Part 15

But how one who looks and then takes more delight in one than in another, so I did with him from Lucca, who seemed to have more knowledge of me.

He murmured; and I heard something like "Gentucca" there where he felt the wound of the justice that so strips them bare.

"O soul," said I, "who seem so eager to speak with me, make it so I understand you, and satisfy both me and yourself with your speech."

"A female is born, and does not yet wear the veil," he began, "who will make my city pleasing to you, however men may blame it.

You shall depart with this foreknowledge: if in my murmuring you took error, the true things will yet be declared to you.

But tell me if I see here the one who brought forth the new rhymes, beginning 'Ladies who have intelligence of love'."

And I to him: "I am one who, when Love inspires me, take note, and in that manner which he dictates within do I give meaning."

"O brother, now I see," said he, "the knot that held the Notary and Guittone and me on this side of the sweet new style which I hear!

I see well how your pens follow close behind the dictater, which certainly did not befall with ours;

and whoever sets himself to please beyond, sees no more from one style to the other"; and, as if content, he fell silent.

As the birds that winter along the Nile sometimes in the air make a flock, then fly more swiftly and go in a line,

so all that people who were there, turning their faces, hastened their step, light both from leanness and from will.

And as a man who is weary of trotting lets his companions go, and walks until the crowding of the chest is eased,

so Forese let the holy flock pass by, and came on behind with me, saying: "When shall I see you again?"

"I know not," I answered him, "how long I may live; but my return will not be so soon that I shall not be first with the will upon the shore;

for the place where I was set to live day by day is stripped of more good, and seems disposed to a sorry ruin."

"Now go," said he; "for him who has most blame I see dragged at the tail of a beast toward the valley where none is ever absolved.

The beast at every step goes more swiftly, growing ever, until it strikes him, and leaves the body vilely undone.

Those wheels have not long to turn," and he raised his eyes to heaven, "ere it shall be clear to you which my speech can no further declare.

You remain now; for time is precious in this realm, so that I lose too much coming with you thus side by side."

As sometimes issues at a gallop the knight from the troop that rides, and goes to win honor from the first encounter,

so he parted from us with greater strides; and I remained on the way with those two who were such great marshals of the world.

And when he had gone on before us, so that my eyes became followers of him, as the mind of his words,

the branches appeared to me laden and alive with another fruit, and not far off, being but just now turned into snares.

I saw people beneath it raise their hands and cry I know not what toward the leaves, like wanton little children begging,

who pray, and the prayed-for answers not, but, to make the wish keen, holds their desire high and hides it not.

Then they departed as if undeceived; and we came to the great tree that refuses so many prayers and tears.

"Pass on beyond without drawing near: wood is higher up that was bitten by Eve, and this plant arose from it."

Thus amid the branches someone said; wherefore Virgil and Statius and I, drawing together, went on beyond on the side that rises.

"Remember," he said, "the accursed formed in the clouds, who, satiated, fought Theseus with double breasts;

and the Hebrews who showed themselves soft for drink, so that Gideon would not have them companions when he descended the hills toward Midian."

Thus keeping close to one of the two edges we passed, hearing of faults of the gullet followed of old by wretched gains.

Then, widening on the solitary road, well a thousand paces and more bore us onward, each of us contemplating without speech.

"What go you thinking, you three alone?" a sudden voice said; whereat I started as frightened and sluggish beasts do.

I raised my head to see who it was; and never were seen in a furnace glasses or metals so lucent and red

as I saw one who said: "If it please you to mount upward, here must one turn; hence goes he who would go for peace."

His aspect had taken sight from me; wherefore I turned behind to my teachers, as one who goes as he hears.

And as, announcer of the dawns, the breeze of May moves and smells, all impregnated by the grass and flowers;

such did I feel a wind give through my brow, and well I felt the plume move, which made the breeze to smell of ambrosia.

And I heard say: "Blessed are they whom so much of grace enlightens, that the love of taste in their breast fumes not too much desire,

always hungering as is just!"

Purgatory Canto XXV

Now was it where the ascent would brook no halt; for the sun had left the meridian circle to Taurus and the night to Scorpio:

wherefore, as a man who fixes not, but goes on his way, whatever appear to him, if the goad of need transfix him,

so we entered by the gap, one before another taking the stair that by narrowness parts the climbers.

And as the little stork that lifts the wing for wish to fly, and dares not abandon the nest, and lets it down;

such was I with wish kindled and quenched to ask, coming to the very act of one who endeavors to speak.

Not, for the going being swift, did my sweet father leave off, but said: "Shoot the bow of speech, which thou hast drawn to the iron."

Then securely I opened my mouth and began: "How can one grow lean there where the need of nourishing touches not?"

