
faith I have not only proofs
-
From physics
and from metaphysic theory,
-
135
But also from the truth that rains down to me
-
-
"Through Moses
and the Prophets and the Psalms,
-
Through the
Evangelists and through all of you
-
Who wrote
inspired by the Spirit’s fire.
-
-
140
"And I believe in three eternal Persons:
-
These I
believe one essence, one and three,
-
So that at
once both are and is agree.
-
-
"So many times
the teaching of the Gospels
-
Stamps upon my
mind the mystery
-
Of the
divinity I now describe.
-
-
145
"This is the beginning, this the spark
-
That then
spreads out into a living flame
-
And shines
within me like a star in heaven."
-
-
Just as a
master, hearing a report
-
That pleases
him and gladdened by the news,
-
150
Embraces his servant as soon as he falls silent,
-
-
So, singing
joyous blessings down on me,
-
The apostolic
light, at whose command
-
I had
confessed, three times wound around me
-
-
When I grew
still, my speech had pleased him so!
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
If it ever
happens that this sacred poem
-
To which earth
and heaven have so set their hands
-
That it has
left me lean through these long years
-
-
Conquers the
cruelty that keeps me from
-
5
The lovely sheepfold where I slept, a lamb,
-
An enemy to
wolves that raided it,
-
-
Now with a
different voice, with different fleece,
-
I shall return
a poet, and be crowned
-
At the same
font in which I was baptized,
-
-
10
For there I entered in the faith that makes
-
Souls known to
God; and after, for its sake,
-
Peter wreathed
three times around my forehead.
-
-
Right then a
light sped toward us from the ring
-
From which had
issued forth the same first-fruit
-
15
Of all the vicars whom Christ left on earth.
-
-
At that my
lady, filled with happiness,
-
Cried out to
me, "Look! look! And see the baron
-
For whose
sake, down there, pilgrims seek Galicia."
-
-
As when a dove
alights down by its mate,
-
20
And one pours out affection on the other,
-
Circling round
and cooing all the while,
-
-
So I saw one
exalted prince of glory
-
Made welcome
by the other, while they praised
-
The food which
nourishes them there on high.
-
-
25
But after these glad greetings had been given,
-
Each one in
silence stopped in front of me,
-
So blazing
that my sight was wholly vanquished.
-
-
Then, smiling
brightly, Beatrice said to him,
-
"Illustrious
spirit, who has chronicled
-
30
The liberality of our high court,
-
-
"Let hope
resound upon this height: you know
-
How often you
personified that virtue
-
When Jesus
showed more honor to you three."
-
-
"Lift up your
head and reassure yourself,
-
35
For what mounts up here from the mortal world
-
Must come to
ripening within our rays."
-
-
The second
fire gave me this assurance.
-
With that I
raised my eyes unto the mountains
-
Whose mighty
weight had first bent down my lids.
-
-
40
"Since by his grace our Emperor wills that
-
Before your
death you so come face to face
-
With his peers
here in his most private hall
-
-
"That, through
your seeing the truth of this court,
-
You now may
strengthen in yourself and others
-
45
The hope that leads to love of good on earth:
-
-
"Tell what is
hope, and how it blossomed up
-
Within your
mind, and tell where you received it."
-
The second
light continued in this vein.
-
-
And she who in
her lovingkindness guided
-
50
The feathers of my wings on that high flight
-
Anticipated my
response like this:
-
-
"There is no
child of the Church Militant
-
More full of
hope than he, and this is written
-
There in the
Sun which beams on all our hosts.
-
-
55
"So he has been allowed to take this journey
-
From Egypt to
Jerusalem, for seeing,
-
Before he
finished military service,
-
-
"The other two
points that you raised above
-
(Not for your
knowledge but that he report
-
60
What lavish pleasure you take in this virtue),
-
-
"I leave to
him, for they will not be hard
-
Nor cause for
boasting: let him answer then,
-
And may the
grace of God help him reply!"
-
-
Just as the
pupil, who is prompt and willing
-
65
To show he knows the subject, answers the teacher
-
To prove to
him that he is worth high marks,
-
-
"Hope," I
said, "is the sure expectation
-
Of future
glory, and it is produced
-
By divine
grace and by preceding merit.
-
-
70
"This light descends to me from many stars,
-
But it was
first distilled into my heart
-
By the leading
singer of the leading Lord.
-
-
" ‘Let them
have hope in Thee who know Thy name,’
-
He says in his
inspired psalm, and who,
-
75
If he has my faith, does not know the song?
-
-
"You
afterwards instilled it into me
-
Through your
Epistle, along with his instilling,
-
So I am
drenched and rain your dew on others."
-
-
While I was
speaking, suddenly a flash
-
80
Within the living bosom of the fire
-
Trembled
repeatedly like lightning;
-
-
Then it
breathed out, "The love that burns in me
-
Still for that
virtue which had followed me
-
Up to the palm
and time to quit the field
-
-
85
"Wills that I breathe once more, for your delight,
-
These words to
you, and so it is my pleasure
-
For you to
tell what hope holds promised to you."
-
-
And I: "The
new and ancient Scriptures give
-
A symbol in
the souls God made his friends,
-
90
And this symbol points the meaning out to me:
-
-
"Isaiah says
that each soul shall be dressed
-
With double
garments in his own country,
-
And his own
country is this same sweet life.
-
-
"Your brother,
too, is even more explicit,
-
95
Where he treats of the souls in their white robes,
-
In setting
forth this revelation to us."
-
-
First, as
these words were coming to an end,
-
"Let them find
hope in Thee," rang out above us,
-
And to it all
the choirs around re-echoed.
-
-
100
Next, one light among the rings flashed out
-
So bright that
if the Crab had one such star
-
Winter would
have a month of total daylight.
-
-
And as a happy
girl will rise and run
-
To join the
dance — not out of vanity,
-
105
But only to do honor to the bride,
-
-
So I saw the
effulgent splendor come
-
Up to the two
now reeling to the notes
-
In perfect
keeping with their burning love.
-
-
It joined
there in the singing and the spinning,
-
110
And, motionless and silent as a bride,
-
My lady kept
her eyes attached to them.
-
-
"This one is
he who lay upon the breast
-
Of our true
Pelican, and who was chosen
-
From on the
cross to take up the great duty."
