Note: There are two typed M.S. labeled 'A' & 'B' for identification. This file was typed and scanned from version 'A' and then checked against, and altered to be version 'B'. The differences are minor - and to the non scholar - apparently academic.
Some Cantos were published in 'Poetry' & 'Poetry & The Play'. It was never published in book form. Perhaps because it did not universally reach the same standard as the other two translations. It is to be noted that the language and artistry of the original poem would in any case render it the most difficult to translate realistically.
Contents
Canto I
Canto II
Canto III
Canto IV
Canto V
Canto VI
Canto VII
Canto VIII
Canto IX
Canto X
Canto XI
Canto XII
Canto XIII
Canto XIV
Canto XV
Canto XVI
Canto XVII
Canto XVIII
Canto XIX
Canto XX
Canto XXI
Canto XXII
Canto XXIII
Canto XXIV
Canto XXV
Canto XXVI
Canto XXVII
Canto XXVIII
Canto XXIX
Canto XXX
Canto XXXI
Canto XXXII
Canto XXXIII
Canto I.
The Glory which is God, which all creates,
And all with motion quickens, penetrates
The immensities of space unequally,
In certain regions more resplendently
And less in others.
I who write have been
In the mid-heaven of utmost light: have seen
Things which nor memory holds nor speech could tell,
Too far transcending our mortality
For human intellect to bear away.
Yet what I rescued from that holy well,
Truth paled by human words, or beauty marred
By mortal vision, must I try to say.
O Great Apollo! Grant the strenuous wing
This ultimate labour needs. This height to sing,
So fit me with thy fashioning hands that I
Win thy loved laurels with a task so hard.
One pinnacle of Parnassus - one till now -
Sufficed me, but the holier heights supply
My needs for this last wrestling-ground. Do thou
Enter and through me breathe such song as that
The wretched Marsyas heard, and quailed till he
Was flayed for his presumption. O Divine!
Wilt thou but implicate thyself in me,
That Heaven's high shadow, on this brain of mine
Imprinted, be in words interpreted!
Then shalt thou crown me at thy chosen tree
With laurels only through this theme and thee
Appropriate to my worth.
So seldom shed
Are its fresh leaves to crown triumphant brow
Either of poet or of conqueror
- Such the infirmities of human will
That surely should the Delphic deity
Rejoice when any mortal mind, as now,
Is stirred by the Peneian branch to be
Athirst to wear it.
Flames magnificent
May follow from one spark's first feebleness;
And better voices may their prayers address
At Cirrha's sacred mount, to gain for me
Response, who am not worthy.
Diversely
Riseth the lantern of the universe
To mortal sight, but most propitiously,
And unioned to a most propitious star,
When the four circles in three crosses meet;
And at that time he will with genial heat
Upon the mundane wax himself impress
Most deeply, tempering to his mood.
So here
It was, and at the hour when morning lay
To right, and to the left the evening,
At equal distance, all the hemisphere
Aglow, and all that other dark, when she,
Beatrice, leftward turned, and raised her eyes
Sunward. No eagle could the light absorb
That smote us radiant from the noonday orb
As did she then; and as from light is born
A light reflected, so, in kindred wise,
I caught her gesture, and my weaker eyes
Lifted, beyond our mortal wont, to see
Deep into that pure light's profundity.
Much is there in that higher, holier place
Which is not granted to our mortal race,
Each region having its propriety.
I could not long endure such light, but yet
Such time mine eyes the blinding glory met
That when they fell the sun was around
Shining like molten metal on the ground
Poured from the furnace.
Day me seemed to day
Was suddenly added, light to light, as though
God's power had caused a second sun to glow,
Doubling the day's intensity. Mine eyes,
Baffled by this extremity of light,
Turned to Beatrice, whose own gaze remained
Fixed upward on the sky's profundity.
So gazing on her, such new life I gained
As came to Glaucus, when that grass he ate
Which gave the alien freedom of the sea,
And made him comrade of the gods. To me
Came change of life which no humanity
Can either clothe in words, or comprehend.
Let him whom grace will dower so highly wait
Experience for himself.
If in that hour
I was no more than that which, new-create,
Invades the body at birth, O Love Divine!
Who in that heaven of light art Absolute Power,
Thou knowest, Who, by that same light didst draw
Myself toward Thee. But whate' er was more
Of soul or physical body, when the wheel
Which thou (by kindling for Thyself desire)
Makest perpetual, caught me up to feel
Its tempered and discriminate harmony,
Such ocean of the intense gold sunlight saw
That rain nor river spread a lake as wide
As now I witnessed of celestial fire.
The sound unheard before, the light unguessed,
Stirred in me for their cause more keen a zest
Than aught I felt in earthlier days; and she
Who saw me rather as herself in me
Than separate, to the unspoken thought replied:
"Thou foilest by thy false imagining
That which were clear to an inferior mind
If it were first from misconception free.
Thou art not on the earth. The lightnings flee
Downward from their high house more laggardly
Than though dost rise a higher place to find."
So briefly to my doubt she smiled reply.
But grounded firmly as my feet she set,
Her answer caught them in a further net.
"From one amazement freed, I marvel now
How my dense weight of flesh can rise so high
Transcending lighter air."
I heard her sigh
As might a mother at a child perverse
Beyond restraint of counsel. Patient yet,
She gave me answer: "Of one unity
Is all created in this Universe,
Mutual in all its parts, its form thereby
Alike to God who made it. Creatures blest
By high perception in this norm descry
The Eternal Virtue, source and goal alike
Of all its parts, although not equally
They seek a centre or at height to rest,
But each toward that port which suits it best
Moves through the ocean of reality.
"This urge toward the moon the flame extends,
Is surgent at the heart of things that die,
Doth earthward gravitate all earthly ends,
Nor only rules the unconscious entity,
But those who think and love.
"This providence,
Assorting all, doth outward still remain,
Serene and spaceless by its light's defence,
The swiftest Heaven containing. That to gain
- The ultimate Heaven of flooded light - we go,
Upshot as by a shaft from God's own bow,
That doth not fail its joyful mark to find.
"Truth is it that the artist's moulding stress
May meet a medium which resists his mind,
Too hard of substance or too lustreless
To be to his creative thought inclined.
And so may creatures of a conscious will
Resist the heavenly call, and swerve aside,
The ardent impulse of ascent to kill
(As fire thrusts downward from the cloud) with vain
Following of false joys,
"No cause to marvel thine
More at thy rising, than at flame's ascent,
Or at the natural falling of the rain.
It were the wonder should thy course incline
Not upward, from released impediment."
She ceased, who saw me with a mind content;
And turned her eyes to highest heaven again.
Canto II.
Oh ye who in slight skiffs, by music led,
Have to this point among our human dead
Followed my keel upon its singing way,
Take caution now! Your shores are still to see.
Why should you venture on too strange a sea,
Uncharted, untraversed, when, losing me,
You might be left for evermore astray?
Minerva's winds I feel: my course ahead
Apollo guideth: and the Muses nine
Point to the Bears. Ye few who, timely fed
On angels' food (which here must life sustain,
And yet who feedeth leave unsatisfied),
Ye only few may dare this course of mine,
Following the furrow which my tracks divide
Before its hollow sides unite again.
The glorious ones who once to Colchis came,
When Jason turned to ploughman in their sight,
Beheld a thing less marvelled than shall ye.
The natural deathless thirst in heaven to be
- The aspiration all from birth may claim -
Impelled us upward with the speed of light
Wellnigh as fast to rise as eyes could see
Into the luminous vault's immensity,
The while I on Beatrice gazed, and she
Gazed upward.
In such time as from the bow
A back-drawn shaft upon its course may go,
I came where I beheld a wondrous thing.
And she, who did not miss my wondering,
Turning toward me in such guise that joy
Increased her beauty, and her beauty gave
An added joyance, said: "Thy mind employ
In gratitude to Him by Whom so far
Thou art exalted to the lowliest star."
It seemed a cloud enclosed us, shining, dense,
With polished surface firm that, diamond-bright,
Was dazzling in the sun's reflected light.
We passed within the eternal pearl, as sinks
A ray of sunlight in the stream, which drinks
The light, land is not opened: cleft and whole.
If I were body or unsubstanced soul
I know not. What in wisdom can we guess
Who see one body, not itself the less,
Another in its own dimension take,
Beyond our comprehending? This the more
Should kindle longing to ourselves explore
That essence where, at last the Accepted Bride,
Our nature to High God is unified.
That which we hold by faith we do not state
In logic's terms. We do not demonstrate,
But like the primal truth to man self-known
Accept it, confident in belief. I said:
"Madonna, thanks devout to God I own
Who here hath raised me from the world of sin.
But wilt thou show me what those marks may be
Which on this moon's bright surface duskily
When men look upward from the earth they see,
And tell the tale of Cain?"
Then mirthfully,
She smiled upon me. "Now," she said, "no more
The shafts of wonder should thy mind transfix
That mortal wisdom fails without the key
Of sense by which to enter. Here you see
That even where the senses lead, the wings
Of reason are too short. But tell me first
Thine own interpretation."
I to her:
"I judge that bodies more or less dispersed
In this high region, by their density,
Or else deffuseness, differing aspects bear
To those on earth who view them."
"Verily,"
She answered, "wilt thou hearken now to me,
Thy thought, confronted by mine argument,
Shall own its falsehood.
"The eighth sphere displays
A multitude of glories, variously
Perceived, not only through their quantities,
But by their qualities also. If their rays
Were different only as their density
Should vary, then one virtue, more or less,
Were in them only. Diverse virtues spring
From diverse principles. Of all of these
There were one only by thy reasoning.
"And think again, if differing densities
Cause the bright surface or the duskier blur,
Either the tenuous patch continues through
The moon's whole substance, or alternately,
Like fat and lean the different strata lie.
"Were the first true, the sun's eclipse would show
With penetrating light, which is not so,
And therefore, if the next I overthrow,
Thy theory wholly is reject. If through
The moon's opaqueness naught of sunlight drives
From the far side, then reason bids infer
That somewhere, through its whole circumference,
There is a limit to the rarity
For which you argue; and, if this be so,
From such dark stratum must the light recoil,
As colour backward from a glass is thrown
By lead behind it. Yet you will not lack
The final argument that further back
May be the density by which the patch
Shows darker; but from this abortive plea
Experiment will disentangle thee,
If that thou pleasest, as thine arts are known
To advocate, for from experiments spring
The streams of knowledge ever broadening.
"Three mirrors shalt thou take, exposing two
At equal distance, and the third, between,
Ranged further from thine eyes. Behind thy back
Kindle a torch from which they shall return
Reflected light toward thee. Smaller seen
Will be the further, but as bright to view
As those more near on either hand.
"And now
-Thine own false reasons both dissolved, as snow
Melts in the sunlight to the equal lack
Of colour and coldness - I would more inform
Thy bankrupt intellect with light so warm,
So living, it shall vibrate in thy sight.
"Within the heavens of holy peace revolves
A body from whose virtue is derived
The being of all which they contain. The height
Of the near heaven above, which hath to show
So many constellations, diverse-bright,
Hath diverse essences distributed
Among them, which themselves by various glow
Distinguish in their own diversity.
So also through the graded heavens rotate
A Myriad circling bodies of diverse state,
By various powers divine impregnated,
With downward influence from above them fed.
"Now mark intently how the truth I thread
To that thou seekest, that the ford alone
Thy feet may take hereafter. Impulsed thus
They wheel, and on mankind they operate -
As doth the hammer that the smith controls,
His art, and not its own, to justify.
The shining constellations, marvellous
From the deep Mind from which their circle rolls,
Marked by its seal upon them, must impress
The image that themselves accept no less
Upon the earth beneath. And as men's souls
Emerge from out their animated dust
Through different members diversely designed
For various operations, so the Mind
Divine, the myriad diverse stars behind,
Deploys its virtue, each diversion free
Within its comprehensive unity.
"As in yourself glad life the dust inspires
To various functions, so the Soul Divine
Inspires the constellations, shining, through
As from your eyes the spring of life in you
Shines outward. Hence, and not from dense or rare,
Complexions of the different stars compare
So variously; their lights derived from whence
Is every manner of all excellence.
