text:
Masterpieces of
World Literature
Masterpieces of
World Literature
Dante Alighieri
Andrea del Castagno
Mural of Dante in the Uffizi Gallery
c. 1450.
Dante Alighieri
Andrea del Castagno
Mural of Dante in the Uffizi Gallery
c. 1450.
see also:
Dante Alighieri "The
Divine Comedy"
(Illustrations by G.
Dore, W. Blake, S. Dali)
(Illustrations by
see also:
Dante Alighieri "The
Divine Comedy"
(Illustrations by G.
Dore, W. Blake, S. Dali)
(Illustrations by
The Divine Comedy
Translated by
James Finn Cotter
The Divine Comedy
Translated by
James Finn Cotter
Canto I
The glory of
Him who sets all things in motion
through the universe, and it flames again
In different
places with a different force.
I have been to
that heaven where His light
Beams brightest and seen things that none,
Has the
knowledge or the power to repeat,
Because, as it
draws near to its desire,
Our intellect
sinks down to such a depth
That memory
cannot trace its way back there.
Nevertheless, whatever I could treasure
Up in my mind
about that sacred kingdom
Shall now
become the subject of my song.
O good Apollo,
for this final task,
Make me such a
vessel of your virtues
I may deserve the gift of your dear laurel.
So far, one
summit of Parnassus was
Enough for me,
but now I need both peaks
On entering
the arena that remains.
Come into my
breast and breathe in me
As you did when you drew Marsyas out
From the
sheath of his own living flesh.
O divine
power, but lend yourself to me
So I may show
the shadow of that blessed
Kingdom which
is embedded in my brain,
You�ll see me come to your beloved tree,
And crown me
then with those same laurel leaves
Of which this
theme and you shall make me worthy.
So few times,
father, is any laurel gathered
For the
triumph of a caesar or a poet �
Through sin and shame of human willfulness �
That the
Peneian branch should sprout deep joy
To the
rejoicing Delphic deity
When it
inspires anyone with longing.
A little spark
is followed by huge fires:
Perhaps, after me, prayers will be so raised
With stronger
voices that Cyrrha may respond.
The lamp of
the universe rises for mortals
various passages, but from that point
Which joins
four circles with three crosses
It comes out on a more propitious course,
With happier
stars to temper and seal tight
The wax of the
world more molded to its imprint.
Almost at this
outset day had broken there
And evening
here, and all that hemisphere
Was whitening while this other side grew dark,
When I saw
Beatrice turned to her left hand
And looking
straight into the sun: never
Had an eagle
so fixed his sight upon it!
And as a
second ray will break out from
The reflection of the first and soar up again,
Just like a
pilgrim yearning to return,
So by her
action, streaming through my eyes
Into my
imagination, my act took shape:
Past mortal
might my eyes stared at the sun.
Much is permitted to our faculties there
That�s not
permitted here, thanks to the place
Made for the
human race as its true dwelling.
I did not long
endure it, yet not so brief
But that I
noticed sparks blaze all about,
Like iron brought out molten from the forge.
And at once it
seemed that day was added to
The day, as if
He who has the power to do so
Had decked the
heavens with another sun.
Beatrice stood
with her eyes riveted
Wholly on the eternal spheres, while I
Fixed my eyes,
drawn from the sky, on hers.
So gazing on
her I inwardly became
Like Glaucus
when he tasted of the grass
Which made him
consort of the other sea-gods.
This passing-beyond-the human cannot be
Expressed in
words; let the example then
Serve him to
whom grace grants the experience.
If I were only
that soul in me which you
Created last,
O Love that rules the heavens,
You know, who lifted me up with your light.
When that
revolving, which you make unending
By longing for
you, captured my attention
With the
harmony you tune and modulate,
So much of
heaven then seemed to me aflame
With fire from the sun that rain or river
Never formed a
lake that spread so wide.
strangeness of the sound and the bright light
Inflamed in me
an ardor to know their cause,
Sharper than I
had ever felt before.
Then she, who saw me as I see myself,
To still my
agitated mind, opened
Her lips
before I opened mine to ask,
And she began,
"You make yourself so dull
With false
imaginings that you don�t notice
What you would see if you could shake them off.
"You are not
now on earth, as you believe;
But lightning,
fleeing its place on high, never
faster than you rise up to yours."
If I was
stripped of my first puzzlement
By these brief words which she flashed by her smile,
I now grew
more entangled with new doubts,
And I said,
"You have set my mind at rest
On one deep
wonder, but now I wonder how
I here can
pass up through these airy bodies."
After a sigh of pity at these words,
She turned her
eyes toward me with the look
A mother might
give to a delirious child,
And she began,
"All things that are have order
themselves, and it is this their form
That makes the universe a mirror of God.
"In this the
higher creatures see the stamp
Of the eternal
power, which is the goal
For which the
rule I mentioned has been made.
"In the order
that I describe, all natures
Arrange themselves by different destinations,
In varying
nearness to their single Source.
"This is the
cause they move to different harbors
On the great
sea of being, and each one
Has instinct
given it to bear it on.
"This one draws fire upward toward the moon,
This is the
force that moves in mortal hearts,
This binds the
earth together and makes it one.
"This bow
shoots at the mark not only for
Created things
that lack intelligence
But for those who have intellect and love.
Providence that sets all this in order
With its light
makes that heaven always still
Within which
whirls the fastest-moving sphere,
"And to it
now, as to a destined spot,
The power of that bowstring bears us on,
Aiming what it
propels at a glad target.
"It is true
that as the form all too often
Does not
respond to the intent of art,
Since the
material is deaf to summons,
"So sometimes the creature wanders from its course,
For even
though impelled toward the target,
It has the
power to swerve some other way
"(Just as fire
from a cloud can be observed
To fall
downward), if its first impulse,
Lured by false pleasure, bend it to the earth.
"If I judge
rightly, you should no more marvel
At your ascent
than at a stream that falls
From the top
of a mountain to the bottom.
"The wonder
would be if, when freed of hindrance,
You should have settled down and stayed below,
As though a
live flame on the earth kept still."
With that she
turned her gaze once more to heaven.
Canto II
O you who are
seated in your little skiffs,
Zealous to
listen, following in the wake
Behind my ship
that singing plows her way,
Turn back to
look again on your own shores:
Don�t put out on the high seas, for, perhaps,
In losing me
you may run far adrift!
The flood I
take was never coursed before.
Minerva blows,
Apollo pilots me,
And the nine
Muses point me out the Bears.
You other few who stretched your necks on high
In time to
taste the bread of angels which
People here
feed on, but never have their fill,
You well may
put your boat out on the deep
By staying in
the furrow of my wake
Before the water flows back smooth again.
Those glorious
men who sailed the sea to Colchis,
When they saw
Jason turned into a plowman,
Were not as
thunderstruck as you shall be.
The inborn,
boundless thirst for that kingdom
Created in God�s image swept us onward
Almost as
swiftly as the skies you see.
Beatrice gazed
upward and I gazed on her;
And in the
time perhaps it takes an arrow
To strike the
bull�s-eye, fly, and leave the bow,
I saw myself arrived at a thing of wonder
Which drew my
sight to it, and therefore she
From whom my
close concerns could not be hidden
Turned toward
me, as glad as she was lovely,
And said,
"Direct your mind with thanks to God
Who here has made us one with the first star."
I thought we
were enveloped in a cloud,
solid, dense, and highly polished
As a diamond
struck by the sun would be.
The timeless
pearl took us inside itself
In the same way that water can receive
A ray of light
while it remains intact.
If I was body
(and here we can�t conceive
How one
dimension can contain another,
Which has to
be when body enters body),
All the more should longing then inflame us
To see that
Essence in which we may see
How our own
nature and God join in one.
There shall be
seen what we now hold by faith:
Not proven to
us, but known on its own,
Like the first truths believed by human beings.
I answered,
"My lady, with the best devotion
That I can
summon, I here give thanks to Him
Who has raised
me up out of the mortal world.
"But tell me
what those dark traces are
Upon this body, which down there on earth
Cause people
to tell stories about Cain?"
She smiled a
little, and then said to me,
"If the
opinion of men errs in matters
Which the key
of our senses won�t unlock,
"Surely wonder�s arrows should not pierce you
From this
point on, since even when you follow
The senses,
you see that reason�s wings fall short.
"But tell me
what you think to be the cause?"
And I: "What
differences here appear to us
I think result from rare and denser bodies."
And she:
"Surely you�ll see that your thinking
Is sunk in
falsehood, if you listen well
To the
argument that I shall give against it.
"The eighth
sphere shows to you a myriad
Of lights which by intensity and number
Are manifestly
different in appearance.
"If �rare and
dense� alone could have caused
All this, one
single power, more or less
equally, would be in all.
"These different powers have to be the fruits
Of formal
principles which, with one exception,
Would by your
way of thinking be destroyed.
"Again, were
rarity the reason for
The dark you
ask about, either this planet
Would lack material from place to place,
"Or else, just
as the lean and fat are layered
Throughout the
body, so its density
alternate like pages in a book.
"The first, if
it were true, would be made plain
In the sun�s eclipse, by light shining through,
As when it
strikes rare bodies of all sorts.
"This is not
so: we must then view the other
and if I prove that wrong,
Your theory
will be shown to be untrue.
"For if rare matter does not riddle through,
There must be
a limit where the opposite
prevents its passing farther;
"And so the
sun�s rays would be reflected back,
Just as the
color glances off the mirror
That has lead backing to seal it from behind.
"Now you will
say that the ray shows up dimmer
On one place
than on other areas
Since it�s
reflected there from farther back.
"From this
objection � should you care to try �
You can be set free by experiment
Which is the
source for the rivers of your arts.
"Take up three
mirrors, and set two of them
Equally far
from you, and farther still
Let the third
meet your eyes between the two.
"Facing toward them, have a light placed at
Your back, so
that it shines in the three mirrors
And comes to
you reflected in them all.
"Although the
farther image may not look
As large to
you, you will observe that there
It shines with equal brightness as the others.
"Now, as
beneath the strokes of warming sunbeams
undersurface of the snow lies bare
Both of its
former color and its coldness,
"So, with your
intellect swept bare,
I will inform you with light so alive
That it will
shimmer as you look on it.
"Deep in the
heaven of divine peace
There whirls a
body in whose power rests
The being of
all things that it contains.
"The heaven after it, with brilliant stars,
this being to different essences,
Distinct from
it and yet contained within it.
"The other
circles by various degrees
Dispose the
separate powers in themselves
To their own proper ends and propagation.
"These organs
of the universe proceed,
As you now
see, from grade to grade, obtaining
Their power
from above and acting downward.
"Pay close
attention now to how I travel
Through this passage to the truth you long for,
So that you�ll
learn to cross the ford alone.
"The motion
and the power of sacred spheres
Must be
inspired by angelic movers,
Just as the
hammer�s art is by the smith.
"And that heaven which myriad lights make lovely
Takes its
image from the deep Mind that turns it
And of that
image makes itself the seal.
"And as the
soul within this dust of yours
Has been
diffused throughout the different members
To suit each one to some distinctive function,
"So the
Intelligence deals out its goodness
By multiplying
itself among the stars
As it revolves
on its own unity.
"Varying power
makes up various mixtures
With the precious bodies which it enlivens
And in which
it is bound like life in you.
"Because of
the glad nature from which it flows,
This mingled
power shines out through the body
As gladness
does in the eye�s lively pupil.
"From this power comes the apparent difference
Between light
and light, not from dense and rare:
This is the
formal principle which produces,
"In proportion
to its goodness, the dark and bright."
Canto III
That sun which
first inflamed my breast with love
Uncovered for
me, with proof and refutation,
sweet-shining features of the lovely truth.
And I, to
confess myself corrected and
Convinced, so far as was required, raised
My head up
high to make my words sound clear.
But there
appeared a vision which held me bound
So tightly to
itself, to look at it,
That I gave no
more thought to my confession.
As through transparent sheets of polished glass
Or within
crystal-clear and quiet water
That�s not so
deep its bottom is opaque,
The outlines
of our faces show so faintly
That even a
pearl set on a white forehead
Reflects no less readily in our eyes:
So I saw many
faces bent to speak
And fell into
the error opposite
To that which
made Narcissus love the fountain.
The instant I
became aware of them,
Imagining that they were mirrored faces,
I turned my
eyes to make out whose they were.
But I saw
nothing. So I looked again
Straight into
the light of my sweet guide
Whose holy
eyes were shining as she smiled.
"Do not wonder," she said, "that I smile
At your
childish thinking, since as yet
You do not
trust your foot to rest on truth,
"But step, as
usual, on empty space.
These are true
substances that you perceive,
Located here for failing in their vows.
"Speak with
them, then, and listen and believe,
Because the
truthful light that fills them up
Will not let
them avert their steps from it."
And I directed
myself to the shade
Who seemed most bent on talking, and began
Like one
confused by overwhelming longing:
well-created spirit who in the beams
Of the eternal
life savor the sweetness
Which is never
understood till it is tasted,
"What pleasure would it give me if you would
Content me
with your name and destiny!"
Quick, and
with smiling eyes, she answered this,
lovingkindness does not lock the door
To a just
wish, no more than does the Love
Which wills that all its court resemble it.
"I was a
virgin sister in the world,
And if you
probe your memory with patience,
My being more
beautiful won�t hide me from you,
"But you will
recognize I am Piccarda,
Who, placed here with these other blessed souls,
blessedness within the slowest sphere.
"Our hearts�
affections, which are set on fire
Only in the
Holy Spirit�s pleasure,
Rejoice to be
conformed to his design.
"And this selected spot, which seems so lowly,
Is given us
because of the neglect
Or some manner
of omission of our vows."
I then told
her, "In your wondrous faces
divine shines forth which changes you
From the memory of former days �
"Therefore I
was not swift in placing you,
But now what
you have told me helps me so
That I more
readily recall your features.
"But tell me:
you who are so happy here,
Have you a yearning for a higher place,
To see more
and to make yourselves more loving?"
First with
those other shades she faintly smiled,
Then answered
with such gladness that she seemed
To burn with
the initial flame of love,
"Brother, the power of love becalms our wills
And makes us
wish for only what we have
And whets our
thirst for nothing more than that.
"Were we to
long for some more lofty height,
Then our
desires would be discordant with
The will of Him who has assigned us here.
"Such strife,
you see, has no place in these spheres
Since to exist
in love is here required,
If you will
truly ponder on love�s nature.
"No, it�s the
essence of this blessed existence
To hold ourselves within the will of God
Through which
our own wills are made one with His:
"So, how we
dwell from threshold up to threshold
this kingdom gladdens the whole kingdom
And the King,
too, who wills in us what He wills.
"For in His will is our peace. It is the sea
To which all
things existing flow, both those
His will
creates and those that nature makes."
Clear was it
then to me how everywhere
In heaven is
paradise, although the grace
Of the highest good rains not alike on all.
Yet as it
happens when we have been sated
With one food,
but still hanker for another:
We pass this
up with thanks and ask for that,
So I behaved
with gestures and with words,
To learn from her what was the web in which
She had not
drawn the shuttle to the end.
"Perfect life
and high worth," she said, "enshrine
In a higher
heaven a lady by whose rule
In your world
women take the robe and veil,
"That until death they there may wake and sleep
Beside the
Bridegroom who receives each vow
Which love
conforms to fit His will and pleasure.
"From out the
world I fled to follow her
While yet a
young girl, and I donned her habit
And pledged to walk the pathway of her order.
"Then men,
more used to wickedness than good,
Abducted me by
force from the sweet cloister,
And God knows
what my life became thereafter.
"This other
splendor who shows herself to you
At my right side and who is all aglow
With the
illumination of our sphere
"Knows what I
say of me is true for her:
She was a
sister, and also from her head
The shadow of
the sacred veil was ripped.
"Yet, when against her will and correct custom
She was turned
back again into the world,
She never
stripped the veil from off her heart.
"This is the
light of that mighty Constance
Who by the
second blast of Swabia
Bore the third and final son of power."
So she
addressed me, and then began to sing
Ave Maria,
and singing, disappeared,
Just like a
solid weight down through deep water.
My gazing
eyes, which followed her as far
As possible, when she was lost from view,
Turned to the
target of my deeper longing,
And their
attention wholly turned to Beatrice;
But she blazed
out so brightly on my gaze
That at first
my sight could not endure it;
And this made me the slower with my questions.
Canto IV
Between two
equidistant and delicious foods
A man with a
free choice would starve to death
Before he
might bring either to his mouth;
So would a
lamb stand still between the cravings
Of two fierce wolves, in equal fear of both;
So would a
hound stand still between two deer.
I don�t then
blame myself if I kept silent,
Pulled equally
in both ways by my doubts,
Nor, since it
had to be, do I praise myself.
I held my peace, but my desire was painted
Upon my face,
together with my question,
In warmer
colors than if framed in words.
Beatrice now
did what Daniel once had done
When he freed
Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath
Which had caused him to be unjustly cruel,
And she said,
"I clearly see how this and that
Desire draws
you so that your eagerness
itself and then it cannot breathe.
"You reason:
�If the will remains resolved,
By what right does another�s violence
Reduce the
measure of my full reward?�
"Again you are
thrown into doubt because
The souls seem
to return up to the stars
In accordance
with the doctrine taught by Plato.
"These are the questions that weigh equally
Upon your
will: and so I shall first treat
The one that
is most poisonous for you.
"The seraphim
who are closest to God,
Moses, Samuel,
and either John �
Choose whom you will � and even Mary
"Do not have
their seats in any other heaven
Than do these
spirits who appeared to you,
Nor have they
more or fewer years in being,
"But all make
the first circle beautiful,
And yet share the sweet life in different ways
By feeling the
eternal breath diversely.
"They show
themselves here, not because this sphere
Is assigned to
them, but to give a sign
Of this
celestial state which is least lofty.
"So must the human mind be spoken to,
Since only
through the senses can it grasp
What then is
fitted to the intellect.
"That is the
reason Scripture condescends
To your
capacity, attributing
Feet and hands to God, without meaning it;
"And Holy
Church represents for you
With human
features Gabriel and Michael
And the one
who made Tobit�s vision sound.
"What Timaeus
argues about the soul
Does not resemble what we witness here,
Since he seems
to take what he says as truth.
"He states the
soul returns to its own star,
Believing it
to have been cut from it
When nature
gave it to be the body�s form.
"But his opinion may be at variance
With what his
words express, and should be taken
To have a
meaning not for us to scorn.
"If he means
that the honor and the blame of
influence returns to their gyrations,
Perhaps his bow has hit upon some truth.
principle, misunderstood, once so
Misled almost
the whole world that it strayed
In naming Jove
and Mercury and Mars.
"The other
doubt disturbing you is less
Poisonous because its malice could not
Lead you
somewhere else away from me.
"For our
justice to appear unjust
In eyes of
mortal men is argument
For faith and
not for wicked heresy.
"But since your intelligence is capable
Of fully
penetrating to this truth,
I will content
you, just as you desire.
"If it be
violence when the sufferer
nothing to what forces him,
These souls had no excuse on that account.
"For will that
is unwilling can�t be quenched,
But stands as
nature does within the flame
violence twist it in a thousand ways.
"For should it
bend itself much or little,
If follows force: as did these souls when they
Had power to
escape back to the cloister.
"If their will
had remained perfectly whole,
Like that
which held Saint Lawrence on the grill
And made
Mucius hold his hand in the fire,
"It would have urged them back, no sooner freed,
Along the road
where they were dragged away,
But such a
steadfast will is all too rare.
"And by my
words, if you have garnered them
As you should
do, the argument is quashed
That would have many more times troubled you.
"But now
before your path another pass
Confronts your
eyes, so strait that by yourself
You would not
get through without growing weary.
"I have for
certain impressed on your mind
That the souls in bliss can never lie
Since they are
always close to the First Truth;
"And then you
could learn later from Piccarda
That Constance
kept up her love for the veil,
So that in
this she seems to contradict me.
"Often before, brother, it has happened
That men
unwillingly, to flee from danger,
Have done
things that they ought not to have done:
"Like Alcmaeon
who, at his father�s bidding,
Took his own
mother�s life and, so as not
To fail in piety, was pitiless.
"At this point
I want you to understand
That force
mingles with the will, and they
So act that
there is no excuse for wrongs.
"Absolute will
does not agree to wrong,
But out of fear that, by withholding, worse
Trouble may
befall, the will consents.
"So when
Piccarda spoke about this matter,
She meant the
absolute will, and I the other,
So that what
both of us said was the truth."
Such rippling issued from the sacred stream
Out of the
fountain from which all truth wells up,
Such that it
calmed one longing and the other.
