Part 18

but turns back upon you, as is its wont, to void: / true substances are what you see, / here bound for default of vow.

Therefore speak with them and hear and believe; / for the true light that satisfies them / suffers them not to turn their feet away."

And I, to the shade that seemed most eager / to discourse, turned me, and began, / almost as one whom too much longing bewilders:

"O well-created spirit, who in the rays / of eternal life the sweetness feel / which, untasted, is never understood,

it will be gracious in me if you content / me as to your name and your lot." / Whereon she, prompt and with laughing eyes:

"Our charity closes not its door / to a just wish, save as that which would / have all its court like unto itself.

I was in the world a virgin sister; / and if your mind regard itself well, / my being fairer will not hide me from you,

but you will recognize that I am Piccarda, / who, placed here with these other blessed ones, / am blessed in the slowest sphere.

Our affections, which are inflamed / only in the pleasure of the Holy Spirit, / rejoice at being ordered by His ordinance.

And this lot which appears so low / is given us because our vows were neglected, / and void in some part."

Whereon I to her: "In your wondrous aspects / shines forth I know not what divine / that transforms you from your first conceptions:

therefore I was not quick to remember; / but now what you tell me helps me, / so that your likeness is clearer to me.

But tell me: you who are happy here, / do you desire a higher place / to see more and to make yourselves more friends?"

With those other shades she first smiled a little; / then answered me so joyfully / that she seemed to burn with love in the primal fire:

"Brother, our will, quieted, / is the virtue of charity, which makes us will / only that which we have, and thirsts for naught else.

If we desired to be more exalted, / our desires would be discordant / with the will of Him who assigns us here;

which you will see cannot be in these circles, / if to be in charity is here necessary, / and if you well regard its nature.

Nay, it is formal to this blessed being / to keep within the divine will, / whereby our wills themselves are made one;

so that, as we are from threshold to threshold / through this kingdom, the whole kingdom pleases us / as does the King who in His will enfolds us.

And in His will is our peace: / it is that sea to which all moves / that He creates or nature makes."

Clear was it to me then how everywhere / in heaven is paradise, albeit the grace / of the Supreme Good does not rain there in one mode.

But as it happens, if one food sates / and for another the palate still remains eager, / that one is asked for and thanks given for that,

so did I with act and word, / to learn from her what was the web / from which she did not draw the shuttle to the end.

"Perfect life and high merit enheavens / a lady higher up," she said to me, "by whose rule / in your world below they clothe and veil themselves,

that until death they may watch and sleep / with that Spouse who accepts every vow / which charity conforms to His pleasure.

From the world, to follow her, young / I fled, and in her habit enclosed me / and promised the way of her sect.

Then men, used to evil more than good, / rapt me from the sweet cloister: / God knows what thereafter my life was.

And that other splendor which shows itself / on my right side, and is kindled / with all the light of our sphere,

understands of himself what I say of myself; / he was a sister, and thus from her head / was taken the shadow of the sacred bands.

But since she was turned back to the world / against her will and against good usage, / she was never loosed from the veil of the heart.

This is the light of the great Costanza / who of the second wind of Swabia / generated the third and last power."

Thus she spoke to me, and then began singing 'Ave, / Maria,' and singing vanished / like a heavy thing through deep water.

My sight, which followed her as long / as possible, when it had lost her, / turned to the mark of greater desire,

and wholly converted itself to Beatrice; / but she flashed in my glance / so that at first my sight endured it not;

and this made me slower to question.

Paradiso Canto IV

Between two foods, distant and moving / in one way, a free man would sooner die of hunger / than bring the one to his teeth;

so would a lamb stand between two longings / of fierce wolves, equally fearing both; / so would a dog stand between two dames:

wherefore, if I held my peace, I blame not myself, / driven in one way by my doubts, / since it was necessary, nor do I commend.

I was silent, but my desire was painted / on my face, and the asking with it, / far warmer than by distinct speech.