Canto III.
The Sun which warmed me first to fair Love's heat
Had now revealed me Truth, as bare, as sweet,
By proof and by disproof interpreted;
And I thereat, to own in measure meet
That I was throughly answered, raised my head,
Intending speech. But such a sight was mine
To hold me straightly to itself, that I
Forgot my purpose. As translucent glass,
Or shallow water where the light will pass
Clear to the bottom, mirrors those who gaze.
Faint as a white pearl on as white a brow,
So there were many faces round me now
Eager for speech. Narcissus' error here
My sight reversed. I thought: 'Reflections shine
Of those who stand behind me'. Round I turned;
But naught beheld, and from that mystery
Altered my glance mine own sweet guide to see;
And glowing in those sacred eyes I met
A smile at my confusion.
"Wonder not,"
She said: "that in mine eyes is merriment,
Seeing thee thus thy timid feet withdraw
From the firm ground, preferring vacancy,
Thy childlike wont in all things. Those you see
Are truest substance; relegated here
For failure of their vows of chastity.
Speak with them: heed: believe. The verity
Of light with which their souls are satisfied
Allows not that they turn their feet aside
From truth's conclusions."
I thereat, to one
Who seemed most eager to converse, began:
"O well-created Spirit, who dost feel
That sweetness which can never words reveal
To those who have not tasted life divine,
Intense, eternal - joy to hear were mine
If thou wouldst tell thy name, and show the lot
You share with your companions."
She thereon
Gave me a glance that with glad radiance shone,
And smiled assent: "Our love refuseth not
So fair a wish. As prompt it drops the bar
As to the courts of God the gateways are
Made wide to those who would Love's likeness share.
I was a Sister, sworn to chastity,
Not stranger to thee once. Of right I wear
A greater beauty now, but search with care
Thy memory, and this radiance shall not be
Impenetrable. Piccarda once was I,
Who, with the blessed ones around me here,
Am stationed in this slowest-moving sphere.
"Our passions now no lowlier flame can know
Than of the Holy Spirit by which we glow,
Informed by that celestial mystery,
And in that form exulting.
"This low spot
Is given to us whose vows continued not
Inviolate from the world's assault."
I said:
"From God such glowing splendour now transmutes
Your previous beauty that my mind delayed
In recollection of its old conceits.
But now, through its most radiant attributes,
Thy face is evident that before I knew.
But tell me, ye who bide so lowly here,
Have ye no longing for the loftier seats,
The more of Heaven to see, or dwell more dear,
And closer to the Highest?"
A smile at this
Lightened her eyes, and those who crowded near
Smiled with her. Then she spoke, and all the bliss
Of Love's first flame, it seemed, was hers to sing,
She was so joyous in her answering.
"Brother, the quality of our Love doth still
The impulse of rebellion; all our will
Being God's only. Here we rest content.
What God hath in his perfect counsel meant
In our assorting is our certain good.
Incapable of a different thirst are we,
And, that you may the clear occasion see,
Consider that Love rules omnipotent
From threshold unto threshold, from this low
Soon-circling moon, that for our home we know,
To the vast Ultimate Heaven. And think again.
What is Love's nature? Love itself were vain
If envy could corrupt it. Love must be
Surrender by its own necessity
Unto the God from Whom itself derives.
No more desire in emulation strives,
But all our joy is in this will supreme;
And thence is His joy also, that our wills
Find peace in His - the universal sea
Which to Itself all that Itself creates,
And all that Nature thence originates,
Draws in divine attraction."
So to me
Came understanding of how Heaven fulfils
Its Paradise entire, although the grace
Of the Chief Good is not in every place
Rained down in like abundance. But, as when
One food is eaten to satiety
While appetite remains, the while we say
Thanks for the platter that is moved away,
In the same breath we ask a different dish,
So I with pleading gesture spoke my wish
That she should draw the shuttle further through,
To the web's end. And she replied thereto:
"Now heavened in a loftier place than I
Is one who once beneath your earthly sky
Came to high merit and life perfected;
Who founded that veiled rule of those whose vows
That they till death will take the Heavenly Spouse
To lie beside them only, He doth bless
With glorious acceptation, if no less
Of love than Heaven requires impel their vow.
"While girlhood yet was green the world I fled,
Following the passion that she taught. To Wed
The cloister only was I vowed. I wore
The habit of her order. But to me
Came men more prone to ill than good. They tore
My hands reluctant from that hold: the shame
God knoweth that my later life became.
"And she beside me, whose bright spirit doth shine,
On my right hand, with all the light divine
Our sphere contains, accepts this tale of mine
For herself also. She alike was vowed:
She also ravished from that sisterhood
By the sharp violence of her closest kind;
Yet when the shadow of the sacred veil
Drew from her, and reluctant use allowed
Inferior pleasure, still her heart withstood
The sieges of the world. It dwelt behind
The veil of its own chastity. Her light
Is that of Constance, once of worldly height,
Who, to the second blast of Suabia,
Bore him who was the third and final might."
So said she, and her speech was turned to song,
Ave Maria, and the while she sang
She faded from my sight, as sinks a stone
In the dark water's depth. Mine eyes so long
As sight allowed pursued her. Left alone
I sought anew my keen need, and turned
Toward Beatrice, but so brightly burned
Her glance upon me that my sight declined
Endurance of its light at first to find,
Which made me tardier in my questioning.
Canto IV.
Being set between two foods, exactly alike
To call of appetite, exactly placed
At equal distance from his reach, a man
Might starve before his hungry teeth should taste
Of either banquet, while desire would pull
Two ways at once with similar strength; and so
A lamb between two ravening wolves might show
No motion either right or left to go,
In equapoise of terror; or a hound
Between two hinds in cloven doubt might stand,
And both find safety from its lust to kill.
And therefore if no present words I found
Vext by perplexities on either hand
Of equal urgence, my defect of will
I blame not, nor defend. My peace I held;
But on my face desire was painted so
That words would never with so warm a glow
Have made petition; and Beatrice took
The part of Daniel when he read the dream
Before he gave its meaning, which dispelled
The misdirected wrath that made the King
Unjustly cruel.
"Yes," she said, "I see
How two desires at once entangle thee
That neither comes to previous birth. 'If will,'
Your mind protests, 'be constant to the good,
Although frustrated from the thing it would,
How can ulterior violence rightfully
Reduce its measure of desert?'
"And still
More gallful is thy next perplexity,
Which sees the souls, as Plato's doctrine said,
Heavened in their stars, and so, to ease thy doubt,
I treat it first. Of all the seraphim,
Not he to God the closest - Samuel,
Moses or John - not Mary herself, doth dwell
In higher heaven than those thine eyes have seen,
Nor different timing of their years hath been,
Nor will be. None God's circle stays without,
Nor fails its beauties to augment. They share
The same sweet life with difference, each aware
Of its own narrow portion of the same
Eternal Inspiration. That they here
Are visible to thee, does not mean this sphere
Contains them, but informs thee that they claim
The least celestial eminence. Needs must be
That speech they use, to reach your faculty
Of apprehension, that your senses bring
In fashioned tribute to the intellect,
As doth the Scripture, showing God erect,
Manlike, with feet and hands; so furnishing
An image that profounder meaning veils.
And so the Church's teaching represents
Gabriel and Michael in the guise of men,
And Tobit's healer.
"Timaous' argument
- Be literal value to his words applied -
Swerves from the truth I tell thee, for he saith
That spirits to their own stars return at death,
As to a dwelling which they only left
When Nature from the eternal matrix cleft
That which should animate an earthly clay.
Yet haply words from meaning branched away,
Intending truth no wisdom should deride;
That influence, from their starry hosts which came
For honour or dishonour, praise or blame,
Returns unto them when its work is done.
"So may his shaft a truth have reached; but yet
This truth misunderstood the world hath set,
Almost the whole voice of the world, astray,
To call on Jupiter and Mars, as they
Were ultimate gods..
"Thy next perplexity
Hath less of venom, for it could not lead
Thy mind to leave me, though our justice seem
Unjust by mortal standards, as you say.
It is not hectic iniquity
That marvels of the heavenly truth you see
Which foils your understanding. Faith's debate
Is here; and since your mind hath wit to read,
I will expound it to you. Violence
Implies that he who suffers naught submits,
And naught contributes, to his loss. But those
With whom you spoke were partial to oppose
Their wills to that which wrought their vows' offence.
For, if the will be constant, soon or late
Resistance triumphs. Can a flame be bent
So that it will not straighten? Wrench it down
A thousand times, it will not rest content
Until it rise again its natural way.
But if it bend itself, it doth abet
The violence which assaults it, though it be
Reluctant of the deed; and thus did they.
"For had their will retained that constancy
Which held St Lawrence to the grid, and made
Mucius against his own hand obdurate,
They had reverted to the holy state
So soon as rapine loosed them. But too rare
Is such inflexibility of will
To rout the violence of the world
"Yet still,
Though I have rendered void thine argument,
I see before thine eyes a straighter doubt,
Where thou shouldst weary ere the way were won,
If thou shouldst take it lonely. Sure is set
This truth upon thy mind, that never one
Of all the blessed can be cast without
The Ultimate Height of Heaven, who faithfully
Held to the primal truth; but thou hast heard
From Piccarda a different-seeming word,
That Constance in devotion did not swerve
From that which godless violence tore away.
"But many a time, my brother, men may see
Thing done unseemly, other ills to flee,
As did Alcmaeon, at his father's prayer,
His mother's life destroy. Behold a son
Impious from filial piety! And so
May violence work upon the will that none
May call it guiltless. Of its fear aware,
It doth not willingly consent to go,
Yet is in choice consenting, to avoid
Some wrong by which it might be worse annoyed.
Piccarda spoke of the uninfluenced will,
And I of that which bent to circumstance:
With difference thus a single truth we show."
So copiously the stream of truth outwelled
Upon me, from the Eternal Spring that held
All truth for its subservance. Sated now
Were both my longings.
"O Divine!" I said,
"Love of the Primal Lover! By thy speech
My thirst is overflowed, my hunger fed,
My spirit livened. But I may not reach
To give thee grace for grace; I can but pray
That what my poor love hath no depths to pay
He Who hath all will grant thee. This I see:
Truth will be sought without satiety
Unless that Truth which doth all truth contain
Illume and guide it to its end; and then
It rests, as some wild creature finds its den,
And sinks to satisfaction. This I see:
That though the mind may wander homelessly,
It need not find at last futility,
But the den waits its patience.
"Wherefore spring
Around truth's feet these shoots of questioning,
Of the blind mould impatient. Ridge by ridge
They urge us to the summit. This doth give
Reverent assurance to my mind to place
Another doubt, that I am weak to bridge,
Before thee for solution. Of thy grace,
Inform me if a man can satisfy
Demands of heaven with other merchandise,
So that the short weight of a broken vow
May not his hope confound."
Beatrice now
Looked at me with such love in such bright eyes
That I might not sustain in any wise
Their beams to meet: mine insufficiency
From that loved heaven so low rejected me.
Canto V.
Then, to interpret that divine regard,
She first made answer: "If it seem too hard
The flame of love-born beauty to sustain,
So that your dazzled eyes contend in vain
Against a greater warmth than earth can know,
Of this thing make no marvel. It is born
From vision of the food, which apprehends
More than is possible to earthly eyes;
And, with its sight, its own advance extends
Toward the apprehended. As you rise,
Somewhat I see your earthly mind replies,
Heating itself at the eternal light,
Which, as it breaks upon your mortal sight,
Must love enkindle to the like degree.
"If aught beside on earth your love seduce
It is from this same source that breaketh through,
Misapprehended though that source may be.
"But for the question that you ask me now,
Can man, you doubt, redeem a broken vow
With other service, that his final state
Be at God's judgement sure beyond debate?"
So Beatrice put my doubt, and straight
Went on to its solution.