"O loved of
the First Lover, O divine one,"
I said then,
"you whose speech flows over me
And warms me so that more and more I live,
"Not all the
depth of my love is sufficient
To give you
grace for grace in my return:
But may the
One who sees and can � make answer.
"I clearly see
our intellect may never
Be sated unless that Truth shines upon it
Beyond which
no truth has a further range.
"In that it
rests, like a wild beast in its den,
The instant it
has reached it � and reach it can,
Otherwise all
longing would be futile.
"For this cause questions spring up like new shoots
At the foot of
truth, and this it is in nature
That drives us
to the heights from ridge to ridge.
"This urge
invites me, this emboldens me,
Lady, to
question you with reverence
About another truth obscure to me.
"I want to
know, can people compensate
For broken
vows with other goods, so as
Not to weigh
too lightly in your scales?"
looked at me with eyes so filled
With sparks of love and so heavenly
That my
powers, overwhelmed, broke loose,
And, eyes cast down, I almost lost myself.
Canto V
"If I flame on
you in the warmth of love
Beyond the
measure witnessed in the world
And so
overwhelm the power of your eyes,
"Do not
wonder, for this light proceeds
From perfect vision which, as it apprehends,
So moves its
steps to apprehended good.
"I plainly see
how in your intellect
Already shines
eternal radiance
Which, once
seen, alone and always kindles love.
"And should another good seduce your love,
It only is
some vestige of this light,
which still shines through within.
"You wish to
know if with some other service
Such reckoning
can be paid for unkept vows
That would secure the soul from further suits."
So Beatrice
began this canto and, like someone
Who will not
pause to interrupt a speech,
Continued in
this way her sacred discourse:
"The greatest
gift God�s generosity
Made in creating and the most conformed
To his own
goodness � what he prizes most �
"Is freedom of
the will, and with this gift
The creatures
with intelligence � they all
And they alone
� have been and are endowed.
"Now, if you reason from this, you will see
The high value
of the vow, if it be such
That God gives
his consent when you consent.
"For in the
compact between God and humans,
This treasure
of the will which I describe
Becomes the sacrifice by its own free act.
"What can you
render then in restitution?
If you think
to make good use of your offering,
You wish to do
good with ill-gotten gains.
"You now have
been assured as to the main point,
But since here Holy Church grants dispensations,
And seems to
contradict the truth I�ve shown you,
"You�ll have
to sit at table a while longer
Because the
tough food which you have been taking
further aid for your digestion.
"Open your mind to what I shall reveal
To you, and
keep it there, for to have heard
retention does not make for knowledge.
"The essence
of this sacrifice involves,
First, the
matter of which it is made,
And second, the nature of the final compact.
"This second
never can be canceled out,
Except by
being kept, and on this point
My preceding
speech was so precise.
"To offer
sacrifices was prescribed,
Then, for the Hebrews, although what was offered,
As you must
know, might sometimes be exchanged.
"The other
part, which you know as the matter,
May in fact be
such that there�s no fault
If it should
be replaced with other matter.
"But let none shift the weight upon his shoulder
At his own
judgment, till he first has turned
The lock with
both the gold and silver keys.
"And let him
think of every change as folly,
Unless the
thing that he takes up contains,
As six does four, the thing that he laid down.
"So then,
whatever thing through its own worth
Weighs so much
that it would tip any scale
Can never be
made good by other outlay.
"Let mortals
never make their vows too lightly.
Be loyal, but also be not blurry-eyed,
As Jephthah
was in his first offering,
"Who better
would have cried out, �I�ve done wrong!�
Than, keeping
to his vow, do worse. And you�ll find
As big a dolt
the great lord of the Greeks
"Whose Iphigenia wept to be fair of face
And made both
wise and foolish weep for her
On hearing
such cruel rituals recounted.
be serious in taking action:
Do not be like
a feather to every wind,
Nor think that every water cleanses you.
"You have the
New and the Old Testament
And the
Shepherd of the Church to guide you:
Let this be
all you need for your salvation.
"If sorry
greed shout anything else at you,
Be men, do not be senseless sheep, so that
The Jew among
you not laugh at you in scorn.
"Do not be
like the lamb that strolls away
From its
mother�s milk and, silly and wanton,
Fights with
itself for its own fun and frolic!"
What Beatrice said to me I here write down.
Then, all in
longing, she turned toward that point
Where the
whole universe is most alive.
Her quietness
and her transfigured look
Made my
inquiring mind lapse into silence
While it already planned new questionings.
And like an
arrow that strikes at the target
Even before
the bowcord becomes still,
So we sped on
into the second kingdom.
Here I saw my
lady so full of gladness
When she gave herself into the heaven�s light
That the
planet itself now glowed more brightly.
And if the
star was so transformed and smiled,
What then did
I become who by my nature
Am subject to
fresh changes of all sorts?
As in a fish-pond that is clear and tranquil,
The fish draw
to what drops down from the outside,
Believing it
to be some food to feed on,
So I did see
more than a thousand splendors
Drawing toward
us, and in each I heard,
"Look, someone comes who shall augment our love!"
And when each
one in turn came up to us,
We saw each
shade was filled with happiness
By the bright
glow that burst out from within.
reader, if what I now begin
Went no further on, how you would feel
An anguished
hunger to know more about them,
And you will
see, all on your own, how I
Hungered to
hear more of their condition
The moment
they were shown before my eyes.
"O happy-born, to whom grace freely grants
Sight of the
thrones of everlasting triumph
Before you are
released from earthly warfare,
"We are
inflamed by the illumination
through all heaven: if you seek then
Enlightenment from us, take what you please!"
These words
were said to me by one of those
spirits. And Beatrice: "Speak, speak
Safely, and
trust in them as you would gods!"
"I plainly see
how you nest in your light
And that you draw it out from your own eyes
Because light
sparkles in them when you smile,
"But I do not
know who you are, nor why
You, worthy
spirit, have your rank in this sphere
Which rays of
sunlight veil from mortal sight,"
This words I said as I turned toward the light
Which first
had spoken to me, and at that
It beamed out
much more brightly than before.
Just as the
sun which by excessive light
itself when heat has all consumed
The thickly mantling mists that moderate it,
So by
increasing joy that holy figure
Hid itself
from me in its own radiance,
And hidden
fast in this way, answered me
In the manner
which my next canto sings.
Canto VI
Constantine turned back the eagle
Against the
course of heaven which it followed
Behind the man
of old who wed Lavinia,
"The bird of
God two hundred years and more
Stayed on at Europe�s utmost boundary,
Near to the
mountains from which it first flew.
"And there it
ruled the world beneath the shadow
Of its sacred
wings, from hand to hand, until
With the
succeeding changes it came to me.
"Caesar I was, Justinian I am,
Who, by will
of the First Love that I feel,
Rid the laws
of what was gross and empty.
"Before I set
my whole mind to this work,
I held Christ
had one nature and not two,
And in that faith I was content to rest.
"But blessed
Agapetus, who was then
The supreme
shepherd, by his warning words
Directed me
back to the one true faith.
"I believed
him, and what he held on faith
I now view quite as clearly as you see
contradictions are both false and true.
"So soon as I
set my steps with the Church,
It pleased God
by his grace to inspire in me
The high task
to which I wholly gave myself.
"I gave my arms to Belisarius
Who was so
joined to the right hand of heaven
That I took it
for a sign to let mine rest.
"Here, then,
my answer ends to your first question.
details in my reply, however,
Require me to add on something more,
"So that you
may perceive with how much right
Men strove
against the sacrosanct ensign,
Both those
usurping it and those opposing.
"You see what
power made the eagle worthy
Of reverence, beginning from the hour
When Pallas
died to give it sovereignty.
"You know it
made its home in Alba for
Three hundred
years and more, till at the end
Three heroes
fought against three others for it.
"You know what it achieved through seven kings,
From the
Sabine women�s wrong to Lucretia�s woe,
conquering the countries round about.
"You know what
it accomplished when borne by
The noble
Romans battling Brennus, Pyrrus,
And the rest, the lords and their alliances.
"Then came
Torquatus, Quinctius named for
His wild curly
locks, the Decii and Fabii
Who won the
fame which I am glad to honor.
"It cast down
to the ground the pride of Arabs
Who followed Hannibal across the Alps�
Rocky crags
from which you, Po, cascade.
"Beneath it
Scipio and Pompey triumphed
While still
young men; and to that hill, below
Which you were
born, it showed its cruelty.
"Then, near the time when all of heaven willed
To bring the
world back to a state of peace,
Caesar took it
up at Rome�s command.
"And what it
worked from Var up to the Rhine
Was witnessed
by the Isere, Loire, and Seine,
And all the valleys whose streams fill the Rhone.
"What it
worked next after it left Ravenna
And leaped the
Rubicon was such a flight
That neither
tongue nor pen might follow it.
"Around it
wheeled the legions into Spain,
Then to Durazzo; and it struck Pharsalia
So sharply
that the hot Nile felt the blow.
"Once more it
saw Antandros and the Simois
From which it
set forth, and where Hector lies;
Then, to
Ptolemy�s grief, it soared again.
"From there, like a thunderbolt, it fell on Juba,
And afterward
it turned back to your west
Where it had
heard the blast of Pompey�s trumpet.
"For what it
wrought with its succeeding keeper,
Brutus and
Cassius howl in deepest hell,
And Modena and Perugia wailed for it.
"Weeping still
is tearful Cleopatra
Who, fleeing
its attack, snatched from the asp,
Instead of it,
a dark and instant death.
"With this
Augustus it reached the Red Sea shore;
With him it spread such peace throughout the world
That the
temple of Janus was locked shut.
"But what that
standard which stirs me to speak
Had done
before and afterwards would do
Throughout the
mortal kingdom subject to it
"Seems insignificant and shadowy
When, with a
clear eye and with pure affection,
You mark it in
the hand of the third Caesar,
"Because the
living Justice which breathes in me
Gave it the
glory, in the hand I�ve mentioned,
Of taking vengeance for the wrath of heaven.
"Now wonder at
what I unfold for you:
It later sped
with Titus to wreck vengeance
Upon the
vengeance of the sin of old.
"And, lastly,
when the Lombard tooth bit down
On Holy Church, beneath the eagle�s wings
through conquest brought her aid.
"Now you can
judge the likes of those whom I
Accused just
now, and of their sins and failings
Which are the
reason for all your misfortunes.
"One side opposes to the public standard
The yellow
lilies; the other claims the eagle,
So that it�s
hard to see which sins the most.
"Let the
Ghibellines, let them ply their arts
Under another
emblem, for they follow
This standard ill in severing justice from it.
"And let the
new Charles with his Guelphs not try
To strike it
down, but let him dread the talons
That have
stripped off the skins of stronger lions.
"Sons, many
times before this, have wept for
Their father�s sins; and let him not believe
That God will
change his coat of arms for lilies!
"This little
star is spangled with the spirits
Of those who
strove for good but aimed their actions
In order to
acquire fame and honor.
"And when desires deviate off course
In that
direction, the rays of their true love
Must rise on
upward with less living force.
"But equal
measuring of our rewards
With our
merits is part of our delight,
Since we see them as neither less nor greater.
"In this way
living Justice has so sweetened
Our own
affections that they never can
Be bent aside
to any wickedness.
voices make sweet melody:
And so the varied ranking of our lives
Renders sweet
harmony among these gyres.
"Within this
present pearl shines the light
Of Romeo,
whose beautiful and noble
Endeavor was
so churlishly rewarded.
"But the Proven�als who worked against him
Have no last
laugh, for he takes an evil path
Who harms
himself through the good deeds of others.
daughters, and each one of them a queen,
Had Raymond
Berenger, and this was managed
By Romeo, a low-born man and pilgrim.
"But then
crooked words caused Berenger to ask
A reckoning of
this just man who had ever
Returned in
payment to him twelve for ten.
"At that point
he departed, poor and old,
And if the world could know the heart he had
When begging
his livelihood crust by crust,
"Much as it praises him, it would praise
him more."
Canto VII
"Hosanna to the holy Lord of Hosts,
Relighting by
your brightness from above
The blissful
burning fires of these kingdoms!"
So, now
revolving to this melody,
That substance who had spoken I saw sing
While over him
the twofold light redoubled.
And he and
others moved in their one dance,
And, like the
swiftest sparks arising upward,
With sudden
distance veiled themselves from me.
I stood in doubt, and said, "Tell her, tell her!"
Within myself
I said, "Tell her, my lady
Who slakes my
thirst with her sweet drops of dew!"
But that awe
which is mistress of me wholly,
By the mere
sound of her name�s Be and ice,
Bowed me down like someone drowsing off.
Just for a
short while Beatrice left me so,
And she began,
beaming a smile on me
To make a man
staked in the fire happy,
"If I, who
cannot err, have judged correctly,
Your thoughts have been set pondering on how
A just
vengeance could be avenged with justice,
"But I will
quickly free your mind from doubt;
And listen
carefully, because my words
Make you a
present of important teachings.
"Since he would bear for his own good no curb
Upon his
willpower, that man who was unborn,
himself, damned all his progeny.
"As a result
the human race below
Lay sick for
many centuries in grave error
Until it pleased the Word of God to come
"Down where he
joined in person with himself,
By the sheer
act of his eternal love,
The nature
that had wandered from its Maker.
"Now turn your
gaze to what I now disclose:
This nature which was thus joined to its Maker
Was, when it
was created, pure and good,
"But through
itself it had been driven out
Of paradise,
because it turned aside
From the way
of the truth and from its life.
"The penalty inflicted by the cross �
If measured by
the nature so assumed �
Never struck
at anyone more justly.
there never was a greater wrong,
If we look to
the person suffering it,
In whom that other nature was bound up.
"From this one
act, then, different things resulted,
For one same
death pleased both God and the Jews,
And with it
the earth shook and heaven opened.
"It should no
longer now seem hard to you
On hearing it declared that a just vengeance
Was afterward
avenged by court of justice.
"But now I see
your mind is tangled up
With thought
on thought into a knot from which
It awaits
release with deep-felt longing.
"You say, �I make out clearly what I hear,
But why God
willed this as the only way
Of our
redemption is still hidden from me.�
"This edict,
brother, has been buried from
The eyes of
everyone whose understanding
Is not matured within the flames of love.
since there are many who
Aim at this
mark and few who sight it rightly,
I shall
explain why that way was most fitting.
Goodness, which spurns from itself
All envy, burning in itself, so sparkles
That it
reveals all the eternal beauties.
"Whatever is
distilled immediately
From it is
everlasting, since, once sealed,
Its imprint
never can be wiped away.
"Whatever is poured down immediately
From it is
wholly free, since Goodness is
Not subject to
the power of changing things.
"The sacred
Flame which shoots its rays through all
Is most alive
in what is most like Goodness
And most pleased by what most resembles it.
"Human beings
have the advantage of
All these
endowments, but if they fail in one
They must fall
down from their nobility.
"Sin alone can
rob them of their birthright
And render them unlike the highest Good
So that they
beam less brightly in its light.
"They never
can recoup their innocence
Unless they
fill up what faults emptied out
By paying for
bad pleasures with just pains.
"Your nature when it had sinned totally
In its first
seed was reft of that innocence
Just as it was
deprived of paradise.
"Nor could it
win them back, if you consider
The matter
carefully, by any other way
Except by passing one of these two fords:
"Either that
God, by graciousness alone,
forgiveness, or that by himself
Man should
make satisfaction for his folly.
"Now fix your
eyes intently on the abyss
Of the eternal Wisdom � fasten them
As tightly as
you can to what I say.
"Bound by his
limits, man could never make
Enough amends,
because he was not able
By afterwards
obeying, to humbly bend
"As low as he'd mount high by disobeying:
This is the
reason why man was shut off
From being
able to make amends himself.
"It was
needed, then, for God in his own ways
Of mercy and
of justice to give man back
Full life � I mean by one way or by both.
"But since a
deed is more prized by the doer
The more it
manifests to others� eyes
The goodness
of the heart from which it springs,
"The divine
Goodness which imprints its seal
Upon the world was pleased to move ahead
By its own
ways to raise you up once more.
"Between the
final night and the first day
There has not
been nor will there be so mighty
magnificent an act by either way.
"For God, by giving himself to make man able
To raise
himself again, was more generous
Than if he
only had remitted sin;
"And all the
other means would have been short
Of justice, if
the Son of God had not
Humbled himself to be a human being.
"Now, to
fulfill exactly all your longings,
I turn back to
explain a certain passage
To enable you
to see it as I do.
"You say, �I
see the water, I see the fire,
The air, the earth, and all their combinations
Fall to
corruption and last but a brief while:
" �And yet
these things were creatures: for this cause,
If what you
said of them were really true,
They ought to
be secure from such corruption.�
"The angels, brother, and the pure clear country
Where you are
now, may be said to be created
Just as they
are, in their entire being.
"But the
elements which you have named to me
And all the
things that are compounded from them
Receive their forms from some created power.
"Created was
the matter that they have;
Created was
the power informing them
Within these
stars which whirl about their way.
"The rays and
motion of the holy lights
Draw out from its compounded potency
The soul of
every animal and plant.
"But the
sovereign Largesse breathes your life
Directly, and
makes it so in love with him
That always
afterward it longs for him.
"And from this reasoning you can further prove
resurrection, if you would reflect
On how the
human body was made then
"When the
first parents were both formed by him."
Canto VIII
Time was, the
world, at its own risk, believed
That Venus,
the beautiful Cyprian, whirling
In the third
epicycle, rayed down love�s madness.
For this the
folk of old in their old errors
Not only offered homage up to her
sacrifices and with votive cries,
But also
honored Cupid and Dione,
One as her
son, the other as her mother,
And they
claimed he had sat in Dido�s lap.
And so from her with whom I start this canto
They took the
name of that star the sun woos,
Now at dawn�s
nape and now at evening�s brow.
I had no sense
of rising into it,
But I was sure
of being there when I
Perceived my lady grown more beautiful.
And as we see
a spark within a flame
Or as a voice
sounds in a voice when one
Holds steady
while the other comes and goes,
So I saw in
that light those other lanterns
Revolving fast or slowly in a circle,
Depending, I
think, on their inner vision.
Winds, whether
visible or not, have never
Swept down
from ice-cold clouds so swiftly that
They would not
seem impeded or too slow
To one who had observed the heavenly lights
toward us, leaving behind the circling
Begun first by
the lofty seraphim.
And from the
midst of those appearing foremost
sounded in such strains that I
Have always craved to hear it once again.
Then one came
closer to us and, alone,
Began, "We all
are ready here to do
Your pleasure,
that you may rejoice in us.
"With one
circle, one circling, and one thirst,
We here swirl round with the celestial princes
To whom you
once, when in the world, had said,
" �You whose
intellect moves the third heaven.�
We are so full
of love that, if it please you,
A moment�s
silence will be no less sweet."
After my eyes had reverently lifted
To my lady,
and she had made them sure
And satisfied
that she gave her consent,
They turned
back to the light that promised such
Abundance, and
in words stamped with profound
Affection I called out, "Tell me who you are!"
And how the
light in size and splendor swelled
I saw through
the new joy which now was added
To all its
former joys when I said this.
So changed, it
spoke, "The world held me below
But a brief time, and had it been prolonged
Much evil that
shall be would not have happened.
joyousness, which beams round about me,
Keeps me
concealed from you and holds me hidden
Just like a
worm all wrapped up in its silk.
"You loved me much, and had good reason to,
For had I
stayed down there, I would have shown
My love for
you could yield more than mere leaves.
"The left bank
of the land bathed by the Rhone,
Below where it
has mingled with the Sorgue,
Expected me in time to be its lord,
"As did the
corner of Ausonia, which
Bari, Gaeta,
and Catona border,
From which the
Tronto and Verde flow seaward.
"Upon my
forehead there already glittered
The crown of that land which the Danube waters
Once it has
left behind its German shores.
"And the fair
Trinacria, which is blackened �
Pachynus and Pelorus, there on
The gulf that
is most lashed by the east wind �
"Not by Typhoeus but by rising sulphur,
Would even now
have looked to have its kings
through me down from Charles and Rudolph,
"Had not bad
governance, which ever cuts
The hearts of
subject people to the quick,
Moved Palermo to shout out, �Die! Let them die!�
"And had my
brother seen these things beforehand,
By now he�d
shun the greedy poverty
Of Catalonia
lest it bring him trouble.
"For it is
really necessary that he
Or someone else provide, so that no load
Be further
added to his laden ship.
"His nature �
stingy offspring of a lavish
Forebear �
would need a following of knights
Who have no
care for filling up their coffers!"