-
-
115
So spoke my lady, but no more after
-
Than before
saying these words did she shift
-
Her gaze away
from where she fixed attention.
-
-
Just like the
man who stares and strains to see
-
The sun when
it is partially eclipsed
-
120
And who through peering comes to lose his sight,
-
-
So I became on
seeing that last flame
-
Till this was
said: "Why do you blind yourself
-
To look for
something that has no place here?
-
-
"My body is
still earth within the earth
-
125
And will remain there with the rest until
-
Our number
equals the eternal tally.
-
-
"Only those
two lights who have ascended
-
Wear their two
robes here in the blessed cloister,
-
And this word
you shall bring back to your world."
-
-
130
While this voice spoke, the flaming gyre grew still,
-
Together with
the sweet mixed harmony
-
Made by the
singing of the three-part breathing,
-
-
As, in
avoiding danger or fatigue,
-
The oars that
up to now sliced through the water
-
135
Stop all at once right when the whistle blows.
-
-
Ah! how deep
was the disturbance in my mind
-
When I turned
once again to gaze on Beatrice
-
And found I
could not see her — even though
-
-
I stood close
to her in the world of bliss.
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
- While I stayed fearful for
my dazzled sight,
-
There issued
out of the effulgent flame
-
That blinded
it, a breath that made me listen
-
-
As it
declared, "Until you can regain
-
5
The sight which you have lost in seeing me,
-
You well would
compensate for it by speaking.
-
-
"Begin then,
and tell at what mark your soul
-
Is aimed — and
you may rest assured your sight
-
Is only
clouded over and not lost,
-
-
10
"Because the lady who conducts you through
-
This holy
place has in her look that power
-
The hand of
Ananias once possessed."
-
-
I said, "When
it shall please her, soon or late,
-
Let help come
to the eyes which were the gates
-
15
She entered with the fire still burning in me.
-
-
"The good
which brings contentment to the court
-
Is Alpha and
Omega of all the scriptures
-
Love reads to
me with soft or louder tones."
-
-
The same voice
that had freed me from the fear
-
20
Of my blinding by this sudden dazzlement
-
Returned me to
my wish to speak again
-
-
When it said,
"Surely you must sift this matter
-
With a much
finer sieve, and you must tell:
-
Who made you
aim your bow at such a target?"
-
-
25
And I: "By reasons of philosophy,
-
And by
authority derived from heaven,
-
Love of this
sort must stamp its seal on me,
-
-
"Because the
good, so far as it is understood
-
As such,
enkindles love, and it does so the more,
-
30
The more goodness it contains within itself.
-
-
"To the
Essence, then, which is so excellent
-
That every
good outside of it is nothing
-
Except a ray
of its own radiance,
-
-
"The mind of
all those who discern the truth,
-
35
On which this proof of reason is established,
-
Must move, in
love more than to any other.
-
-
"This truth is
made plain to my mind by him
-
Who
demonstrates to me the primal loving
-
Of all the
sempiternal substances.
-
-
40
"The truthful Author’s voice reveals it where,
-
In speaking of
himself, he says to Moses,
-
‘I will make
all my good pass in your sight.’
-
-
"You show it
to me too in the beginning
-
Of your great
gospel which, more than the other
-
45
Tidings, tells earth the mystery of heaven."
-
-
And I heard,
"Through human intellect
-
And through
authorities agreeing with it,
-
Let the
highest of your loves look up to God.
-
-
"But tell me
too if you feel other cords
-
50
Draw you toward Him, that you may so declare
-
How many teeth
this love has sunk in you."
-
-
I could not
fail to find the holy purpose
-
Of the eagle
of Christ — rather, I discerned
-
The direction
he’d have my profession take.
-
-
55
Again, then, I began, "All of those things
-
With teeth to
make the heart to turn to God
-
Have fastened
all together in my love:
-
-
"The being of
the world and my own being,
-
The death that
he endured that I might live,
-
60
And the reward the faithful (like me) hope for,
-
-
"Fused with
the living knowledge that I spoke of,
-
Have hauled me
from the sea of wrongful love
-
And set me on
the shore of love set straight.
-
-
"As for the
leaves that leaf out the whole garden
-
65
Of the eternal gardener, I love each one
-
In measure as
it grows in goodness from him."
-
-
As soon as I
grew still a most sweet song
-
Resounded
through the heavens, and my lady
-
Sang with the
others, "Holy, Holy, Holy!"
-
-
70
And as a shaft of sunlight shatters sleep
-
When the
spirit of one’s eyesight runs to meet
-
The radiance
that spreads from lid to lid,
-
-
And one who
wakes up shrinks from what he sees,
-
His mind
befuddled by the sudden rousing,
-
75
Until his judgment comes to help him out,
-
-
So Beatrice
scattered every speck away
-
From my eyes
with the beaming of her own
-
Which shone
back down a thousand miles and more,
-
-
So that I now
saw better than before,
-
80
And almost thunderstruck I questioned her
-
About a fourth
light that I saw with us.
-
-
And my lady
said, "Within those rays
-
The first soul
the first Power ever made
-
Gazes lovingly
upon its Maker."
-
-
85
Just as a bough that bends its twig-tips down
-
With passing
breezes and then lifts itself
-
By its own
power to spring up again,
-
-
So I stood
bowed with wonder while she spoke,
-
And then the
wish to speak that burned in me
-
90
Raised up my self-assurance once again,
-
-
And I began,
"O fruit, the only one
-
Produced
already ripe, O ancient father
-
To whom each
bride is daughter and daughter-in-law,
-
-
"Devoutly as I
may I beg of you
-
95
To speak to me: you see my willingness,
-
And I — to
hear you sooner — say no more."
-
-
An animal at
times beneath its wrappings
-
So wriggles
that it makes its feelings plain
-
Because the
wraps respond to all its movements:
-
-
100
In the same way, that first soul made it clear
-
To me — right
through its covering — just how
-
Elatedly it
came to do my pleasure.
-
With that it
breathed, "Without my being told
-
By you, I
seize your wish more lucidly
-
105
Than you grasp anything you hold for certain,
-
"Because I see
it in the truthful mirror
-
That fashions
a reflection of all else
-
While nothing
may reflect the mirror back.