"If thou didst remember how Meleager was consumed at the consuming of a brand, this would not be so bitter to thee;

and if thou thoughtest how, at your quiver, your image quivers within the mirror, what seems hard would seem to thee withered.

But that thou mayst rest within thy will, lo, here is Statius; and I call him and pray that he be now healer of thy wounds."

"If the eternal sight unloose him," answered Statius, "where thou art, deny I cannot to be able to excuse me."

Then he began: "If my words, son, thy mind guard and receive, they shall make light to thee of how thou diest.

Perfect blood, which is then not drunk by the thirsty veins, and remains as nourishment taken from the table,

takes in the heart, for all human members, the informative virtue, as that which makes those by the empty veins.

Further digested, it descends where it is fairer to be silent than to speak; and thence then groans upon another blood in a natural vessel.

There the one and the other gather together, the one disposed to suffer, and the other to do by the perfect place whence it is pressed;

and, joined thereto, it begins to operate, coagulating first, and then gives life to that which by its matter it made constant.

The active virtue made a soul such as of a plant, differing so far that this is on the way and that is already at shore,

then works so, that now it moves and feels, like a sea-sponge; and then takes to organize the powers whereof it is seed.

Now spreads, son, now extends the virtue that is from the heart of the begetter, where nature intends to all members.

But how from animal it becomes servant, seest thou not yet: this is such a point, that made wiser than thee once err,

so that by his doctrine he dissevered from the soul the possible intellect, because he saw not organ assumed by it.

Open thy breast to the truth that comes; and know, that as soon as to the fetus the articulation of the brain is perfect,

the first mover turns to it glad over so great art of nature, and breathes a new spirit, replete with virtue,

which that which it finds active there, draws into its substance, and makes one sole soul, that lives and feels and turns itself within itself.

And that thou mayst wonder less at the word, regard the heat of the sun that becomes wine, joined to the humor that flows from the vine.

When Lachesis has no more of the thread, it loosens from the flesh, and in virtue bears with it both the human and the divine:

the other powers all silent; memory, intelligence and will in act far keener than before.

Without staying, of itself it falls marvelously to one of the shores; there it first knows its roads.

As soon as place circumscribes it there, the formative virtue rays around such and so much as in the living members.

And as the air, when it is well moist, by another's ray that is reflected in it, becomes adorned with divers colors;

so the neighboring air there places itself and in that form which is in it, seals virtually the soul that stayed;

and like then to the little flame that follows the fire wherever it shifts, the spirit follows its new form.

Because thence it has thereafter its appearance, it is called shade; and thence organizes then each sense up to the sight.

Thence we speak and thence we laugh; thence we make the tears and the sighs that on the mountain thou mayst have felt.

According to how the desires afflict us and the other affections, the shade figures itself; and this is the cause wherefore thou lookest."

And now we were come to the last torture, and turned to the right hand, and were intent on other care.

There the bank shoots flame outward, and the cornice breathes a wind upward that reflects it and sequesters it from her;

wherefore we needs must go on the open side one by one; and I feared the fire hence, and hence feared to fall down.

My leader said: "Through this place one must keep tight rein on the eyes, for one might err by little."

'Summae Deus clementiae' within the great ardor then I heard singing, which made me no less bend to turn;

and I saw spirits going through the flame; wherefore I looked at them and at my steps, parting my sight now and again.

After the end that is made to that hymn, they cried aloud: 'Virum non cognosco'; then began again the hymn low.

Finished it, they cried again: "To the wood held herself Diana, and Elice drove her out who had felt the poison of Venus."

Then to the singing they returned; then women cried and husbands who were chaste as virtue and marriage enjoin.

And this mode I believe suffices them for all the time that the fire burns them: with such care and with such foods

that the wound behind is resewn.

Purgatory Canto XXVI

While thus along the edge, one before another, we went on, and often the good master said to me: "Look: may it avail that I make thee wary";

the sun smote me on the right shoulder, which now, rayinng, all the west changed to the white aspect of azure;

and I, with the more burning shadow, made the flame seem; and only at so much sign saw I many shades, going, take heed.

This was the cause that gave beginning to them to speak of me; and they began to say: "That one seems not a feigned body";

then toward me, as far as they could make, certain ones drew, always with heed not to issue where they were not burned.

"O thou who goest, not to be more slow, but perhaps reverent, after the others, answer me who burn in thirst and fire.

Nor only to me is thy answer needful; for all these have greater thirst for it than for cold water Indo or Ethiopian.

Tell us how it is that thou makest wall of thyself to the sun, just as thou wert not yet entered within the net of death."

Thus spoke one of them; and I had been already manifest, if I had not been intent on another novelty that then appeared;

for through the middle of the burning path came people with face against this, which made me suspended to gaze.