"Since I believe that the deep-seated joy
Which now
these words of yours pour into me
Is seen by
you, my lord, just as I see it
"Where every
good has its end and beginning,
It is most
welcome, and I hold this dear,
That you discern it as you gaze on God.
"You�ve made
me joyful � but explain to me,
Because in
speaking you have raised this doubt,
How is it
sweet seed can bear bitter fruit?"
So I asked
him, and he told me, "If I can
Show you one truth, then you will hold your face
Toward what
you ask as now you hold your back.
"The Good,
which rotates and contents the whole
Kingdom that
you climb, makes its providence
To be a power
in these brilliant bodies;
"And in the Mind, which is itself perfection,
There is
provision not only for these natures
But also, in
them all, for their well-being;
"So that
whatever flies off from this bow
Falls readily
to its determined target,
Just like an arrow aimed right at the mark.
"Were this not
so, the heavens where you walk
Would so bring
into being their effects
That they
would not be works of art but ruins.
"That cannot
be, unless the intellects
That move these stars be lacking � lacking too
The First
Intellect by making them imperfect.
"Would you
have more light shed upon this truth?"
And I: "No � I
see it is impossible
That nature
tire of doing what is needed."
Then he once more: "Now say, should men not lead
A civic life
on earth, would they be worse?"
"Yes," I
replied, "and here I need no proof."
"And could
they lead it, unless people down
Below live
differently with different duties?
Not if what your master writes is true."
By close
deduction he had reached this point;
Then he
concluded, "The roots of what you do
Must, then, be
variously sprung, so that
"This one is
born Solon, that one Xerxes,
One is Melchizedek, and yet another
He who flew
through the air and lost his son.
celestial nature sets its seal
On mortal wax,
performing its art well,
But making no
distinction between houses.
"So from the seed of birth, it happens, Esau
And Jacob
differ, and Quirinus comes from
So base a
father, he�s ascribed to Mars!
nature would always take the path
Which its
begetters followed, were it not
That divine providence rules otherwise.
"Now what was
once behind you is before you:
But that you
may know I rejoice in you,
I want to
cloak you with this corollary.
Nature, should she find that fortune
Is out of tune with her, like any seed
Out of its
climate, comes to a bad end.
"And if the
world down there would pay attention
To the
foundation Nature herself lays,
And built on
that, then people would be better.
"But you force into the religious life
One born to
bear a sword, and crown a king
Someone far
more suited to preach sermons:
"That�s how
your footprints ramble off the road!"
Canto IX
Clemence, when your Charles had shed
Light in my
mind, he told me of the plots
That would
defraud his offspring; then he added,
"Keep silent,
and allow the years to roll":
So I can say no more
than that real tears
Shall follow
on the damage done against you.
And now the
life within that holy light
Had turned it
once more to the sun that fills it,
As to that
Good which is the wealth of all.
Ah, misguided souls and impious creatures
Who turn your
hearts away from such a Good,
Lifting your
faces up to vanity!
But look!
another of those splendors came
Toward me and,
growing brighter outwardly,
Showed me a sign of wishing to please me.
The eyes of
Beatrice, firmly fixed on me
As they had
been before, gave me assurance
Of her own
dear assent to my desire.
"Come, blessed
spirit," I said, "let me have
A speedy answer to my wish, and proof
That I can
mirror in you what I think."
At that the
light, which was still new to me,
Out of the
depth from which welled up its song,
Went on as one
delighted to do favors:
"In evil Italy there lies a region
Which runs
between the Rialto and the springs
Of both the
Brenta and Piave rivers.
"A hill looms
there (it is not very high)
From which
there once came down a firebrand
That waged a huge assault against the country.
"From one same
root both he and I sprang up.
Cunizza I was
called, and I blaze here
Because the
light of this star conquered me.
"Yet happily I
here forgive myself
The reason for my lot, nor does it grieve me,
Although this
may seem strange to common people.
brilliant and beloved jewel who
Stands closest
to me in this heaven of ours
Left lofty
fame behind: before it dies
"Five times this century shall have passed away.
See how man
should make himself so excellent
That his first
life might leave life after it!
"And today�s
crowd, enclosed by the Adige
Tagliamento, have no thought of this,
And, though they are whipped hard, do not repent.
"But soon it
shall befall that Padua
At the marsh,
since people shun their duty,
Will stain the
waters red that wash Vicenza.
"And where the
Sile and Cagnano join
One plays the lord and holds his head up high
While all the
time the net is laid to catch him.
"Feltro shall
yet moan for the treachery
Of its
besotted shepherd � a crime so shameful
That for the
like none went to Malta prison.
"Huge would be the bucket that could hold
The blood of
the Ferrarans: whoever had
To weigh it
ounce by ounce would be worn out!
"This vat the
generous priest shall offer up
To prove
himself a supporter of his party:
Such gifts befit the country�s way of living!
"Up there are
mirrors � you could call them Thrones �
From which in
judgment God beams down on us
So that we
think it good to say these things."
Here she grew
still and had, I thought, the likeness
Of turning now to other things by wheeling
Where she took
up the place she�d left behind.
The other
bliss, whom I already knew
To be beloved,
became before my sight
A sparkling
ruby struck by rays of sunlight.
Through their rejoicing, souls gain brilliance there
On high, as
here a smile gains light, but below
Shades darken
outwardly as minds grow sad.
"God sees all,
and your sight sinks into his,"
I said,
"blissful spirit, and for this reason
No wish may hide itself away from you.
"Why does your
voice, then, making heaven glad
Forever with
the song of these blest flames
Which make
themselves, with their six wings, a cowl,
"Not fulfill
the longing which I feel?
I surely would not wait for you to ask
Were I in your
mind as you are in mine."
"The largest
valley in which water spreads
Out from the
sea that girdles all the world,"
He then began
to speak these words to me �
"Stretches its opposing shores so far
Counter to the
sun�s course that its zenith
Lies where at
first the sun formed its horizon.
"I had my
dwelling on that valley�s shore,
Between Ebro
and Macra whose short course
Divides the Tuscans from the Genoese.
"With almost
the same sunset and same sunrise
Stand Bougie
and the city I am from,
Which once
made its port warm with its own blood.
"Folco I was
called then by the people
Who knew my name, and this heaven having once
Signed me at
my birth now bears my signal.
"For Belus�s
daughter Dido did not burn,
In wronging
both Sychaeus and Creusa,
More than I
burned, before my locks were clipped;
"Nor the girl from Rhodope when beguiled
By Demophoon,
nor Hercules himself
When he
enshrined Iole in his heart.
"But here we
don�t repent; instead, we smile,
Not for the
fault, which never comes to mind,
But for the Power that ordered and foresaw.
"Here we look
wondering at the art that love
beautiful, and find the good through which
The world
below turns to the world above.
"And that you
may take with you all your longings,
Which have been born within this sphere, fulfilled,
I am obliged
to go on with my discourse.
"You want to
know who is within this light
Which glitters
in this manner next to me,
Just like a
sunbeam on the crystal water.
"Now you should know that Rahab rests inside
And that, as
soon as she joined with our order,
She sealed it
in the loftiest degree.
"She was swept
upward through this heaven, where
shadow-cone of your earth casts its point,
Before any other soul, by Christ in triumph.
"It was most
fitting to leave her in a heaven
To be a palm
of the high victory
Won by his one
and by his other palm,
"Because she
lent her help to Joshua
With his first glory in the Holy Land �
That little
touches the Pope�s memory.
"Your city,
which was planted by the One
Who first
turned his back upon his Maker and
Whose envy has
provoked so many tears,
"Produces and spreads far the cursed flower
Which caused
the sheep and lambs to go astray
Because it
changed the shepherd to a wolf.
"This is why
the Gospel and Great Doctors
Are tossed
aside, and only the Decretals
Are studied, as their scribbled margins show.
"On them the
pope and cardinals pore intently
And never turn
their thoughts to Nazareth
Where Gabriel
unfolded wide his wings.
"The Vatican,
however, and the other
Choice parts of Rome which are the burial ground
Of the brave
soldiery that followed Peter
"Will soon be
freed from this adultery."
Canto X
his Son with the Love
Which One and
Other endlessly breathe out,
The primal and
ineffable Power
everything that spins through mind or space
With such design that he who considers it
Cannot exist
without some taste of God.
Lift up your
eyes then, reader, here with me
To the high
spheres, straight to that region where
One motion of
the sun strikes on the other.
And begin there to gaze gladly on the art
Of that Master
who in himself so loves it
That his eye
never wanders from his work.
Observe how,
from this point, the circle which
bears the planets branches off
To satisfy the world that calls to them.
For if their
path had not been slanted so,
Much of the
heavens' influence would be lost,
And almost all
their power dead on earth.
And if the
path swerved farther or less far
From the straight course, the order of the world
Would in the
sky and on the land be lessened.
Now, reader,
remain seated at your table,
Reflecting on
what here has been a foretaste,
That you may
feel delight before you tire.
I set the feast for you: now feed yourself,
Because the
subject matter I inscribe
Takes all of
my attention to itself.
The mightiest
minister of nature, which
Imprints the
world with power from the sky
And measures time for us with beams of light,
with the point that I have mentioned,
Went circling
onward throughout all the spirals
In which he
rises earlier each day.
And I was with
him. But of my ascent
I was no more aware than is a person
Conscious of a
thought before it comes.
Beatrice it is
who guides me in this way
From good to
better with such swiftness that
Her act does
not extend itself in time.
How luminous that must be of itself
Which shone
within the sun where I went in
To be revealed
by light and not by color!
Though I
should call on talent, skill, and practice
I could not
find the words to picture it:
But may you still believe � and crave to see it!
If our
imaginations fall far short
Of such a
height, no wonder, for our eyes
Have never
seen a light to match the sun�s.
Such, here,
was the fourth family of the high
Father who forever fills them, showing how
He breathes
the Spirit and begets the Son.
And Beatrice
began, "Give thanks! Give thanks
To this Sun of
the Angels through whose grace
You have been
lifted to the sun of sense!"
Never was heart of mortal so disposed
To its
devotion, nor ready to surrender
Itself to God
with its full gratitude
Than mine was
when she spoke these words to me.
And all my
love so set itself on Him
That Beatrice in oblivion was eclipsed.
Not the least
displeased, she smiled so that
The splendor
of her smiling eyes splintered
My singleness
of mind in many pieces.
I saw many
living and surpassing lights
Surround us in the center of a crown
With voices
sweeter than their looks were bright.
We sometimes
see the daughter of Latona
So cinctured
when the saturated air
Holds the
threads of light that make her girdle.
In the courts of heaven from which I have come
Are myriad
jewels so dear and beautiful
They cannot be
transported from that kingdom.
It was of them
these radiances sang.
Whoever wears
no wings to fly up there
Must wait for news from those whose tongues are
When, singing
in this way, those flaming suns
Three times
had circled round about us both,
Like stars
rotating close to the fixed poles,
They looked
like ladies pausing in the dance
To listen to the music silently
Until they
catch up to the tune anew.
And inside one
I heard begin, "Because
The beam of
grace by which true love is lit
And which
increases afterward with loving
"Shines so much more abundantly in you
That it leads
you up along the stairway
Which none
steps down except to mount again,
should refuse to quench your thirst
With the wine
from his flask would be no freer
Than water stopped from flowing to the sea.
"You want to
know who these bright blossoms are,
Flowering this
garland which girds lovingly
Round this
fair lady who strengthens you for heaven.
"I was a lamb
and of the holy flock
That Dominic leads out along the way
fattening is good, unless they stray.
"Beside me on
the right is one who was
My brother and
my master, Albert of
Cologne, and I
am Thomas of Aquinas.
"So if you would be sure of all the others,
Come, let your
eyesight follow on my words
By circling
all about this blessed wreath.
"That fire
flashing next breaks from the smile
Of Gratian who
served both the courts of law
So perfectly that Paradise is pleased.
"The nearest
one to ornament our choir
Was Peter
Lombard who, like the poor widow,
Presented all
his treasure to Holy Church.
"The fifth
light, and the loveliest among us,
Breathes with such love that the whole world below
Hungers to
learn something new about it.
"Within it is
the lofty mind, endowed
With wisdom so
profound, if truth be truth,
No second ever
rose with such wide vision.
"See at its side the shining of that candle
Which in the
flesh down there discerned most deeply
The nature and
the ministry of angels.
"In the next
tiny flickering flame there smiles
That same
defender of the Christian ages
Whose discourse proved so useful to Augustine.
"If you have
followed now with your mind�s eye
From light to
light the sequence of my praises,
You thirst
already to know about the eighth.
"Within, for
having seen that all is good,
The sainted soul, who shows the world�s deceit
To all who
listen well to him, rejoices.
"The body from
which this soul was driven out
Rests down in
Cieldauro, and he is come
From martyrdom
and exile to this peace.
"See, flashing further on, the burning breath
Of Isidore, of
Bede, and of that Richard
Who was more
than a man in contemplation.
"The one from
whom your gaze turns back to me
Is the glow of
a soul in whose grave thoughts
The coming of his death appeared too slow.
"It is the
neverending light of Siger
Who, lecturing
at the rue du Fouarre,
enviable truths."
Then, like a
clock that chimes us at the hour
When the Bride of God rises to sing
Her matins to
her Spouse to make him love her,
With one part
pulling and the other pushing,
ding-dong with notes so dulcet that
true-devoted spirit swells with love,
Just so I saw the wheel of glory rotate
And answer
voice to voice with harmony
And sweetness
that can never be conceived
Except where
joyfulness is everlasting.
Canto XI
O senseless
the concerns of mortal men!
How empty are
the reasonings that force you
To flap your
wings and plunge in downward flight!
Here one
pursues the law, there medicine;
Another hurries off into the priesthood,
And one would
rule by fraud or violence!
This one looks
to theft and that to business;
caught in pleasures of the flesh,
Wears himself
out; one lolls in idleness;
While I, delivered from all these concerns,
Am high in
heaven now with Beatrice,
Made welcome
in the glory of the blessed.
When each one
of the spirits had come round
To that point
of the circle that he�d left,
Each rested like a candle in its stand.
And I heard
from within that radiance
Which first
addressed me � all the while it smiled
And grew still
brighter � a voice begin to say,
"Just as in
turn I glitter with these rays,
So, staring into the Eternal Light,
I know your
thoughts and why you�re thinking them.
puzzled and would like me to explain
My words in
open and explicit language
Aimed at the
level of your comprehension,
"When I just said, �Where fattening is good,�
And also this:
�No second ever rose�;
And here a
clear distinction must be made.
Providence that rules over the world
With counsel
in which all created sight
Is overcome before it plumb the depths�
"So that the
Bride of him who with loud cries
Had married
her with his own blessed blood
Might move
ahead to meet with her Beloved,
"Confident in
herself and true to him�
Sent for her benefit two princes who
On this side
and on that would be her guides:
"The one was
all seraphic in his ardor,
The other for
his wisdom was on earth
An iridescence
of cherubic light.
"Of one I shall speak, for in praising one�
chosen � I will praise them both,
Because their
labors led to one same goal.
Topino and the stream that pours
Down from the
hill picked by the blest Ubaldo,
A fertile slope slants from a soaring mountain
"Which makes
Perugia feel the cold and heat
Through Porta
Sole; and for their heavy yoke
Gualdo and
Nocera weep behind it.
"From this
slope, where its steepness tapers off,
A sun has risen up into the world,
Just as it
sometimes rises from the Ganges.
"Let no one,
then, who seeks to name this place
Speak of
Assisi, a word that is too meager,
But of the
East, if he would talk correctly.
"He was as yet not too far from his dawning
When he began
to make the earth feel fairly
by the power of his virtue;
"For he, while
still a youth, rushed into battle
Against his
father for a lady to whom,
Like death, no one unlocks the door with pleasure.
"And in the
presence of his spiritual court
Before his
father he was wedded to her,
And after, day
by day, loved her more deeply.
"She, for
eleven hundred years and more
Bereft of her first husband, scorned, obscure,
Was left
without a wooer till he came.
"Nor was it
any help to her to hear
That he who
frightened the whole world found her,
With Amyclas,
unruffled by his voice.
"Nor was there help in having been so steadfast
And fearless
that, when Mary stayed below,
She mounted up
with Christ high on the cross.
"But not to go
on speaking too obscurely,
Now, from this
point, take Francis and Poverty
To be the lovers in my long description.
"Their harmony
and look of happiness
Made love and
wonderment and tender glances
The wellspring
of inspired holy thoughts,
"So that the
venerable Bernard first
Took off his shoes and ran for such full peace,
And in his
running thought himself too slow.
"Oh unknown
wealthiness! oh fruitful good!
Egidius goes
barefoot, Silvester too,
Behind the
groom, the bride so pleases them!
"This father and this master then departs
With his dear
lady and their family
cinctured with the lowly cord:
"No shame of
heart made him bow down his head
For being
Pietro Bernardone�s son,
Nor for appearing wondrously despised,
"But royally
he revealed his stern resolve
To Innocent,
and he received from him
The first seal
of approval for his Order.
"After a poor
multitude had swelled
Behind this man whose miracle-making life
Were better
sung with hymns in heaven�s glory,
"The Eternal
Spirit through Honorius
Encircled then
the sacred purposes
Of the chief
shepherd with a second crown.
"And after that, in thirst for martyrdom,
Before the
haughty presence of the Sultan,
He preached
Christ Jesus and his followers;
"And when he
found the people too unripe
To be
converted � not to waste his efforts�
He returned to harvest the Italian fields.
"Then on a
harsh crag between Tiber and Arno
He received
from Christ the last imprinted seal
Which for two
years he bore upon his limbs.
"When He who�d
chosen him for such great good
Was pleased to draw him up to the reward
Which he had
earned by making himself little,
"To his
brothers as to his rightful heirs
He recommended
his most precious lady
And ordered
them to love her faithfully;
"And from her bosom the illustrious soul
Chose to
depart, returning to the kingdom,
And for his
body wished no other bier.
"Reflect now
what he was who was a worthy
Colleague to
him for keeping Peter�s bark
Straight on its course across the open sea.
"And such was
Dominic, our patriarch:
So you can see
that he who follows him
As he commands
transports a priceless cargo.
"But now his
flock has grown so greedy for
New tastes in food that it is only found
throughout the pasture wilderness.
"The farther
from him his sheep stray afield,
Remote and
vagabond, the emptier
Of milk are
they, returning to the fold.
"Some sheep there are indeed that, fearing danger,
Keep close to
the shepherd, but they are so few
That little
cloth can make up all their cowls!
"Now, if my
words have not been indistinct,
If you have
listened to them with attention,
And if you call to mind what I have said,
"Your wish to
know is partially fulfilled
For you will
see just how the tree is hacked,
And you will
see the meaning of the charge:
" �Where
fattening is good, unless they stray.� "
Canto XII
The instant
that the blessed flame had taken
To speak this
final word, the sacred millstone
Started its
rotation once again;
And it had not
yet turned completely when
A second circle closed around the first,
Motion matched
with motion, song with song:
Song that
surpassed in those sweet-sounding pipes
The music of
our Muses or our Sirens
Much as a ray
surpasses its reflection.
Just as, across the thinned-out clouds two rainbows,
Parallel and
alike in color, bend
When Juno
gives the order to her handmaid �
The outer band
formed by the inner one:
The way the
words were of the wandering nymph
Whom love consumed as sunlight consumes vapors �
And let the
people on earth forecast how,
Through the
covenant God made with Noah,
Never again
shall the world be flooded.
Two garlands
of sempiternal roses
Revolved around us, and in this manner too
The outer
circling answered to the inner.
Now when the
dance and all high festival
Of singing and
flaming scintillation
Of light with
light in gentleness and gladness
At the same moment and with one accord
Had ended,
like the eyes at pleasure�s prompting
Compelled in
unison to close and open,
Out of the
heart of one of these new lights
There stirred
a voice which made me like the needle
In a compass turning to the North Star:
It began, "The
love that makes me beautiful
Draws me to
speak about the other leader
For whose sake
mine is so well spoken of.
"It�s fitting
to bring one in with the other
That, where they waged war toward one common goal,
Their glory
likewise may shine out together.
army, which had cost so dear to arm
Afresh, was
marching on behind the standard
With slow and
straggling steps and scanty numbers,
"When the one Emperor who reigns forever
Provided for
his troops who were in peril
Through grace
alone, not through their worthiness,
"And, as you
heard, to help his Bride he sent
Two champions
who by their words and actions
Rallied the people who had gone astray.