-
-
"You wish to
hear how long it is since God
-
110
Placed me in that lofty garden, where
-
This lady
readied you for these high stairs,
-
-
"And how long
my eyes gladdened at their sight,
-
And the real
reason for His mighty anger,
-
And the
language that I framed and then employed.
-
-
115
"Now not the tasting of the tree, my son,
-
Itself was
reason for so long an exile,
-
But only the
overreaching of the mark.
-
-
"The place
from which your lady drew out Virgil,
-
There I longed
for this company throughout
-
120
Four thousand three hundred and two sun-years,
-
-
"And while on
earth I saw the sun return
-
Nine hundred
thirty times to all the lights
-
Cast by the
zodiac along its path.
-
-
"The tongue
that I had spoken was extinct
-
125
Even before those people of Nimrod’s tried
-
Completing
their unfinishable task,
-
-
"Because no
work of reason has endured
-
Forever, due
to human inclination
-
Which changes
with the shifting of the skies.
-
-
130
"The fact that mortals speak is nature’s doing,
-
But whether
you speak this or that, nature
-
Then leaves to
you to follow your own bent.
-
-
"Before I went
down to the pains of hell
-
The highest
Good from whom comes all the joy
-
135
That clothes me was called 'I' upon the earth,
-
-
"And later was
named ‘El’: and that must be,
-
For mortal
ways are like the leaves on branches:
-
They fall away
and then another forms.
-
-
"On the
mountain rising highest from the sea
-
140
I lived in innocence and, later, guilt,
-
From the first
hour to that which follows next
-
-
"(When the sun
changes quarter) after the sixth."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
"Glory to the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!"
-
The whole of
paradise at once poured forth,
-
So sweet a
song I felt inebriated.
-
-
What I saw
seemed to me to be a smile
-
5
Of the universe, so that my intoxication
-
Came over me
from hearing and from sight.
-
-
O gladness! O
ineffable elation!
-
O life
entirely filled with love and peace!
-
O riches, free
from every other longing!
-
-
10
Before my eyes stood the four burning torches,
-
And that
splendor which had approached me first
-
Began to blaze
more brilliantly than all.
-
-
And it became
in its appearance such
-
As Jupiter
would look if he and Mars
-
15
Were birds and had exchanged each other’s feathers.
-
-
The providence
which there assigns to each
-
Its services
and functions had imposed
-
Silence on the
blest choir on every side,
-
-
When I heard,
"If I now change my color,
-
20
Do not be surprised, for as I speak
-
You shall see
all these souls change color too.
-
-
"The man who
down on earth usurps my place,
-
My place, the
place which at this time is vacant
-
Within the
sight of the true Son of God,
-
-
25
"Has made my burial-place a sewer for
-
Blood and
filth so rank the Evil One
-
Who fell from
here delights himself down there."
-
-
That color
which at evening and at daybreak
-
Paints clouds
in sunlight from the far horizon
-
30
I then saw cover over the whole heaven.
-
-
And as a
modest woman who will stay
-
Self-assured,
but at another’s failing
-
Becomes upset
while only hearing of it,
-
-
So Beatrice
changed her looks, and such was once,
-
35
As I believe, the eclipse in the sky
-
At the hour
when the highest Power suffered.
-
-
Then he
continued talking in a voice
-
So wholly
different from its former self
-
That his
appearance could not have changed as much:
-
-
40
"The spouse of Christ was not reared on my blood
-
Or on the
blood of Linus and of Cletus
-
That she might
be employed for gaining gold,
-
-
"But for the
gaining of this happy life
-
Have Sixtus,
Pius, Calixtus and Urban,
-
45
Shed their blood after shedding many tears.
-
-
"It never was
our purpose that one part
-
Of the
Christian people should sit on the right
-
Of our
successors, and others on the left;
-
-
"Nor that the
keys entrusted to my keeping
-
50
Should have become the emblem on a banner
-
Borne into
battle against baptized brethren;
-
-
"Nor that I
should be stamped upon a seal
-
For selling
false and venal privileges:
-
For these
things I blush red and flare up often.
-
-
55
"Rapacious wolves disguised in shepherds’ clothing
-
Are seen from
here on high in all the pastures.
-
O watch of
God, why do you lie unstirred?
-
-
"Men of Cahors
and Gascony make ready
-
To drink our
blood: O wonderful beginning,
-
60
To what a worthless ending must you fall!
-
-
"But the high
providence which, with Scipio,
-
Guarded for
Rome the glory of the world,
-
As I conceive,
will quickly come to help.
-
-
"And you, my
son, who by your mortal weight
-
65
Must once more go below, open your mouth,
-
And do not
hide what I have not kept hidden!"
-
-
Just as our
atmosphere, at the season when
-
The horn of
heaven’s goat abuts the sun,
-
Drops
snowflakes downward with its frozen mists,
-
-
70
So I saw then the upper air adorned,
-
Snowflaking
upward with triumphant mists
-
That for a
while had stayed on with us there.
-
-
My eyes kept
tracking their appearances
-
And tracked
them till the space between became
-
75
So vast that it prevented passing onward.
-
-
At that my
lady, finding my sight freed
-
From staring
upward, said to me, "Bend down
-
Your gaze, and
look how far you have spun around!"
-
-
From the hour
when I’d looked down earlier,
-
80
I saw that I had turned through the whole arc
-
Of the first
zone from midpoint to its end:
-
-
So far off,
past Cadiz, I saw the mad
-
Course of
Ulysses and, nearer to the shore,
-
Where Europa
proved herself so sweet to carry.
-
-
85
And still more of this little threshing-floor
-
Would have
been shown to me, but that the sun
-
Outran me, a
sign or more, beneath my feet.
-
-
My mind in
love, which always lovingly
-
Attends my
lady, more than ever burned
-
90
To have my eyes return to look in hers:
-
-
And if nature
or art ever fashioned lures
-
To catch the
eyes so to possess the mind,
-
In human flesh
or in its portraiture,
-
-
All of these
charms combined would seem as nothing
-
95
Beside the divine delight that beamed on me
-
When I turned
myself to her smiling face.
-
-
And the power
that her look bestowed on me
-
Plucked me out
of Leda’s lovely nest
-
And hurled me
to the swiftest of the heavens.
