Part 16

All waters that are purest here on this side would seem to have within some mixture compared to that which hides nothing,

although it moves dark, dark, beneath the perpetual shade that never lets sun or moon shine there.

I stood still with my feet and let my eyes pass beyond the little stream, to behold the great variety of the fresh banks;

and there appeared to me, as there appears suddenly a thing that draws aside all other thought through wonder,

a lady all alone, who went singing and picking flower from flower wherewith her path was all embroidered.

“Ah, fair lady, who in love’s rays art warmed, if I may trust the looks that wont to be the heart’s witness,

may it please thee to draw forward,” said I to her, “toward this river-bank, so that I may hear what thou singest.

Thou makest me remember where and what Proserpine was, when her mother lost her, and she the spring.”

As turns, with feet close to the ground and drawn together, a lady who dances, and scarce puts foot before foot,

she turned upon the vermeil and the yellow little flowers toward me, not otherwise than a virgin who casts down her modest eyes;

and made my prayers content, so drawing near that the sweet sound came to me with its meaning.

Soon as she was where the grasses are bathed already by the waves of the fair stream, she granted me the gift of lifting her eyes.

I think not that so great light shone beneath the brows of Venus, when pierced by her son against all her wont.

She smiled from the opposite straight bank, gathering more colors with her hands than the high land casts without seed.

Three steps the river kept us apart; but the Hellespont, where Xerxes passed, still a curb to all human pride,

endured not more hatred from Leander for its raging between Sestos and Abydos than that from me because it opened not then.

“Ye are new, and perhaps because I smile,” she began, “in this place chosen for human nature as its nest,

marveling holds you in some suspense; but the psalm Delectasti gives light, which can clear your understanding.

And thou who art in front and didst pray to me, say if thou wouldst hear aught else; for I came ready for every question of thine as far as suffices.”

“The water,” said I, “and the sound of the forest do combat within me a new faith against a thing I heard contrary to this.”

Whereon she: “I will tell thee how proceeds through its cause that which makes thee marvel, and purge the mist that smites thee.

The Supreme Good, who alone pleases Himself, made man good and for good, and this place gave him as pledge of eternal peace.

Through his fault he dwelt here little; through his fault he changed honest laughter and sweet play for tears and toil.

That the disturbance which beneath it make the exhalations of water and of earth, which follow after heat as far as they can,

might make no war upon man, this mountain rose toward heaven so far, and is free from it up to where it is closed.

Now because all around the air revolves with the primal motion, if its circle be not broken by some bank,

in this height which is all loosed in the living air, such motion strikes, and makes the woodland sound because it is dense;

and the stricken plant has such power that it impregnates the air with its virtue, and that, circling, shakes around;

and the other earth, according to what it deserves by itself and by its heaven, conceives and bears of diverse virtues diverse woods.

It would not then seem a marvel thence, having heard this, that any plant without manifest seed takes hold there.

And know thou that the holy countryside where thou art is full of every seed, and has fruit in it that is not plucked thence.

The water which thou seest rises not from a vein that restores vapor which cold converts, like a river that gains and loses breath;

but issues from a fountain steadfast and sure, which takes from the will of God as much as it pours forth, opened on either side.

On this side it descends with virtue that takes from others memory of sin; on the other it restores memory of every good deed.

Hence Lethe; thus on the other side it is called Eunoë, and works not unless it be first tasted on this side and that:

to all other savors this is above. And though thy thirst may be well sated because I disclose no more to thee,

I will give thee a corollary yet for grace; nor think my speech less dear to thee if beyond promise it ranges with thee.

They who of old poetized the age of gold and its happy state, perchance in Parnassus dreamed this place.

Here innocent was the human root; here ever spring and every fruit; this is the nectar of which all speak.”

Then I turned back wholly to my poets, and saw that with smiles they had heard the last sentence;

then turned my face to the fair lady.

Purgatory Canto XXIX

Singing like a lady in love, she continued with the close of her words: ‘Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata!’

And like nymphs who went alone through the wild shades, desiring some to see, some to flee the sun,

then she moved against the river, going up along the bank; and I level with her, following with little step on little step.

Not a hundred were between her steps and mine when the banks gave a like turn, so that I faced eastward.

Nor was our way yet far, when the lady turned wholly to me, saying: “My brother, look and listen.”

And behold a sudden brightness ran from all parts through the great forest, such that I doubted it was lightning.

But because the lightning, as it comes, ceases, and that, enduring, shone more and more, in my thought I said: ‘What is this?’

And a sweet melody ran through the luminous air; whence good zeal made me reprove the hardiness of Eve,

who there where earth and heaven obeyed, a woman, alone and but just formed, endured not to be under any veil;

beneath which had she been devout, I had felt those ineffable delights earlier and for a longer space.