"Many gifts
God gave at the creation, from a hand
Most full, and freely opened. Best of all,
Most near to His own nature, and which lifts
Man nearest to Himself, the boon he planned
Was freedom of the will, with which he dowered
The intelligent creation, severally,
As in united action.
"Hence will be
A vow's high value evident to thee
-If from my premise you deduce aright -
Providing only that when man consents
God consent also. For the tribute made
By such surrender is in coinage paid
Most precious, as I showed, and in the act
Itself is evidenced. What thus can be
In substitution for such covenants
Adequate to offer? If you think to use
To different purpose that you pledged, you plan
Of stolen goods to make your husbandry.
"So are you answered on the major count.
But since the church will dispensation give,
Which seems assertion of the contrary,
You needs must longer at the table sit,
As one who, eating a rebellious food,
Requires more patience for digesting it.
"Bend thou thy thoughts to fix the thing I show;
For to perceive a thing and not retain
Is to divert the mind, but naught to know.
"Two matters to the sacrifice pertain:
That which is vowed, and the contracting vow.
The second can no loosened bond allow:
It was of that I spoke in words precise.
Observe, that Hebrews should make sacrifice
Was law beyond exception, but the gift
They laid upon the altar was not so
Fixed beyond changing. Likewise may the vow
Be varied in its sacrifice. But yet
No private judgement should be bold to shift
The burden that the shoulders bear. For he
Will need the white key and the yellow key
That door to open to his soul's release.
And such surrender, for his after-peace
He yet may count as folly, if no more
He yield than he recover. Six to four
Should be the basis of that bargaining.
"It follows that if man shall consecrate
So much to God that it the scale shall tip
Against whatever else of worth he bring,
There can be no redemption. Can he try
A trade for that he hath no means to buy?
"Let no man make to God a random vow,
Look first with steady eyes, and truth allow.
Remember Jephthah, who had done less ill
To own his vow unrighteous than to kill
His daughter, as though God could give consent
To any vow that slew the innocent.
"Such was the fault that Iphigenia wept
When the Greek Leader foully vowed, and kept
The vow best broken. That her face was fair
Brought her to death that sage and simple there
Lamented vainly.
"Men of Christ should be
Apt to no vow except with gravity,
Not feathers every wind can sweep aside,
Not thinking they are cleansed by every tide.
You have the Old and the New testament
For guidance, and the Church's pastoral care.
Let them be your salvation. But beware
Of evil shepherds, led by avarice,
Who offer pardons at an easier price.
Be men, not sheep; lest that ye think and do
Become the mockery of the Christless Jew."
At that Beatrice ceased, and every word
Was printed on my mind, that all I heard
I here can write. She raised her eyes toward
That point from which the earth most quickeneth,
With evident aspiration. As the cord
Still trembles while the loosened shaft hath struck,
So instant to the second realm we rose.
And as we entered that superior sphere
So gladdened did my lady's face appear
That the whole star responsive glowed. Conceive
If the star waked to laughter, what did I,
Used at each trivial change to laugh or grieve
At dictates of my frail mortality.
As when a fishpond's surface tranquil-clear
Is broken by some substance thrown, and they
Who think of food from every side appear
Drawing toward it, so did every way
A thousand splendours close around us now.
And from each spirit came a voice that cried:
"Lo, one by whom our loves are magnified!"
And each, approaching, by an effluent glow
Cast out toward us, did the gladness show
That filled it.
Reader, if my tale should stay,
And naught be told thee of my upward way
Through Heaven, till then unseen by mortal eyes,
Think how thy thwarted questionings would rise
In protest at the dearth my silence gave;
And think therefrom with what keen thirst I longed
To hear from these of what their state might be.
"Oh, blest at birth!" - From these who round me thronged
A voice addressed me - "Thou by grace allowed
The Thrones of the Triumphant here to view
Ere thine own time of earthly strife be through,
We by the light that ranges Heaven are lit,
And therefore, if you seek some share of it,
Fear no refusal here, but ask aloud."
Thereat Beatrice spoke: "Abandon fear.
Ask freely what you will; and what you hear
Believe as from the lips of gods it came."
"Truly," I answered to the spirit who spake,
"I see thou hast that light of heavenly flame.
It sparkles through thine eyes that fall on me.
But who thou art I may not guess, nor see
Why thou art graded here in Mercury,
Which in the sun's light hides itself from men."
So spoke I; and that spirit exceeded then
Its previous brightness. As the sun will rise
Mist-reddened, but will chase the vapours down
By its victorious heat, and clearer skies
Will mount, invested with too bright a crown
For mortal eyes to meet it, so excelled
That spirit in light through crescent ecstasies,
Garmented and regarmented with light:
And answered in the words which next I write.
Canto VI
"When Constantine had led the eagle back
Nearly the whole course of the westward track
Of him of old who took Lavinia,
A hundred and a hundred years and more
The bird of God abode on Europe's shore,
Facing the mountains whence at first he flew.
And there beneath his sacred wings anew
The world he ruled and sheltered. Constantine
Died, and from hand to hand the imperial power
Passed with the change of years, and came to mine.
Caesar I was, and am Justinian,
Who, being prompted by the Primal Cause
Which all pervades me in this holier hour,
Pruned off abortive and redundant laws.
"One time, before my zeal that work began,
I held the heretic belief that one,
One nature only, was in God the Son,
And was content with his divinity.
But Agapetus (God's high pastor he)
By clearer teaching caused mine eyes to see
The truth entire, as plain as is to you
That contradictions are both false and true.
And soon, as with the Church I moved my feet,
God of his grace inspired me to complete
That task, on which the more to concentrate
To Belisarius the imperial fate,
So far as safety must on arms depend,
I wholly trusted. Heaven's right hand in that
Was stretched to aid me with such evident will
As signalled approbation. So I fill
Requirement of thy first request; but more
Its matter makes demand. That thou mayst see
With how much of good right proceedeth he
Who to his own hand doth appropriate
The Holy Standard, and how much is his
Who doth oppose him, thou shalt contemplate
Its sum of virtue which for reverence
Hath made it worthy, from that earliest day
When Pallas died to plant it.
"Thou dost know
How first in Alba for three centuries
It ruled, until the strife of three with three
Its fate decided. Then through seven reigns,
From the raped Sabines to Lucretia's woe,
Thou knowest further the high deeds it wrought,
Brennus and Pyrrhus, and what tale besides
Of mighty princes and confederacies,
From which Torquatus' lofty fame derived,
And that of Quinctius of the combless hair,
The Decii and the Fabii, each of whom
I joy to place within the embalming tomb
Of song which will not fail.
"It overthrew
The swarming Afric host that Hannibal's pride
Led through the glacial Alpine rocks from where
The Po comes swiftly down. Beneath its wing
Scipio and Pompeii in their youth excelled,
With bitter consequence to that stern hill
That overlooks thy birthplace.
"Nigh the time
When the all-brooding heavens designed to bring
The whole world to their own serenity,
It came to the first Caesar's hand, and he,
By Rome's volition, wrought from Var to Rhone,
What knoweth Isere and Arar, and all the Seine,
And every valley of those hills that yield
Their tributes to the Rhone. But after that,
When from Ravenna he crossed the Rubicon,
So soared its sunward flight, to equal it
Not any tongue can speak, nor word be writ.
"Upon Iberia next its host it wheeled,
And then against Durazzo, and thereon
So smote Pharsalia that the Nile's hot shore
Was not too distant to lament the blow.
The eyrie of its birth it saw once more,
Antandros and Simois, and, below,
The grave where Hector lies. An angry wind
Raising again, with death to Ptolemy,
It smote, as lightning smites, Numidia's king.
"Then westward with swift flight it rushed again
Where the Pompeian trumpets shrilled in Spain.
Raised in a different hand, its destiny
Prevailed. Perugia and Modena knew;
And Brutus with his Cassius howls in hell.
When from the asp she took the swift black night
Rather than feel its capturing Claws. It bore
Its peace at last unto the Red Sea shore -
A peace become so absolute, so wide,
That Janus' temple closed.
"But all before
Wrought by the standard that I boast is naught -
Its brightness dusk, its splendours mean to see -
Regarded with pure heart and clarity,
Beside the terrible vengeance which it did
In the third Caesar's hand. For surely He,
That Living Justice which is life in me,
Inspired him to it as his instrument.
Regard the two-fold marvel! Christ was sent
To feel the vengeance of God, sin's punishment,
And then to Titus was the glory given
To avenge the vengeance for the ancient sin.
"So passed the years. And when the Lombard bit
Into the Church's side, to rescue it
Came the victorious might of Charlemagne,
Beneath the holy ensign's wings to win.
"Now for thyself a judgement make of those
Whom lately I accused of separate sin.
Behold these evils, source of all your woes!
One to the national standard doth oppose
The golden lilies of France, and one doth strain
Its use to be a faction's flag. 'Tis hard
To say who most offendeth. Ghibellines,
Work your designs beneath some different flag!
For lightly may the crowd's allegiance lag
To follow one you have no claim to show.
Nor may the present Charles his Guelphs sustain,
Impious, to drag so great a symbol low.
Let him yet fear the ancient claws that tore
The pelt from many a mightier lion than he.
"Often have children wailed a father's crime,
But let him not suppose at any time
That God the imperial bird will trade away
For those bright lilies which his arms display.
"This small low star on which we meet contains
Good spirits passionate in pursuit of fame
And honour of earthly life, and hence desires
May swerve so far that strength which love requires
Is somewhat lessened for its mounting rays.
But yet no less we give to God the praise,
No less perceive that our deserts and gains
Are justly measured in the perfect scale.
For in us the live justice doth prevail,
And malice may not warp affections here.
"As varying voices make sweet harmony
On earth, so is it this holier sphere.
Degrees of difference make one song entire;
And various flames construct one wheel of love.
"Within this present pearl that Romeo
Shineth whose heel Provencal envy bit
For his most noble work designed and done.
But he, by then who had completed it,
So dealt that the last laughter doth not go
To those whose malice sought his overthrow.
"Four daughters had Duke Raymond, and no son,
Yet each of these became a high princess,
One England's queen, one France's queen; no less
The others to great honour. This was done
By Romeo's wisdom, to Provence who came
A stranger, with a pilgrim's lowliness,
And with a pilgrim's poverty. When disfame
Whispered against him, charging fraud and greed,
So that his lord required a count be made
If any treasure in his hand had stayed,
He more than justly rendered, twelve for ten,
And that no slander in the mouths of men
Might live thereafter, took his mule and staff,
And left that court as naked as he came,
All gifts contemning. Nay, not theirs the laugh.
"But had the world known in what heart he went
In poverty and age from door to door,
Begging by crust and crust his meagre store,
Much as it praiseth, it had praised him more.
Canto VII.
"Lord God of Sabaoth, Holiest and Most High,
Hosanna to the sacred Name we praise
Which by its superlustrous light's descent
Doth kindle all this heavenly firmament
With penetrant fire divine."
I heard him raise
This chant triumphant - he, that Being blest
On whom twin lights in doubled glory rest,
The purifier both of rule and law.
A moment only he and those I saw
Who like himself danced to the sacred strain,
And then, as sudden sparks to darkness fly,
The distance hid them.
"Ask her - ask," I said
Within myself, "entreat her to supply
That living water of truth which twice before
My thirst hath sated." But I bent my head
As one oblivious. Diffident fear was more
Restraint than love of truth was urgence now.
But well she knew how reverence overcame
My difficult speech, and how my head must bow
To but one syllable of her worshipped name,
And short the time she left me thus. A smile
Shone from her eyes upon me, such as well
Might make men blissful in the flames of hell;
And then she spoke: "My thought, which doth not err,
Perceives thy question. Be the vengeance just,
Can vengeance for that vengeance justly be?
That query might be answered speedily;
But give me all thy mind, and thou shalt hear
Full revelation of this mystery.
"Because one man, who was not born, declined
Contentment in a wise restraint to find,
Himself he damned, and all his flesh that grew
From him by natural process: all alike
One flesh, one sin. So lay the human crew
In deathly sickness many a century,
Deluded by its own conceits, till He
The Immortal Word of God, that nature drew,
That fallen nature, to Himself anew,
By the sole act of his eternal love.