Beatrice did as Daniel did, / raising Nebuchadnezzar from wrath / which had made him unjustly fierce;

and said: "I see well how one and the other desire / draws you, so that your care / binds itself so that it breathes not out.

You argue: 'If good will endures, / the violence of another, by what reason, / diminishes to me the measure of merit?'

Still to doubt gives you cause / the seeming return of souls to the stars, / according to the sentence of Plato.

These are the questions that in your will / weigh equally; and therefore first / will I treat that which has more of gall.

He of the Seraphim who most enflames, / Moses, Samuel, and that John / whom you would take, I say, not Mary,

have not in other heaven their seats / than these spirits who now appeared to you, / nor have they more or fewer years in their being;

but all make beautiful the first circle, / and differently have sweet life / according to feeling more or less the eternal breath.

Here they showed themselves, not because this sphere / is allotted to them, but to make sign / of the celestial which has least ascent.

Thus it behooves to speak to your understanding, / for only from sense apprehends / that which afterwards is worthy of intellect.

For this the Scripture condescends / to your capacity, and feet and hands / attributes to God and means otherwise;

and Holy Church with human aspect / represents to you Gabriel and Michael, / and the other who made Tobias whole.

That which Timaeus argues of the souls / is not like to that which here is seen, / for, as he says, it seems to feel.

He says the soul returns to its star, / believing that thence it was severed / when nature gave it for form;

and perhaps his opinion is of other guise / than the voice sounds, and may be / with intention not to be derided.

If he means return to these wheels / the honor of the influence and the blame, perhaps / in some truth his bow he strikes.

This principle, ill understood, once / perverted well-nigh all the world, so that Jove, / Mercury and Mars it passed to name.

The other doubt that moves you / has less venom, for its malice / could not lead you elsewhere from me.

That our justice appears unjust / in the eyes of mortals, is argument / of faith and not of heretical wickedness.

But since your discernment can / well penetrate to this truth, / as you desire, I will content you.

If violence is when he who suffers / contributes naught to what forces him, / these souls were not excused by it:

for will, if it will not, is not quenched, / but does as nature does in fire, / though a thousand times violence twist it.

Wherefore, if it bend much or little, / it follows the force; and thus these did, / being able to take refuge in the holy place.

If their will had been entire, / as Lawrence held on the grate, / and Mucius made his hand severe,

so would it have thrust them back along the road / whence they were drawn, as soon as loosed; / but such steadfast will is too rare.

And by these words, if gathered / as you ought, the argument is void / which would have vexed you many times more.

But now there crosses before your eyes / another pass, such that by yourself / you would not issue forth: first would you be weary.

I have set in your mind for certain / that a blessed soul cannot lie, / for it is ever near the primal truth;

and then could you hear from Piccarda / that Costanza held the affection of the veil; / so that she seems here to contradict me.

Many times already, brother, has it happened / that, to flee peril, against liking / was done that which should not be done;

as Alemeon, who, entreated / by his father, slew his own mother, / to not lose pity became pitiless.

To this point I will have you think / that force mingles with the will, and they do / so that offenses cannot be excused.

Absolute will consents not to the harm; / but consents in so far as it fears, / if it withdraw, to fall in greater anguish.

Wherefore, when Piccarda utters that, / she means of absolute will, and I / of the other; so we speak truth together."

Such was the undulation of the holy river / that issued from the fount whence every truth derives; / such put in peace one and the other desire.

"O beloved of the first Lover, O divine one," / said I thereafter, "whose speech overflows / and warms me so, that more and more it quickens me,

not is my affection so deep / that it suffices to render you grace for grace; / but He who sees and can, answer for this.

I see well that never is sated / our intellect, if the truth illume it not / from without, beyond which no truth extends.

It rests in that, as beast in lair, / as soon as it has reached it; and reach it can: / else were every desire frustrate.

Born from that, like a shoot, / at the foot of the truth, doubt; and it is nature / that thrusts us from height to height.