"In that
region where the West Wind rises
Sweetly to
open up the leaves in bud
Which Europe
sees herself dressed in anew �
"Not too far
from the crashing of the waves
Behind which, after his long course, the sun
conceals himself from everyone,
"There lies
the fortunate Calaroga
Beneath the
safeguard of the mighty shield
Which bears
the lion sovereign and subdued.
"Within this town was born the ardent lover
Of Christian
faith, the holy athlete,
Kind to his
friends and cruel to his foes.
"His mind, as
soon as it had been created,
So filled with
living virtue that he made,
From in the womb, his mother prophesy.
"When he and
Faith exchanged their marriage vows
Before the
sacred fountain where for dowry
They pledged
each other mutual salvation,
"The lady who
had acted as his sponsor
Saw in a dream the wonder-working fruit
Which was to
come from him and from his heirs.
"And that his
name might show his real self,
A spirit from
here went to christen him
With the
possessive of Him whose he would be:
"Dominic he was called, and I speak of him
As of the
husbandman whom Christ has chosen
To help him in
the tilling of his garden.
"Clearly he
seemed Christ�s messenger and friend,
For the first
love made manifest in him
Was after the first counsel that Christ gave.
"Many times
his nurse discovered him
Quiet and
awake upon the ground,
As if to say,
�It is for this I came.�
"Oh his father
� truly happy Felix!
Oh his mother � truly graced Joanna,
If the roots
of their names mean what men say.
"Not for the
world for whose sake men now toil,
Aping the
Ostian and Thaddeus,
But only out
of love of the true manna,
"In short time he became so great a teacher
That he began
to labor round the vineyard
Which turns
gray if the dresser shirks his work.
"And of the
Seat which once was kindlier
To the devoted
poor � not in itself
Degraded, but in him who�s seated there �
"He did not
ask to keep half of his payments,
Nor for the
funds of the first vacancy,
Nor for the
tithes belonging to God�s poor,
"But for
permission to fight the errant world
In defense of the seed from which there sprang
twenty-four plants that surround you here.
"Then both
with doctrine and determination,
In the
apostolic office he set out,
Like a torrent
gushing from a lofty vein;
"And his force struck the stocks of heresy
With the most
vehemence in those enclaves
Where the
resistance was most obstinate.
"From him
there flowed out those divergent streams
With which the
Catholic garden is so watered
That its small trees have a more vigorous life.
"If such was
one wheel of the chariot
In which the
Holy Church defends herself
And in the
field puts down her civil strife,
excellence of the other wheel which Thomas
Extolled so courteously before I came
Surely must be
evident to you.
"But the track
taken by the topmost part
Of that
wheel�s rim has now been so abandoned
That there is
mold where once there was hard crust.
"His household, which marched out straight ahead
With their
feet in his footprints, so turns round
That their
toes come down where the heel has been.
"And soon
there shall be seen what sort of harvest
Bad tillage
causes, when the tare complains
Of being thrown out from the granary bin.
"I say,
however, should one search our volume
Leaf by leaf,
he might still find a page
On which he�d
read, �I am what I was always.�
"But not from
Acquasparta or Casale
Shall that page come, for one ignores the text,
The other
reads tight strictures into it.
"I am the
living soul of Bonaventure
From Bagnorea,
who in high office
Always put the
temporal cares behind.
"Here are Illuminato and Augustine,
Who were among
the first poor barefoot brothers
Who with the
cord made themselves friends of God.
"Hugh of Saint
Victor is here with them as well,
And Peter
Comestor and Peter of Spain
Who down on earth sheds light in his twelve books.
"Nathan the
prophet, Anselm, Chrysostom
metropolitan, and that Donatus
Who stooped to
put his hand to the art of grammar.
"Here is
Rabanus, and beside me beams
Joachim, the abbot of Calabria
Who was
endowed with a prophetic spirit.
"The glowing
courtesy of Brother Thomas
And his
well-advised discourse have moved me
To celebrate
so fine a paladin,
"And with me it has moved this company."
Canto XIII
Imagine, if
you really want to grasp
What I now saw
� and hold on to the image
Firm as a rock
while I am speaking here �
Fifteen stars
which in the different quarters
Liven up the sky with such sharp brightness
That they
pierce all the thickness in the air;
Imagine that
Great Bear which on the breast
Of heaven
rests all night and day, so that
It does not
vanish with the turning pole;
Imagine also the mouth of that Horn
Which starts
at one end of the axle star
Around which
the first wheeling daily rotates;
Imagine all
these patterning out two signs
In heaven,
like the constellation of King Minos� daughter
Formed when she felt the chill of death upon her,
One circle
with its rays inside the other,
And both so
spinning round the center that
One should
turn first and after that the other:
Then you will
glimpse some shadow of the real
Constellation and the double dance
Revolving on
the spot where I was standing.
For it�s as
far from our experience
As the motion
of the highest swiftest heaven
Outspeeds the
sluggish flow of the Chiana.
They sang no Paean there nor hymn to Bacchus,
But to Three
Persons in the Godhead�s nature,
And God and
human nature in one Person.
The song and
circling ran to their full measure,
And then those
holy lights attended to us,
Happy to pass from caring to new care.
Then the light
in which the wondrous life
Of the poor
man of God was told to me
Shattered the
silence of these souls in concord,
And said,
"Since one sheaf has been beaten out,
And all its grain is garnered at this time,
Sweet love now
bids me to thresh out the other.
"You believe
that, in the breast from which
The rib was
pulled to shape her lovely cheek
Whose palate
all the world has paid for dearly,
"And in the breast which, pierced so by the lance,
Before and
after made such satisfaction
That it
outweighs all evil in the scale,
"In both, all
of the light that human nature
May possess
has been infused in full
By that Power that formed one breast and the other.
"You ponder,
therefore, what I have said above
When I told
how the excellence enclosed
Within the
fifth light never had a second.
"Now open your
eyes wide to what I answer
And you will see your thinking and my speaking
Become in
truth the center of a circle.
"Those things
that die and those that cannot die
Are but the
splendor of the one Idea
Which in his
love our Father has begotten;
"For the same living Light which so streams from
The lucent
Source that it is never parted
From it or
from the Love which makes them Three
"Through its
own goodness focuses its rays
In nine
existences like nine reflections,
Itself eternally remaining One.
"From there to
the remotest potencies
Light falls
from act to act until it comes
To make now
only brief contingencies.
"By these
contingencies I understand
The generated things produced by seeds
Or, if without
seeds, by the moving heavens.
"The wax of
these things and what molds the wax
Are not the
same, and so the ideal stamp
Shines through
it more or less transparently.
"So it happens that trees of the same species
Bear better or
worse fruit, and that by birth
Human beings
have diverse endowments.
"If the wax
were molded to perfection,
And were the
heavens at the height of power,
The light through the whole seal would be apparent,
"But nature
always gives imperfectly,
Working in the
same way as the artist
Whose hand
shakes in the practice of his art.
"But if warm
Love disposes and imprints
The clear-cut vision of the primal Power,
perfection is accomplished there.
"So clay was
once made suitable to form
The full
perfection of a living man,
So was the
virgin made to be with child.
"I give approval, then, to your opinion
That human
nature never was nor shall be
As perfect as
it was in those two persons.
"Now if I went
no further than this point,
You might well
start to ask, �How is it then
This other one is said to have no equal?�
"But to make
plain what still is not apparent,
Consider who
he was and what moved him
To his request
when God said, �Choose your gift.�
"I�ve spoken
like this so you�ll plainly see
He was a king who chose the gift of wisdom
In order to be
worthy of his kingship
"And not to
know the number of the moving
Angels here
above, nor if necessity
With a
condition ever proved necessity,
"Nor if there is prime motion, nor if one can
Construct a
triangle in a semicircle
So that it has
no right angle inside.
"It follows,
if you note what I have said,
That kingly
prudence is the matchless vision
At which my arrow of intention strikes.
"And if you
turn your sharp-eyed sight to �rose,�
You will see
it refers only to kings,
Of whom there
are many, but the good are rare.
"Take my words
on him with this distinction
110 And
they are in accord with your belief
Regarding the
first father and our Beloved.
"And let my
words be lead weights to your feet,
To slow you,
like a weary man, from hastening
To the yes
or no of what you do not see.
"For he is well placed low among the fools
Who, whether
in affirming or denying,
Does not
distinguish one case from the other.
"For often it
occurs that one�s opinion,
When quickly
formed, leans in the wrong direction,
And vanity then binds the intellect.
"It is far
worse than vain to quit the shore
To fish for
truth and not possess the skill,
Since one
returns worse off than when he left.
"And here,
Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson,
And many more who went they knew not where
Are open proof
of this folly to the world,
"As are
Sabellius and Arius,
And those
fools who to Scripture were like swords
straight faces with distortion.
"Again, let people not be too secure
In how they
judge, like someone who would count
The ears of
corn before the field is ripe.
"For I have
seen first, all the winter through,
The briar show
itself barbed and unbending,
And then upon its stem it bears a rose.
"And I have
seen a ship sail swift and straight
Over the vast
sea, through her entire course,
To sink at
last while entering the harbor.
"Let every
Dick and Jane not think, if they
See someone steal and someone make an offering
That they
observe them with divine omniscience,
"For the thief
may rise up, and the donor fall."
Canto XIV
From center to
rim and rim to center, water
Inside a round
bowl moves, depending on
Whether it�s
struck from outside or within.
So this image
all of a sudden dropped
Into my mind, just as the glorious
Life of Thomas
fell back into silence,
Because of the
resemblance which arose
Between this
speech of his and that of Beatrice
Who was
pleased to begin by following him:
"This man still needs, although he will not tell you
Either by his
talk or yet in thought,
To probe
another truth down to its root.
"Tell him if
the light with which your substance
Breaks into
blossoms shall remain with you
Eternally, just as it now exists;
"And if the
light remains, then tell him how,
When you are
once again made visible,
It�s possible
it will not hurt your sight."
As when those
dancing in a ring, urged on
And drawn by more delight, from time to time
Gladden their
gestures and lift up their voices,
So at that
eager and devout petition
The saintly
circles in their gay gyrations
And marvelous
melodies displayed new joy.
Whoever grieves because we must die here
To live above
has never witnessed there
The sweet
refreshment of the endless shower.
The One and
Two and Three that lives forever
And ever
reigns in Three and Two and One,
Uncircumscribed and circumscribing all,
Three times
was sung by each one of the spirits
Of those two
rings, with such a melody
As would be
fit reward for every merit.
And I heard in
the most resplendent light
Of the smaller circle a voice as modest,
Perhaps, as
was the angel�s voice to Mary,
Replying, "As
long as the festival
Of paradise
shall last, so long our love
Shall radiate
around us like a robe.
"Its brightness is proportioned to our fervor,
Our fervor to
our vision, in the measure
That each
possesses grace beyond his merit.
"When our
flesh, made glorious and holy,
Shall clothe
us once again, our persons then
Will be more welcome being all complete.
"For whatever
unearned light the Highest Good
Freely bestows
on us will be increased �
Light which
enables us to look on him,
"So that for
us our vision must increase,
Our fervor increase kindled by the vision,
Our splendor
increase coming from the fervor.
"But as a coal
in giving off its flame
Outshines the
fire with its burning glow,
And in this
way keeps its apparent shape,
"So this effulgence now encircling us
Shall be
outshone in brilliance by the flesh
Which all this
while lies buried in the ground.
"Nor will so
bright a light cause us fatigue,
Since the
organs of our bodies will be strong
To everything that can bring us delight."
So ready and
alert to cry Amen
One chorus and
the other seemed to me
That clearly
they desired their dead bodies,
Not only for
themselves but for their mothers,
Their fathers, and the others dear to them
Before their
flesh became eternal flame.
And look! a
lustre of steady brightness rose
Around about,
beyond the shining there,
Like a horizon
growing ever lighter.
And as at the first rise of early evening
New objects
start to show up in the sky,
So that their
sight seems, and does not seem, real,
I thought I
there began to see new beings
Approaching to
form still another circle
Outside the other two�s circumferences.
O the true
sparkle of the Holy Spirit!
How suddenly
full of glory it became
Before my eyes
which, beaten, could not bear it!
But Beatrice
showed herself to me so smiling
And so beautiful that I must leave it there
Among the
sights beyond my memory.
From this, my
eyes recovered strength to raise
once more: I saw myself translated
Alone with my
lady to a higher bliss.
I clearly grasped that I had risen farther
By the
glittering smile of the next planet
Which I found
ruddier than usual.
With all my
heart, and in the tongue which sounds
The same in
all, I gave God a burnt offering
To thank him for this gift of his new grace.
Nor had the
burning of this sacrifice
Yet ended in
my breast when I knew that
My offering
had been favorably accepted
Because, with
such a glow of ruby red,
Splendors so shone before me in two rays
I cried, "O
Helios who adorns them brightly!"
Just as the
Milky Way, pricked out by greater
And lesser
lights, gleams so from pole to pole
That even the
wisest minds are thunderstruck,
So constellated, in the depths of Mars
Those two
beams formed the venerable sign
Which the
crossed quadrant lines made in a circle.
Here now my
memory outruns my talent,
For Christ
flamed from that cross with such a flash
That I can find no pattern fit for it.
But he who
takes his cross to follow Christ
Will pardon me
for what I leave untold
When he looks
at Christ gleaming in that dawn.
From tip to
tip, between the top and bottom,
Light-rays were moving, brightly glittering
As they all
met together and passed by:
So here on
earth we see the motes of dust
Drift straight
or slanting, swift or slow of motion,
Changing in
appearance, long or little,
Sifting through the sunbeams sometimes streaking
Through the
shaded rooms which men have built
With skill and
talent for their own protection.
And as a harp
or viol that is strung
With many
cords for harmony chimes sweetly
On ears that cannot catch the melody,
So from the
lights appearing to me there,
A music
swelled throughout the cross and held me
though I could not tell the hymn.
I firmly
marked it was a song of praise
Because "Rise up," and "Conquer" came to me
As one who
hears but does not understand.
I was so moved
with loving by this strain
That nothing
until then that I had felt
Had bound my
being with such dulcet fetters.
Perhaps these words of mine appear too daring,
Seeming to
slight the bliss of those bright eyes
In which my
longing gaze finds its repose.
But one who
considers how the living seals
Of every
beauty grow with their ascent,
And how I there had not yet turned to them,
He may excuse
me of my self-accusation
So that I can
excuse myself, and see
I speak the
truth, for holy joy�s not lost
By growing
ever purer as one rises.
Canto XV
Gracious will
� in which true-breathing love
Always reveals
itself, as evil greed
itself into a grudging will�
Hushed to
silence the sweet-sounding lyre
And stilled the sacred strings that the right hand
Of heaven
either slackens or sets tight.
How shall
these beings be deaf to just prayers
Who, to prompt
me in my petitioning them,
With one
accord fell mute and left their music?
Rightly should he endlessly lament
Who, for the
love of what does not endure
Forever, robs
himself of that true love.
As through the
quiet cloudless evening sky
There shoots
from time to time a sudden flame,
Shifting the eyes that had stared steadily,
And it seems
that a star is changing place,
Except that
where it flares no star is missing
And that it
lasts for only a short instant:
So from the
right-hand tip down to the foot
Of that bright cross there darted out a star
Of the
resplendent constellation�s circle.
Nor did that
jewel tumble from its ribbon,
But ran its
course along the radial line
And looked
like fire seen through alabaster.
With like affection did Anchises� shade
Reach out (if
we may trust our greatest muse)
When, in
Elysium, he saw his son.
"O blood of
mine! O overbrimming grace
Of God! For
whom was ever heaven�s gate
Thrown open twice, as it has been for you?"
So spoke that
light, and I gave it my attention.
Then I turned
my gaze once more to my lady
And I was
awestruck on one side and the other
Since her eyes
were ablaze with such a smile
That I thought with my eyes I�d touched the limit
Of all my grace and all
my paradise.
Then, a pure
joy for listening and for sight,
The spirit
added to his earlier words
Things past my
grasp, his speech was so profound.
Nor did he hide his sense from me by choice,
But of
necessity, because his thoughts
Were far above
the mark of mortal mind.
But when the
bow of his burning affection
Was so relaxed
that what he said flew downward
Toward the target of our intellect,
This was the
first thing that I understood:
"Blessed are
you, both Three and One, who show
Such favor to
the seed of my descendants."
And he went
on, "You have assuaged, my son,
Within this light through which I speak to you,
The long and
cherished hunger which derived
"From reading
the great book where black and white
Are never
changed: for this I give her thanks
Who clothed
you with the wings for this high flight.
"For you believe that your thoughts flow to me
From Him who
is the First, as five and six,
If one is
known, derive from unity.
therefore, who I am and why I seem
To you more
joyful than the other spirits
In this gay throng, you do not ask of me.
"And you
believe the truth, for least and greatest
In this life
always gaze into that mirror
Where you
reveal your thoughts before you think.
"But that the
holy love in which I watch
With ceaseless vision, and which makes me thirst
With sweet
desire, may sooner be fulfilled,
"Let your own
voice, assured and bold and glad,
Ring out your
will, ring out your heart�s desire,
To which my
answer is already ordered!"
I turned to Beatrice, and before I spoke
She heard me,
and she smiled me her assent
Which made the
wings of my desire grow.
Then I began,
"Love and intelligence,
When the First
Equality appeared to you,
Became in all of you equally balanced
"Because the
Sun that illumined and warmed you
Has such
equality of heat and light
That all
analogies fall short of it.
"But mortal
wishes and abilities,
For reasons that are evident to you,
Do not have
equal feathers in their wings.
"I who am
mortal feel myself in this same
Imbalance, so
that only with my heart
May I give
thanks for your paternal welcome.
"I do, however, beg you, living topaz
That flames
within this precious diadem,
To satisfy my
longing with your name."
"O leaf of
mine, in whom I found my pleasure
Only awaiting
you: I was your root."
In this way he began his answer to me,
Then said,
"The man from whom your family name
Comes down,
and who a hundred years or more
Had trudged
around the first ledge of the mountain,
"Was my son,
and your own grandfather�s father.
Surely it is right that you should shorten
By your good
works his long laborious trial.
within her ancient rounded walls
From which she
still hears tierce and nones toll out
Lived in
peace, her people chaste and sober.
"There were no necklaces, no coronets,
lace-embroidered gowns, no silken girdles,
Meant to be
looked at rather than the person.
"Nor did the
daughter at her birth yet cause
Fear to her
father, for her age and dowry
Had not run to excesses either way.
"No houses
stood vacated by their families.
Sardanapalus had yet arrived
To show what
can be acted in one�s chamber.
"Not yet had
Montemalo been surpassed
By your Uccellatoio which in rising,
Passed it, so
shall it pass it in its fall.
"I saw
Bellincione Berti belted
In simple bone
and leather, while his wife
Stepped from
her mirror with her face unpainted.
"I saw the lords of Nerli and of Vecchio
Content to
wear a coat of plain-dressed skins,
And their
wives ply the spindle and the flax.
"O happy
women, each of them assured
Of her own
burial spot, and none abandoned
Yet in her bed because of trips to France!
"One kept a
constant watch to mind the cradle
And soothingly
employed that infant speech
Fathers and
mothers first delight in using.
"Another, as
she drew threads from the distaff,
Would tell her family household the old stories
Troy and Rome and Fiesole.
"Then Lapo
Salterello and Cianghella
Would have
been held as strange a marvel as
Cincinnatus and Cornelia now.
"To such a restful and a lovely life
Among the
citizens, to such a loyal
Community, to
such a cordial home,
presented me, called by loud prayers:
And I became,
in your old baptistery,
At once a Christian and a Cacciaguida.
"Moronto and
Eliseo were my brothers;
My wife came
from the valley of the Po,
And from that
place your surname is derived.
"I later
served the Emperor Conrad,
And with his knighthood he invested me,
So highly I
won favor by good deeds.
"I followed
him to fight against the evil
Religion of
those people who usurp,
By your
shepherd�s negligence, your rightful lands.
"There finally falling to that filthy horde,
I gained
release from that deceitful world,
The love of
which debases many souls,
"And to this
peace I came from martyrdom."
Canto XVI
O our inept
nobility of blood!
If you make
people glory in you here
On earth where
our affections grow infirm,
I shall no
longer be surprised at it,
Since there where appetite is not contorted,
I mean in
heaven, I too gloried in you!
Plainly you
are a mantle that soon shrinks,
So that, if
cloth's not let out day by day,
Time will go
round and round you with his scissors!
With formal "You" which was first used in Rome
And which her
offspring hardly favor now,
I once again
began to choose my words
When Beatrice,
who stood slightly to one side,
Smiled, and
seemed to me like her who coughed
At the first fault they tell of Guinevere.
