Part 22

Then those bright fires of the Holy Spirit were quieted, still in the sign that made the Romans revered throughout the world,

he began again: “To this realm never ascended one who did not believe in Christ, neither before nor after He was nailed to the wood.

But see: many cry ‘Christ, Christ!’ who at the judgment will be far less near to Him than one who knows not Christ;

and such Christians will the Ethiopian condemn, when the two colleges shall part, one eternally rich and the other poor.

What can the Persians say to your kings, when they see that volume opened in which all their dispraise is written?

There shall be seen, among the works of Albert, that which soon shall move the pen, whereby the kingdom of Prague shall be deserted.

There shall be seen the grief that upon the Seine is induced, by falsifying the coin, by him who shall die by a blow of hide.

There shall be seen the pride that makes thirsty, which renders the Scot and the Englishman mad, so that he cannot endure within his own bounds.

Shall be seen the lust and the soft living of him of Spain and of him of Bohemia, who never knew nor would know worth.

Shall be seen, in the book of Jerusalem, marked with an I his goodness, when the contrary shall mark an M.

Shall be seen the avarice and the baseness of him who guards the island of fire, where Anchises ended his long age;

and to show how little it is, his writing shall be maimed letters, that shall note much in little space.

And to all shall appear the foul works of the uncle and the brother, who have made a blot of so noble a nation and two crowns.

And he of Portugal and of Norway shall there be known, and he of Rascia, who has ill seen the coin of Venice.

O blessed Hungary, if it suffer itself no more to be ill-treated! and blessed Navarre, if it armed itself with the mountain that girds it!

And each must believe that now, as earnest of this, Nicosia and Famagosta lament and wrangle for their beast, who from the flank of the others withdraws not.”

Paradise Canto XX

When He who illumines all the world descends so far from our hemisphere that the day is consumed on every side,

the heaven, which of Him alone first kindles, suddenly makes itself again apparent through many lights, in which one shines;

and this act of the heaven came to my mind, as the sign of the world and of its leaders was silent in the blessed beak;

for all those living lights, shining far more brightly, began songs, from my memory slippery and frail.

O sweet Love who cladst thee in smiles, how ardent didst thou seem in those flames, which had spirit only of holy thoughts!

After the dear and lucent gems wherewith I saw the sixth light begemmed had put silence to the angelic trills,

I seemed to hear a murmuring of a river that descends clear from stone to stone, showing the fertility of its summit.

And as sound upon the neck of the lyre takes its form, and as in the vent of the pipe wind that penetrates,

so, delay of waiting removed, that murmuring of the eagle rose up through the neck, as if it were a conduit.

It became voice there, and issued thence through its beak in form of words, such as the heart awaited wherein I wrote them.

“The part in me that sees and suffers the sun in mortal eagles,” it began to me, “now fixedly to be regarded is wished,

because of the fires whereof I was figured, those whence the eye in my head sparkles, are of all their grades the highest.

He who shines in the midst for pupil was the singer of the Holy Spirit, who translated the ark from village to village:

now he knows the merit of his song, in so far as it was effect of his counsel, by the rewarding that is equal to it.

Of the five who make circle for brow, he who is nearest to the beak consoled the widow of her son:

now he knows how dear it costs not to follow Christ, by the experience of this sweet life and of the opposite.

And he who follows in the circumference whereof I speak, on the upper arc, delayed death by true penitence:

now he knows that the eternal judgment changes not, when worthy prayer makes to-morrow below of to-day.

The other who follows, with the laws and with me, under good intention that bore bad fruit, to yield to the pastor made himself Greek:

now he knows how the ill deduced from his well operating is not hurtful to him, albeit the world be thereby destroyed.

And he whom thou seest in the declining arc, was William, whom that land bewails which weeps Charles and Frederick living:

now he knows how the heaven falls in love with the just king, and in the semblance of its brightness shows him still.

Who would believe, down in the erring world, that Rhipeus the Trojan in this round was the fifth of the holy lights?

Now he knows much of that which the world cannot see of the divine grace, though his sight discerns not the depth.”

Even as the lark that sports in the air first singing, then is silent content with the last sweetness that satiates her,

such seemed to me the image of the imprint of the eternal pleasure, at whose desire every thing becomes such as it is.

And albeit I was to my doubting there almost as glass to the color that vests it, it endured not to wait in silence,

but with the force of its weight thrust from the mouth, “What things are these?” so that I saw great festivity of coruscating.

Then thereafter, with the eye more enkindled, the blessed sign answered me, to hold me not suspended in wonder:

“I see that thou believest these things because I say them, but seest not how; so that, if they are believed, they are hidden.

Do as he who learns a thing well by name, but cannot see its quiddity unless another show it.

Regnum celorum suffers violence from hot love and living hope, that vanquish the divine will:

not in guise that man prevails over man, but vanquishes it because it wills to be vanquished, and, vanquished, vanquishes with its benignity.

The first life of the brow and the fifth make thee marvel, because thou seest the region of the angels depicted.

Not from their bodies, as thou believest, issued Gentiles, but Christians, in firm faith, he of the pierced sides and he of the pierced feet.