This invites me, this assures me / with reverence, lady, to ask you / of another truth that is obscure to me.

I would know if man can satisfy you / for wanting vows with other goods, / that to your balance be not small."

Beatrice looked at me with eyes full / of sparks of love so divine, / that, overcome, my virtue turned its back,

and well-nigh I lost myself with lowered eyes.

Paradiso Canto V

"If I flame you in the heat of love / beyond the mode that on earth is seen, / so that of your visage I vanquish the valor,

marvel not, for this proceeds / from perfect seeing, which, as it apprehends, / so in the good apprehended moves the foot.

I see well how now resplends / in your intellect the eternal light, / which, seen, alone and ever enkindles love;

and if another thing seduce your love, / it is naught but some vestige of that, / ill known, which there shines through.

You would know if with other service, / for wanting vow, one can render so much / that the soul secure from strife."

Thus began Beatrice this canticle; / and as one who breaks not off his speech, / she continued thus the holy process:

"The greatest gift that God by His largess / made in creating, and to His goodness / most conformed, and that which He most prizes,

was the liberty of the will; / whereof intelligent creatures, / and all and sole, were and are endowed.

Now will it appear to you, if you argue thence, / the high worth of the vow, if it be such / that God consents when you consent;

for, in establishing between God and man the pact, / victim is made of this treasure, / such as I say; and made by its act.

Then what can be rendered for restore? / If you think to use well that which you offered, / of ill-taken you would make good work.

You are now certain of the greater point; / but because Holy Church dispenses in this, / which seems contrary to the truth I uncovered,

it behooves you still to sit a while at table, / for the rigid food you have taken / requires yet aid to your digestion.

Open your mind to that which I reveal, / and fix it therewithin; for not science, / without retaining, is to have understood.

Two things belong to the essence / of this sacrifice: the one is that / whereof it is made; the other the convenance.

This latter can never be cancelled / save by observance; and concerning it / so precise is spoken above:

wherefore necessitated were the Hebrews / to offer, albeit some offering / was commuted, as you should know.

The other, which by matter is open to you, / can well be such, that it fails not / if with other matter it be converted.

But let no one shift the load to his shoulder / by his own arbitrament, without the turning / both of the white and of the yellow key;

and every commutation believe foolish, / if the thing left in the taken / as four in six be not comprised.

Wherefore whatever thing weighs so / by its value that it draws every balance, / cannot be satisfied with other expense.

Let not mortals take the vow in jest; / be faithful, and not squinting to do this, / as Jephthah to his first offering;

who better had said 'I did ill,' / than, keeping, do worse; and thus foolish / you may find the great duke of the Greeks,

whence wept Ephigenia her fair face, / and made weep of her the foolish and the wise / who heard tell of such chosen speech.

Be, Christians, more slow to move: / be not as feather to every wind, / and believe not that every water washes you.

You have the New and the Old Testament, / and the shepherd of the Church who guides you; / let this suffice you to your salvation.

If evil cupidity cry aught else to you, / be men, and not silly sheep, / so that the Jew among you may not laugh at you!

Do not as the lamb that leaves the milk / of its mother, and simple and wanton / fights with itself at its own pleasure!"

Thus Beatrice to me as I write; / then turned herself all desiring / to that part where the world is most alive.

Her silence and changing semblance / put silence on my craving wit, / which already had new questions before it;

and as arrow that strikes the mark / ere the string be still, / so ran we into the second realm.

There my lady I saw so glad, / as she entered into the light of that heaven, / that the planet became more lucent.

And if the star changed and smiled, / what became I, who by my nature / am transmutable in every wise!

As in a fishpond that is tranquil and pure / the fishes draw to that which comes from without / in such wise that they deem it their food,

so saw I well more than a thousand splendors / draw toward us, and in each was heard: / "Behold who shall increase our loves."

And as each came to us, / was seen the shade full of gladness / in the clear effulgence that issued from it.