"You are my
father," was my opening word;
"You give me
my full confidence to speak;
You so raise
me I am more than myself.
"So many
streams fill up my mind with joy
That now my mind rejoices in itself
That it can
bear this gladness and not burst.
"Tell me then,
dear root from which I spring,
Who were your
forefathers and what the years
Which were
recorded in your early youth?
"Tell me of the sheepfold of Saint John,
How large the
flock was then and who the folk
Within it
worthy of the highest places?"
As at the
breathing of the winds a coal
Quickens into
flame, so did I see
That light glow brighter with my reverent words.
And as it grew
still lovelier to my eyes,
So with a
sweeter and a softer voice,
But not in
today�s idiom, he said,
"From that day
whereon Ave was first uttered
Unto that birth when my now sainted mother
Was lightened
of me with whom she had been ladened,
"This fiery
planet came five hundred times
And fourscore
to the Lion to rekindle
Its radiance
beneath the burning paw.
"My forebears and I had our birthplace there
Where those
who run within your annual race
First reach
the farthest parish of the city.
"Thus much to
hear suffices for my forebears;
For who they
were and whence they hither came,
Silence is more honorable than speech.
"All those fit
to bear arms who at that time
Were present
there between Mars and the Baptist
Were but the
fifth of those who now are living.
"But then the
citizenry, whose blood now mixes
With Campi and Certaldo and Figline,
Ran pure down
to the lowest artisan.
"O how much
better were it that those folk
Of whom I
speak were neighbors and you shared
Galluzzo and
Trespiano for your boundaries
"Than to have them within and bear the stench
Of Aguglione�s
boor and Signa�s churl
Whose eye by
now is keen for bartering!
"For had the
folk who in this world are most
Degenerate not
been a stepmother to Caesar
But, like a mother, been kindly toward her son,
"Then one who
has become a Florentine
And trafficker
and trader would have lived
At Simifonti
where his grandsire begged.
"The counts
would still possess Montemurlo,
The Cerchi would be in Acone parish,
And the
Buondelmonti still in Valdigreve.
"Confusion of
its persons has been ever
The prime
source of malignance to the city,
As an excess
of food is to the body.
"And a blind bull falls to the ground more headlong
Than the blind
lamb, and frequently one sword
Cuts more
deeply and oftener than five.
"If you
consider Luni and Orbisaglia,
How they have
perished and how after them
Chiusi and Senigallia now follow,
"No longer
will you find it strange or hard
To hear how
families finally come to fail
When even
cities meet a fatal end.
"All things
pertaining to you have their death,
As have yourselves, but some conceal their end
By lasting
long, whereas your lives are short.
"And as the
wheeling of the moon in heaven
Veils and
unveils the shore unceasingly,
In such a
manner Fortune deals with Florence;
"Wherefore it should appear no wondrous matter,
What I shall
tell of the great Florentines
reputation is obscured by time.
"I saw the
Ughi and the Catellini,
Greci, Ormanni, Alberichi,
Illustrious families, already in decline.
"And I saw
too, as grand as they were ancient,
Dell�Arca with
Della Sannella � also
Ardinghi, and Bostichi.
"Above the
gate which at the present time
Is laden with new felony so heavy
That jettison
will soon drift from the ship,
"The Ravignani
lived, from whom descended
Count Guido
and whoever since that day
Has taken the
high name of Bellincione.
"Already Della Pressa knew the way
To rule, and
Galigaio had already
The gilded
hilt and pommel in his house.
"Great was the
vair of Pigli arms already,
Giuochi, Fifanti, and Barucci,
Galli, and those who blush for the false bushel.
"The stock
whence the Calfucci sprang was great
Already, and
the Sizii and Arrigucci
Were raised
already to the curule chairs.
"O what grand
men I saw who are now ruined
By their own pride! Lamberti�s globes of gold
Florence in all her mighty feats!
"So did the
fathers of the Visdomini
Who, when a
vacancy comes in your church,
Fatten by
stalling in the consistory.
"The overweening breed that plays the dragon
To one who
runs off, but to one who shows
His teeth � or
purse � is docile as a lamb
"Were on the
rise already, but so low
That Ubertin
Donato was not pleased
To have his father-in-law make them his kin.
Caponsacco had come down
To the market
from Fiesole; then Giuda
And Infangato
were good citizens.
"One thing I
tell, incredible but true:
You entered the small circuit of old walls
Through a gate
named for the Della Pera.
"Each one who
bears the handsome coat of arms
Of the great
Baron whose name and whose renown
The feastday
of Saint Thomas keeps alive
"Had knighthood from him and its privilege,
Though he who
borders those arms now with gold
This day is
siding with the multitude.
"There the
Gualterotti and Importuni dwelt
Already, and
the Borgo would be quiet still
If they had rid themselves of their new neighbors.
"The house
from which your weeping has its birth,
The Amidei, in
their just resentment
Slaying you
and ending your glad life,
"Was honored
for itself and for its consorts.
O Buondelmonte, how ill of you to fly
From plighted
troth at promptings of another!
"Many who now
mourn would have rejoiced
If God had
thrown you to the Ema river
The first day
you arrived before the city!
"But it was fitting, in her final peace,
That Florence
should then sacrifice a victim
Unto the
broken stone which guards the bridge.
"With all
these folk and all the others with them
I saw Florence
in such assured repose
150 That
she still had no reason to lament.
"With all
these folk I saw her populace:
So glorious,
so righteous, that the lily
Had never hung
reversed upon the lance,
"Nor yet been
dyed vermilion by division."
Canto XVII
Like him who
came to Clymene to learn
If what he
heard against himself were true,
Who still
makes fathers cautious toward their sons,
Such was I and
such was I seen to be
Both by Beatrice and by the holy lamp
That changed
its place before to meet with me.
With that my
lady said to me, "Send forth
The flame of
your desire so that it may
Come clearly
printed with its inner stamp.
"Not that our knowledge ever will increase
By what you
say, but that you may learn how
To tell your
thirst, and someone give you drink."
"O my dear
root, who raise yourself so high
That, as our
mind can grasp, a triangle
Cannot contain two obtuse angles in it,
"So do you see
contingent things before
They come to
be themselves, with your deep gazing
Upon the Point
to which all time is present,
"While I was
in the company of Virgil
High on the mountain that heals many souls,
And while I
climbed down through the world of death,
words were said to me concerning
My future
life, although I feel myself
So squarely
set to face the blows of chance
"That I willingly would be content to hear
What fortune
now draws near for me, because
An arrow seen
beforehand has less shock."
I spoke this
answer to that same bright light
previously had spoken to me, and so,
As Beatrice wished, my own wish was confessed.
Not in dark
sayings, with which foolish people
Of old were
once ensnared, before the Lamb
Of God who
takes away our sins was slain,
But in clear
words and with exact discourse
That fatherly love made his reply to me,
Contained in
and shown out of his own smile:
which does not stretch beyond
The meager
volume of your world of matter,
Is fully
pictured in the eternal vision;
"Yet thence it takes on no necessity,
No more than
would a ship which sails downstream
Depend upon
the eyes which mirror it;
"And thence,
as to the ear sweet harmony
Comes from an
organ, to my sight the time
Comes that already waits in store for you.
"As Hippolytus
was driven out of Athens
Through the
treachery and spite of his stepmother,
So you are
destined to depart from Florence.
"Thus it was
willed and thus already plotted,
And soon it shall be done by him who plans it
There where
Christ every day is bought and sold.
"The common
cry, as is the wont, will blame
The injured
party, but the vengeance which
The truth
demands will witness to the truth.
"You shall leave everything most dearly loved:
This is the
first one of the arrows which
The bow of
exile is prepared to shoot.
"You shall
discover how salty is the savor
Of someone
else�s bread, and how hard the way
To come down and climb up another�s stairs.
"And what will
weigh down on your shoulders most
Will be the
bad and brainless company
With whom you
shall fall down into this ditch.
"For all shall
turn ungrateful, all insane
And impious
against you, but soon after
Their brows, and not your own, shall blush for it.
"Their own
behavior will prove their brutishness,
So that it
shall enhance your reputation
To have become
a party to yourself.
"First refuge and first place of rest for you
Shall be in
the great Lombard�s courtesy,
Who bears the
sacred bird perched on the ladder
"And who shall
hold you in such kind regard
That between
you, in contrast with the others,
The granting will be first and asking last.
"With him you
shall see one who at his birth
Was so
imprinted by this star of strength
That men will
take note of his noble deeds.
"Not yet have
folk observed his worthiness
By reason of his age: these wheeling spheres
Have only for
nine years revolved around him.
"But ere the
Gascon cons high-riding Henry,
Some sparks of
virtue shall show forth in him
By hard work
and by caring naught for money.
"His bounty shall be so widespread hereafter
That the
tongues, even of his enemies,
Will not be
able to keep still about him.
"Look you to
him and his beneficence.
Through him
shall many folk find change of fortune,
Rich men and beggars shifting their positions.
"And you shall
bear this written in your mind
Of him, but
tell it not..." � and he told things
Beyond belief
of those who witness them.
Then added,
"Son, these are the glossaries
On what was told to you: behold the snares
Concealed by a
few circlings of the sun!
"Yet be not
envious against your neighbors,
For your life
shall extend much longer than
The punishment
of their perniciousness."
When this saintly soul showed by his silence
That he had
set the woof across the warp
Which I had
held in readiness for him,
I ventured,
like someone who seeks advice,
In his
confusion, from another person
Who sees and wills straightforwardly and loves:
"I clearly
see, my father, how time spurs
Toward me to
strike me such a blow as falls
The heaviest
on him who heeds it least.
"So it is well
I arm myself with foresight,
That if the dearest place be taken from me,
I�ll not lose
all the others, through my verse.
"Down in that
endlessly cruel world below
And on that
mountain from whose lovely summit
The eyes of my
own lady lifted me,
"And afterward, from light to light, through heaven,
I have learned
things which, if I repeat them,
Will give a
bitter taste to many people.
"Yet, should I
be a timid friend to truth,
I fear I will
not live among those who
Shall call this present time the ancient past."
The light in
which the treasure I had found
Kept smiling
started to flash out at first,
Just like a
golden mirror in the sun;
Then he
replied, "A conscience overclouded
Either with its own or others� shame
Will certainly
feel that your speech is harsh.
nonetheless � all falsehood set aside �
Show plainly
everything that you have seen:
Then let them
scratch wherever it may itch!
"For though your voice be bitter at first smack,
Yet later on
when it has been digested,
It shall leave
vital nourishment behind.
"This cry of
yours shall strike as does the wind
Which hits
against the highest peaks the hardest,
And that shall be no petty proof of honor.
"Therefore you
have been shown within these spheres,
Upon the
mountain, and in the woeful valley,
Only the souls
of those known for their fame.
"For the mind
of the listener never rests
And will not build its faith on an example
Whose roots
remain unknown or undiscovered,
"Nor on any
other proof that is not lucid."
Canto XVIII
By now that blissful mirror only brightened
At his own
thoughts, and I too tasted mine,
Tempering the
bitter with the sweet,
When the lady
who was leading me to God
Said, "Shift your thoughts and think on how I am
Near Him who
lifts the burden of all wrongs."
I turned
around at the melodious sound
Of my soul�s
comfort, and what love I saw
Then in those
saintly eyes I leave unsaid:
Not only do I distrust my own speech,
But memory
cannot turn back so far
Above itself,
unless Another guide it.
This much I
can recount about that moment,
That while I
looked upon her my affection
Was liberated from all other longing,
While the
eternal joy that rayed straight down
On Beatrice
filled me with contentment in
The lovely
eyes with their reflected joy.
overwhelmed me with light from her smile,
And said to me, "Turn around and listen,
For paradise
is not just in my eyes."
As here on
earth one sometimes notices
Affection in a
look that is so striking
That the whole
soul is swept up in one glance,
So in the flaming of that holy brilliance
To which I
turned I recognized in him
The wish to
talk to me a short time longer.
He spoke, "In
this, the fifth tier of the tree
Which takes
life from the top and which bears fruit
Forever and which never sheds its leaves,
"Bloom blessed
spirits who, before they came
To heaven, had
below such wide renown
That any muse
would find a wealth in them.
therefore, on the bright horns of the cross,
And he whom I shall name there will flash forth
Swift as the
fire of lightning from a cloud."
I saw a light
streak out along the cross
The instant
Joshua was named aloud,
Nor did I
catch the sound before the motion.
And at the name of the high Maccabee
I saw leap out
another spinning light �
Elation was
the whip that spun that top!
Two more I
followed with my craving sight
Charlemagne and Roland were called out,
As the eye tracks the falcon in its flight.
William of
Orange next, and Renouart,
And then Duke
Godfrey, drew my eager gaze
Along that
cross, and Robert Guiscard too.
Then moving
and mingling with the other lights,
The soul who�d spoken to me let me hear
His art among
the singers of that heaven.
I turned
around once more to my right side
To see in
Beatrice what I ought to do
By giving me a
sign in word or gesture,
And I saw her eyes light so joyfully,
So clearly,
that her likeness now outshone
All it had
been till then, even the latest.
And as a man,
through feeling more delight
In doing good,
from day to day becomes
Aware that he advances in his virtue,
Even so was I
aware my circling round
With heaven
went in ever widening arcs
When I
perceived her wonder still more dazzling.
And like the
change that comes on in a moment
In a fair-skinned lady, when her face is free
From the
burden of its bashfulness,
Such was the
change for my eyes when I turned,
Because of the
soft whiteness of the sixth
Star which
enfolded me within itself.
I saw the Jovial torch within its cresset
Shoot sparks
of love that had its dwelling there,
Patterning out
our language to my eyes.
And as birds,
risen from a river bank,
As though
rejoicing in their pasture, fly
Now in a circle, now in one long line,
So in those
lights were holy creatures singing
While they
were flying, and in their figures
letters: now D, now I, and now
At first they
moved in rhythm with their song,
But then, as they became one of those letters,
They stopped
for a brief interval in silence.
O Pegasean
goddess, you give glory
To the
talented and offer them long life
Which by your
aid they give to kingdoms, cities,
Shed your light on me that I may set forth
These figures
as I have conceived their shape,
And let your
power show through these few verses!
In five times
seven vowels and consonants
They then
displayed themselves, and I took note
Of characters that I seemed to see spoken.
JUSTITIAM were the first
Verb and noun
of all depicted there;
TERRAM were the last.
After, they
formed the M of the fifth word,
Which stayed so placed that Jupiter appeared
Silvery behind
that spot stitched out with gold.
And I saw
other lights descend to where
The top of the
M rose, and come to rest
singing, I believe, the Good that draws them.
Then, as innumerable sparks fly up
With a
striking blow at burning logs
(From this the
foolish try to tell their fortunes),
More than a
thousand lights appeared to rise
From there and
soar, some higher and some lower,
To where the Sun that kindles them appoints.
And when each
one had nestled in its place,
I saw the head
and shoulders of an eagle
Presented in
the patterned points of flame.
He who paints
there has no need of a guide:
He guides Himself, and from Him has derived
instinctive power that builds nests.
The rest of
the blest souls who seemed at first
Content to
form a lily on the M
With a slight
movement finished the design.
O dulcet star! how numerous and bright
The gems that
made it clear to me our justice
Comes from the
heaven which you so bejewel!
Therefore I
pray the Mind in which begin
Your motion
and your power to attend
To where the smoke that blocks your rays arises,
So that once
more he may be angry with
The buying and
the selling in the temple
Whose walls
were built by miracles and martyrs.
O soldiery of
heaven on whom I gaze,
Pray for all who stray from the straight path
By following
bad example down on earth!
Men used to
make war at one time with swords,
But now they
make it by taking here and there
The bread the
kindly Father keeps from no one.
But you, who inscribe only to cross out,
Recall that
Paul and Peter, who died for
The vineyard
you lay waste, are still alive!
You may well
say, "I have so set my passion
On him who
wished to live alone and who
For a girl�s dance was dragged to martyrdom
"That I don�t
know the Fisherman or Paul."
Canto XIX
Before me now
with outspread wings appeared
The gorgeous
image which those weaving souls,
Delighting in
their sweet enjoyment, made.
Each one of
them seemed like a little ruby
In which the sun�s rays burst with such bright flame
That it
reflected light straight to my eyes.
And what I now
am called on to recount
Never has
voice spoken nor ink written,
Nor has
imagination ever grasped it.
For I saw and I heard the beak speak up
And sound out
with its voice both I and Mine
When really it
intended We and Our.
"For being
just and dutiful," it began,
"I am exalted
to that height of glory
Which no desire is able to outreach,
"While, there
on earth, I left a memory
Which even
evildoers wish to praise,
Although they
do not follow its example."
As many embers
make one single heat,
So many loves sound out one single voice
Which issues
from one image of them all.
Then I
addressed them, "O perennial flowers
Of everlasting
happiness! you cause
All your
perfumes to seem to me one scent!
"Breathe out and free me from the mighty fast
That for too
long has kept me hungering,
Finding no
food on earth to ease the pain.
"I know well
that if there are other kingdoms
Which here in
heaven mirror God�s high justice,
Yours does not reflect it through a veil.
"You know how
eagerly I ready myself
To listen, and
you know the question which
From days of
old has made me fast with doubt."
Just as a
falcon, slipping from its hood,
Rears and shakes its head and flaps its wings,
Showing its
spirit, making itself handsome,
So I saw move
that banner which was woven
With praises
for the grace of God, with songs
Such as they
know who there rejoice on high.
The voice began then, "He who turned his compass
Around the
limits of the world, and in it
Marked out
much that is hidden and revealed,
"Could not so
stamp his power on the whole
Universe, but
that his Word must still
Remain in infinite superiority.
"The proof of
this is in that first proud angel
Who was the
pinnacle of every creature
And who fell
unripe, not waiting for the light:
"So we can see
that every lesser nature
Is too slight a container for that Good
Which is
self-measuring and limitless.
"Your vision,
then, which of necessity
Is only one of
the rays of the Mind
permeates all things with plenitude,
"Can never, by its nature, lack the power
But that it
should perceive its origin
Is far beyond
all that occurs to it.
"The sight,
then, that is granted to your world
May penetrate
within eternal justice
No further than the eye into the sea.
"Though from
the shore the eye can see the bottom,
It does not
see it on the open sea;
Yet it is
there, but hidden in the depths.
"Light is not
light unless it come from that
Serene and cloudless Source: else it is darkness,
The shadow and
the poison of our flesh.
"Now then, the
hiding-place, which has concealed
From you the
living justice you so often
Called into
question, lies well open to you.
"For you would say, �A man�s born on the bank
Along the
Indus, and no one is there
Who ever
speaks or reads or writes of Christ.
" �Yet
everything he wills or does is good,
So far as
human reason can perceive,
Without a sin in living or in speaking.
" �Unbaptized
he dies, and without faith.
Where is the
justice that condemns this man?
What is his
fault if he does not believe?�
"Now who are
you to sit upon the seat
Of judgment at a thousand miles away
When your
short sight sees just a foot ahead?
"Surely, were
Scriptures not set over you
As guide, for
him who would split hairs with me
There would be
wondrous chance for questioning.
"O animals of earth, O gross of mind!
Good in
itself, the primal Will has never
Moved from
itself which is the highest Good.
"All in accord
with it is just, and no
Created good
draws this Will to itself
Unless, by raying down, the Will directs it."
Just as the
stork wheels round above her nest
After she has
fed her young their food,
And as each
bird she fed looks up at her,
So did the
blessed emblem turn, and so
I lifted up my eyes, while it, impelled
By many
inspirations, moved its wings.
Wheeling it
sang, and said, "As are my notes
To you who do
not comprehend them, such
Is the eternal
judgment to you mortals."
After the Holy Spirit�s glowing flames
Had quieted,
the voice still in the ensign
Which made the
Romans awesome to the world
Began again,
"None ever mounted to
This kingdom
who did not believe in Christ,
Before or since he was nailed to the tree.
"But mark
this: many who cry out �Christ, Christ,�
Will be less
close to him on Judgment Day
Than someone
who may not have known of Christ.
"The Ethiopian
shall damn such Christians
When the two companies shall be divided,
One rich
forever and the other poor.
"What will the
Persian then say to your kings
When they
shall see the volume opened wide
In which their
infamies are all recorded?
"There shall be seen among the deeds of Albert
One act which
soon will set the pen in motion,
By which the
realm of Prague will turn a desert.
"There shall
be seen the grief brought on the Seine
By that man
who will counterfeit the coinage
And whom the blow of a wild boar will kill.