"Consider this: That nature, reallied
To Him Who made it, cleansed and deified,
Was perfect, sinless as Himself; but yet
Was that same nature which the gates had set
Of Paradise barred against it: its own act
Repudiating its appointed way
Of truth, its life intended. If we weigh
The nature which endured the cross, we say
That never was a juster penalty.
But if the Person who that nature bore
Our judgement ponder, then the punishment
Appears most monstrous. Mark the twofold fact.
God at that deed rejoiced: rejoiced the Jews.
Earth quaked. The outraged heavens open tore.
Perceive the dual truths, and doubt no more
The justice that condemned what God designed.
"But now I see, from thought to thought, thy mind
Maked further question. 'What I hear,' you say,
'Is clear to comprehension. But I see
Not plainly why that only mode should be
The path of our redemption! This decree,
Brother, is mystery to all eyes but those
Which at Love's feet have learnt their litany.
"But since this target draws most shafts which fall
At middle distance, hear the truth that shows
This method worthiest of a choice divine:
Glowing within itself, God's excellence,
Contemning envy where no equal is,
Radiates abroad its everlasting light,
And the assertion of its loveliness
Hath not the finite bound of more or less;
Nor can it be reversed; nor where its seal
Hath stamped God's image, any subsequent night
Obliterate that eternal signature.
"That which down-floweth from this source is free,
Unmeasured, not to mutability
Made subject. As its inspiration pure
Shows us most likeness, so in men must be
Most conquering life; and as they fail therefrom,
Though by but one ray of the eternal light,
They are reduced in their nobility.
"Sin only hath this power, from men to take
The secret likeness of the Eternal Good,
So that their nature with a glow less bright
Return the eternal brilliance. Never more
May it re-enter through that closing door,
Excepting, for the void it digged, it make
Full bulk of reparation: false delight
Being full balanced by just penalty.
"And so, when sinned the first including seed,
Which was mankind in its totality,
Not only Paradise was lost: the night
Sank also on the heavenly dignity
Which was man's previous nature. How shall be
This loss recovered? Ask thyself, and heed
The inevitable answer.
"What shall pass
This gulf of separation? Only here
Two possible fords across its depth appear,
That either God in sole benignity
Shall without satisfaction all remit,
Or man shall compensation make.
"Now fix
Intent thine eyes upon the deep abyss
Of the eternal counsel! Man for this
Was powerless. Could he find humility
Sufficient to abase himself as low
As his false pride had risen, when he defied
The rule of his Creator? Surely no.
And therefore was he hopeless to redeem
Himself from condemnation. Needs must be
That God alone of his own potency
Should the maimed life to heavenly rights restore,
Or both fords in divine duality
Employ for its salvation. God must choose,
The way most Godlike. Every deed the more
Is gracious as itself is pregnated.
With the heart's bounty which itself conceived.
And therefore the Divine Beneficence
Chose the most Godlike mode, Itself to lose
That men might profit: stamping its design
Even on the fallen image that gave offence.
"Not since the first day dawned, until shall fall
The shades of the last night across the sky,
Nay, nor thenceafter, any deed of all
Shall match with this in height of majesty.
God needs must choose the method most divine,
Equal to this. For our redemption He
Bent to the burden of humanity.
"Now, to relieve thy final doubt, which says:
'I see the water, and I see the fire,
The fluid air, the solid earth I see,
And all their mixtures. But what substance stays?
What is their end but mutability?'
I answer this: Although your mind perceived
Apparent contradiction, when I called
All things created incorruptible,
And the material earth abundant shows
The workings of corruption, not indeed
Is contradiction here. This heavenly land,
Brother, with all its sinless angel band,
These may be called created, through and through.
But those base elements observed by you
Are rather by created virtue formed,
Its temporary expression, not itself;
And so the life of plant and brute is warmed
From the out-sparkling of the sacred stars
Thrown downward or withdrawn. But life of thine
Is breathed immediate from the Source Divine,
So that, divorced therefrom, you upward yearn,
And furthest wandering would most fain return.
And hence, if thou recall how first the flesh
That is mankind was kneaded, thou canst see
Good reason for the further life to be."
Canto VIII
The world of men in times now ancient
Held that the Cyprian from her native star
Rained down on earth her love incontinent.
Wherefor they praised her and her amorous care
With blood of sacrifice and votive cry;
And not her only in their false belief
They worshipped, but alike to Dione,
Being her mother, and to Cupid, he
Being her son, their hymns they raised. They told
How once he sat on Dido's knees. They saw
Her dwelling in the star that, overbold,
Twice daily, night and morning, courts the sun.
I knew not, till the upward course was done,
That I that star had gained, but then the law
That makes thereon all beauty manifold
Revealed it to me in Beatrice's eyes,
Which not till then had been in anywise
So lovely, though their previous loveliness
Surpassed inadequate words of earth.
Hast seen
A spark transgress a steadier flame? Hast heard
A voice of constant volume, word by word,
Disturbed by one which alters? So I saw
Lights in that light which torchlike danced, their pace
Varying, I think, through all eternity
According as its vision was theirs. From Him
That cincture which is first the Seraphim
So spirals downward to this circling race.
But now so rapidly from their line they broke
That from cold cloud the invisible thunder-stroke
Falls not so fast. So swift to us they came
That by their motion would the lightning lag;
And from the vanward of their front of flame
Hosanna pealed in such sweet melody
That never shall I shake the longing free
Again to hear it.
One advanced more near
Than came those others. "All who meet thee here,"
He said, "are servants to thy will, to make
Thy joy's occasion. Principalities
Are here who in one circle roll: who slake
One thirst, which thou thyself didst indicate,
Writing on earth: Oh, ye, whose ecstasies
Give the Third Heaven its moving life. In us
Love moves so regnant that to pleasure thee
Is sweet as our suspended dance could be."
I raised at first mine eyes in reverence
Toward my Lady to enquire her will,
And having her assurance, turned them thence
To that glad spirit proffering to fulfil
My asking with the prodigality
To which love urged it. "Tell me who you be,"
I said, with ardour like his own, and he
Glowed with exceeding pleasure thereat, intense
Of light beyond conception. Changing thus,
He answered: "Short the space the world below
Confined me fleshly. Had it not been so,
Much evil had been spared which yet must be.
Joy is it that conceals my form from thee,
A rose out-radiant: like a creature clad
In silk, its own creation. Love you had
Onetime for me, with likely cause, for lo!
Had life endured, I had not failed to show
More than the flowerless leaves of love for thee.
"The left bank of the Rhone, anear the sea,
After it takes the Sorga, looked to me
To be its lord at the appropriate hour,
As did that corner of Ausonia
Which hath three cities for its diadem
Bari, Gaeta, and Catona, where
Tronto and Verde mingle with the sea.
Already on my brows two crowns of power
Shone bright. Those banks the Danube's waters sweep,
After they leave the German lands, were mine,
And soon alike would fair Trinacria,
Which between Pachynus and Pelorus
Darkens above the gulf tormented most
By Eurus (not for wrath of Typhoeus,
But for the sulphur that ariseth there)
Have looked to have its future kings through me
From Charles and Rudolf spring, had not the scourge
Of evil lordship, which doth break the tie
Of prince and subject, roused Palermo's cry
From streets heart-broken: Die, thou tyrant, die.
And, had my brother in good time allowed
His heart to ponder that which all may see
Of Catalonia's greedful poverty,
The sails of flight upon his barque to crowd
He had not loitered: even furtherfold
Will evil cargo weight its cumbered hold,
Unless his own or other's wits provide
Some swift remede. His close parsimony
- Mean sapling seeded from a generous tree! -
Will soon have need of different soldiery
From those who make their aim his chests to fill."
I answered: "Surely am I satisfied
That what I see, you too, with Heaven to guide,
See likewise: rather say, twice joyed am I
Not only that thyself, but Heaven most high
Accords in this conclusion. Joy supplied;
Give wisdom also if thou wilt. Reveal,
I pray thee, how sweet seed of earthly stem
Can bring forth bitter."
Thus he answered me:
"If I expose a single thought to thee
Thy doubt is ended: that which lies behind
Will meet thy vision. The revolving Good,
That through this whole realm which thou now dost climb
Permeates, with virtue fills these spheres. In them
It makes provision, being itself sublime,
Perfect for all the creatures you will find
Various in each; not only to exist,
But blissful to abide, that all subsist
Not as by random chance, but orderly,
As shafts that reach the mark which He designed
Who loosed them from the bowstring. Else would be
Chaos in Heaven itself, and art divine
Blurred and confused thereby, defaced and wrecked.
And could that be, except the intellect
That moves these stars should have a like defect?
And could that be except the Primal One,
Whose hand should fail his creatures to direct,
Should be Himself defective? Have I done?
Or must I sate you with more argument?"
And I thereat: "You have no need to say
A further word thereon, for well I see
Nothing in Nature can imperfect be
To execute its mission."
He went on:
"Then tell me: Would men walk the harder way
Were they uncitied and uncivilised?"
I answered: "Surely that is evident.
For that I ask no reason."
"Then reflect.
How could that be, except that men direct
Efforts diverse to different ends, and so
Be various in their lives and offices?
Your Master wrote of this, and answered: No."
So far he led me on by argument,
Logically deducing point from point, but now
He reached conclusion: "Therefore one is born
A lawyer, Solon; one is Xerxes; one
A priest, Melchizedek; and one is he
Who, soaring vainly sunward, lost his son.
"For that which seeks a mortal tenement
From the revolving Source of life, is not
To one selected fleshly home assigned,
But, by the wisdom of the Eternal Mind,
Indifferent where it find the hostelry
Which it can enter, and its seal impress
On the soft wax of human infancy.
"Esaua from Jacob's seed was sundered thus,
And from such Sire was gendered Quirinus
That Mars was called his father. Time would see
Son following sire in long monotony
Were they not varied by divine decree,
As thus I have expounded.
"Now thy doubt
Is silenced. That which lay behind is brought
Beneath thy vision. If I answer more
It shows how greatly I delight in thee.
- With this corollary I gird thee round:
If Nature find in aught disharmony,
As seed that falleth on unfertile ground
She makes that birth abortive. Every flower
Blooms, if at all, in its propitious hour.
And if your world had equal wit to see
The meaning of this lesson, it would be
With those who serve its needs more satisfied.
But he whose hand the sword-hilt fits they rear
To pray within the cloister, while the spear
They force into a nerveless hand. A king
They make of him whose gift is oratory,
And of the studious make a strengthless king.
So is the firm road vacant, while they tire
Alongside, foiled in uncongenial mire.
Canto IX.
Thy Charles, fair Clemence, thus enlightened me;
And more he told, of how deception's snares
Should trammel his descendants; but he said
Thereafter: "Tell ye naught, for who would spread
A net revealed beforehand?" Silenced thus
I say no more than that just Heaven prepares
A well-bought wailing to avenge thy woe.
But now the sphere of love had turned to meet
The effluent source of all its genial heat,
The sun's high glory, ample to bestow
All that is good through Heaven that all things know.
(Ah, souls deluded, creatures impious!
Who from such light can twist your souls aside
To the vain joys that sin's low tempests hide.)
And in that dawn another splendour shone
Toward me, by its more intensity
Of outward brilliance speaking its desire
For converse. Licensed by Beatrice's eyes,
I answered: "O Blest Spirit! Reveal to me,
I charge thee, whom thou art, that I to thee
May make my thought transparent."
Then that fire,
Which yet I knew not, turned its singing core
To words as buoyant with joy my will to do:
"In that depraved Italian land which lies
Between where Brenta and Piave rise,
And stands Rialto, is a hill that rears
To no great eminence; but down it came,
Raging, and ravening all the land, a flame
Of blackening fury. Of one seed are we.
Cunizza was I called, and here I glow
Because this star's light was mine overthrow.
But joyous am I to indulge my lot.
I fell; but in a fall that grieves me not
To backwardly regard it. Hard to thee
May seem this saying; but it will not be
If from the general herd's thou separate
Thy judgement. This most dear and shining gem
Which closest to me keeps, my heavenly friend,
Hath still a fame on earth which shall not end
Until four times again revolved shall be
The period of his first centenary.