While I went among so many first-fruits of the eternal pleasure all rapt, and still desiring more joys,

before us, like a kindled fire, the air made itself beneath the green branches; and the sweet sound was now heard in songs.

O sacred Virgins, if ever for you I bore hunger, cold, or vigils, a cause spurs me to call on you for mercy.

Now Helicon must pour for me, and Urania aid me with her choir to put in verse things hard to conceive.

A little farther, seven trees of gold the long distance falsified between us and them, which was still between;

but when I was so brought near them that the common object, which deceives the sense, lost not any of its quality through distance,

the power that fits discourse to reason perceived them as candlesticks, and in the voices of the singing ‘Hosanna’.

Above flamed the fair furnishing far clearer than the moon through clear sky at midnight in its mid-month.

I turned back, full of wonder, to good Virgil, and he answered me with a look laden with no less stupor.

Then I gave my gaze again to the high things that moved toward us so slowly that they would be outdone by new brides.

The lady chid me: “Why still burnest so in affection for the living lights, and lookest not at what comes behind them?”

I saw folk then, as to their leaders, come after, clothed in white; and such whiteness was never yet here.

The water took from the left flank, and gave me back my left side, if I looked in it, like a mirror too.

When I had from my bank such post that only the river made me distant, to see better I paused in my steps,

and saw the little flames go before, leaving the air painted behind them, and they had semblance of drawn brushes;

so that above remained distinct seven bands, all in those colors whereof the Sun makes the bow and Delia the girdle.

These standards behind were larger than my sight; and, as I judge, ten steps apart were those without.

Beneath so fair a sky as I describe, twenty-four elders, two by two, came crowned with fleur-de-lis.

All sang: “Blessed be thou among the daughters of Adam, and blessed be thy beauties forever!”

After the flowers and other fresh herbs opposite me from the other shore were free from those chosen folk,

as light follows light in heaven, four animals came after them, crowned each with green leaf.

Each was feathered with six wings; the feathers full of eyes; and the eyes of Argus, if they were alive, would be such.

To describe their forms I spend no more verses, reader; another cost constrains me, so that to this I cannot be lavish;

but read Ezekiel, who paints them as he saw them from the cold part come with wind and cloud and fire;

and such as thou shalt find them in his pages, such were they here, save that as to the wings John is with me and departs from him.

The space within these four contained a car, on two wheels, triumphal, which came drawn at the neck of a griffin.

It spread upward one and the other wing between the middle and the three and three bands, so that in cleaving it did harm to none.

So high it rose that it was not seen; it had limbs of gold as far as bird, and the rest white, mingled with vermilion.

Not that Rome with such a car gladdened Africanus, or Augustus, but that of the Sun would be poor beside it;

that of the Sun which, going astray, was burnt through the prayer of the devout Earth, when Jupiter was secretly just.

Three ladies in a ring from the right wheel came dancing; one so red that scarce would she be noted in the fire;

the other was as if flesh and bones had been made of emerald; the third seemed snow but now fallen;

and now they seemed drawn by the white, now by the red; and at the song of this one the others took their pace, slow and swift.

From the left four made festival, in purple robed, after the guise of one of them who had three eyes in her head.

After all the aforesaid troop I saw two elders in unlike habit, but equal in demeanor, honest and steadfast.

One showed himself some of the familiars of that supreme Hippocrates whom nature made dearest to the animals;

the other showed the contrary care with a sword bright and keen, which made me fear from this side of the stream.

Then I saw four in humble aspect; and behind all a single old man come, sleeping, with sharp face.

And these seven with the first troop were wont, but of lilies around the head made no thicket,

nay of roses and other vermilion flowers; one would have sworn from near aspect that all burned above the brows.

And when the car was opposite me, a thunder was heard, and those worthy folk seemed to have their going more forbidden,

stopping there with their first ensigns.

Purgatory Canto XXX

When the Bear of the first heaven, which never knew setting nor rising nor other mist than veil of guilt,

and which made each there aware of his duty, as the lowest makes what helm turns to come to port,

stood fixed: the truthful folk, come first between the griffin and it, turned them to the car as to their peace;

and one of them, as sent from heaven, ‘Veni, sponsa, de Libano’ singing cried three times, and all the others after.

As the blessed at the final summons shall rise ready each from his cavern, alleluiaing with re-clothed voice,

such upon the divine wagon arose a hundred, at the voice of the aged one, ministrants and messengers of eternal life.

All said: ‘Benedictus qui venis!’, and casting flowers above and around, ‘Manibus, oh, date lilia plenis!’

I have seen already at the beginning of day the whole eastern part rosied, and the other sky adorned with fair serene;

and the face of the sun rise shaded, so that through temperance of vapors the eye endured it a long while:

thus within a cloud of flowers that from the angelic hands rose and fell again down within and without,

above a white veil girt with olive a lady appeared to me, beneath a green mantle clothed in color of living flame.