-
-
100
The regions of this quickest highest heaven
-
Are all so
uniform I cannot tell
-
Which spot
among them Beatrice chose for me.
-
-
But she, who
saw my longing, started speaking,
-
Smiling the
while with such deep happiness
-
105
That God seemed shining in her face for joy:
-
-
"The nature of
the universe which holds
-
The center
still and whirls the spheres around it
-
Takes from
this region here its starting-point.
-
-
"And here this
heaven has no other where
-
110
Than in God’s mind, where there flames up the love
-
That spins it,
and the power it pours down.
-
-
"Light and
love enclose it in one circle
-
As it does all
the rest, and this enclosing
-
He alone who
circles it can comprehend.
-
-
115
"Its motion is not measured by another’s,
-
But this
sphere sets the others into motion,
-
As ten is
factored into five and two.
-
-
"And how time
hides its roots in such a planter
-
While
spreading down its leaves to other spheres
-
120
Should now be plainly evident to you.
-
-
"O greed, you
submerge mortals in your depths
-
So far below
that no one has the power
-
To raise his
eyes above the surging waves!
-
-
"The will
blooms vigorously in human beings,
-
125
But then the endless, drenching downpour changes
-
The healthy
plums into infested fruit.
-
-
"Faith and
innocence are only found
-
In little
children; then both fly away
-
Before the
cheeks begin to sprout with whiskers.
-
-
130
"Someone, while still a lisping infant, fasts,
-
But later,
when his tongue is loosed for speech,
-
Swallows all
sorts of food through all of Lent.
-
-
"Another
lisper loves and listens to
-
His mother,
but later, when his speech flows free,
-
135
He only longs to see her dead and buried.
-
-
"So she, the
lovely daughter of the Sun,
-
At the first
glance of him who brings the day
-
And leaves the
evening, turns her white skin black.
-
-
"You, that you
may not be surprised at this,
-
140
Think how on earth there is no one to govern,
-
So that the
human family goes astray.
-
-
"But before
January drops from winter
-
By one day
lost in every hundred years
-
Below, these
towering spheres shall so beam out
-
-
145
"That a turnabout in season, long expected,
-
Shall spin the
ships around from stern to prow
-
So that the
fleet will run in a straight course,
-
-
"And wholesome
fruit shall follow from the blossoms."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
When she who
makes my mind imparadised
-
Had told me of
the truth that goes against
-
The present
life of miserable mortals —
-
-
As someone who
can notice in a mirror
-
5
A candle’s flame when it is lit behind him
-
Before he has
a sight or thought of it,
-
-
And turns
around to see if what the mirror
-
Tells him is
true, and sees that it agrees
-
With it as
notes are sung to music’s measure —
-
-
10
Even so I acted, as I well remember,
-
While gazing
into the bright eyes of beauty
-
With which
Love wove the cord to capture me.
-
-
And when I
turned, my eyes were greeted with
-
What shines
within that whirling sphere whenever
-
15
Someone intently stares into its spiral:
-
-
I saw a Point
that radiated light
-
So sharply
that the eyelids which it flares on
-
Must close
because of its intensity.
-
-
Whatever star
looks smallest from the earth
-
20
Would look more like a moon if placed beside it,
-
As star is set
next to another star.
-
-
Perhaps as
close a halo seems to circle
-
The starlight
radiance that paints it there
-
Around the
thickest mists surrounding it,
-
-
25
As close a ring of fire spun about
-
The Point so
fast that it would have outstripped
-
The motion
orbiting the world most swiftly.
-
-
And this
sphere was encircled by another,
-
That by a
third, and the third by a fourth,
-
30
The fourth by a fifth, the fifth then by a sixth.
-
-
The seventh
followed, by now spread so wide
-
That the whole
arc of Juno’s messenger
-
Would be too
narrow to encompass it.
-
-
So too the
eighth and ninth, and each of them
-
35
Revolved more slowly in proportion to
-
The number of
turns distant from the center.
-
-
And that
sphere which spun nearest the pure Spark
-
Shone with the
clearest flame because, I think,
-
It partakes
most in its essential truth.
-
-
40
My lady, who saw that I was rapt
-
In deep
suspense, then said, "Upon this Point
-
Hang all the
heavens and the whole of nature.
-
-
"Look at that
circle closest linked to it
-
And understand
its motion is so rapid
-
45
Because of burning love which spurs it on."
-
-
And I told
her, "If the universe were set
-
Within the
order I see in these whorls,
-
I would be
happy with what’s put before me.
-
-
"But in the
universe seen by our senses
-
50
The revolutions are the more divine
-
The more
remotely they lie from the center.
-
-
"So if my
longing is to reach its end
-
In this
amazing temple of the angels
-
Where all the
walls are only love and light,
-
-
55
"Then I must hear a further explanation
-
On why the
pattern and its copy differ,
-
For,
contemplating it, I make no headway."
-
-
"If your
fingers fail to untie this tight knot,
-
It comes as no
surprise, so difficult
-
60
Has it become by its not being tried."
-
-
So said my
lady; then she went straight on,
-
"Take what I
tell you — if you would be happy —
-
And sharpen up
your mind concerning it.
-
-
"Materially,
the spheres are wide or narrow
-
65
Depending on degrees of more or less
-
Power that
flows down through all their parts.
-
-
"A greater
power must work greater good:
-
The greater
body holds a greater good
-
If it
possesses equally perfect parts.
-
-
70
"This circle, then, that sweeps along with it
-
The rest of
all creation, corresponds
-
To the circle
that knows most and loves the most.
-
-
"If then you
take your measure by the power,
-
Not the
resemblance, of the substances
-
75
That here appear to you within these circles,
-
-
"You will
observe an awesome correspondence
-
Of greater
power to more and smaller to less
-
Between each
heaven and its Intelligence."
-
-
Just as our
hemisphere of air remains
-
80
Serene and splendid when Boreas blows
-
The northeast
breezes from his gentler cheeks,
-
-
And with these
breezes clears and wafts away
-
The
overhanging mists, so that the sky
-
Smiles on us
with the beauties of each quarter,
-
-
85
So I became the moment that my lady
-
Bestowed on me
her crystal-clear reply
-
That like a
star in heaven shone with truth.