"All men for fame contend, but which of them
A second lifetime's memory wins? How few!
This is not in the meaner thoughts of those
Whom Tagliaments and Adige enclose,
Chastised who are, taught who will not be.
But shall not soon the blood of Padua's dead
Darken the clear Bacchiglione red,
Whose necks for service are too obstinate?
"And one there is who goeth with lifted head,
Ruling where Sile and Cagnano wed,
For whose regardless feet the fatal net
Is being woven, if it be not spread.
"Loud cry the sorrows of men, but louder yet
A wail shall rise from Feltro. None shall find
A man to Malta for foul crime consigned
To match the treachery of Ferrara's priest.
God's priest to prove himself a partisan
Betraying refugees! A priest of God!
Large were the bowl would hold Ferrara's blood,
And weary who should count it, clot by clot,
That Della Tosa through that shame shall shed.
Yet even that foul deed divideth not
From daily practice of that land.
"Above
Are shining mirrors - thrones their earthly name -
In which reflection shows if God approve
The words I give you."
Here she ceased, as one
Whose mind reverted to the wheeling flame
In which again she mingled, leaving near
That other joy, of which she lately said
It had on earth a lustre. Now it shone
Like a great ruby by the sunlight smit.
For in that region those who joy of it
Glow to the measure of their ecstasy.
As those who sorrow on our earth below
Turn to the shadows of the night they know.
"God seeth all," I said, "and you in Him,
Blest spirit, see so far that naught can dim
Thy farthest vision. Never wish can be
Within thee frustrate. Wherefore then dost thou
Delay to please me with that voice which now
Delights this glowing Heaven eternally
Amidst the singing of those Holy flames
Cowled by their own six wings? Reversed with thee,
I had not waited thus to hear thee plead."
He answered: "From that ocean which contains
The earth's inhabited lands, an arm is thrust
Against the course of the advancing sun.
So far that greatest valley, water-filled,
Extends, that its Levantine eve is one
With noon above its western gates. Was I
A shoreman of those seas, in lands that lie
Between the Ebro and the Macra's stream
Which parts the Tuscan from the Genoese.
Almost alike for sunset and sunrise
The place from whence I sprang and Bougiah lies,
Which once in battle made its harbour steam
With its own blood-fall. Folco was my name,
And this bright heaven, to which by right I came,
Was then my ruler, as it owns me now.
"For never Belus' daughter, when she wronged
Both Sichaeus and Creusa, burned as I,
While youth allowed it; nor Rhodope's maid
By Phaedra's wandering son too long betrayed;
Nor he who closed his heart on Iole.
"Yet here we grieve not for remembered sin,
But smile in recollection that herein
Burned the High Value which inspired and led.
Here see we in recovered unity
The Beauty that inflamed our earthly love
Joined to the Good with which this world above
Draws back the wanderings of the world below.
"But that thou leave us well content, I show
The furthest questions which thou hast not said.
For thou the name of this near light wouldst know
Which shineth at my side as dazzling-clear
As sunlight in pure water. Know that here
Hath Rahab found her high tranquillity,
Being received this exalted sphere,
Which from your earth its shadow's point receives,
As most illustrous of your mortal dead,
Being first of all Christ's triumph rescued
To enter here among us. Well beseems
That she be shown as palm of victory
In this, or other, heaven; because that she
Joshua's first glory in the Sacred Land
Was bold to favour; which supremacy,
Scarce memorable to the Church today,
Might be eclipsed too lightly.
"That fair site
Which first he planted who his shoulders turned
Against his Maker - that fair city of thine
Coins the accursed golden flowers which shine
A baleful light to lead God's lambs astray.
For who should be their shepherds - what are they
But wolves at that incitement? Therefore lie
The writings of Evangelist and Divine
Unopened, while their thumb-soiled margins show
How many to the sterile pastures go
Of the Decretals, for the florins earned.
"Thereon are pope and cardinals intent,
And to the house of Christ indifferent,
Where Gabriel's wings stretched over Nazareth,
Which now the Paynims ravish. But I see
The hour when Rome's too-arrogant Vatican,
Blessed by their graves who Peter led, shall be
Released and cleansed from that adultery."
Canto X.
He, the one Value, primal, uncreate,
Ineffable, gazing on His only son
With that translucent love which constantly
They breathe through all things and all space, did form
All heaven-revolving matter and mind to be
Of such high-ordered merit that those who see
See also something of Himself therein.
Therefore, O reader, raise thine eyes with me
To where the motions of the wheels divine
Cross at their equinoctial point, and gaze
Raptured by art so heavenly-fair that He
In nightless contemplation doth survey
That which He fashioned everlastingly.
Consider how restrained obliquity
So works for earth that, were its motion more,
Changes of season were too violent;
And, were they less, how much of potency
Were dead in arid wastes. I need not say
On such a theme extended argument.
Let each man feed him where the feast is spread.
That minister of God, the regnant sun,
Who doth our earth with Heaven's live seal impress,
And measure for us time's perpetual round,
Was at that point already shown, and there
Pursued the spiral course which earlier found
Its light arise with each succeeding day.
And I was with it, though no more aware
Than one of his next moment's thought may be.
Beatrice to that goal had guided me
From good to better raised so instantly
That time of transit was not.
Think how bright
Must be their shining in that home of light,
Who not by colour but by brilliance showed
Their presence; light in light's intensity.
Where I to call to aid all genius
The earth hath known, and all traditional art
For their interpretation, how they glowed
Would mock the attempted telling. Yet belief
May well outrun perception. Well for us
If that I tell our longing eyes shall see!
And if we fail of adequate fantasy,
What wonder is it? What to face the sun,
Is mortal vision at its best, and none
Conceives more splendour than his eyes might see.
So were we there in that Fourth Household set
Of the High Father who doth all provide;
And showeth, in itself all satisfied,
How He doth breathe through Heaven, and how beget.
Beatrice said: "Give thanks to that High Sun
In Whose great light the angels' wings are spread,
That He to this material sphere hath led
Thine upward flight."
No mortal heart inclined
With soul more prostrate nor devout than I,
Hearing those words, myself in God to find
With will surrendered wholly. So it bent
That, for the moment, even Beatrice went
Entirely from it.
That oblivion
She did not, though her heart perceived, resent,
But the glad laughter of her eyes outshone
In such augmented splendour that, thereon,
Was shattered in my mind its singleness
To manifold perceptions.
Round us bent
A glowing girdle, living, conquering,
That more than all it showed could sweetly sing,
Making itself a circling crown, and we
Its centre. Thus Latona's daughter shows
Her golden zone, with light impregnated,
When the cold air retains each shining thread.
The courts of Heaven, from whence returned am I,
Jewels of such dear value beautify
As may not be to this dark air conveyed.
They have a beauty none may bear away,
A glory not to weeping eyes displayed.
Such was their song. And though from Heaven I come
Who saw that wonder, and that song who heard,
I may not utter one revealing word.
Ye who for beauty in that mart would trade,
Wing your ascension there - or ask the dumb.
Three times, as stars around their polar star,
Those ardent suns around us whirled, but then
As dancers when the music breaks they stood,
Who pause alert to catch its notes again.
And one within itself I heard begin:
"Since in thy heart the ray of grace divine
(Whereat the Very Love is Lit to shine,
And, being lit, by loving grows therein)
Hath in thee glowed so brightly as to guide
Thy steps to climb this stair which none descends
Except for reascension, who denied
His vial's wine to sate thy thirst should be
No more in that perverse refusal free
Than water that should fail to seek the sea.
"Now wouldst thou learn the name of each bright flower
Which forms this amorous girdle, to embower
The beauty of thy lady, who doth give
Valour to thy feet to Heaven invade . . . I am
One who found pasture as a fortunate lamb
Of Dominic's sacred flock: he led the way
Where those might fatten well who did not stray.
And shining closest on the right to me,
Is Albert of Cologne. My master he:
I, Thomas Aquinus. If all the rest
You seek to know who form the circle blest,
Direct thine eyes the radiant wreath around,
Following my words. The next exceeding glow
Is Gratian, by his light who smileth so,
Who did so much to bring to common ground
Ecclesiastical and secular law,
That was approved in Paradise. Beyond
You see in radiance that adorns our song
That Peter who did no way boast to say
That, as the widow's mite, his toil would pay
His treasure to Holy Church. The fifth you see,
Fairest and first among us, that is he,
Solomon, of whom the doubtful world below
Thirsteth the news of his great love to know,
Of where it brought him at the last. His mind
Soared to such height; and in the depths profound
Of wisdom delved beyond comparison.
The next that shines so clearly luminous,
Is he who most the angels' ministry
Probed, and their nature: Dionysius;
And then that little laughing light beside
Is he whose Christian pleading fortified
Augustine's wisdom. Now, from light to light
Following my words, thou hast the eighth in sight,
Wherein the sainted soul rejoiceth well,
Having uncovered thy world's falsity
To all who heed him. In Cieldauro lies
His body, whence the soul outchased did rise,
Exiled and martyred, to this peaceful bliss.
"See next the flaming breath of Isidore,
And then of Bede, and Richard, who was more
Than man in contemplation. Last is he,
The circle rounded, next again to me,
Who pondered death and felt it came too slow.
It is the everlasting light of him,
Sigier, who in the Vicus Straminis
Syllogised truths that earned the hate of men."
He ceased; and as in God's dear Church below
His spouse salutes Him with her matin hymn,
That He may love her, and exalt her bliss,
Wherein one part will thrust and one will draw
In such sweet chiming that the spirit content
With love is overfilled, and overflows
To hear it, so I watched that glorious wheel
Resume its revolution, and rejoice
In such glad harmony of voice to voice
As may not here be told; and only be
Where joy is anchored everlastingly.
Canto XI.
Oh, blind insensate cares of mortal men!
Oh, falsehood of all arguments that turn
Eyes downward to the dust, and wings, designed
For soaring, earthward plane! One toiled to learn
Labyrinths of earthly law; and one to find
Wisdom in words for mortal cures; and one
The priesthood studied; one dominion sought
By violence, or by shrewd diplomacy;
One plunder; and the next by trafficking
To prosper; one by carnal joys was caught;
And one in ease would find tranquillity;
The while, from all inferior things made free,
Thus gloriously at Beatrice's side was I
Received and owned in Heaven.
When he spake,
And my round-wandering eyes the circle showed,
Pausing and turning in their harmony,
His light drew inward to itself; but glowed
A moment later with a hue more bright
The smile of its communicating light.
"As glows," he said, "the Eternal Light in me,
So gazing in that Sacred Source I see
Thy thoughts' occasions, and the way they take.
Two things you question, and would find reply,
Not in such apprehending light as I
Absorb without division of words, but so
That understanding on the road may go
Which mortal reason treads. You marked me say:
'For those who stray not should good fattening be;'
And then of Solomon: 'none saw like he.'
But here we must distinguish narrowly.
"The all-ruling Providence (Whose counsels lie
In such far depth that their profundity
Baffles the searching of created eyes)
So that the spouse of Him Who once so dear
Her wedlock purchased with His blood's red rain,
Rising responsive to His conquering cries
Should go securely to her sought delight,
Unspoiled of lowlier lovers, did ordain
A prince on either side to form her train.
One as a seraph in his ardour burned,
And one, cherubic in his wisdom, turned
A facet earthward of the light divine.
"Of both of these it were too much to tell,
For he who the one counsellor praiseth well
Speaketh of two, so like their virtues shine.
"Between Tupino and the stream that falls
Down from the blest Ubaldo's chosen hill
The slope is green a lofty mount below.
Therefrom Perugia feeleth heat or chill
Through Porta Sole; and behind it calls
Nocera for relief which doth not come
From its hard yoke, or Gualdo's. From this slope,
Where most it levels, there was born a sun
Splendid as any dawn from Ganges came;
And therefore who that lovely place shall name
Let him henceforth not Assisi say
But Orient.