There I see on every side make haste each shade and kiss one with another without staying, content with brief fest.

Thus through their dusky troop the one ant smells the other, perhaps to spy their way and their fortune.

Soon as they part the friendly welcome, before the first step there pass, each strives to cry above:

the new people: "Sodom and Gomorrah"; and the others: "Into the cow enters Pasiphae, that the bull may run to her lust."

Then, as cranes that to the Riphaean mountains flew part, and part toward the sands, these shy of the cold, those of the sun,

the one people goes, the other comes; and return, weeping, to the first songs and to the cry that most befits them;

and draw near to me, as before, the very ones who had prayed me, attentive to listen in their countenances.

I, who twice had seen their favor, began: "O souls secure of having, whenever it be, a state of peace,

not remained raw nor ripe are my members yonder, but are here with me with their blood and with their joints.

Hence up I go not to be more blind; a lady is above who wins grace for me, wherefore I bear the mortal through your world.

But if your greatest wish soon become satisfied, so that heaven harbor you which is full of love and spreads more wide,

tell me, so that yet I may write pages, who you are, and who is that crowd which goes behind your backs."

Not otherwise stupefied is troubled the mountaineer, and gazing is mute, when rude and savage he is urbanized,

than each shade did in its appearance; but after they were unloaded of stupor, which in high hearts soon is quenched,

"Blest be thou, who of our marches," recommenced she who first asked me, "for better dying, experience embark!

The people who come not with us, offended for that for which Caesar, triumphing, heard himself called against him 'Queen':

wherefore they part crying 'Sodom', reproaching themselves as thou hast heard, and aid the burning with shame.

Our sin was hermaphrodite; but because we kept not human law, following like beasts the appetite,

in obloquy of us, for us is read, when we part, the name of her who bestialized herself in the bestial shards.

Now know our acts and of what we were guilty: if perchance by name thou wouldst know who we are, time is not to tell, nor could I.

I will indeed make thee willing of me: I am Guido Guinizelli, and now I purge by grieving well before the extreme."

As in the sadness of Lycurgus were made two sons to see again their mother, such did I become, but I rise not to so much,

when I hear name himself the father of mine and of the others my betters who ever used sweet and graceful rhymes of love;

and without hearing and saying thoughtful I went a long while gazing at him, nor, for the fire, drew I nearer there.

After I was fed with gazing, I offered myself all ready for his service with the assertion that makes others believe.

And he to me: "Thou leavest such trace, by what I hear, in me, and so clear, that Lethe cannot take it nor make it dim.

But if thy words now swore true, tell me what is cause wherefore thou showest in speech and in look to hold me dear."

And I to him: "Thy sweet words, which, so long as modern use shall last, shall make dear still their inks."

"O brother," said he, "this one whom I discern with the finger," and pointed to a spirit before, "was better craftsman of the mother tongue.

Verses of love and prose of romances he overcame all; and let speak the fools who believe that one of Limoges excels.

To voice more than to truth they turn their faces, and thus fix their opinion before art or reason is heard by them.

Thus did many ancients of Guittone, from cry to cry giving him praise alone, until the truth has vanquished him with more persons.

Now if thou hast so ample privilege, that it is lawful for thee to go to the cloister wherein is Christ abbot of the college,

make for me a saying of a paternoster, as much as is needful to us of this world, where power to sin is no more ours."

Then, perhaps to give place to another who had near, he disappeared through the fire, as through water the fish going to the bottom.

I made myself a little to the one shown before, and said that to his name my desire prepared a gracious place.

He began freely to say: "Tan m'abellis vostre cortes deman, qu'ieu no me puesc ni voill a vos cobrire.

Ieu sui Arnaut, que plor e vau cantan; consiros vei la passada folor, e vei jausen lo joi qu'esper, denan.

Ara vos prec, per aquella valor que vos guida al som de l'escalina, sovenha vos a temps de ma dolor!"

Then he hid himself in the fire that refines him.

Purgatory Canto XXVII

As when the first rays vibrate there where its maker shed the blood, Iberus falling under the high Libra,

and the waves in Ganges parched at nones, so stood the sun; wherefore the day went, when the angel of God appeared to us glad.

Out of the flame he stood on the bank, and sang 'Beati mundo corde!' in voice far more alive than ours.

Then "No more goes one, if first the fire bite not, holy souls: enter into it, and to the singing beyond be not deaf,"

he said to us as we drew near him; wherefore I became such, when I heard it, as is he who is put in the pit.

Upon my clasped hands I stretched me, looking at the fire and strongly imagining human bodies already seen aflame.

Turned to me the good escorts; and Virgil said to me: "My son, here may be torment, but not death.

Remember, remember! And if I guided thee safe over Geryon, what shall I do now nearer to God?