"There shall
be seen the pride that sharpens thirst
And makes the
Scot and Englishman so mad
That neither
one can stay within his borders.
"Seen too
shall be the lusting and soft living
Of both kings of Bohemia and Spain,
Who never knew
courageousness or wished to.
"Seen too the
Cripple of Jerusalem
Whose goodness
is enough to dot an i,
While his
misdeeds would fill an alphabet.
"Seen too shall be the greed and cowardice
Of him who was
the ward of Fire Island
On which
Anchises ended his long life.
"And to help
you discern his paltriness,
His record
shall be written with few letters
Which will note down a great deal in small space.
"And the foul
acts of his uncle and his brother,
Which heaped
shame on so famed a lineage
And on two
crowns, shall be made plain to all.
"And both
kings of Norway and of Portugal
Shall be known there, and seen the lord of Rascia
Who conned the
coins of Venice to his loss.
"O happy
Hungary, if she can preserve
Herself from
more mishandling! O happy Navarre,
If she can
make herself a mountain stronghold!
"And all should credit that, in pledge of this,
Nicosia and Famagosta
Complain and
wail because their beast of burden
"Will not
break off from the rest of the herd."
Canto XX
When he who
lights up our whole world comes down
Out of our
hemisphere, so that the day
In all
directions fades away to dark,
The sky, which
he alone inflamed before,
All of a sudden shows itself once more
With many
lights lit by his single blaze:
So this shift
in the sky came to my mind
When the sign
of the world and of its leaders
Fell back to
silence with its blessed beak,
Because, of all those living luminaries,
Shining more
brightly, each began to sing
Hymns that
have slipped out of my memory.
O dulcet love,
whose mantle is a smile,
How glowingly
you sounded in those flutes,
Filled only with the breath of saintly thoughts!
When all the
precious and pellucid stones
With which I
saw the sixth star all bejeweled
Had stilled
the chiming of those angelic bells,
I seemed to
hear the murmuring of a river
Clearly coursing down from rock to rock,
Attesting to
the richness of its source.
And as the
notes resounding from the lute
Take shape
within its neck, and as the wind
Sounds at the
opening of the bagpipe it inflates,
So, with no further time spent idly waiting,
That murmuring
whisper of the eagle rose
Up through the
neck, as if the neck were hollow.
There it
turned to a voice, and through the beak
It issued in
the form of words, such words
As the heart on which I wrote them waited for.
"That part in
me which can see in earthly eagles
And can endure
the sun," the voice began,
steadfastly you must now fix your gaze.
"For of the
fires from which I take shape,
Those with which the eye glitters in my head
Are the chief
souls within all of their ranks.
"The one
shining in the middle as the pupil
Was the singer
of the Holy Spirit,
Who took the
ark about from town to town.
"Now he knows here the merit of his song:
How much of it
resulted from his talent,
By the reward
proportionate to it.
"Of those five
that make up my eyebrow�s arch,
The one who is
the nearest to my beak
Gave comfort to the widow for her son.
"Now he knows
the dear price men have to pay
Not to follow
Christ, by his experience
Of this sweet
life and of its opposite.
"And he who
follows on the upper arc
Of the circumference of which I speak
Has put off
death by his true penitence.
"Now he knows
that the everlasting judgment
unchanged, when worthy prayer on earth
Makes what
should be today take place tomorrow.
"The next who follows, to give way to the shepherd,
With good
intentions that bore rotten fruit,
Removed to
Greece, taking the laws and me.
"Now he knows
how the evil that arose
From his good
action does not harm him here,
Although the world be devastated by it.
"The fourth
you see within the lower arc
Was William,
for whom that land goes in mourning
That weeps for
Charles and Frederick yet alive.
"Now he knows
how an upright king is loved
In heaven, as he still makes evident
By the
effulgent likeness of his glory.
"Who would
believe down in the erring world
That Ripheus
the Trojan was the fifth
Of the saintly
splendors in that circle?
"Now he knows much about the grace of God
That your
world cannot see, although his sight
May not make
out the bottom of the sea."
Just like the
lark that soars into the air,
First singing
and then silent in contentment
With the last sweetness sated by its song,
So seemed to
me the image stamped out sharply
By the eternal
Pleasure, through whose will
All things
become what they are in their being.
And though my
questioning showed through me there
Like colors shining through the coated glass,
I could not
bear to wait in silence longer,
But from my
lips burst, "How can these things be?"
Forced out by
the sheer pressure of its weight.
At that I saw
a feast of flashing lights.
And right then, not to hold me in suspense
And wonder,
its eye burning ever brighter,
The blessed
emblem answered me again:
"I see that
you believe these things because
I tell you
about them, but you do not see how,
So that they stay concealed while still believed.
"You act like
one who clearly apprehends
A thing by
name, but cannot grasp its essence
Unless it is
explained by someone else.
"The kingdom
of heaven suffers violence
From all the fervent love and living hope
vanquishes the will of the Most High:
"Not in the
way men vanquish other men;
It conquers
because His will lets it conquer,
vanquished, vanquishes with its own kindness.
"The first and the fifth spirits of my brow
Make you
amazed, since you perceive the region
Of the angels
here adorned with them.
"They quit
their bodies not as you think, pagans,
But Christians
with firm faith, one in the feet
To be pierced, the other, that were pierced.
"For one
returned to flesh and bones from hell
Where no one
ever can regain goodwill,
And that was
the reward of living hope:
"Of living
hope that rendered powerful
Prayers offered up to God to raise him new
So that his
will be able to be moved.
"The glorious
soul of whom I speak, come back
For a short
period to his own body,
Believed in
Him who has the power to help:
"Believing, he burst out in such a blaze
Of the true
love that at his second death
He was worthy
to be welcomed to this mirth.
"The other, by
the grace that wells up from
So deep a
fountain that no creature yet
Has ever cast eyes down to its first wave,
"Placed all
his love on earth in doing right;
And God, from
grace to grace, so opened up
His eyes to
our redemption still to come
"That he
believed in Christ, and from then on
Would not endure the stench of paganism,
And for it he
reproved those perverse people.
"The three
ladies at the chariot�s right wheel
(You saw them)
sponsored him in baptism
A thousand
years before baptismal rites.
"O predestination, how far removed
Your root lies
from the eyesight of those people
Who do not see
the First Cause as a whole!
"And, mortals,
show restraint in making judgments,
For even we
who look on God himself
Do not yet know all those who are elect.
"And such a
failing is a sweet thing to us,
Since in this
good is our own good refined,
That what God
wills is what we will as well."
So, thanks to
that divine emblazoned form,
There I received this soothing medicine
To clear my
eyes of their shortsightedness.
And as a
skillful lutanist can make
The strings
vibrate in tune with a skilled singer
And in this
way add pleasure to the song,
So, I remember, while the eagle spoke,
I saw the two
blest lights together move,
Just as the
eyelids blink with one accord,
Causing their
flames to quiver to the words.
Canto XXI
By now my eyes
fixed once more on the face
Of my own
lady, and with them my mind,
And it
withdrew from every other thought.
She did not
smile, but, "If I were to smile,"
She said to me, "why then you would become
Like Semele
when she turned into ashes,
"Because my
beauty which, as you have seen,
All up the
steps of the eternal palace
Is more
inflamed the higher we ascend
"So burns that, if it were not tempered here,
Your mortal
powers would shatter at its flash,
Just like a
branch struck by a lightning bolt.
"We have
wafted upward to the seventh splendor
underneath the burning Lion�s breast
Beams down below now mingling might with might.
"Fasten your
mind on where your eyes are fixed
And make them
mirrors for the figure which
Within this
mirror shall be shown to you."
Whoever will
recall how gladly I
Pastured my sight upon her blissful face,
When I now
turned my thoughts to a new field,
Shall know how
deep the joy that I then felt,
In so obeying
my celestial guide,
By balancing
one side and then the other.
Within the crystal, circling round the world,
That bears the
name of its beloved leader
During whose
rule all wickedness lay dead,
I saw a
ladder, glimmering like gold
Lit by a
sunbeam, running up so high
That my sight could not trace it to the top.
I saw so many
splendors stepping down
On all its
rungs that I thought every star
In heaven was
cascading down from it,
And just as
jackdaws at the break of day
Through natural instinct fly about together
In order to
warm up their frigid feathers,
Then some,
without returning, soar away,
Some wheel
around to where they started off,
While others
stay on circling in the sky:
Such flights, it seemed to me, the sparkling swarm
Which gathered
all together now performed,
As soon as it
had touched a certain rung.
The soul that
halted closest to us both
Became so
bright that I said in my thought,
"I clearly see the love you signal me.
"But she from
whom I await the how and when
Of speech and
silence, holds her peace, so I,
Against my
wishes, do well not to question."
At this, then,
she, who saw my silent caution
In her vision of Him who sees all things,
Observed to
me, "Set free your fervent wish."
And I began,
"No merit of my own
Will make me
worthy of your answering me,
But for her
sake who lets me question you,
"O blessed life that lies concealed inside
Your own
elation, please reveal to me
The reason you
are placed so close to me,
"And tell me
why within this wheeling sphere
The sweet
symphony of paradise is silent,
Which through the spheres below sounds so devoutly."
"You have the
sight and hearing of a mortal,"
He answered
me; "there is no singing here
For the same
reason Beatrice has not smiled.
"Down on the
holy ladder�s rungs I stepped
So far to offer you warm-hearted welcome
With my talk
and the light that mantles me:
"It was not
stronger love that made me swifter,
For love as
strong or stronger burns up there,
As all these
flaming stars declare to you,
"But the high charity which makes us prompt
To serve the
wisdom governing the world
Assigns us to
our place as you perceive."
"I plainly
see," I said, "O sacred lamp,
How liberal
love is ample in this court
For following eternal providence,
"But this is
what seems hard for me to grasp:
Why you alone
of all your company
Were so
selected to perform this office."
I scarcely
finished saying this last word
When, using its own center as an axis,
The light went
whirling round like a fast millstone.
The love from
in that midpoint then replied,
"Divine light
comes to focus here on me
By piercing
through the beams embracing me:
"Its power, fusing with my sight, uplifts
My soul so
high above itself, I see
The Supreme
Being from which it flows out.
"From this
sight comes the joy with which I flame,
For as my
seeing sharpens, so I match
The sharpness of my flame to equal it.
"But that soul
who in heaven burns the brightest,
That seraph
with his eye most fixed on God,
Could not
resolve the question you have asked,
"For what you
seek lies hidden down so deep
In the abyss of the eternal bidding,
It is cut off
from all created vision.
"And when you
go back to the mortal world,
Take this news
with you, that none may presume
To move his
feet toward so profound a goal.
"The mind is light here, on earth it is smoke.
then, how it can do down there
What it cannot
do up here with heaven�s help."
His words put
such a limit on me that
I left the
question and withdrew myself
So far as to ask humbly who he was.
"Between the
coasts of Italy and not
Too distant
from your homeland, peaks rise up
So high that
thunder sounds far lower down
"And form a
hump that is called Catria,
Beneath which lies a sacred hermitage
Once wholly
given over to pure worship."
So he began to
speak to me a third time,
Then added,
"In that cloister I became
So steadfast
in the service of our God
"That with food seasoned just with olive-juice
I bore both heat and cold,
Content with
thoughtful prayers of contemplation.
monastery used to yield a harvest
Of rich
abundance to these heavens � now,
How bare it has become must soon be shown!
"I was, in
that place, Peter Damian,
And Peter the
Sinner, in the Abbey of
Our Lady on
the Adriatic shore.
"Little was
left me of my mortal life
When I was called and forced to wear the hat
That�s always
handed down from bad to worse.
"Cephas once
came, and came the mighty vessel
The Holy
Spirit chose, barefoot and lean,
Eating their
food at any wayside inn.
"Now modern pastors need people to prop
Their heavy
bodies, on this side and on that,
With one to
lead and one to hold their trains.
"They spread
out their fur mantles on their palfreys
So that two
beasts trot on beneath one hide.
O patience, that you put up with so much!"
With these
words I saw more flames stepping down
From rung to
rung and whirling while they came,
And every
whirl intensified their beauty.
They flocked
around this spirit and stood still
And lifted up a shout so deep in sound
That nothing
heard on earth resembles it.
The thunder dashed me so, I could not
grasp it.
Canto XXII
Struck with
amazement, I turned to my guide,
Like a small
child that always runs back where
The person it
trusts most is to be found.
And she, like
a mother who is quick to calm
Her pale and panting son with her soft voice
Which often
reassures him, said to me,
"Do you not
know that you are now in heaven?
Do you not
know that heaven is all holy,
And that what
is done here springs from true zeal?
"Now you can comprehend how they by song
And I by
smiling would have changed your soul,
When just this
shout has moved you so profoundly.
"By this cry,
had you understood their prayers,
You might have
known already of the vengeance
Which you shall see down there before you die.
"The sword of
heaven does not cut in haste
Nor strike too
late, except in the opinion
Of those who
wait in fear or longing for it.
"But turn now
to the others gathered here,
For you will notice many famous spirits,
If you direct
your gaze as I instruct you."
Just as she
pleased, I turned my eyes and saw
A hundred
little spheres which all together
themselves beautiful with rays they shared.
I stood as someone curbing in himself
The prick of
his desire, who does not dare
To question,
he so dreads to overdo.
And the most
brilliant and magnificent
Of those
bright pearls came forward from its cluster
To make content my wish concerning it.
Then I heard
from within it, "Could you see,
As I can see,
the love that burns among us,
You would have
found expression for your thoughts.
"But that more
waiting may not hold you from
Your goal on high, I will make my response,
Just to the
thought that you keep to yourself.
"The mountain
on whose slope Cassino lies,
Was, on its
summit, visited of old
By a deluded
and perverted people,
"And I am he who was the first to carry
Up there the
name of Him who brought to earth
The truth that
lifts us up so loftily,
"And such
abundant grace shone down on me
That I led the
surrounding towns away
From impious cults which have seduced the world.
"These other
flames were all contemplatives
Enkindled by
the heat which brings to birth
sanctifying flowers and their fruits.
"Here is
Macarius, here is Romualdus,
Here are my brothers who kept steadfast hearts
And planted
their feet within the cloister walls."
And I told
him, "The affection you display
In speaking to
me, and the kindliness
That I observe
in every glowing spirit,
"Have made my confidence spread as the sun
Opens the rose
when it becomes full-blown
And its heart
swells with fresh capacity.
"I therefore
beg you, father, to assure me,
If I am able
to obtain such grace,
That I may look upon your unveiled figure."
He then said,
"Brother, your exalted longing
Shall be
fulfilled up in the final sphere
Where mine and
all desires are fulfilled.
"There every
wish is perfect, ripe, and whole.
There only, in that highest point of heaven,
Is every part
where it has always rested.
"That sphere
is not in space, it has no pole,
And our bright
ladder reaches up to it
So far that it
must vanish from your view.
"The patriarch Jacob saw it stretching
To its top
rung, when it appeared to him
Thronged full
of angels pressing up and down.
"But no one
now lifts his foot from the ground
To climb it,
and my rule is left there like
Waste scraps of paper to be tossed aside.
"The walls
which formerly enclosed an abbey
Now house a
den of thieves, and the monks� cowls
Are sacks
stuffed to the brim with rotten flour.
"But even
heavy usury violates less
Against God�s pleasure than the tempting fruit
That makes the
hearts of monks so mad for it,
"For what the
Church possesses is for all
The people who
request it in God�s name,
Not for
relations or others who are worse.
"The flesh of mortal creatures is so soft
That good
beginnings on earth will not last
From seeding
of the oak to acorn-bearing.
"Peter began
his movement without gold
Or silver; I
mine, with prayers and fasting;
Francis his, with pure humility:
"And if you
look at each of their beginnings,
And then look
back again to where it strayed,
You will see
that the white has turned to black.
"Yet, Jordan
driven back against its course
And the Red Sea divided, when God willed,
Would be less
wondrous sights than help is here."
These words he
said to me, and then rejoined
His company,
and the company closed ranks.
Then like a
whirlwind they were all swooped up.
My own sweet lady, simply with a sign,
Thrust me on
up the ladder after them,
My nature was
so vanquished by her power.
Never on
earth, where we descend and climb
By nature�s
law, has motion been so rapid
105 That
it could be compared to my winged flight.
As I hope,
reader, to return to that
Solemn triumph
for whose sake I often
Weep for my
sins and beat my breast in sorrow:
You could not
put your finger in the fire
And pull it out as swiftly as I saw
The sign that
trails the Bull and stood inside it.
O stars of
glory, O light teeming full
With mighty
power from which I obtain
All of
whatever talent I may have,
Rising with you and setting with you was
The Sun that
is father of all mortal life,
When first I
felt the air of Tuscany,
And when the
grace was granted then to me
To enter the
high sphere that wheels you round,
Your region was the one assigned to me!
To you my soul
devotedly now sighs
That she may
gain the influencing power
For the hard
pass which draws her to itself.
"You are so
close now to the final solace,"
Beatrice began, "that it is necessary
For your eyes
to be vigilant and clear.
"And so,
before you go in any farther,
Look down and
see how vast a universe
I have already
set beneath your feet,
"So that your heart, rejoicing to the full,
May present
itself to the triumphant throng
Which comes
with joy through this ethereal zone."
I traveled
back in gazing down through all
The seven
spheres, and then I saw this globe
So paltry that I smiled at its appearance.
And that
opinion I approve as best
Which holds
the earth as least, and he whose thought
Is elsewhere
may be named as truly upright.
I saw the
daughter of Latona glowing
Without that shadow which was once the reason
Why I believed
that she was rare and dense.
I there
sustained the bright face of your son,
Hyperion; and,
Maia and Dione,
I saw your
children circling close to him.
Then I observed Jove�s tempering between
His son and
father, and I clearly saw
The variations
they make in their orbits.
And all the
seven spheres displayed to me
How grand they
are and how swift in their motion
And how apart in distance from each other.
As I revolved
with the eternal Twins,
I saw revealed
from hills to river outlets
threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious.
Then my eyes
turned back to the eyes of beauty.
Canto XXIII
Just as the
bird that, in the friendly leaves,
Has sat upon
the nest of her sweet chicks
Throughout the
night that hides all things from us,
And, so that
she can see their eager looks
When she has found the food to feed them with
(For she takes
pleasure in her toiling hard),
the day on an open branch
And in the
glow of love awaits the sun
With her sight
fastened for the break of day:
So my lady stood, attentive and erect,
Turning toward
the quarter of the sky
Beneath which
the sun travels with less haste,
And so I,
seeing her alert and longing,
Became like
one who in his wish would have
More than he has, but is content to hope.
Yet time was
brief between the when and when,
The when�s,
I mean, of waiting and of seeing
The sky
increase with more and more resplendence.
And Beatrice
cried, "Look on the glittering legions
Of Christ in triumph and on all the fruit
Harvested by
the turning of these spheres!"
Her face
seemed all aflame as I gazed on her,
And her eyes
looked so full of ecstasy
That I must
pass this by without description.
As at the full moon in the calm clear sky,
Trivia smiles
among the immortal nymphs
That paint the
scene of heaven to its heights,
I saw, above a
million burning lamps,
A Sun that
kindled every one of them
As our sun lights the stars we glimpse on high;
And through
its living light the shining Substance
Glowed out so
brightly down upon my gaze
That my eyes
dazzled and could not endure it.
O Beatrice, my
sweet and cherished guide!
You said to me, "What overwhelms you here
Is a power for
which there is no defense:
"In this One
is the wisdom and the power
That opened up
the path from earth to heaven
For which the
men of old had yearned so long."
Just as lightning
bursts out from a cloud
Because it so
expands it has no room left,
And crashes to
the ground against its nature,
Just so my
mind, becoming more enlarged
At this rich
banquet, broke free from itself,
And cannot now recall what it became.
"Open your
eyes and look at what I am,
For you have
seen such things that you are able
Now to
withstand the vision of my smile!"
I was like one
who wakes up from a dream
That he has half forgotten and who strives
success to bring it back to mind
When I heard
this directive, so deserving
Of gratitude
that it can never be
Blotted from
the book that pens the past.
If all those tongues should sound to aid me now
Polyhymnia and her sister muses
Made all the
richer with their sweetest milk,
It would not
touch a thousandth of the truth
In singing of
her saintly smile and how
It lighted up her saintly countenance.
And so, in my
depicting paradise,
This sacred
poem is forced to take a leap,
Like someone
who finds his path blocked before him.
Whoever marks
this weighty theme, however,
And the mortal shoulders loaded down with it,
Will not blame
if they quake beneath the burden.