"From the dark horizon bar
To climb earth's skies he had not mounted far
Before some strengthening from his light she felt.
For in his youth he came a dame to woo
To whom most others would their doors undo,
As to the knocking of death, reluctfully.
Against his father in her cause he fought
Until he wed her in the holy court
To which he gave allegiance, while beside
His father stood surrendered. From that day
He found her every hour a closer bride
Who had been widowed such long time before
- A thousand and a hundred years and more -
Despised, obscure, her very memory dim,
Until he sought her out who sought not him.
"It had not saved her soiled repute that she
Serenely at the side of Amyclas
Had heard great Caesar's voice unmoved, though he
Shook all the world to fear. Her constancy
And courage had not saved her name, that she
Her place had taken on the cross of Christ
While Mary wept below.
"Too covertly
I will not turn my words. Of poverty
I speak, and Francis. Lovers true were they,
As you shall hear it in plain speech. No less
Through loss of years became their tenderness,
Their joyous converse, and their amorous play.
Still in their cloudless harmony they found
Wonder and love to sacred thoughts that led,
Till others who their concord joys beheld
In such exceeding peace would find their share.
"For that the venerable Bernard shed
His hindering sandals, ran, and thought too slow
His speediest pace. Oh wealth neglected! Ground
Untilled though fertile! Now Egidius
Unsandals: now Sylvester. Following so
This bride who gives her spouse such dear delight.
"So, with his bride, the Master led the way,
Father to those the humble cord who wore.
He did not face the world abased of brow
That he was Bernardone's heir, and now
Despised and fallen to estate so low,
But kingly he disclosed to Innocent
His heart's firm purpose, and from him received
His Order's earliest license. After that,
As those poor folk became more numerous
Who on the same bare path he opened went,
Then was a second crown conferred on him,
Whose life, for earthly praise too marvellous,
In Heaven's high glory is more fitly sung,
His Order being by Honorius
Confirmed and honoured. Challenging martyrdom,
Thereafter at the Soldan's court he preached
Of Christ, and those who serve Him. Finding naught
Of fertile ground in that proud infidel court,
He stayed not vainly, but returned, and tilled
A better crop upon Italian ground.
"Then on the barren windswept rock which lies
Between the Tiber and the Arno, he
Received from Christ the ultimate sign he bore
Upon his limbs the last two years that filled
His earthly record. When that Heavenly Power,
Who for such simpleness his life had willed,
Called him to rise to the eternal dower,
Which height he had deserved by lowliness,
Then to his brethren, as his rightful heirs,
His lady he commended, that no less
Than he had served her they should serve her too,
And constant as himself her will should do,
And love her, as he loved her, faithfully.
"And after that from her dear breast his head
He lifted, rising to a realm more fit.
Yet of his earthly body still would he
Continue constant to the dame he wed,
Unclad, uncoffined, barely leaving it
To the bare earth that bore it.
"Think you now
What worth was in that other, who could be
Colleague to him, to steer a portward barque
Steadfast across the deep and lonely sea
To Peter's sign. Such was our patriarch.
Wherefore who followed him obediently
Is cargoed with good wares for marketing.
"But now his flock hath grown so lecherous
For other pastures than his choice supplied,
That they must wander in new glades, and thus
The further that they stray the less they bring
Of milk in udders that such journeying,
Before they reach to fold at even, dried.
"Some are there whose fair lives this charge rebut,
Still keeping closely to their Leader's side,
But little cloth it takes their cowls to cut.
"Now if my words have winged a swerveless way,
And if thou hast not failed good heed to pay,
And if thou wilt recall mine argument,
You will observe the plant they prune away;
And will perceive the hard rebuke I meant
To those rebellious sheep, when first I said:
'Good fattening is for those who do not stray.'"
Canto XII.
Even as that blest flame's last word was said,
The sacred millstone of their circle sped
Around us once again, but had not made
Its whirling; cincture once complete before
Another circle zoned it, which the more
Gave motion to its motion: to its song
A song extended: singing that so far
Excelled our own in any music played
From earthly craft's devisings tubular,
Or notes of Muse, or Syren magical,
As is original to reflected light.
As on a sunstruck mist two bows appear
When Here calls her handmaid Iris near,
Curve over curve, in colours equal-bright,
The outer from the inner born, as might
Be Echo's wandering voice, when, love-denied,
To one who would not hear she vainly cried.
- Echo consumed of love as such mists are
When the sun finds them - like the glorious bow
Which bends above the storm, and men foreknow
That flood no more the fertile earth shall mar,
As God with Noah made treaty, so did they,
The flaming sempiternal roses glow;
Their revolutions round us garlanding
In union of duality wherein
Song answered song, and flashing light to light
Was radiant.
Then that dancing festival
Its joyous and benignant circle paused,
Accordant instant as two eyes will blink,
And came a voice from one far light that caused
My motion toward it as the needle swings
Forever constant to its calling star.
He said: "The love which causeth light in me
Its tribute to that other Leader sings
Whose servant hath exalted mine so far.
For meet it is to all eternity
That they whose war was one - his Chief and mine -
Should ever in one blended glory shine.
"For when with laggard steps the ranks of Christ
Behind his standard straggled, timorous, faint,
Ragged and few, bereft of its high-priced
Equipment, hardly to be found anew,
Its everlasting Leader, of His grace,
Not of its worth proved worthless, did review
Its dire condition, and His wisdom gave
Two champions adequate His spouse to save;
And those who heard them speak, who saw them do,
Renewed their broken ranks, and dressed again
Its front of confident war.
"Not far from where
Blows from the sea the gentle western air,
When with fair spring Europa's trees are glad
Returning to the summer life they had
With freshly-opening leaves: not far from where
The interminable waves on the long shore
Roll in, and break, and roll for evermore,
In from that limitless immensity
Where the sun finds no land, but meets the sea,
Lies Calahorra, fortunate, immune,
Sheltered from woe by that sufficient shield
Whereon the lion subdues and then doth yield,
Even there was born that friar faith-amorous,,
That holy athlete, pitiless to his foes,
(Which were Christ's also), but benign to those
Who followed in the faith he taught.
"The boon
Of living virtue was his gift so soon
That ere his birth, Heaven's meaning to express,
His pregnant mother was a prophetess;
And when the espousals at the font had been
Completed, mutual to his faith and him
In bargain of salvation, she who made
Assent on his behalf that night beheld,
In vision when the veil of sense dispelled,
The fruitful star that with his life should rise,
And through his heirs continue.
"So began
His life, and that his spirit should be displayed
Even in construction of his name, a power
From these high regions those who named him led
To call him Dominic, as one possessed
By Him Whom he would serve so utterly,
Being Christ-chosen for the husbandman
To prune the orchard which a negligent hour
Had left profuse and barren. Well did he
Reveal himself to be Christ's messenger,
As Christ's familiar was he shown to be.
For Christ's first counsel, which was poverty,
Was the first love his life made manifest.
And she who nursed would find him where he lay,
In wakeful gravity, as who should say:
'I see for what I came, the destined quest.'
"Oh Father, in good truth Felice named!
O Mother, Giovanna in good truth!
If these high names their first high meanings bear.
Not as men toil to Thaddeus emulate,
Or him of Ostia, for the world's reward,
But with God's manna for a nobler bait
In briefest space of diligence was he
Such able doctor of divinity
That he was fit the vineyard's rows to dress,
Which soon the vinetender's unthriftiness
Will cause to droop discoloured.
"To that seat,
Once more benignant to the faithful poor
- Not in itself debased, but only in him
Who sitteth on it, being degenerate -
He made petition, not for leave to skim
Rich cream from God's donations, four from eight,
Nor for preferment at a vacancy,
Nor that he might himself the tithes retain
Meant for relief of innocent poverty,
But for full license was his only plea
Against the heretic world to strive, and gain
Such harvest from the holy seed as here
In four-and-twenty plants surrounds you now.
"Then, with sound doctrine and strong purpose wed,
Armed with the apostolic right, he led,
Torrential as from some deep artery
The life-stream leaps; and in this outrage smote
The ugly stumps of heresy, fiercest where
They made most gross projection.
"Thence there spread
The diverse streamlets of the faith that fed
The Catholic orchard, giving leafage fair
And more abundant blossom.
"Such was he;
And by the chariot's one wheel wherein
The Holy Church her civil strife did win
May well be judged that other's excellence,
Of whom did Thomas with such courtesy
Inform you first. But no continuance
That chariot's circles show. Its topmost track
So long unused that no man heeds the lack
Of good wheel-surface to soft mould declined.
His should-be followers, who were vowed to tread
Their Master's footsteps, now have turned them back
So that the toe-mark in the heel you find.
And soon shall be revealed at harvesting
The fruits of evil culture, when the tare
Wails at wain-loading that it is not there.
"I say with confidence no leaf of all
Our volume now the closest search should find
To bear the boast of that obedience
Which neither runs in front nor lags behind.
Not Acquasparta nor Casale see
The light true-shining. In one place is he
Who binds too loosely, in the other, one
Who draws the cord too tightly.
"I was named
Bonaventura - Bagnoregio
My place of dwelling - through my life I aimed
To rank the high things high, the low things low.
Illuminato and Augustine here
Beside me shine; among the first unshod
The lowly cord allowed them friends to God.
Hugh of St. Victor with these lights appear
And Peter Mangiadore. Ispano
Is here, who in twelve books taught truth below;
Nathan the seer; the metropolitan
Chrysostom; Anselm; and Donatus, who
Deigned to the art of words his hand to set;
Rabanus is here; and the Calabrian,
Joachim shining at my side, who knew
The art of prophecy."
To rivalling speech
I stirred at Thoma's discreet discourse,
And at his kindled courtesy, the debt
To cancel of so great a paladin;
And with approval of my purpose each
Stirred also of this goodly company.
Canto XIII.
Let him who that great sight I saw would see
Hold in firm mind this glorious imagery:
From those night-scattered stars whose rays intense
Pierce the dense air to reach our mortal sense
Most brightly, take fifteen, and add to them
The seven of that perpetual diadem
Which doth not fail by night, nor yet by day,
To circle round our heaven the wain-pole's way:
Let him with these include the further two
Which are the horn's mouth of the axle bar
Protruding from that ever-central star
Round which the circling heavens eternal wheel.
Imagine then these splendid stars displayed
In two such crowns as Ariadne made
When cold death crept around her. Let them lie
On the vast blackness of an emptied sky,
Crown within crown contained, and let them spin,
The one without following the one within,
And he shall have in vision that I relate,
The dazzle of lights, the dancing duplicate,
Of which ourselves were central.
Yet more far
Beyond our use those heavenly dances are
Than would Chiana's swamp-impeded stream
Beside the eternal revolutions seem.
And so they sang, beyond our mortal wit,
Not Bacchus' praise, but far exceeding it,
Or Poean of triumph, the high unity
Of Three that are in One, and One in Three;
And how in Christ our mortal nature knew
The different unity of One in Two.
The song, and with the song the dance, were done,
And where they paused those holy Lights as one
Turned their regards in new felicity
Toward us; change with them could no way be
Disturbance of their absolute harmony.
And then that Light who had instructed me
Of him whose admirable life displayed
The poverty God approves, resumed discourse:
"Now that one sheaf is threshed, and storage made
Of its good seed, constrained by love's sweet force,
I thresh the second for thy gain. Within
Thy breast is that from which the rib was rent
Which all men seek to kiss, and all repent
The greed of those dear lips that doled them sin;
And there is that moreover into which
The lance was thrust which by its entrance gave
Full recompense for all iniquity
Past or to come; and all you are or have,
All that in Adam or in Christ became,
Was by the Ultimate Worth impregnated,
Which gave to each of these a human name.
And thinking this you wonder that I said
No other mortal to such wisdom rose
As the fifth light that now our circle knows.
"Yet heed, and you shall hear how these things be,
And look with open eyes, and you shall see
The very centre of the target struck.