And my spirit, which already so long a time had been that at her presence it was not of stupor, trembling, broken,

without having more recognition of the eyes, through occult virtue that moved from her, felt the great power of ancient love.

Soon as in my sight struck me the high virtue that had already pierced me before I was out of boyhood,

I turned to the left with the trust wherewith the little boy runs to his mother when he has fear or is afflicted,

to say to Virgil: ‘Less than a drachm of blood remains in me that trembles not: I know the signs of the ancient flame.’

But Virgil had left us bereft of himself, Virgil sweetest father, Virgil to whom for my salvation I gave me;

nor all that the ancient mother lost availed the clean cheeks of dew, that, weeping, they returned not dark.

“Dante, because Virgil goes away, weep not yet, weep not yet; for thou must weep for another sword.”

As an admiral who at poop and prow comes to see the folk that minister on the other ships, and heartens them to do well;

on the left bank of the car, when I turned at the sound of my name, which of necessity is here recorded,

I saw the lady who first appeared to me veiled under the angelic festival, direct her eyes toward me from beyond the stream.

Although the veil that descended from her head, circled with the leaves of Minerva, let her not appear manifest,

royally in demeanor still proud she continued as one who speaks and keeps the hottest speech behind:

“Look on us well! Truly I am, truly I am Beatrice. How didst thou deign to approach the mountain? Knowest thou not that here is the happy man?”

Mine eyes fell down into the clear fountain; but seeing myself in it, I drew them to the grass, so much did shame weigh on my brow.

Thus the mother to the son seems proud, as she seemed to me; because of bitter tastes the savor of harsh pity.

She was silent; and the angels sang suddenly ‘In te, Domine, speravi’; but beyond ‘pedes meos’ they passed not.

As snow among the living beams along the back of Italy congeals, blown and pressed by the slavish winds,

then, molten, percolates in itself, so long as the earth that loses shade breathes, so that it seems fire melting the candle;

thus was I without tears and sighs before the singing of those who ever note behind the notes of the eternal wheels;

but after I heard in the sweet measures their compassion for me, as if they had said: ‘Lady, why dost thou so unstring him?’

the ice that was around my heart close-pent, made spirit and water, and with anguish issued from the breast through mouth and eyes.

She, still fixed on the said thigh of the car standing, to the pious substances turned her words thus afterward:

“Ye watch in the eternal day, so that night nor sleep robs you of step the world takes along its ways;

wherefore my answer is with more care that he who weeps from there may understand it, so that fault and grief be of one measure.

Not only through the working of the great wheels, which direct each seed to some end according as the stars are companions,

but through the largesse of divine graces, which have such high vapors for their rain, that our sights reach not near them,

this one was such in his new life virtually, that every upright habit would have made in him wondrous proof.

But so much the more malignant and wild does the ground become with evil seed and uncultured, as it has more of good earthly vigor.

For a time I sustained him with my face: showing my youthful eyes to him, I led him with me turned to the right part.

Soon as I was upon the threshold of my second age and changed life, this one withdrew from me, and gave himself to others.

When from flesh to spirit I had risen, and beauty and virtue were increased in me, I was to him less dear and less pleasing;

and turned his steps by a way not true, following false images of good, that render no full promise.

Nor did the obtaining inspirations avail me, with which and in dream and otherwise I recalled him: so little did he care!

So far he fell, that all arguments for his salvation were already short, save to show him the lost folk.

For this I visited the door of the dead, and to him who has brought him up here, my prayers, weeping, were borne.

The high fate of God would be broken, if Lethe were passed and such food were tasted without any payment

of repentance that sheds tears.”

Purgatory Canto XXXI

“O thou who art beyond the sacred river,” turning her speech to me point-wise, which but for edge had seemed to me bitter,

she recommenced, following without count, “say, say if this be true: to so great accusation thy confession needs must be conjoined.”

So confused was my power, that the voice moved, and first was quenched ere from its organs it was loosed.

Little she bore; then said: “What thinkest? Answer me; for the sad memories in thee are not yet offended by the water.”

Confusion and fear together mixed thrust such a ‘yea’ out of my mouth, to understand which the eyes were needed.

As a crossbow breaks, when loosed from too great tension, its cord and bow, and with less force the shaft hits the mark,

so burst I under the heavy load, pouring forth tears and sighs, and the voice slackened through its passage.

Whereon she to me: “Through my desires, which led thee to love the good beyond which there is naught to aspire to,

what traversals or what chains didst thou find, that from going onward thou shouldst thus have stripped off hope?

And what easements or what advances did show upon the foreheads of others, that thou shouldst walk with them rather?”