Believe for certain that if within the belly of this flame thou stoodst well a thousand years, it could not make thee bald of one hair.

And if perchance thou believest I deceive thee, draw near to it, and make belief with thy hands at the hem of thy garments.

Lay down now, lay down all fear; turn hither and come: enter secure!" And I still firm and against conscience.

When he saw me stand still and hard, troubled a little he said: "Now see, son: between Beatrice and thee is this wall."

As at the name of Thisbe opened the eye Pyramus upon death, and looked at her, when the mulberry became vermilion;

so, my hardness become soft, I turned to the wise leader, hearing the name that in the mind ever buds for me.

Wherefore he shook the brow and said: "How now! would we stay on this side?"; then smiled as is done to the child who is vanquished by the apple.

Then into the fire before me he placed himself, praying Statius to come behind, who before by a long road had parted us.

As soon as I was within, into boiling glass I had cast myself to refresh, so great was the fire there without measure.

The sweet father mine, to comfort me, still of Beatrice discoursing went, saying: "Her eyes I already seem to see."

A voice that sang beyond guided us; and we, intent only on it, came out there where one mounts.

'Venite, benedicti Patris mei', sounded within a light that was there, such that it vanquished me and I could not gaze.

"The sun departs," it added, "and evening comes; rest you not, but study the step, while the west darkens not."

Straight the way rose through the rock toward such part that I took from before me the rays of the sun that was already low.

And of few steps we took the assay, that the sun to set, by the shadow that was spent, we felt behind, both I and my sages.

And before in all its immense parts horizon was made of one aspect, and night had all its dispensations,

each of us of a grade made his bed; for the nature of the mountain freed us of the power to climb more and the delight.

As they stay ruminating mild the goats, that were rapid and wanton upon the summits before they were fed,

silent in the shade, while the sun burns, watched by the shepherd, who on his staff has leaned and serves them of repose;

and as the herdsman who lodges without, along his flock quiet passes the night, watching lest a wild beast scatter it;

such were we all three then, I as goat, and they as shepherds, bound on this side and that by high grotto.

Little could appear there of the day without; but, for that little, I saw the stars of their wont and more clear and greater.

Thus ruminating and thus gazing on them, sleep took me; sleep that often, before the thing be, knows the news.

In the hour, I believe, that from the east first rayed on the mountain Cytherea, which of fire of love seems ever ardent,

young and fair in dream seemed to me to see a lady go through a meadow gathering flowers; and singing she said:

"Know, whoso asks my name, that I am Leah, and go moving around my fair hands to make me a garland.

To please me in the mirror, here I adorn me; but my sister Rachel never withdraws from her mirror, and sits all day.

She is fain to see with her fair eyes as I to adorn me with the hands; her the seeing, and me the working contents."

And now by the antelucan splendors, which to pilgrims rise more grateful, as, returning, they lodge less far,

the darknesses fled from every side, and my sleep with them; wherefore I rose, seeing the great masters already risen.

"That sweet apple which through so many branches the care of mortals goes seeking, today shall put in peace thy hungers."

Virgil toward me used these such words; and never were there gifts that were of pleasure equal to these.

So much will above will came to me of being up, that at every step then I felt my wings grow to the flight.

As the stair all beneath us was run and we were on the highest grade, Virgil fixed his eyes in me,

and said: "The temporal fire and the eternal thou hast seen, son; and art come to a part where I through me discern no further.

Drawn have I thee here with wit and with art; thy pleasure now take for guide; out art thou of the steep ways, out of the art.

See the sun that shines on thy brow; see the grasses, the flowers and the shrubs that here the earth of itself alone produces.

While the fair eyes come, glad, which, weeping, made thee come to me, thou mayst sit thee and mayst go among them.

Await no more my speech nor my sign; free, upright and sound is thy will, and not to do after its sense were default:

wherefore I crown and mitre thee over thyself."

Purgatory Canto XXVIII

Eager already to search within and around the divine forest dense and alive, which tempered to the eyes the new day,

without more awaiting, I left the bank, taking the country slow slow up along the soil that breathed fragrance everywhere.

A sweet air, without mutation having in itself, smote me through the brow not with more stroke than soft wind;

whereby the leaves, trembling, ready all of them bent to the part where the first shade casts the holy mountain;

not however from their being straight parted so much, that the little birds through the tops left not to ply every their art;

but with full gladness the first hours, singing, they received among the leaves, which held burden to their rhymes,

such as from branch to branch is gathered through the pinewood on the shore of Classe, when Aeolus unlooses the sirocco.

Already had the slow steps transported me within the ancient wood so much, that I could not see again whence I entered;

and lo, more going took from me a stream, which toward left with its little waves bent the grass that issued on its bank.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”