"For all that dies, and all that doth not die,
Are but reflected splendour. The Most High
His own Idea through loving doth beget
Upon the material universe. That Light
Which issueth from its Source Divine, and yet
Remains unsevered therefrom, and equally
Unsevered from that Love which maketh Three,
Doth by the strength of Its benignity
Form the nine heavens, eternal, infinite,
As light refracted from its outward glow;
And through creative acts descendeth so
To those of mere contingent brevity,
Seed-born or seedless, not of one content,
For various on the wax the die's descent
Imprinteth, heavy or light, and variously
The rich bough hangs, or stand a fruitless tree;
And each man differs in his own degree
From all his fellows.
"Were the wax exact,
And the High Virtue in Its primal act
Of one supremacy, the signet sign
Were always equal, perfect and divine.
But Nature through its myriad faults reveals
Such craft as half displays and half conceals
That which divine imagination planned
As might an artist with a trembling hand.
"Yet should the Vision Divine, the Primal Power,
Select the flawless wax, the flawless hour,
Then by warm Love were Nature perfected.
"Thus one time was mere earth made fit to fruit
In animal perfection absolute,
And then the Virgin was impregnated.
"So my conclusions with your doubt agree.
No man hath ever been and none shall be
To equal Adam or Christ. If here I stay
My course, again your wildered mind will say:
'How then was Solomon without a peer?'
But from your intellect the cloud to clear
Consider at what cause, and who was he,
Who heard the voice say: "Choose," and asked for wit,
And what the use he aimed to make of it.
"For kingly use, he made a king's request
That of all rulers he might rule the best.
To ask that wisdom to his mind be sent
Direct from Heaven by things inconsequent,
Or, at such need, of mere futility,
He did not purpose. Not so foolish he,
Nor yet so arrogant. He did not claim
To know each heavenly hierarch's rank and name;
Nor the logician's subtleties, to prove
Fault of deduction; nor that One must move
Who is Himself unmotioned; nor to try
Abstruser problems of geometry;
But for his boon he asked one excellence,
The wisdom for just rule, the prudent sense
Which so few kings possess, and all require.
"Such wisdom was his prayer; not all entire,
Which was the portion of our primal sire;
Nor that, unbounded, of our First Delight.
"So be this thought as lead, the feet to stay
From hasting to conclusion, yes, or nay,
Which doth not pause the separate cause to weigh.
Fool, and low down amongst all fools, is he
Who with too great impetuosity,
Concludes without examinations guide,
And, having chosen, through conceit and pride,
Maintains a false position. Foiled the more
Is he, than one who hath not left the shore,
Who fishes for the fact, and lacks the skill
To land it. Such in older time were these:
Meliso, Brisso, and Parmenides.
And those who stumbled with no certain will
No certain way behind them. Foolish thus
Were both Sabellius and Arius,
And others of their like whose wayward thoughts
Turned scriptural truth as polished steel distorts,
Making grotesque the seemly countenance.
"Men should not judge too swiftly, nor essay
Belief too lightly confident, as they
Who reap the harvest while the crops advance
To the green ear as yet unfilled. Hast seen
How when the winter thorn forgets its green
Harsh and malignant is the front it shows?
Yet to the summer winds it flaunts the rose.
Hast seen a ship her long lone transit steer,
Secure, fair-winded from the gentle south,
Swift and direct until her port is near,
Hopeless to founder at the harbour-mouth?
"Let not the ignorant crowd too soon declare,
Seeing one steal, and one oblation yield,
That here is hell, or God's salvation there.
Be slow to judge the event, for after all
Who fell may rise renewed, who rose may fall;
Heaven's final purpose may be long concealed."
Canto XIV.
Outward from centre to circumference
May the still water in a bowl vibrate,
Or inward to the centre, as we smite
Without it or within. This thought was mine
The transit of discourse to illustrate,
As Thomas' glorious spirit ceased, and she
Beatrice, in her turn to speak for me
Was gracious.
"In this man a need," she said,
"Is yet unspoken, nor his thought hath made
Discovery to you or himself, to track
Another problem to its root. Reveal,
I pray thee, if those lights which now conceal
Your incorporeal spirits will remain
Around you when you resurrected gain
New visible bodies; and how, if that shall be,
So robed, you either shall be seen or see?"
As, when the festive dance will faster wheel,
And those who are and own its motions feel
The sword-play of desire in thrust and draw,
And louder-voiced and gladder-miened therefor
By their own acts augment their ecstasy,
So did those holy circles pulse and stir,
Hearing that eager heavenly voice of her,
To livelier joyance and more heavenly song.
Whoso laments that we to death belong
Knows not the nature of the eternal rain
That life refreshes to new heights of bliss.
The One, the Two, the Three, Who constant reign
In Three, in Two, in One, to all contain,
Not circumscribed but circumscribing all,
Three times by each, and in such melody,
Were hymned, that none could earn such worth but this
Were fuller payment than his claim might call.
Then did that kingly light most luminous
Within the smaller circle answer thus,
In such low voice as scarce the silence broke,
As when the Angel unto Mary spoke:
"So long as Paradise holds festival,
Waiting the resurrection hour, we shall,
To our love's measure, separately bring
This light about us for our garmenting.
As is our ardour shall its brightness be,
And as its brightness is our grace to see
Far out and high, by Heaven's benign decree.
"But when new bodies, glorious, sanctified,
Are ours, within these globes they shall not hide,
Nor shall they lose them. The new flesh will be
Dowered with continual light its God to see,
Being at last complete and excellent.
That light the vision will of God augment,
And that the ardour, and from that the ray
Will brighten everlastingly. For so,
As through the fire a flaming coal will glow
Accomplishing its visibility
Even through the flames which garb it, so shall we,
In reassertion of the flesh that lay
So long corrupt - that lieth thus today -
Being for its ultimate purpose perfected,
Rule in the light around us, which shall be
Frustrate of all frustration."
Answered then
From the two circles such a swift Amen,
And one so eager in its tone, I knew,
Even in that bliss, they thirsted to renew
Their mortal bodies, not perhaps alone
For physical joys, but that again were known
Parents, and those most dear, in days before
They thus were clothed in Sempiternal flame.
Then, as they cried, a further brilliance came,
Faint at the first, as comes at evenfall
Change in the sky, and then, uncertainty,
Expected glories, which we think we see,
But doubt our vision till the night is all.
As though a dim horizon gradual glowed
Around its full circumference, there showed
An outer, larger circle. O Divine
Spiritual Breath! These human eyes of mine
Sank baffled. Then Beatrice showed to me
Herself, in loveliness that memory
Remembers only that it may not be
In earthly memory held. Such strength she gave
I raised again mine eyes that light to brave,
And in that moment I became aware
No longer with those circling souls we were;
But with my Lady alone, the planet Mars,
That is the reddest star of all the stars,
And now seemed redder than I erst beheld,
I reached, and more exalted heights. Thereat
With all my heart I made burnt sacrifice
Of praises in the tongue that all men know.
And scarce that prayer had worded birth before
I knew it to be received in Heaven, for lo!
Such splendours opened to my sight, and so
My sight sustained them, that aloud I cried:
"Oh, God, Who in these rays art glorified!"
As, stretched from pole to pole, the Milky Way
Gleams through its studded stars, till even they,
The greatest sages, in confusion say
Its depths of light have meaning dubious,
So on the ruddy shield of Mars I saw
The venerable sign of Christian war
Set with innumerable stars, but white
With offering of its own exceeding light,
Which flashed assertion of Christ in sort wherefor
I lack device of earthly metaphor,
So that as memory turns, regarding it,
Such memory doth outreach my human wit.
But whoso for himself that Cross will bear,
And in his season shall behold it there,
May yet excuse me all I leave unsaid.
From arm to arm, from crest to base, thereon
There moved innumerable specks of light,
As the cool darkness men in daylight make
May be transthrust by one invading ray,
Wherein the motes unnumbered whirl and play.
So in continual interchange did they
Motelike their interlacing dances break
And join and alter. Crossing swift or slow,
From short to long, the specks unnumbered go.
And as sweet music turned to harmony
Of many cords of viol or harp may chime
Sweetly to one who doth not understand
The notes they render, so a strain sublime
Entranced me from those myriad notes, although
I could not follow their triumphant hymn.
Yet something of the glorious strain I knew,
For ever came the theme its accents through:
Arise and vanquish! Not these heights divine
Had brought me yet to such exceeding bliss
As now enchanted. Do I seem in this
To deprecate the joy that most was mine
Gazing on those fair eyes that gave me rest?
Do I exalt too loud inferior bliss?
No; for as yet I had not seen the best.
He whom my words confuse may think on this:
The lovelier draping gives more loveliness
To that which is most lovely. (I accuse
To make mine excusation). When I say
This bliss was greatest on mine upward way
I do not in those words contrast the sheen
Of dear sweet eyes I had not wholly seen,
And which, with each ascent from sin's alloy,
Shone with more beauty, and with holier joy.
Canto XV.
That love which the divine, benignant Will
Doth like sweet perfume through all space distil
(As will malign distils cupidity)
Silenced the music of the mighty lyre
Which the right hand of Heaven had struck to fire,
Fingering the strings of its high harmony.
How shall the prayer of human righteousness
Beat a closed gate, if these high beings agreed
Such silence merely to subserve my need?
Well may interminable grief be his
Who doth for love of mutable things digress,
And thus himself divest eternally
Of such high love as here was shown to me.
How for unlimited loss should grief be less?
For endless dole should lamentation end?
For hell's offence to cease would all offend.
As down the tranquil night's unclouded sky
A light may dart and draw the following eye,
As though some star its station changed (yet not
Leaving a vacant place among the stars,
Nor where it goes itself establishing),
So from its place upon that cross there shot
A star toward me, yet which did not leave
The cross's foot, but, gem to, scarf, thereon
Like glowing fire in alabaster shone.
Only my Master give comparison,
Telling of how Anchises found his son
In the Elysian fields, such tenderness
Was in the voice I heard: "Oh, grace divine
That thee baptizeth! Oh, descendent mine!
To whom was ever twice, as unto thee,
Heaven's gate unclosed?"
Such words attention drew;
Yet at my lady here I looked, and knew
A double wonder, for so bright her eyes
That here it seemed I saw profundity
Both of my grace and of my Paradise.
And then, that sight and hearing both were rapt,
The spirit's voice continued. What he said
At first I knew not. Not that he designed
To speak beyond me, but my mind, inapt
To grasp the eternal, faltered to construe
Thoughts that our mortal target overshot.
But when the bow of ardent love declined
To strike my level, these the words I knew:
"Be thine my blessings, Sacred Trinity,
Who to my seed hast shown such courtesy!"
And then: "A long-felt hunger, deep and dear,
Drawn from that sacred page which none may blot,
Had brought thee hither, and thou feedest here,
Bathed in this plenitude of light divine
From which I greet thee. That loved guide of thine
Well mayst thou thank, who gave thee wings to rise
Above the common bound of earthly skies.
"Thou deemest that to me thy thought hath way
Speechless, as from the monad rightly ray
The pentad and the hexad. Hence thy tongue
Enquires not why, these festive throngs among,
I seem most jubilant, or whom I be.
So, truly, it is. In this lucidity
We all, the greatest to the least, can see
Thy mirrored thought before it shapes in thee.
But, that love's dictates be the more obeyed,
And my foreseeing watch the more repaid,
Raise thou thy voice in Heaven, serene, secure,
Undaunted to demand decreed reply."
I met Beatrice's eyes, and they to me
Gave signal of assent, and amorously
I answered: "Equal from the glorious hour
Of thine ascension must have been in thee
Affection and perception, for the Sun
Which warms you and enlightens hath Its power
Of heat and brightness poised so equally
That in our human speech all simile
Must fail to reach it. But mortality,
For reasons which to you I need not say,
Spreads poorer wings, and less adept to soar,
Having emotion or perception more
Feathered for flight, or less. And therefore I,
Being mortal still, and having here no less
Infirmity of that unequalness,
With my heart only give thee glad reply.
"But further I entreat thee, as I may,
Live topaz that thou art, who dost begem
This sacred emblem of Christ's conquering,
That thou appease me with thine earthly name."