After the drawing of a bitter sigh, scarce had I the voice that answered, and my lips with difficulty formed it.

Weeping I said: “The present things with their false pleasure turned my steps, as soon as your face was hidden.”

And she: “If thou wert silent or denied what thou confessest, not less known were thy fault: by such judge it is known!

But when from the accuser’s own cheek bursts the accusation of sin, in our court the wheel turns itself against the edge.

Nevertheless, that now thou bear shame of thy error, and that another time, hearing the serene ones, thou be stronger,

lay down the seed of weeping and listen: so shalt thou hear how on the contrary part my buried flesh should have moved thee.

Never did nature or art present to thee pleasure, as the fair limbs in which I was enclosed, and which are scattered on earth;

and if the supreme pleasure so failed thee through my death, what mortal thing should then have drawn thee into its desire?

Well shouldst thou, by the first shaft of the fallacious things, have lifted thee up behind me who was no longer such.

Thou shouldst not have weighted thy wings downward, to await more stroke, or a young girl or other novelty of so brief use.

A new little bird waits two or three; but before the eyes of the feathered ones a net is spread or a shaft shot in vain.”

As children, ashamed, silent with eyes on the ground stand, listening and acknowledging themselves and repentant,

such stood I; and she said: “When thou art sorrowful to hear, lift thy beard, and thou shalt take more grief in looking.”

With less resistance uproots itself a sturdy oak, whether to our wind or to that of the land of Iarbas,

than I lifted not at her command my chin; and when for the beard she asked my face, well I knew the poison of the argument.

And as my face was disclosed, those first creatures resting from their sprinkling my eye comprehended;

and my eyes, still little sure, saw Beatrice turned upon the beast that is one person in two natures.

Beneath her veil and beyond the river she seemed to me to vanquish her ancient self, to vanquish more than the others here, when she was present.

So did the nettle of repentance prick me there, that of all other things whatever had turned me most in her love, became most hostile to me.

So much did recognition gnaw my heart, that I fell vanquished; and such as she made me then, she raised me who gave me the cause.

Then, when my heart rendered virtue from without, the lady whom I had found alone I saw above me, and said: “Hold me, hold me!”

She had drawn me into the river up to the throat, and drawing me after her she went above the water light as a shell.

When I was near the blessed shore, ‘Asperges me’ so sweetly I heard, that I cannot remember it, much less write it.

The fair lady opened her arms; embraced my head and plunged me where I needs must swallow the water.

Then she took me, and bathed offered me within the dance of the four fair ones; and each covered me with her arm.

“We are here nymphs and in heaven stars; before Beatrice descended to the world, we were ordained to her as her handmaids.

We shall lead thee to her eyes; but in the joyous light that is within they shall whet thine the three from there, who gaze more deep.”

Thus singing they began; and then to the breast of the griffin with them they led me, where Beatrice stood turned toward us.

They said: “See that thou spare not thy sight; we have placed thee before the emeralds whence Love once drew his arms against thee.”

A thousand desires hotter than flame constrained my eyes to the shining eyes, which still upon the griffin stood firm.

As in the mirror the sun, not otherwise the double beast rayed within it, now with one, now with other regimes.

Think, reader, if I marveled, when I saw the thing in itself stay quiet, and in its idol transmute itself.

While full of wonder and glad the soul of mine tasted of that food which, satisfying of itself, of itself makes thirsty,

showing herself of higher tribe in her acts, the other three came forward, dancing to their angelic carol.

“Turn, Beatrice, turn thy holy eyes,” was their song, “to thy faithful one who, to see thee, has moved many steps!

For grace do us grace that unveils to him thy mouth, so that he discern the second beauty that thou celebratest.”

O splendor of living eternal light, who paled beneath the shade of Parnassus, or drank in its cistern,

that seemed not to have the mind encumbered, trying to render thee as thou appearedst there where harmonizing heaven shadows thee,

when in the open air thou didst resolve?

Purgatory Canto XXXII

So fixed and intent were my eyes to disbrate the ten-year thirst, that all my other senses were spent.

And they on this side and that had wall of not caring—so the holy smile drew them to itself with the ancient net!—

when by force my face was turned toward my left by those goddesses, because I heard from them a ‘Too fixed!’

and the disposition that to see has in eyes but now struck by the sun, without sight made me for a while.

But after the sight was reformed to the little (and I say ‘to the little’ by respect to the much sensible whence by force I was removed),

I saw upon the right arm to be turned the glorious army, and returning with the sun and the seven flames to the face.

As beneath the shields to save themselves wheels a squadron, and turns with the sign, before it can all change into itself;

that soldiery of the heavenly kingdom that proceeded, all passed through before the car bent its first wood.

Then to the wheels turned the ladies, and the griffin moved the blessed burden so, that therefore no feather shook.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”