-
-
And after she
had finished with her speaking,
-
The circles
all around began to sparkle,
-
90
Like red-hot iron shooting off bright sparks.
-
-
Each sparkle
stayed within its fiery ring,
-
So many that
their number runs to more
-
Millions than
the redoubling of the chessboard.
-
-
From choir to
choir I heard Hosannah sung
-
95
To the Still Point that holds them fast forever
-
To that one
spot where they have always been.
-
-
And she who
saw the hesitating thoughts
-
Within my mind
then said, "The first two circles
-
Have shown you
Seraphim and Cherubim.
-
-
100
"They swing so swiftly in their inner loops
-
The more to
liken themselves to the Point;
-
The more they
can, the loftier their vision.
-
-
"Those other
loves that whirl in the next circle
-
Are called the
Thrones of Gazing-on-the-Godhead,
-
105
Since they bring the first triad to a close.
-
-
"And you must
know that they are all elated
-
In measure as
their sight probes to the depths
-
Of that truth
in which every mind finds rest.
-
-
"From this we
see the state of blessedness
-
110
Is founded first upon the act of seeing
-
And not upon
the love that follows on it.
-
-
"And their
reward, to which grace and goodwill
-
Give birth, is
measure of their seeing: so,
-
Their ranks
unfold themselves from grade to grade.
-
-
115
"The second triad, flowering in this way
-
During this
unending springtime which
-
No nightly
Aries may despoil with autumn,
-
-
"Unceasingly
in birdsong sings Hosannah
-
With triple
melodies that warble from
-
120
The three degrees of bliss that form the triad.
-
-
"The following
divinities are found
-
Within this
hierarchy: first, Dominions;
-
Then, Virtues;
and the third ones there are Powers.
-
-
"Next to the
last, dance Principalities
-
125
And there Archangels whirl in the last round,
-
The whole wide
ring is where the Angels play.
-
-
"These orders
all gaze upward and pour out
-
Their power
downward, so that all of them
-
Are drawn —
and they all draw in turn — toward God.
-
-
130
"And Dionysius with such deep desire
-
Gave himself
up to contemplate these orders
-
That he named
them and their ranks as I do.
-
-
"But Gregory
would later disagree,
-
Until the time
he opened up his eyes
-
135
In this heaven and smiled at his mistake.
-
-
"And if on
earth such secret truths are uttered
-
By a mere
mortal, I would not have you marvel,
-
For Paul who
saw it up here told him this
-
-
"And many
other truths about these circles."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
When the two
children of Latona, poised
-
One in the
Ram, the other in the Scales,
-
Wear the
horizon as a single sash,
-
-
5
As long as from the time the zenith holds them
-
In balance
till, unbalanced, one and other
-
Slip from the
sash by changing hemispheres,
-
-
Just so long,
with a smile traced on her face,
-
Beatrice was
silent, gazing steadfastly
-
Upon the Point
which overmastered me.
-
-
10
Then she began, "I tell, and do not ask,
-
What you want
most to hear, since I have seen it
-
Where every
where and every when are focused.
-
-
"Not for the
gain of some good for Himself —
-
Something that
cannot be — but that his splendor
-
15
Might say in its resplendence, ‘I exist,’
-
-
"In his
eternity outside of time,
-
Outside all
other limits, as he pleased,
-
Eternal Love
then opened in new loves.
-
-
"Nor did he
lie as if asleep before,
-
20
For there was no before or after when
-
The Spirit of
God moved upon the waters.
-
-
"Pure form and
matter and the two combined
-
Came into
being which was wholly flawless,
-
Like three
arrows shot from a three-stringed bow.
-
-
25
"And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal
-
A ray so
flashes that there is no pause
-
Between its
falling and its filling all,
-
-
"So the
threefold effect beamed from its Lord
-
And flamed
into its being all at once,
-
30
With no distinctions about its beginning.
-
-
"Within that
action, order was created
-
For these
existences, and at the summit
-
Of the whole
world were those made in pure act.
-
-
"Pure potency
held down the lowest place;
-
35
At midpoint, potency and act were tied
-
So tightly
they can never be unknotted.
-
-
"Jerome
described the angels in his writings
-
Being created
a vast span of ages
-
Before the
rest of the universe was made;
-
-
40
"But the scribes of the Holy Spirit write
-
On many pages
the truth I tell to you,
-
And you shall
see it if you look out sharply.
-
-
"And reason,
partially, discerns the truth,
-
Which would
not grant that those with power to move
-
45
Should for long fail to act on their perfection.
-
-
"Now you know
where and when and how these loves
-
Have been
created, so that three of the flames
-
Of your desire
already are snuffed out.
-
-
"More quickly
than it takes to count to twenty,
-
50
A number of the angels thundered down
-
And crashed
into your elemental bedrock.
-
-
"The rest
remained and introduced the art
-
Of circling,
as you see, with such deep rapture
-
That they will
never cease from whirling round.
-
-
55
"The root-cause of the fall was the accursed
-
Pride of that
One whom you saw for yourself
-
Crushed by the
whole weight of the universe.
-
-
"Those you see
here had the humility
-
To recognize
that they come from that Goodness
-
60
Which makes them fit for such intelligence.
-
-
"By this
response their vision was exalted
-
Through
illuminating grace and through their merit,
-
So that they
have a full and steadfast will.
-
-
"And I do not
want you in doubt, but certain,
-
65
That to receive grace is a source of merit
-
To the extent
that love is open to it.
-
-
"Now, if you
have absorbed what I have said,
-
You here may
contemplate without more help
-
A great deal
that regards this congregation.
-
-
70
"But since they teach in your schools down on earth
-
That the
angelic nature is possessed
-
Of
understanding, memory, and will,
-
-
"I shall speak
on, that you may clearly see
-
The simple
truth which is confused below
-
75
By the equivocation in such teaching.
-
-
"These beings,
since they first found happiness
-
In the face of
God, have never turned their eyes
-
Away from his,
from which no sight is hid,
-
-
"So that their
sight is never interrupted
-
80
By a new object, and they have no need
-
Of remembering
through disconnected thoughts.
-
-
"So people
down there dream while wide awake,
-
Believing or
not believing they speak the truth,
-
But there is
more blame for the unbeliever.
-
-
85
"You mortals do not walk along one track
-
In your
philosophy: your love of show
-
And thinking
of it lead you far astray.