This is no
voyage for a little skiff,
This course my
daring prow cuts as it sails,
Nor for a
helmsman sparing himself pains!
"Why are you so enamored with my face
You do not
turn to see the lovely garden
blossoming beneath the beams of Christ?
"Here is the
Rose in whom the Word of God
Took on our
flesh, and here are all the lilies
Whose fragrance pointed out the true straight road."
So Beatrice;
and I, all in readiness
For her
command, prepared myself once more
To struggle to
lift up my feeble eyelids.
As in a ray of
sunlight pouring purely
Down through a rifted cloud, my eyes in shadow
Have sometimes
seen a shining field of flowers,
So I saw there
a myriad host of splendors
Lit brightly
from above by blazing rays,
Although I
could not see the source of brilliance.
O gracious Power that stamps them all with light,
You raised
yourself on high to make room there
For my eyes
which were powerless to look!
The name of
the lovely Flower I call on,
Morning and
evening, focused all my mind
As I fixed my gaze on the brightest Flame.
And when both
of my eyes had seen depicted
The size and
brilliance of the living Star
That conquers
there as down below she conquered,
I saw come
down from heaven a bright torch
That shaped a circlet like a diadem
Girdling her
and wheeling round about her.
sweetest-sounding melody on earth,
Which draws
the soul the closest to its strains,
Would seem to
be a thunder-shattered cloud
Compared to the tuned music of the lyre
That crowns
the most beautiful of sapphires
By which the
brightest heaven is bejeweled.
"I am angelic
love who wheel around
The exalted
gaiety breathed from the womb
Which was the inn of all the world�s desire;
"And, Lady of
Heaven, I will wheel until
You follow
your Son to the highest sphere
To make it
more divine by entering it!"
In this way
the encircling melody
Came to a close, and all the other lights
Rang out with
echoes of the name of Mary.
The royal
mantle which enfolds the orbits
Of all the
worlds, most burning and most living
Within the
breath of God and in his ways,
Withdrew its inner shore so far above us
That any sight
of it, from where I stood,
As yet
remained impossible for me.
My eyes did
not possess the power, then,
To follow the
crowned Flame in upward flight
As she soared into heaven toward her Son.
And as an
infant, after taking milk,
Stretches out
its arms toward its mother,
Because the
soul burns to express itself,
Each radiance
reached upward with its flame,
So that the deep affection which they felt
For Mary was
revealed to me in full.
Then they
remained there, still within my sight,
Regina Coeli with such sweet voices
That my
delight in it has never left me.
O how abundant is the harvest heaped
In those rich
storage-bins of souls who were,
While down on
earth, the sowers of good seed!
Here they live
rejoicing in the treasure
Which they
have won with tears shed in their exile
In Babylon where they held gold in scorn.
Here lives,
triumphant in his victory,
Beneath the
exalted Son of God and Mary,
With those of
the ancient and new covenants,
He who holds
the keys of all this glory.
Canto XXIV
"O fellowship
called to the lavish supper
Of the blest
Lamb who feeds you with such food
That you are
always filled with what you want,
"Since by the
grace of God this man receives
A foretaste of what falls from your full table
Before death
sets a limit to his lifetime,
"Open your
mind to his tremendous craving
And sprinkle
him with dew: you drink forever
Out of the
fountain from which his thinking flows."
So Beatrice; and those elated spirits
themselves in spheres around fixed poles,
Flashing out
like comets while they whirled.
And as wheels
turn within the works of clocks,
So that the
largest seems, to the observer,
To stand still while the smallest seems to fly,
Just so those
singing rings, to different measures
Dancing in
swift circles and in slow,
Enabled me to
judge their wealth of joy.
From the one I
observed to be the richest
I saw burst out a flame so joyful that
None ever
shone with sharper brilliancy.
And three
times it revolved around Beatrice
With so divine
a song, there is no way
For my
imagination to record it:
So my pen leaps ahead and shall write nothing,
Since our
imagining, as well as speech,
Is much too
bright to color in such shades.
"O my holy
sister who so devoutly
Do pray to us,
by your own burning love
You loosen me from out that lovely sphere!"
When it had
stopped, that fire of blessedness
Breathed out
these words directly to my lady,
Exactly as I
have repeated them.
And she: "O
eternal light of the great man
To whom Our Lord entrusted the same keys
Of wondrous
gladness that he brought below,
"Examine this
man on the main and minor
Points of the
faith, just as it pleases you:
That faith
which let you walk upon the sea.
"If he loves well and hopes well and believes,
It is not
hidden from you, since you set
Your sights on
where all things are seen reflected.
"But as this
kingdom gained its citizens
By the true
faith, it is good for its glory
That he should have the chance to tell of it."
Much as the
graduate readies his defense
And keeps
still till his mentor puts the question,
To offer proof
and not to settle it:
So I made
myself ready with every reason
While she was speaking, that I be prepared
For such a
questioner and such profession.
"Tell me, good
Christian, give your declaration:
What is
faith?" With that I raised my forehead
Up to the
light from which these words breathed out.
I turned to Beatrice then, and she straightway
Showed me a
sign that I should pour the water
Out of the
inward spring that welled up in me.
"May the grace
which grants me," I began,
"To make
confession to the chief commander
Result in my thoughts being rightly stated!"
And I went on,
"Just as the truthful pen
Of your dear
brother wrote about it, father,
Who, with you,
once put Rome on the right road:
"Faith is the
substance of things that are hoped for
And the evidence of things that are not seen,
And this
appears to me to be its essence."
Then I heard,
"Your perception is correct,
If you clearly
follow why he placed it first
With substance
and then with evidence."
And I in my response: "The profound things
That here
permit me to catch sight of them
Are so
concealed away from eyes down there
"That they
exist there only in belief,
On which the
height of hope is firmly founded;
And therefore it is called a basic substance.
"And we must
start our reasoning with belief,
Without our
seeing any more than that;
And therefore
it is known as evidence."
Then I heard,
"If all that is held below
As doctrine were so understood by others,
There would be
no place left for clever sophists."
Those words
were breathed out from the burning love
That then
continued, "You have studied soundly,
For now, the
weight and content of this coinage,
"But tell me: have you such coin in your purse?"
To that I:
"Yes, I do: so round, so shining,
That I do not
have doubts about its minting."
Then from the
deep light that was blazing there
These words
rang out to me: "This precious jewel
And this foundation stone of every virtue,
"Whence did it
come to you?" And I: "The streaming
Rain of the
Holy Spirit that pours down
On pages of
the ancient and new Book
"Makes such a
sharp conclusive syllogism,
It proved to me that, by comparison,
All other
demonstrations seem abstruse."
Then I heard,
"These ancient and new propositions
Which draw you
in this way to your conclusion,
Why do you
take them as divinely written?"
And I: "The proof that shows the truth to me
Is in the
works that followed: nature never
For such
wonders heated iron nor beat anvil."
In answer to
me: "Tell me, who assures you
There are such
works? The Truth that must be proved
� And nothing else � asserts that they were so."
"If without
miracles the whole world turned
Christianity," I said, "that miracle
A hundred
times is greater than the rest:
"For poor and
fasting you went in the field
To sow the good seed of the plant that once
Had been a
vine and now�s become a bramble."
This ended,
through the spheres the saintly court
On high
resounded "Te Deum," praising God
With melodies
such as they sing up there.
And that lord-baron, who examining me
From branch to
branch had drawn me on until
Already we
approached the topmost leaves,
Again began,
"The Grace, which with your mind
Keeps up a
dialogue of love, till now
Has opened so your lips to right responses
"That I
approve what has poured out of them;
But now you
must proclaim what you believe,
And whence
these truths came to you for belief."
"O holy
father, spirit who now sees
What you believed so strongly, you outran
Up to the tomb
feet younger than your own,"
I then began,
"you want me here to show
The form of my
unhesitating faith,
And you have
also asked to know its cause.
"And I reply: I believe in one God,
Sole and
eternal, who, himself unmoving,
Moves all the
heavens by love and desire.
"And for this
faith I have not only proofs
From physics
and from metaphysic theory,
But also from the truth that rains down to me
"Through Moses
and the Prophets and the Psalms,
Through the
Evangelists and through all of you
Who wrote
inspired by the Spirit�s fire.
"And I believe in three eternal Persons:
These I
believe one essence, one and three,
So that at
once both are and is agree.
"So many times
the teaching of the Gospels
Stamps upon my
mind the mystery
Of the
divinity I now describe.
"This is the beginning, this the spark
That then
spreads out into a living flame
And shines
within me like a star in heaven."
Just as a
master, hearing a report
That pleases
him and gladdened by the news,
Embraces his servant as soon as he falls silent,
So, singing
joyous blessings down on me,
The apostolic
light, at whose command
I had
confessed, three times wound around me
When I grew
still, my speech had pleased him so!
Canto XXV
If it ever
happens that this sacred poem
To which earth
and heaven have so set their hands
That it has
left me lean through these long years
Conquers the
cruelty that keeps me from
The lovely sheepfold where I slept, a lamb,
An enemy to
wolves that raided it,
Now with a
different voice, with different fleece,
I shall return
a poet, and be crowned
At the same
font in which I was baptized,
For there I entered in the faith that makes
Souls known to
God; and after, for its sake,
Peter wreathed
three times around my forehead.
Right then a
light sped toward us from the ring
From which had
issued forth the same first-fruit
Of all the vicars whom Christ left on earth.
At that my
lady, filled with happiness,
Cried out to
me, "Look! look! And see the baron
For whose
sake, down there, pilgrims seek Galicia."
As when a dove
alights down by its mate,
And one pours out affection on the other,
Circling round
and cooing all the while,
So I saw one
exalted prince of glory
Made welcome
by the other, while they praised
The food which
nourishes them there on high.
But after these glad greetings had been given,
Each one in
silence stopped in front of me,
So blazing
that my sight was wholly vanquished.
Then, smiling
brightly, Beatrice said to him,
spirit, who has chronicled
The liberality of our high court,
"Let hope
resound upon this height: you know
How often you
personified that virtue
When Jesus
showed more honor to you three."
"Lift up your
head and reassure yourself,
For what mounts up here from the mortal world
Must come to
ripening within our rays."
The second
fire gave me this assurance.
With that I
raised my eyes unto the mountains
Whose mighty
weight had first bent down my lids.
"Since by his grace our Emperor wills that
Before your
death you so come face to face
With his peers
here in his most private hall
"That, through
your seeing the truth of this court,
You now may
strengthen in yourself and others
The hope that leads to love of good on earth:
"Tell what is
hope, and how it blossomed up
Within your
mind, and tell where you received it."
The second
light continued in this vein.
And she who in
her lovingkindness guided
The feathers of my wings on that high flight
Anticipated my
response like this:
"There is no
child of the Church Militant
More full of
hope than he, and this is written
There in the
Sun which beams on all our hosts.
"So he has been allowed to take this journey
From Egypt to
Jerusalem, for seeing,
Before he
finished military service,
"The other two
points that you raised above
(Not for your
knowledge but that he report
What lavish pleasure you take in this virtue),
"I leave to
him, for they will not be hard
Nor cause for
boasting: let him answer then,
And may the
grace of God help him reply!"
Just as the
pupil, who is prompt and willing
To show he knows the subject, answers the teacher
To prove to
him that he is worth high marks,
"Hope," I
said, "is the sure expectation
Of future
glory, and it is produced
By divine
grace and by preceding merit.
"This light descends to me from many stars,
But it was
first distilled into my heart
By the leading
singer of the leading Lord.
" �Let them
have hope in Thee who know Thy name,�
He says in his
inspired psalm, and who,
If he has my faith, does not know the song?
afterwards instilled it into me
Through your
Epistle, along with his instilling,
So I am
drenched and rain your dew on others."
While I was
speaking, suddenly a flash
Within the living bosom of the fire
repeatedly like lightning;
Then it
breathed out, "The love that burns in me
Still for that
virtue which had followed me
Up to the palm
and time to quit the field
"Wills that I breathe once more, for your delight,
These words to
you, and so it is my pleasure
For you to
tell what hope holds promised to you."
And I: "The
new and ancient Scriptures give
A symbol in
the souls God made his friends,
And this symbol points the meaning out to me:
"Isaiah says
that each soul shall be dressed
With double
garments in his own country,
And his own
country is this same sweet life.
"Your brother,
too, is even more explicit,
Where he treats of the souls in their white robes,
In setting
forth this revelation to us."
First, as
these words were coming to an end,
"Let them find
hope in Thee," rang out above us,
And to it all
the choirs around re-echoed.
Next, one light among the rings flashed out
So bright that
if the Crab had one such star
Winter would
have a month of total daylight.
And as a happy
girl will rise and run
To join the
dance � not out of vanity,
But only to do honor to the bride,
So I saw the
effulgent splendor come
Up to the two
now reeling to the notes
In perfect
keeping with their burning love.
It joined
there in the singing and the spinning,
And, motionless and silent as a bride,
My lady kept
her eyes attached to them.
"This one is
he who lay upon the breast
Of our true
Pelican, and who was chosen
From on the
cross to take up the great duty."
So spoke my lady, but no more after
Than before
saying these words did she shift
Her gaze away
from where she fixed attention.
Just like the
man who stares and strains to see
The sun when
it is partially eclipsed
And who through peering comes to lose his sight,
So I became on
seeing that last flame
Till this was
said: "Why do you blind yourself
To look for
something that has no place here?
"My body is
still earth within the earth
And will remain there with the rest until
Our number
equals the eternal tally.
"Only those
two lights who have ascended
Wear their two
robes here in the blessed cloister,
And this word
you shall bring back to your world."
While this voice spoke, the flaming gyre grew still,
Together with
the sweet mixed harmony
Made by the
singing of the three-part breathing,
As, in
avoiding danger or fatigue,
The oars that
up to now sliced through the water
Stop all at once right when the whistle blows.
Ah! how deep
was the disturbance in my mind
When I turned
once again to gaze on Beatrice
And found I
could not see her � even though
I stood close
to her in the world of bliss.
Canto XXVI
While I stayed fearful for
my dazzled sight,
There issued
out of the effulgent flame
That blinded
it, a breath that made me listen
As it
declared, "Until you can regain
The sight which you have lost in seeing me,
You well would
compensate for it by speaking.
"Begin then,
and tell at what mark your soul
Is aimed � and
you may rest assured your sight
Is only
clouded over and not lost,
"Because the lady who conducts you through
This holy
place has in her look that power
The hand of
Ananias once possessed."
I said, "When
it shall please her, soon or late,
Let help come
to the eyes which were the gates
She entered with the fire still burning in me.
"The good
which brings contentment to the court
Is Alpha and
Omega of all the scriptures
Love reads to
me with soft or louder tones."
The same voice
that had freed me from the fear
Of my blinding by this sudden dazzlement
Returned me to
my wish to speak again
When it said,
"Surely you must sift this matter
With a much
finer sieve, and you must tell:
Who made you
aim your bow at such a target?"
And I: "By reasons of philosophy,
And by
authority derived from heaven,
Love of this
sort must stamp its seal on me,
"Because the
good, so far as it is understood
As such,
enkindles love, and it does so the more,
The more goodness it contains within itself.
"To the
Essence, then, which is so excellent
That every
good outside of it is nothing
Except a ray
of its own radiance,
"The mind of
all those who discern the truth,
On which this proof of reason is established,
Must move, in
love more than to any other.
"This truth is
made plain to my mind by him
demonstrates to me the primal loving
Of all the
sempiternal substances.
"The truthful Author�s voice reveals it where,
In speaking of
himself, he says to Moses,
�I will make
all my good pass in your sight.�
"You show it
to me too in the beginning
Of your great
gospel which, more than the other
Tidings, tells earth the mystery of heaven."
And I heard,
"Through human intellect
And through
authorities agreeing with it,
Let the
highest of your loves look up to God.
"But tell me
too if you feel other cords
Draw you toward Him, that you may so declare
How many teeth
this love has sunk in you."
I could not
fail to find the holy purpose
Of the eagle
of Christ � rather, I discerned
The direction
he�d have my profession take.
Again, then, I began, "All of those things
With teeth to
make the heart to turn to God
Have fastened
all together in my love:
"The being of
the world and my own being,
The death that
he endured that I might live,
And the reward the faithful (like me) hope for,
"Fused with
the living knowledge that I spoke of,
Have hauled me
from the sea of wrongful love
And set me on
the shore of love set straight.
"As for the
leaves that leaf out the whole garden
Of the eternal gardener, I love each one
In measure as
it grows in goodness from him."
As soon as I
grew still a most sweet song
through the heavens, and my lady
Sang with the
others, "Holy, Holy, Holy!"
And as a shaft of sunlight shatters sleep
When the
spirit of one�s eyesight runs to meet
The radiance
that spreads from lid to lid,
And one who
wakes up shrinks from what he sees,
His mind
befuddled by the sudden rousing,
Until his judgment comes to help him out,
So Beatrice
scattered every speck away
From my eyes
with the beaming of her own
Which shone
back down a thousand miles and more,
So that I now
saw better than before,
And almost thunderstruck I questioned her
About a fourth
light that I saw with us.
And my lady
said, "Within those rays
The first soul
the first Power ever made
Gazes lovingly
upon its Maker."
Just as a bough that bends its twig-tips down
With passing
breezes and then lifts itself
By its own
power to spring up again,
So I stood
bowed with wonder while she spoke,
And then the
wish to speak that burned in me
Raised up my self-assurance once again,
And I began,
"O fruit, the only one
already ripe, O ancient father
To whom each
bride is daughter and daughter-in-law,
"Devoutly as I
may I beg of you
To speak to me: you see my willingness,
And I � to
hear you sooner � say no more."
An animal at
times beneath its wrappings
So wriggles
that it makes its feelings plain
Because the
wraps respond to all its movements:
In the same way, that first soul made it clear
To me � right
through its covering � just how
Elatedly it
came to do my pleasure.
With that it
breathed, "Without my being told
By you, I
seize your wish more lucidly
Than you grasp anything you hold for certain,
"Because I see
it in the truthful mirror
That fashions
a reflection of all else
While nothing
may reflect the mirror back.
"You wish to
hear how long it is since God
Placed me in that lofty garden, where
This lady
readied you for these high stairs,
"And how long
my eyes gladdened at their sight,
And the real
reason for His mighty anger,
And the
language that I framed and then employed.
"Now not the tasting of the tree, my son,
Itself was
reason for so long an exile,
But only the
overreaching of the mark.
"The place
from which your lady drew out Virgil,
There I longed
for this company throughout
Four thousand three hundred and two sun-years,
"And while on
earth I saw the sun return
Nine hundred
thirty times to all the lights
Cast by the
zodiac along its path.
"The tongue
that I had spoken was extinct
Even before those people of Nimrod�s tried
their unfinishable task,
"Because no
work of reason has endured
Forever, due
to human inclination
Which changes
with the shifting of the skies.
"The fact that mortals speak is nature�s doing,
But whether
you speak this or that, nature
Then leaves to
you to follow your own bent.
"Before I went
down to the pains of hell
The highest
Good from whom comes all the joy
That clothes me was called 'I' upon the earth,
"And later was
named �El�: and that must be,
For mortal
ways are like the leaves on branches:
They fall away
and then another forms.
"On the
mountain rising highest from the sea
I lived in innocence and, later, guilt,
From the first
hour to that which follows next
"(When the sun
changes quarter) after the sixth."
Canto XXVII
"Glory to the
Father, Son, and Holy Spirit!"
The whole of
paradise at once poured forth,
So sweet a
song I felt inebriated.
What I saw
seemed to me to be a smile
Of the universe, so that my intoxication
Came over me
from hearing and from sight.
O gladness! O
ineffable elation!
O life
entirely filled with love and peace!
O riches, free
from every other longing!
Before my eyes stood the four burning torches,
And that
splendor which had approached me first
Began to blaze
more brilliantly than all.
And it became
in its appearance such
As Jupiter
would look if he and Mars
Were birds and had exchanged each other�s feathers.
The providence
which there assigns to each
Its services
and functions had imposed
Silence on the
blest choir on every side,
When I heard,
"If I now change my color,
Do not be surprised, for as I speak
You shall see
all these souls change color too.
"The man who
down on earth usurps my place,
My place, the
place which at this time is vacant
Within the
sight of the true Son of God,
"Has made my burial-place a sewer for
Blood and
filth so rank the Evil One
Who fell from
here delights himself down there."
That color
which at evening and at daybreak
Paints clouds
in sunlight from the far horizon
I then saw cover over the whole heaven.
And as a
modest woman who will stay
but at another�s failing
Becomes upset
while only hearing of it,
So Beatrice
changed her looks, and such was once,
As I believe, the eclipse in the sky
At the hour
when the highest Power suffered.