Think, reader, if that which here begins / proceeded not, how you would have / anguished scarcity of more knowing;

and by this you will see how from these / was I in desire to hear their conditions, / as to my eyes they were manifest.

"O well born, to whom to see the thrones / of the eternal triumph grace concedes / ere the militia be abandoned,

of the light that through all heaven expands / we are enkindled; and therefore, if you desire / to be cleared of us, at your pleasure sate you."

Thus by one of those pious spirits / was said to me; and by Beatrice: "Say, say / securely, and believe as to gods."

"I see well how you nestle / in your own light, and that from the eyes you draw it, / since it coruscates as you smile;

but know not who you are, nor why you add, / worthy soul, the grade of the sphere / that veils itself to mortals with other rays."

This said I direct to the luminary / that first had spoken to me; whereon it made itself / far more lucent than it was.

As the sun that hides itself / through too much light, when the heat has gnawed / the temperings of the thick vapors,

for more gladness so hid itself from me / within its ray the holy figure; / and thus enclosed enclosed answered me

in the mode that the following canticle chants.

Paradiso Canto VI

"After that Constantine turned the eagle / against the course of the heaven, which it followed / behind the ancient one who took Lavinia,

a hundred and a hundred years and more the bird of God / in the extremity of Europe stayed, / near the mountains whence it first issued;

and under the shadow of the sacred wings / governed the world there from hand to hand, / and, thus changing, came to mine.

Caesar was I and am Justinian, / who, by the will of the first love that I feel, / drew from the laws the excess and the vain.

And before I was intent on the work, / one nature in Christ to be, no more, / I believed, and of such faith was content;

but the blessed Agapetus, who was / supreme shepherd, to the sincere faith / directed me with his words.

I believed him; and that which in his faith was, / I now see clearly as you see / every contradiction false and true.

Soon as with the Church I moved my feet, / to God by grace it pleased to inspire / the high work in me, and all in Him I gave;

and to my Belisarius I committed the arms, / to whom the right hand of heaven was so joined / that it was sign I should repose.

Now here at the first question points / my answer; but its condition / constrains me to follow some addition,

that you may see with how much reason / moves against the sacrosanct sign / both he who appropriates it and he who opposes.

See how much virtue has made it worthy / of reverence; and it began from the hour / that Pallas died to give him kingdom.

You know that it made in Alba its abode / for three hundred years and more, until the end / that the three against the three fought for it yet.

And know that it wrought from the ill of the Sabines / to the grief of Lucretia under seven kings, / conquering around the neighboring peoples.

You know what it did borne by the egregious / Romans against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, / against the other princes and leagues;

whence Torquatus and Quinctius, who from the curl / neglected was named, the Decii and the Fabii / had the fame which willingly I mirror.

It overthrew the pride of the Arabs / who behind Hannibal passed / the alpine rocks, Po, whereof you glide.

Under it young triumphed / Scipio and Pompey; and to that hill / beneath which you were born it seemed bitter.

Then, near the time that all heaven willed / to reduce the world to its calm mode, / Caesar by will of Rome takes it.

And that which it did from Varus to the Rhine, / Isara saw and Era and saw the Seine / and every valley whereof Rhone is full.

That which it did after he issued from Ravenna / and leapt Rubicon, was of such flight / that neither tongue nor pen would follow.

Toward Spain he turned the host, / then toward Durazzo, and Farsalia smote / so that to the hot Nile was felt the dolor.

Antandros and Simois, whence it moved, / it saw again and there where Hector lies; / and ill for Ptolemy thereafter it shook.

Thence descended thundering on Juba; / whence it turned to your west, / where it heard the Pompeian trumpet.

Of that which it did with the following bailiff, / Brutus with Cassius in hell bark, / and Modena and Perugia were dolent.

Weeps yet the sad Cleopatra, / who, fleeing before him, from the serpent / took sudden and black death.

With him it ran even to the Red shore; / with him it put the world in such peace, / that Janus's temple was shut.