-
-
"Yet even this
fault meets with less displeasure
-
Up here in
heaven than when the Holy Scripture
-
90
Is set aside or when it is perverted.
-
-
"There they
forget how dear the cost in blood
-
To sow it in
the world, and how deep here
-
The joy in one
who humbly keeps the word.
-
-
"Each tries to
show off and plies his inventions,
-
95
And these are put in sermons by the preachers;
-
Meanwhile the
Gospel lapses into silence.
-
-
"One claims
that while Christ suffered on the cross,
-
The moon
turned backward and stood in the way
-
So that the
sunlight could not shine on earth,
-
-
100
"But he lies, for the light concealed itself
-
On its own, so
that the eclipse took place
-
For Spaniards,
Indians, as well as Jews.
-
-
"There
flourish fewer Jacks and Jills in Florence
-
Than fables
like these bandied left and right
-
105
Out from the pulpits all the livelong year.
-
-
"On this
account the poor sheep that know nothing
-
Come back from
pasture, having fed on wind;
-
And not to see
the harm does not excuse them.
-
-
"Christ did
not say to his first company,
-
110
‘Go and preach empty nonsense to the world!’
-
Instead he
offered them the true foundation.
-
-
"And that
alone so sounded on their lips
-
That in their
fight to light the flame of faith
-
They took the
Gospel for their shield and lance.
-
-
115
"Now men go forth to preach with jokes and clowning,
-
And as long as
they scrape up a good laugh,
-
Their hoods
swell up, and nothing more is asked.
-
-
"But up their
sleeves and cowls nests such a bird
-
That if the
rabble spied it they would know
-
120
In whom they put their trust for these fake pardons.
-
-
"Such follies
flourish on earth from these frauds
-
That with no
proof or testimonials
-
The people
flock to every sort of promise.
-
-
"On these
deceits St. Anthony’s pig grows fat,
-
125
And many more who are far bigger pigs,
-
Paying with
play-money and phony coinage.
-
-
"But we have
wandered off our way enough:
-
Now turn
yourself once more to the straight path,
-
To make the
journey shorten with the time.
-
-
130
"Angelic nature stretches up the scale
-
So high in
number that there is no speech
-
Or human
concept that can reach that height.
-
-
"And if you
look at what has been revealed
-
By Daniel, you
will see that in his thousands
-
135
There is no number that is definite.
-
-
"The primal
Light that beams down through them all
-
Each one
receives in just as many ways
-
As there are
splendors that merge with the Light.
-
-
"Then, since
the act of loving follows that
-
140
Of knowing, so the sweetness of their love
-
Diversely
glows in them as bright or dim.
-
-
"See now the
height and breadth of the eternal
-
Goodness, for
it has fashioned of itself
-
Myriad mirrors
where it separately shines,
-
-
145
"Remaining, as at first, One in itself."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Six thousand miles or so
away from us
-
Noon blazes, and this
world already slopes
-
Its shadow to an almost
level bed,
-
-
When the midheaven high
above us starts
-
5
To change in such a way
that here and there
-
A star fades out of view
from this abyss.
-
-
And as the brightest
handmaid of the sun
-
Comes closer, heaven
then puts out its lights
-
One by one, till the
loveliest has faded:
-
-
10
No differently, the
triumph that forever
-
Plays round the Point
that overmastered me
-
And seems enclosed by
that which it encloses
-
-
Little by little
vanished from my sight,
-
So that my loving and my
seeing nothing
-
15
Forced me to turn my
eyes once more to Beatrice.
-
-
If what I have said up
to now about her
-
Were all rolled in a
single hymn of praise,
-
It would not serve to
take this final turn.
-
-
The beauty that I saw
transcends all measure
-
20
Not only past our reach,
but I believe
-
Only its Maker can enjoy
it all.
-
-
At this pass I admit
myself defeated
-
More than all comic or
all tragic poets
-
Were ever quelled by
some point of their theme.
-
-
25
For as the sun confounds
the feeblest sight,
-
So the remembrance of
her fresh sweet smile
-
Severs my memory from my
sense of self.
-
-
From the first day on
which I saw her face
-
In this lifetime, until
that sight of her,
-
30
My song has never
stopped from following her.
-
-
But now must my pursuit
cease following
-
Her beauty further in my
poetry,
-
Like any artist come to
his full limit.
-
-
So I leave her to nobler
heralding
-
35
Than the sounding of my
trumpet which here draws
-
Its arduous
subject-matter to a close.
-
-
With gesture and voice
of an accomplished leader
-
She began again, "Out
from the largest body
-
We have come to this
heaven of pure light:
-
-
40
"Light of the intellect,
light full of love,
-
Love of true good, love
full of joyousness,
-
Joyfulness surpassing
every sweetness.
-
-
"Here you shall see both
hosts of paradise,
-
The one arrayed in that
embodiment
-
45
Which you shall witness
on the judgment day."
-
-
Just like a sudden
lightning flash that scatters
-
The power of vision so
that it deprives
-
The eye of its sight of
the sharpest objects,
-
-
So round about me shone
a living light
-
50
Which left me wrapped in
such a dazzling veil
-
That nothing else was
visible to me.
-
-
"Always the love which
makes this heaven restful
-
Receives all to itself
with a like welcome,
-
To hold the candle ready
for the flame."
-
- 55
No sooner did I take in
these few words
-
Than inwardly I
understood that I
-
Was rising high above my
human powers.
-
-
And I was so inflamed
with the new vision
-
That — however luminous
the light —
-
60
My eyes could have
withstood the sight of it.
-
-
And I saw a light
flowing like a river
-
Glowing with amber waves
between two banks
-
Brilliantly painted by
spellbinding spring.
-
-
From out this river shot
up living sparks
-
65
That dropped on every
side into the blossoms,
-
Like rubies in a setting
of pure gold.
-
-
Then, as if intoxicated
by the fragrance,
-
They dove once more into
the wondrous flood,
-
And as one sank, another
spark shot out.
-
- 70
"The flame of high
desire driving you
-
To gain more knowledge
of what you see here
-
Pleases me the more the
more it surges.
-
-
"But first you are
required to drink this water
-
Before your burning
thirst can be relieved."