Then he
continued talking in a voice
So wholly
different from its former self
That his
appearance could not have changed as much:
"The spouse of Christ was not reared on my blood
Or on the
blood of Linus and of Cletus
That she might
be employed for gaining gold,
"But for the
gaining of this happy life
Have Sixtus,
Pius, Calixtus and Urban,
Shed their blood after shedding many tears.
"It never was
our purpose that one part
Of the
Christian people should sit on the right
Of our
successors, and others on the left;
"Nor that the
keys entrusted to my keeping
Should have become the emblem on a banner
Borne into
battle against baptized brethren;
"Nor that I
should be stamped upon a seal
For selling
false and venal privileges:
For these
things I blush red and flare up often.
"Rapacious wolves disguised in shepherds� clothing
Are seen from
here on high in all the pastures.
O watch of
God, why do you lie unstirred?
"Men of Cahors
and Gascony make ready
To drink our
blood: O wonderful beginning,
To what a worthless ending must you fall!
"But the high
providence which, with Scipio,
Guarded for
Rome the glory of the world,
As I conceive,
will quickly come to help.
"And you, my
son, who by your mortal weight
Must once more go below, open your mouth,
And do not
hide what I have not kept hidden!"
Just as our
atmosphere, at the season when
The horn of
heaven�s goat abuts the sun,
snowflakes downward with its frozen mists,
So I saw then the upper air adorned,
upward with triumphant mists
That for a
while had stayed on with us there.
My eyes kept
tracking their appearances
And tracked
them till the space between became
So vast that it prevented passing onward.
At that my
lady, finding my sight freed
From staring
upward, said to me, "Bend down
Your gaze, and
look how far you have spun around!"
From the hour
when I�d looked down earlier,
I saw that I had turned through the whole arc
Of the first
zone from midpoint to its end:
So far off,
past Cadiz, I saw the mad
Course of
Ulysses and, nearer to the shore,
Where Europa
proved herself so sweet to carry.
And still more of this little threshing-floor
Would have
been shown to me, but that the sun
Outran me, a
sign or more, beneath my feet.
My mind in
love, which always lovingly
Attends my
lady, more than ever burned
To have my eyes return to look in hers:
And if nature
or art ever fashioned lures
To catch the
eyes so to possess the mind,
In human flesh
or in its portraiture,
All of these
charms combined would seem as nothing
Beside the divine delight that beamed on me
When I turned
myself to her smiling face.
And the power
that her look bestowed on me
Plucked me out
of Leda�s lovely nest
And hurled me
to the swiftest of the heavens.
The regions of this quickest highest heaven
Are all so
uniform I cannot tell
Which spot
among them Beatrice chose for me.
But she, who
saw my longing, started speaking,
Smiling the
while with such deep happiness
That God seemed shining in her face for joy:
"The nature of
the universe which holds
The center
still and whirls the spheres around it
Takes from
this region here its starting-point.
"And here this
heaven has no other where
Than in God�s mind, where there flames up the love
That spins it,
and the power it pours down.
"Light and
love enclose it in one circle
As it does all
the rest, and this enclosing
He alone who
circles it can comprehend.
"Its motion is not measured by another�s,
But this
sphere sets the others into motion,
As ten is
factored into five and two.
"And how time
hides its roots in such a planter
spreading down its leaves to other spheres
Should now be plainly evident to you.
"O greed, you
submerge mortals in your depths
So far below
that no one has the power
To raise his
eyes above the surging waves!
"The will
blooms vigorously in human beings,
But then the endless, drenching downpour changes
The healthy
plums into infested fruit.
"Faith and
innocence are only found
In little
children; then both fly away
Before the
cheeks begin to sprout with whiskers.
"Someone, while still a lisping infant, fasts,
But later,
when his tongue is loosed for speech,
Swallows all
sorts of food through all of Lent.
lisper loves and listens to
His mother,
but later, when his speech flows free,
He only longs to see her dead and buried.
"So she, the
lovely daughter of the Sun,
At the first
glance of him who brings the day
And leaves the
evening, turns her white skin black.
"You, that you
may not be surprised at this,
Think how on earth there is no one to govern,
So that the
human family goes astray.
"But before
January drops from winter
By one day
lost in every hundred years
Below, these
towering spheres shall so beam out
"That a turnabout in season, long expected,
Shall spin the
ships around from stern to prow
So that the
fleet will run in a straight course,
"And wholesome
fruit shall follow from the blossoms."
Canto XXVIII
When she who
makes my mind imparadised
Had told me of
the truth that goes against
The present
life of miserable mortals �
As someone who
can notice in a mirror
A candle�s flame when it is lit behind him
Before he has
a sight or thought of it,
And turns
around to see if what the mirror
Tells him is
true, and sees that it agrees
With it as
notes are sung to music�s measure �
Even so I acted, as I well remember,
While gazing
into the bright eyes of beauty
With which
Love wove the cord to capture me.
And when I
turned, my eyes were greeted with
What shines
within that whirling sphere whenever
Someone intently stares into its spiral:
I saw a Point
that radiated light
So sharply
that the eyelids which it flares on
Must close
because of its intensity.
Whatever star
looks smallest from the earth
Would look more like a moon if placed beside it,
As star is set
next to another star.
Perhaps as
close a halo seems to circle
The starlight
radiance that paints it there
Around the
thickest mists surrounding it,
As close a ring of fire spun about
The Point so
fast that it would have outstripped
The motion
orbiting the world most swiftly.
And this
sphere was encircled by another,
That by a
third, and the third by a fourth,
The fourth by a fifth, the fifth then by a sixth.
The seventh
followed, by now spread so wide
That the whole
arc of Juno�s messenger
Would be too
narrow to encompass it.
So too the
eighth and ninth, and each of them
Revolved more slowly in proportion to
The number of
turns distant from the center.
And that
sphere which spun nearest the pure Spark
Shone with the
clearest flame because, I think,
It partakes
most in its essential truth.
My lady, who saw that I was rapt
In deep
suspense, then said, "Upon this Point
Hang all the
heavens and the whole of nature.
"Look at that
circle closest linked to it
And understand
its motion is so rapid
Because of burning love which spurs it on."
And I told
her, "If the universe were set
Within the
order I see in these whorls,
I would be
happy with what�s put before me.
"But in the
universe seen by our senses
The revolutions are the more divine
The more
remotely they lie from the center.
"So if my
longing is to reach its end
In this
amazing temple of the angels
Where all the
walls are only love and light,
"Then I must hear a further explanation
On why the
pattern and its copy differ,
contemplating it, I make no headway."
"If your
fingers fail to untie this tight knot,
It comes as no
surprise, so difficult
Has it become by its not being tried."
So said my
lady; then she went straight on,
"Take what I
tell you � if you would be happy �
And sharpen up
your mind concerning it.
the spheres are wide or narrow
Depending on degrees of more or less
Power that
flows down through all their parts.
"A greater
power must work greater good:
The greater
body holds a greater good
If it
possesses equally perfect parts.
"This circle, then, that sweeps along with it
The rest of
all creation, corresponds
To the circle
that knows most and loves the most.
"If then you
take your measure by the power,
Not the
resemblance, of the substances
That here appear to you within these circles,
"You will
observe an awesome correspondence
Of greater
power to more and smaller to less
Between each
heaven and its Intelligence."
Just as our
hemisphere of air remains
Serene and splendid when Boreas blows
The northeast
breezes from his gentler cheeks,
And with these
breezes clears and wafts away
overhanging mists, so that the sky
Smiles on us
with the beauties of each quarter,
So I became the moment that my lady
Bestowed on me
her crystal-clear reply
That like a
star in heaven shone with truth.
And after she
had finished with her speaking,
The circles
all around began to sparkle,
Like red-hot iron shooting off bright sparks.
Each sparkle
stayed within its fiery ring,
So many that
their number runs to more
Millions than
the redoubling of the chessboard.
From choir to
choir I heard Hosannah sung
To the Still Point that holds them fast forever
To that one
spot where they have always been.
And she who
saw the hesitating thoughts
Within my mind
then said, "The first two circles
Have shown you
Seraphim and Cherubim.
"They swing so swiftly in their inner loops
The more to
liken themselves to the Point;
The more they
can, the loftier their vision.
"Those other
loves that whirl in the next circle
Are called the
Thrones of Gazing-on-the-Godhead,
Since they bring the first triad to a close.
"And you must
know that they are all elated
In measure as
their sight probes to the depths
Of that truth
in which every mind finds rest.
"From this we
see the state of blessedness
Is founded first upon the act of seeing
And not upon
the love that follows on it.
"And their
reward, to which grace and goodwill
Give birth, is
measure of their seeing: so,
Their ranks
unfold themselves from grade to grade.
"The second triad, flowering in this way
During this
unending springtime which
No nightly
Aries may despoil with autumn,
in birdsong sings Hosannah
With triple
melodies that warble from
The three degrees of bliss that form the triad.
"The following
divinities are found
Within this
hierarchy: first, Dominions;
Then, Virtues;
and the third ones there are Powers.
"Next to the
last, dance Principalities
And there Archangels whirl in the last round,
The whole wide
ring is where the Angels play.
"These orders
all gaze upward and pour out
Their power
downward, so that all of them
Are drawn �
and they all draw in turn � toward God.
"And Dionysius with such deep desire
Gave himself
up to contemplate these orders
That he named
them and their ranks as I do.
"But Gregory
would later disagree,
Until the time
he opened up his eyes
In this heaven and smiled at his mistake.
"And if on
earth such secret truths are uttered
By a mere
mortal, I would not have you marvel,
For Paul who
saw it up here told him this
"And many
other truths about these circles."
Canto XXIX
When the two
children of Latona, poised
One in the
Ram, the other in the Scales,
Wear the
horizon as a single sash,
As long as from the time the zenith holds them
In balance
till, unbalanced, one and other
Slip from the
sash by changing hemispheres,
Just so long,
with a smile traced on her face,
Beatrice was
silent, gazing steadfastly
Upon the Point
which overmastered me.
Then she began, "I tell, and do not ask,
What you want
most to hear, since I have seen it
Where every
where and every when are focused.
"Not for the
gain of some good for Himself �
Something that
cannot be � but that his splendor
Might say in its resplendence, �I exist,�
"In his
eternity outside of time,
Outside all
other limits, as he pleased,
Eternal Love
then opened in new loves.
"Nor did he
lie as if asleep before,
For there was no before or after when
The Spirit of
God moved upon the waters.
"Pure form and
matter and the two combined
Came into
being which was wholly flawless,
Like three
arrows shot from a three-stringed bow.
"And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal
A ray so
flashes that there is no pause
Between its
falling and its filling all,
"So the
threefold effect beamed from its Lord
And flamed
into its being all at once,
With no distinctions about its beginning.
"Within that
action, order was created
For these
existences, and at the summit
Of the whole
world were those made in pure act.
"Pure potency
held down the lowest place;
At midpoint, potency and act were tied
So tightly
they can never be unknotted.
described the angels in his writings
Being created
a vast span of ages
Before the
rest of the universe was made;
"But the scribes of the Holy Spirit write
On many pages
the truth I tell to you,
And you shall
see it if you look out sharply.
"And reason,
partially, discerns the truth,
Which would
not grant that those with power to move
Should for long fail to act on their perfection.
"Now you know
where and when and how these loves
Have been
created, so that three of the flames
Of your desire
already are snuffed out.
"More quickly
than it takes to count to twenty,
A number of the angels thundered down
And crashed
into your elemental bedrock.
"The rest
remained and introduced the art
Of circling,
as you see, with such deep rapture
That they will
never cease from whirling round.
"The root-cause of the fall was the accursed
Pride of that
One whom you saw for yourself
Crushed by the
whole weight of the universe.
"Those you see
here had the humility
To recognize
that they come from that Goodness
Which makes them fit for such intelligence.
"By this
response their vision was exalted
illuminating grace and through their merit,
So that they
have a full and steadfast will.
"And I do not
want you in doubt, but certain,
That to receive grace is a source of merit
To the extent
that love is open to it.
"Now, if you
have absorbed what I have said,
You here may
contemplate without more help
A great deal
that regards this congregation.
"But since they teach in your schools down on earth
That the
angelic nature is possessed
understanding, memory, and will,
"I shall speak
on, that you may clearly see
The simple
truth which is confused below
By the equivocation in such teaching.
"These beings,
since they first found happiness
In the face of
God, have never turned their eyes
Away from his,
from which no sight is hid,
"So that their
sight is never interrupted
By a new object, and they have no need
Of remembering
through disconnected thoughts.
"So people
down there dream while wide awake,
Believing or
not believing they speak the truth,
But there is
more blame for the unbeliever.
"You mortals do not walk along one track
In your
philosophy: your love of show
And thinking
of it lead you far astray.
"Yet even this
fault meets with less displeasure
Up here in
heaven than when the Holy Scripture
Is set aside or when it is perverted.
"There they
forget how dear the cost in blood
To sow it in
the world, and how deep here
The joy in one
who humbly keeps the word.
"Each tries to
show off and plies his inventions,
And these are put in sermons by the preachers;
Meanwhile the
Gospel lapses into silence.
"One claims
that while Christ suffered on the cross,
The moon
turned backward and stood in the way
So that the
sunlight could not shine on earth,
"But he lies, for the light concealed itself
On its own, so
that the eclipse took place
For Spaniards,
Indians, as well as Jews.
flourish fewer Jacks and Jills in Florence
Than fables
like these bandied left and right
Out from the pulpits all the livelong year.
"On this
account the poor sheep that know nothing
Come back from
pasture, having fed on wind;
And not to see
the harm does not excuse them.
"Christ did
not say to his first company,
�Go and preach empty nonsense to the world!�
Instead he
offered them the true foundation.
"And that
alone so sounded on their lips
That in their
fight to light the flame of faith
They took the
Gospel for their shield and lance.
"Now men go forth to preach with jokes and clowning,
And as long as
they scrape up a good laugh,
Their hoods
swell up, and nothing more is asked.
"But up their
sleeves and cowls nests such a bird
That if the
rabble spied it they would know
In whom they put their trust for these fake pardons.
"Such follies
flourish on earth from these frauds
That with no
proof or testimonials
The people
flock to every sort of promise.
"On these
deceits St. Anthony�s pig grows fat,
And many more who are far bigger pigs,
Paying with
play-money and phony coinage.
"But we have
wandered off our way enough:
Now turn
yourself once more to the straight path,
To make the
journey shorten with the time.
"Angelic nature stretches up the scale
So high in
number that there is no speech
Or human
concept that can reach that height.
"And if you
look at what has been revealed
By Daniel, you
will see that in his thousands
There is no number that is definite.
"The primal
Light that beams down through them all
Each one
receives in just as many ways
As there are
splendors that merge with the Light.
"Then, since
the act of loving follows that
Of knowing, so the sweetness of their love
glows in them as bright or dim.
"See now the
height and breadth of the eternal
Goodness, for
it has fashioned of itself
Myriad mirrors
where it separately shines,
"Remaining, as at first, One in itself."
Canto XXX
Six thousand miles or so
away from us
Noon blazes, and this
world already slopes
Its shadow to an almost
level bed,
When the midheaven high
above us starts
To change in such a way
that here and there
A star fades out of view
from this abyss.
And as the brightest
handmaid of the sun
Comes closer, heaven
then puts out its lights
One by one, till the
loveliest has faded:
No differently, the
triumph that forever
Plays round the Point
that overmastered me
And seems enclosed by
that which it encloses
Little by little
vanished from my sight,
So that my loving and my
seeing nothing
Forced me to turn my
eyes once more to Beatrice.
If what I have said up
to now about her
Were all rolled in a
single hymn of praise,
It would not serve to
take this final turn.
The beauty that I saw
transcends all measure
Not only past our reach,
but I believe
Only its Maker can enjoy
it all.
At this pass I admit
myself defeated
More than all comic or
all tragic poets
Were ever quelled by
some point of their theme.
For as the sun confounds
the feeblest sight,
So the remembrance of
her fresh sweet smile
Severs my memory from my
sense of self.
From the first day on
which I saw her face
In this lifetime, until
that sight of her,
My song has never
stopped from following her.
But now must my pursuit
cease following
Her beauty further in my
Like any artist come to
his full limit.
So I leave her to nobler
Than the sounding of my
trumpet which here draws
Its arduous
subject-matter to a close.
With gesture and voice
of an accomplished leader
She began again, "Out
from the largest body
We have come to this
heaven of pure light:
"Light of the intellect,
light full of love,
Love of true good, love
full of joyousness,
Joyfulness surpassing
every sweetness.
"Here you shall see both
hosts of paradise,
The one arrayed in that
Which you shall witness
on the judgment day."
Just like a sudden
lightning flash that scatters
The power of vision so
that it deprives
The eye of its sight of
the sharpest objects,
So round about me shone
a living light
Which left me wrapped in
such a dazzling veil
That nothing else was
visible to me.
"Always the love which
makes this heaven restful
Receives all to itself
with a like welcome,
To hold the candle ready
for the flame."
No sooner did I take in
these few words
Than inwardly I
understood that I
Was rising high above my
human powers.
And I was so inflamed
with the new vision
That � however luminous
the light �
My eyes could have
withstood the sight of it.
And I saw a light
flowing like a river
Glowing with amber waves
between two banks
Brilliantly painted by
spellbinding spring.
From out this river shot
up living sparks
That dropped on every
side into the blossoms,
Like rubies in a setting
of pure gold.
Then, as if intoxicated
by the fragrance,
They dove once more into
the wondrous flood,
And as one sank, another
spark shot out.
"The flame of high
desire driving you
To gain more knowledge
of what you see here
Pleases me the more the
more it surges.
"But first you are
required to drink this water
Before your burning
thirst can be relieved."
These words the sun of
my eyes said to me,
Then added, "The river
and the topazes
Streaming in and out the
smiling flowers
Are shadow-prelude of
their reality.
"Not that these blooms
are unripe in themselves,
But the defect comes
from within yourself
That you do not yet have
sight set so high."
No baby, after waking
later than
The usual hour, ever
makes a rush
So sudden with its face
toward mother�s milk,
As I made then when I
bent down to drink
The wave that flows
there for our betterment,
To make still better
mirrors of my eyes.
And even as the eaves
that edge my eyelids
Drank of it, so it
seemed to change its shape
From running lengthwise
to revolving round.
Then, as the people
hidden under masks
Look different from the
way they looked before
When they doff the
disguises that concealed them,
Just so the flowers and
the sparks now changed
Before me into grander
So that I saw both
courts of heaven open.
O splendor of God
through which I saw the high
Triumph of the true
kingdom, grant me the power
To tell how I was
witness to this vision!
Light shines above which
renders visible
The Creator to the
creature who discovers
The peace found only in
our seeing Him.
And this light stretches
out into a circle
Which spreads so wide
that its circumference
Would make too large a
cincture for the sun.
The whole expanse is
fashioned by the ray
Reflected from the top
of the first-moved
Sphere from which it
takes its might and motion.
And as a hillside is
mirrored in a lake
Below, as if to look on
its own beauty
When it is lush with
flowers and fresh grass,
Just so, above the light
and round and round,
Reflected from more than
a thousand tiers,
I saw all those of us
who have returned there.
And if the lowest rank
holds in its row
So large a light, how
vast is the expanse
Of this rose in its
farthest-reaching petals!
My sight was not lost in
its breadth and height,
But grasped the fullness
of that happiness
In all its distance and
There near and far add
nothing, nor subtract,
For where God governs
without mediation
The laws of nature have
no further bearing.
Into the yellow of that
timeless rose
Which rises row on row
and spreads and breathes
Perfumes of praise to
the spring-renewing Sun,
Beatrice drew me, hushed
and bent on speaking,
And told me, "Look with
wonder on those robed
In white � how countless
is that congregation!
"See how wide is the
circuit of our city!
See how filled are our
seats that so few people
From now on are expected
to come here!
"And on that proud chair
where you fix your eyes
To glimpse the crown
already placed above it,
Before you partake of
this wedding feast,
"Shall sit the soul � an
emperor�s on earth �
Of lofty Henry, who will
come to set
Italy straight before
her time is ready.
"Blind greed which grips
you all within its spell
Has made you like the
little child who dies
Of hunger while he
drives away his nurse.
"And then the pontiff of
the Holy See
Shall, openly and
secretly, be someone
Who will not walk with
him along one road.
"But God won�t keep him
in the sacred office
For long, because he
shall be shoved below
Where Simon Magus
squirms for his deserts,
"To cram still deeper
that man from Anagni."
Canto XXXI