But that which the sign that makes me speak / had done before and was to do / through the mortal realm that to it is subject,

becomes in appearance little and obscure, / if in the hand of the third Caesar it is seen / with clear eye and with pure affection;

for the living justice that inspires me / granted it, in the hand of him I say, / glory to do vengeance for its ire.

Now here wonder you in that which I repeat: / afterward with Titus to do vengeance ran / for the vengeance of the ancient sin.

And when the Lombard tooth bit / the Holy Church, under its wings / Charlemagne, conquering, succored it.

Now can you judge of those such ones / whom I accused above and of their faults, / who are cause of all your ills.

The one opposes to the public sign the yellow lilies, / and the other appropriates it to a part, / so that it is hard to see who errs the more.

Let the Ghibellines, let them ply their art / under other sign, for ill follows that / ever who justice and it divides;

and let not this new Charles beat it down / with his Guelfs, but fear the talons / that from a higher lion tore the fleece.

Many times already have the sons wept / for the father's fault, and let it not be believed / that God changes arms for his lilies!

This little star is adorned / with the good spirits who have been active / that honor and fame may succeed them:

and when the desires mount there, / thus going astray, needs must the rays / of true love mount less living.

But in the commensurating of our pledges / with the merit is part of our gladness, / because we see them neither less nor more.

Thence the living justice / in us sweetens the affection so, / that it can never be turned to any wickedness.

Diverse voices make sweet notes; / thus diverse seats in our life / render sweet harmony among these wheels.

And within the present pearl / shines the light of Romeo, of whom / the work was great and fair ill-graced.

But the Provencals who did against him / have not laughed; and therefore ill walks / whoever makes damage of another's well-doing.

Four daughters had, and each a queen, / Raymond Berenger, and this to him made / Romeo, humble and pilgrim person.

And then moved him the crooked words / to ask account of this just one, / who assigned him seven and five for ten,

thence departed poor and old; / and if the world knew the heart he had / begging his life crust by crust,

enough it would praise him, and more would praise."

Paradiso Canto VII

"Osanna, sanctus Deus sabaoth, / superilluminating with thy clarity / happy fires of these malacoth!"

Thus, turning to its note, / was seen by me to sing that substance, / above which a double light is joined;

and it and the others moved to its dance, / and like most swift sparks / veiled themselves from me with sudden distance.

I doubted and said 'Tell her, tell her!' / within me, 'tell her' said I, 'to my lady / who thirsts me with the sweet drops.'

But that reverence which lords / all of me, only by Be and by ice, / bowed me like one who slumbers.

Little endured me such Beatrice / and began, rayoning me with a smile / such, that in the fire it would make man happy:

"According to my infallible advice, / how just vengeance justly / punished was, has put you in thought;

but I will soon solve your mind; / and listen, for my words / of great sentence will make you present.

For not to suffer the virtue that wills / bridle to its profit, that man who was not born, / damning himself, damned all his progeny;

whence the human species infirm lay / down through many centuries in great error, / until it pleased the Word of God to descend

where nature, which from its Maker / had estranged itself, united to Him in person / by the sole act of His eternal love.

Now direct your face to that which now is reasoned: / this nature to its Maker united, / such as created, was sincere and good;

but of itself alone was it banished / from paradise, because it turned / from way of truth and from its life.

The pain therefore that the cross brought / if measured to the nature assumed, / never yet so justly smote;

and thus never was of so much injury, / looking to the person who suffered, / in whom was contracted such nature.

Wherefore from one act issued diverse things: / to God and to the Jews pleased one death; / by it trembled the earth and heaven opened.

It should not now seem harder to you, / when it is said that just vengeance / was afterward avenged by just court.

But I see now your mind retracted / from thought to thought within one knot, / from which with great desire it awaits solution.

You say: 'Well discern I what I hear; / but why God willed, is occult to me, / to our redemption purposed this mode.'

This decree, brother, lies sepulchered / to the eyes of each whose wit / in the flame of love is not adult.

“Stories of the world, in your language.”