-
75
These words the sun of
my eyes said to me,
-
-
Then added, "The river
and the topazes
-
Streaming in and out the
smiling flowers
-
Are shadow-prelude of
their reality.
-
-
"Not that these blooms
are unripe in themselves,
-
80
But the defect comes
from within yourself
-
That you do not yet have
sight set so high."
-
-
No baby, after waking
later than
-
The usual hour, ever
makes a rush
-
So sudden with its face
toward mother’s milk,
-
-
85
As I made then when I
bent down to drink
-
The wave that flows
there for our betterment,
-
To make still better
mirrors of my eyes.
-
-
And even as the eaves
that edge my eyelids
-
Drank of it, so it
seemed to change its shape
-
90
From running lengthwise
to revolving round.
-
-
Then, as the people
hidden under masks
-
Look different from the
way they looked before
-
When they doff the
disguises that concealed them,
-
-
Just so the flowers and
the sparks now changed
-
95
Before me into grander
festivals,
-
So that I saw both
courts of heaven open.
-
-
O splendor of God
through which I saw the high
-
Triumph of the true
kingdom, grant me the power
-
To tell how I was
witness to this vision!
-
-
100
Light shines above which
renders visible
-
The Creator to the
creature who discovers
-
The peace found only in
our seeing Him.
-
-
And this light stretches
out into a circle
-
Which spreads so wide
that its circumference
-
105
Would make too large a
cincture for the sun.
-
-
The whole expanse is
fashioned by the ray
-
Reflected from the top
of the first-moved
-
Sphere from which it
takes its might and motion.
-
-
And as a hillside is
mirrored in a lake
-
110
Below, as if to look on
its own beauty
-
When it is lush with
flowers and fresh grass,
-
-
Just so, above the light
and round and round,
-
Reflected from more than
a thousand tiers,
-
I saw all those of us
who have returned there.
-
-
115
And if the lowest rank
holds in its row
-
So large a light, how
vast is the expanse
-
Of this rose in its
farthest-reaching petals!
-
-
My sight was not lost in
its breadth and height,
-
But grasped the fullness
of that happiness
-
120
In all its distance and
intensity.
-
-
There near and far add
nothing, nor subtract,
-
For where God governs
without mediation
-
The laws of nature have
no further bearing.
-
-
Into the yellow of that
timeless rose
-
125
Which rises row on row
and spreads and breathes
-
Perfumes of praise to
the spring-renewing Sun,
-
-
Beatrice drew me, hushed
and bent on speaking,
-
And told me, "Look with
wonder on those robed
-
In white — how countless
is that congregation!
-
-
130
"See how wide is the
circuit of our city!
-
See how filled are our
seats that so few people
-
From now on are expected
to come here!
-
-
"And on that proud chair
where you fix your eyes
-
To glimpse the crown
already placed above it,
-
135
Before you partake of
this wedding feast,
-
-
"Shall sit the soul — an
emperor’s on earth —
-
Of lofty Henry, who will
come to set
-
Italy straight before
her time is ready.
-
-
"Blind greed which grips
you all within its spell
-
140
Has made you like the
little child who dies
-
Of hunger while he
drives away his nurse.
-
-
"And then the pontiff of
the Holy See
-
Shall, openly and
secretly, be someone
-
Who will not walk with
him along one road.
-
-
145
"But God won’t keep him
in the sacred office
-
For long, because he
shall be shoved below
-
Where Simon Magus
squirms for his deserts,
-
-
"To cram still deeper
that man from Anagni."
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
-
Then in the pattern of a
pure white rose
-
Was shown to me the
saintly soldiery
-
Whom Christ has made his
bride with his own blood.
-
-
But the other host —
who, flying, see and sing
-
5
The glory of him who
fills them with his love
-
And the goodness that
made them magnificent—
-
-
Just like a swarm of
bees, alight in flowers
-
At one instant and in
the next returning
-
To where their toil
attains its fragrant taste—
-
-
10
Flew downward into that
vast flower, fringed
-
With myriad petals, and
rising up from it
-
Sped back to where their
love forever rests.
-
-
Their faces all glowed
with a living flame;
-
Their wings were gold,
and their whole form so white
-
15
That no snow ever
rivaled such pure whiteness.
-
-
When they dove to the
flower, row on row,
-
They spread some portion
of the love and peace
-
Which they won when they
waved their wings on high.
-
-
Nor did the flight of
such a multitude
-
20
Coming between the upper
light and flower
-
Block out the vision and
the sea of splendor.
-
-
For the divine light
through the universe
-
So penetrates in measure
to its worth
-
That there is nothing to
stand in the way.
-
-
25
This jubilant and
ever-restful kingdom,
-
Thronging with people of
old and modern times,
-
Kept gaze and love all
focused on one goal.
-
-
O threefold Light which,
in a single star
-
Sparkling upon their
sight, so pleases them,
-
30
Look down here on our
storms that rage on earth!
-
-
If the barbarians, come
from the North
-
Which day by day is
spanned by Helice,
-
Rotating with her son on
whom she dotes,
-
-
Were struck with wonder
when they sighted Rome
-
35
And her high-towering
buildings, at the time
-
The Lateran surpassed
all mortal works,
-
-
I, who had come out of
our human life
-
To the divine, from time
to the eternal,
-
From Florence to a just
and wholesome people —
-
-
40
What was the wonder
which welled up in me!
-
In truth, what with my
stupor and my joy,
-
I happily heard nothing
and stood silent.
-
-
And like a pilgrim who
gains back his strength
-
By gazing round the
church he vowed to visit
-
45
And now hopes to tell
once more how it looked,
-
-
So, passing upward
through the living light,
-
I guided my eyes all
along the tiers,
-
Now up, now down, and
now recircling round.
-
-
There I saw faces given
all to love,
-
50
Bright with Another’s
light and their own smiles,
-
And gestures touched
with grace and dignity.
-
-
My gaze had swept and
taken in by now
-
The pattern overall of
paradise,
-
Without my sight yet
pausing at one spot,
-
-
55
When I turned with my
will inflamed anew
-
To ask my lady questions
on those matters
-
That still kept my mind
hanging in suspense.
-
-
One thing I sought,
another answered me:
-
I thought I would see
Beatrice, but instead
-
60
I saw an old man,
clothed like those in glory.