"Oh, leaf who from my root ancestral came,"
He answered, "thou for whose appearance here
I watched, delighting in this hour foreseen,
I give thee answer glad. Four mortal lives
Divide thee from me. He from whom derives
Thy house's name was honoured son to me.
Around the Mount a hundred years hath he
Trod the first Terrace. Very meet it is
That thy good works make sacrifice for his
Continued torment, and reduce.
"Oh, far
Fair vision of Florence that my mind contains!
Oh, bartered chastity for meaner gains!
Oh, sober peace of that walled girth where still
Tierce and nones from the same belfry sound!
Fair necks were there which no rich necklets wound:
Fair heads no flaunting coronets that wore.
No dames so girdled that their zones were more
To memory than themselves. No daughter's birth
Distressed the father, who with sharp dismay
Forethought of dowry, and the wasteful day,
Unmeasured in its prodigality,
Of riotous nuptials; wedding and dowry's worth
Were held in reason's bounds, nor this too soon,
Nor that too monstrous in amount. There stood
No mansions empty while their owners went
Exiled because their deeds were excellent.
No chambers yet where Sardanapalus
Luxurious ruled. Not Montemalo then
Less than Uccellatoio was contemned.
(The more the height the more the fall shall be.)
Bellincion Berti have I seen to go
Belted with leather and bone, and soberly
His dame her mirror leave with paintless face.
Of Nerlo he, and he of Vecchio,
Oft have I seen in leather jerkin clad,
And naught above it, while their dames would sit
At flax and spindle.
"Happier days they had
Who did not doubt in their own land to die;
Who did not fear in lonely beds to lie
For France's calling of their lords; who bent
Above the cradle, soothing words to say
In that love-language parents please; who drew
Threads from the distaff while they told anew
Tales of the Trojan wars, and Filsole,
And Roman triumphs. Della Tosa then,
Or Salterello, had a marvel been
Such as Cornelia would be counted now
Or! Cincinnatus. To such life serene,
So gravely ordered, so desirable,
So stablished in its civic faith, so fair
In sweetness of its domesticity,
I passed the portal of life by Mary's grace,
In bitterness of birth-pangs called, my name
Was Cacciaguida. Your old Baptistry
So, with the boon of Christianity,
Confirmed it. Brothers of my blood were they,
Moronto and Eliseo. There came
From Pado's valley she I wed, from whom
Thy name derives. I served so valiantly
The Emperor Conrad in his wars, that he
The grace of knighthood gave. I marched with him
Against that power which holds the sacred tomb,
Our heritage, captive, to the infamy
Of those whose spiritual rule neglects
So great a purpose. In that land I fell;
Martyred by the iniquitous infidel
From the false world where hosts in bondage lie,
Not favoured by such fair release as I."
Canto XVI.
Oh, paltry honour-boast of human blood!
I will not marvel more that here below
Amid degraded passions, men should show
Pride in so poor a claim. For surely I,
Though loftier stationed in that purer sky,
Where is no baseness of desire, was stirred
To pleasure as that high descent I heard.
Yet may we price too high a failing dower,
A shrinking mantle of renown. Behold,
Time with his shears goes round it, hour by hour!
With that imperial ye which first was heard
In Rome's high courts, but now is least the word
That city uses, I began; whereat
Beatrice, standing some short space away,
Smiled in a manner which recalled to me
How coughed that lady who was first to hear
The fond imprudences of Guinevere.
"Ye are my father, ye exalt me so
Beyond my level, that bold heart I know
To question my desire; from streams so wide,
So various, is my kindled mind supplied
That were it sent thereby to overflow
Its natural bounds, by simple joy's excess,
I could not marvel.
"Dear progenitor,
Tell me, I pray thee, of thine ancestry,
And in your boyhood what events prevailed
Around you in the sheep fold of St. John,
Our mutual city; how it then was hailed;
What were its loftiest seats; and who thereon
Most worthily sate."
A living coal will glow
More brightly as the winds about it blow.
So did that topaz by my words caressed.
And as it brightened, in sweet voice and low,
In the old dialect of his time, he said:
"From that fair day which Ave heard, to when
My mother, sainted now, my burden cast,
Made this strong star its revolution red
Five hundred times and eighty, to renew
Its fervour where the lion is overhead
My fathers and myself in childhood knew
That street where they the yearly race who run
Reach the last Sesto. Of their periods past,
Of whom my fathers were, and whence they came,
Silence is seemlier than more to say.
But in our city in my youthful day
From bound to bound, from Mars upon the bridge
To the north wall where lies the baptistry,
There was but one man fit the sword to bear
For five now living. But what men they were!
The humblest craftsmen to the noblest line,
Each had the pure blood of the Florentine,
Not then debased from Campi's peasantry,
Nor from Certaldo, nor from Figghine.
Better by far had these as neighbours dwelt
Beside you but apart; Galluzzo still,
And Trespiano still your boundaries,
Rather than that Aguglion's hind should stench
Your streets, or he of Signa, equally
Rooting for some base chance of barratry,
"Had that high priesthood now degenerate
Been as a mother to her child benign,
Rather than Caesar's stepmother, why then,
One who is now a bartering Florentine
Had been to Simifonti sent, the where
His grandfather was once a mendicant.
"Then Montemurlo in the Contis' care
Would still remain; and still in Acone
The Cerchi dwell; and still perchance would be
In Valdigrieve, by good augury,
The Buondelmonti. All our City's woes
Spring from the mingling of its blood with those
Who crowded inward, as men gorge until
Excess of feeding brings the body's ill.
"A blind bull stumbleth to its fall, the while
A blind lamb moves uninjured. Oft we see
One sword is deadlier than five would be.
Luni regard and Urbisaglia,
High walls now ruined! Sinigaglia
Goes the same downward way: Chiusi too.
It does not seem a doubtful word or new
That noble households should themselves undo,
Since even cities like men's lives decay.
"All edifice, endeavour, enterprise,
That lifts in hope, in time's long darkness lies
A fallen loss; although its sure regress
May pass unnoted if men's lives be less.
"And as the moonled tides forevermore
Flood and lay bare, lay bare and flood, the shore,
So over Florence move the tides of time,
Ruining, exalting, base or else sublime;
So where the wonder, if the names I say
Of noble houses are no more today
High boast's occasion? I have seen decay
The Ughi; even the Catallini fall;
The Greci glory, and the Filippi,
The Alberichi, and the Ormani
Their ancient greatness lose. As proved as they,
What name hath he of Arca now? What name
He of Sannella? What of place or fame
Soldanieri or Ardinghi now,
Or the Bostichi holds?
"Above the gate
Which now the Cherchi with such evil weight
As may to wreckage steer the barque of state,
The Ravignani dwelt. Count Guy can claim
Descent from them, and who hath since assumed
Himself the high Bellincione's name.
"The Della Pressa then the art of rule
Had practised. Stablished in his mansion, gilt
Already was Galigaio's dagger's hilt.
"Already regnant were the arms of Vair,
And those Saachetti and Barucci bear;
Fifanti and Giuochi ruled as now;
And Galli; and that house who blush with shame
For the false measure, at a bushel's name.
"Already rooted was that stock from which
Branched the Calfucci; and in curule place
Sizii and Arrigucci. Oh, what pride
Have I seen its own fortune override
To opposite ruin! While the golden balls
Wore Florence in her haughty festivals,
Their fathers, fattening on the vacant see,
Fed grossly in the seized consistory.
"Already rose the monstrous tribe of those
Who are as dragons to their weaker foes,
But lambs to such as teeth will bare, or use
The purse's argument. From such base stock
They came that little pleasure was the word
To Ubertin Donato when he heard
Berti a bride would from his daughters give,
So that himself became their relative.
"Already Caponsacco from the rock
Of Fiesole had sought the market-place.
Already Infangato's name was high
For civic virtue, and Giuda's nigh
Of equal honour. This which next I tell
Is truth, though it be near incredible.
The ancient gate which in its time alone
Gave access to the city's central zone
Was from the Della Pera named. All they
Who that great baron's arms are bold to bear
Who still is honoured on St. Thomas' day
Do well to vaunt the worth of whose decrees
Stablished their knighthoods and their dignities;
Though he who those proud arms in gold contains
Is now the champion of the people's claims.
"Already were the Importuni known,
And the Gualterotti's worth was shown
Though still was Borgo held a quiet spot,
Neighboured by those so new it knew them not.
"The house from which your desolation came,
Buondelmonte! Through resentment just
That cut so short your joyous youth, was held
Even then in honour, and its potent name
Was it's adherents' covering shield. How ill
For thee, for all, thy failure to fulfil
Thy plighted nuptials! Light of heart had been
So many who are sunk in sadness now,
Had God's discerning mercy caused thee find
The Ema the first time you rode the bridge.
Yet was it seemly that the deed of woe
Which closed our city's peace was wrought below
The mutilated stone of Mars.
"But I
Saw Florence with these noble folk I named,
And others kindred, in sure peace, untorn
By faction, with no dark corruption shamed,
No cause for lamentation, not forlorn
For vengeful murders: saw its people just
And glorious. Not was then the lily on
Her crest by fractious arrogance reversed;
Nor its white ground become vermilion."
Canto XVII.
As when Phaeton came to Clymena
To end his doubting - he whose fatal zest
Still makes a father to a son's request
Slow-yielding - such was I, as both could see
Beatrice, and the holy shining star
Which from its glorious height had sunk so far
To greet me. Wherefore said she: "Loose the heat
Of yearning from thy lips, as in thy mind
It forms. It is not that thy thoughts defeat
Our swift perception; but that thou shalt find
The words that shape it."
"Oh, dear soil, "I said,
"Wherein my roots strike downward! Thou, so far
Exalted that, as simple problems are
Of angles to the earthly mind, so thou,
To whom all place is here, all time is now,
Canst see the coming of contingency.
Even before the unborn event may be,
Thou hast the sight to tell me! When I went
With Virgil through those pits where shades lament,
And round the Mount of Healing, everywhere
I met with warnings of great woes, to bear
My last days downward. Not my fortitude
Would prove unequal were these evils viewed
In a clear light approaching. Less the plight
Of him who sees the arrows nearing flight."
Thus spoke I, as Beatrice willed, to him,
That topas-light, whom never cloud should dim
Again from the eternal clarity.
And from unclouded vision answered he,
Not as, before the lamb of God was slain,
Dark words hid Wisdom where men searched in vain,
But in precise particularity
That love ancestral answered, with a smile
Concealing and revealing: "Left and right
A scene extends, beyond the bounded sight
One sees within the mirror. So to me
Stretches the long-dead past's immensity,
And so the future in clear sight extends.
Not therefore must you call contingency
Predestined more than is the ship that lends
Its moving shadow to the stream.
"Therefrom,
As cometh to the ear soft harmony
An organ utters, cometh sight to me
Of that thy later days will meet. As once
Phaedra from Athens drove Hippolytus
With spiteful perfidy, such falsehood thus
Will cut thee off from Florence. So today
He wills, he plots, he will not long delay
To act, who pondereth in that place where Christ
Is sold without cessation. First the shame
Must fall, as always, on the offended name,
But vengeance later shall the truth assert
Which arms and drives it. All you own and know
Most loved to lose as from your home you go
Shall be the first keen shaft of exile's bow.
To taste the saltness of the stranger's bread,
The hardness of the stranger's stairs to tread,
Shall vex thee next; but more thy shame shall be
In that malign and vicious company
With which thou art consorted. Ingrates all
They shall contemn thee, they revile, but yet
It is their eyes, not thine, at last shall fall;
It is their cheeks shall redden. They shall be
Self-demonstrators of their infamy,
So that thy fame shall be more surely set
Who hast for party but thyself.
"At first,
In that great Lombard who the bird of God
Bears on the ladder, shalt thine exile find
Host and protector; to thyself inclined
In such affinity that between you two
All which are most men loth to ask or do
Shall readiest prove. Attending at his court,
One shalt thou meet so young that small report
His deeds have earned, although his warlike star
So ruled his birth that it shall lead him far
In notable deeds. Nine only times as yet
Its revolution in the eternal wheel
Hath watched his growth. But ere the Gascon guile