-
-
His eyes and cheeks
shone with a friendly gladness,
-
And all his gestures
showed such lovingkindness
-
As is suited to a
tenderhearted father.
-
-
"Where is she?" I
immediately asked.
-
65
He then: "To finish and
fulfill your longings
-
Beatrice moved me to
step down from my place.
-
-
"And if you look up you
will see her still
-
In the third circle from
the topmost tier
-
Upon the throne her
merits left for her."
-
-
70
Without replying, I
raised up my eyes
-
And saw her fashion for
herself a crown,
-
While she reflected the
eternal rays.
-
-
No mortal eye, though
plunged into the depths
-
Beneath the sea, could
be as far away
-
75
From that point in the
sky that thunders highest
-
-
As my sight there was
distant from Beatrice.
-
It made no difference to
me, since her likeness
-
Reached me unblurred by
anything between.
-
-
"O lady in whom all my
hope is steadfast
-
80
And who for my salvation
did endure
-
To leave your footprints
on the soil of hell,
-
-
"I here acknowledge that
the grace and power
-
Of all the many sights
that I have seen
-
Come to me through your
influence and bounty.
-
-
85
"You have drawn me from
slavery into freedom
-
By all those roads and
by all those resources
-
Which you had in your
power to employ.
-
-
"Continue your
munificence toward me,
-
So that my soul, which
you have now made whole,
-
90
May be loosed from my
body pleasing you."
-
-
This was my prayer. And
she, so far away
-
As she appeared, looked
down on me and smiled;
-
Then turned back to the
everlasting fountain.
-
-
The saintly old man
said, "To make sure you
-
95
Complete your journey
perfectly — the end
-
That prayer and holy
love sent me here for —
-
-
"Fly on the wings of
your eyes through this garden,
-
For seeing it will make
your gaze more ready
-
To mount up through the
godly radiance.
-
-
100
"The Queen of heaven,
for whom I am all
-
Aflame with love, will
grant us every grace,
-
Because I am her
faithful servant Bernard."
-
-
As someone who has come,
say, from Croatia
-
To look on our Veronica,
and cannot,
-
105
From his old craving for
it, see enough,
-
-
But in his thoughts
says, while it is exposed,
-
"My Lord Jesus Christ,
true God and Savior,
-
Was this your face then
as you once appeared?"
-
-
I was like that while I
stayed gazing on
-
110
The living love of him
who in this world,
-
Through contemplation,
tasted of that peace.
-
-
"O child of grace, how
shall you ever know
-
This joyous being," he
began, "if you
-
Hold your eyes only down
here at its base?
-
-
115
"Look on the circles to
the farthest off
-
Till you see seated on
her throne the Queen
-
To whom this kingdom is
devoutly subject."
-
-
I lifted up my eyes. And
as at daybreak
-
The eastern reaches of
the sky’s horizon
-
120
Outshine the region of
the setting sun,
-
-
So, as though passing
with my eyes from valley
-
To mountain, I saw a
point on the topmost rim
-
Surpass the whole
circumference in light.
-
-
And as the point glows
brightest where we wait for
-
125
The chariot-pole that
Phaethon steered so badly,
-
While on this side and
that the light grows dim,
-
-
So the gold oriflamme of
peace flared up
-
Within the center, and
on either side
-
The flame in equal
measure flickered down.
-
-
130
And at the midpoint,
with their wings spread wide,
-
I saw more than a
thousand angels dancing,
-
Each one distinct in
fulgence and in function.
-
-
I saw there, smiling at
their sports and songs,
-
A Beauty who was
happiness to see
-
135
For all the eyes of all
the other saints.
-
-
And even if I had a
wealth of words
-
To match imagination, I
would not dare
-
To try to tell the least
of her enchantment.
-
-
Bernard, when he saw my
eyes intent
-
140
And fixed on her whose
fire fired him,
-
Turned his own eyes to
her with such warm love
-
-
That he made mine more
burning in their gazing.
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Lovingly absorbed in his
Delight,
The contemplative took
up the teacher’s part
Spontaneously, and said
these holy words:
"The wound that Mary
closed and healed with ointment
5
Had been opened and
pierced through by the person
Who sits, so beautiful,
there at her feet.
"Then in the third row
of the circling seats
Below her, as you
witness for yourself,
Rachel in her throne
sits next to Beatrice.
10
"Sarah and Rebecca,
there, with Judith
And Ruth, the
great-grandmother of the singer
Who in remorse cried,
‘Lord, have mercy on me!’:
"These you may see
ranked downward tier by tier
As I called out the
names of each of them
15
From petal down to petal
through the rose.
"And from the seventh
row on down, right up
To the end, Hebrew women
form a line
By parting all the
tresses of the flower:
"For by the way that
faith once looked to Christ,
20
These women are the wall
of that partition
Which separates in two
the sacred stairway.
"On one side, where the
flower is full blown
With all its petals,
seated on their thrones
Are all those who had
faith that Christ would come.
25
"On the other side,
where you see semicircles
Pocked by empty spaces,
sit all those
Who turned their faces
to Christ who had come.
"And as, on this side,
the high throne of glory
Of heaven’s Lady, with
the other seats
30
Below it, forms so vast
a parting line,
"So, facing her, the
seat of the great John
Who, always saintly,
suffered wilderness
And martyrdom, and then
hell for two years,
"Forms the same line
with those assigned below him:
35
Francis, Benedict,
Augustine, and others
All the way here from
circle down through circle.
"Now wonder at the depth
of providence,
For each of these two
aspects of the faith
With equal portions
shall fill up this garden.
40
"And know as well that,
downward from the row
Which cuts in half the
two dividing lines,
These souls are seated
not for their own merits,
"But for some others’,
under set conditions,
Since all of these are
spirits who were freed
45
Before they had the
power of true choice.
"You can observe it
clearly in their faces
And in their children’s
voices, if you look
Carefully at them and
listen to them.
"You are confused now,
and in your confusion
50
Keep still, but I will
loosen the hard knots
In which your subtle
thoughts have tied you up.
"Within the spacious
compass of this kingdom
No particle of chance
can have a place,
No more than sorrow can,
or thirst or hunger,
55
"Because whatever you
see is established
By everlasting law, so
that the match
Fits the ring to the
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