For the one from hell, where none returns ever to good will, returned to the bones; and this was mercy of living hope:

of living hope, that put the power in prayers made to God to raise her, so that his will might be moved.

The glorious soul whereof is spoken, returned into the flesh, wherein she was little, believed in Him who could aid her;

and believing kindled in such fire of true love, that to the second death she was worthy to come to this play.

The other, by grace that distils from so profound a fountain that never creature directed the eye to the first wave,

placed all his love there below uprightly: wherefore, from grace to grace, God opened to him the eye to our future redemption;

whereby he believed in that, and endured not thenceforth the stench more of paganism; and reproves the perverse peoples.

Those three ladies were for baptism to him that thou sawest from the right wheel, more than a millennium before the baptizing.

O predestination, how remote is thy root from those aspects that see not the first cause entire!

And ye, mortals, hold yourselves close to judging: for we, who see God, know not yet all the elect;

and sweet to us is such defect, because our good is refined in this good, that what God wills, we also will.”

Thus from that divine image, to make clear my short sight, was given me sweet medicine.

And as a good lyrist to a good singer makes follow the quiver of the string, wherein the song acquires more pleasure,

so, while he spoke, thus I recall that I saw the two blessed lights, even as the beating of eyes accords, with the words move the little flames.

Paradise Canto XXI

Already were mine eyes refixed on the face of my lady, and my mind with them, and from every other intent was withdrawn.

And she smiled not; but “If I smiled,” she began to me, “thou wouldst become such as Semele was when she became of ashes:

for my beauty, which along the stairs of the eternal palace kindles more, as thou hast seen, the more one ascends,

if it were not tempered, shines so, that thy mortal power, before its splendor, would be leaf that thunder rends.

We are raised to the seventh splendor, which beneath the breast of the burning Lion now rays down mingled of its valor.

Fix thy mind behind thine eyes, and make of those mirrors to the figure that in this mirror shall be apparent to thee.”

Whoever should know what was the pasture of my face in the blessed aspect when I transformed me to other care,

would know how grateful to me was obeying my heavenly escort, weighing the one side against the other.

Within the crystal that bears the name, circling the world, of its dear leader beneath whom all mortal malice lay dead,

of color of gold in which ray shines through, I saw a stair erected upward so high that my sight followed it not.

I saw also down the steps descend so many splendors, that I thought every light that appears in heaven was thence diffused.

And as, by natural custom, the magpies together, at the beginning of day, move to warm their cold plumes;

then others go away without return, others turn them back whence they moved, and others wheeling make sojourn;

such mode appeared to me there was in that sparkling which came together, as in a certain grade struck.

And he who kept nearest to us, made himself so clear, that I said thinking: ‘I well see the love that thou signest to me.

But she from whom I await the how and when of speaking and of silence, stays; wherefore I, against desire, do well not to ask.’

Wherefore she, who saw my silence in the sight of him who sees all, said to me: “Solve thy hot desire.”

And I began: “My merit makes me not worthy of thy answer; but for her who grants the asking,

blessed life that stayest hidden within thy joy, make known to me the cause that has placed thee so near me;

and say why there is silence in this wheel of the sweet symphony of paradise, which below through the others sounds so devout.”

“Thou hast the mortal hearing even as the sight,” answered me; “wherefore here is not sung for that which Beatrice has not smiled.

Down through the steps of the holy stair I descended so much only to make thee feast with the saying and with the light that mantles me;

nor did more love make me more prompt, for equal and so much love burns here above, as the flaming manifests to thee.

But the high charity, which makes us prompt to the counsel that governs the world, allots here as thou observest.”

“I see well,” said I, “sacred lamp, how free love in this court suffices to follow the eternal providence;

but this is that which seems hard to me to discern, why thou wast predestined alone to this office among thy consorts.”

Nor came I first to the last word, than of its middle it made the light center, wheeling itself like swift millstone;

then answered the love that was within: “Divine light above me is aimed, penetrating through this wherein I am enfolded,

whose virtue, joined with my sight, lifts me above me so, that I see the supreme essence from which it is milked.

Thence comes the gladness wherewith I flame; wherefore to my sight, as clear as it is, I match the clearness of the flame.

But that soul in heaven that most clarifies, that seraphim that has the eye most fixed on God, to thy question will not satisfy,

because so far enters into the abyss of the eternal statute that which thou askest, that from every created sight it is cut off.

And to the mortal world, when thou returnest, report this, so that it presume not more to move the feet to such a mark.

The mind, that here shines, on earth smokes; wherefore look how it can down there, that which cannot because the heaven assumes it.”

So did his words prescribe to me, that I left the question and drew back to ask him humbly who he was.

“Between the two shores of Italy rise rocks, and not far from thy country, so that the thunders sound much lower,

and make a hump that is called Catria, beneath which is consecrated a hermitage, wont to be given to sole latria.”

Thus the third discourse began to me; and then, continuing, said: “There to the service of God I made me so firm,

that with foods of olive liquor lightly I passed heats and colds, content in contemplative thoughts.

That cloister used to render to these heavens fruitfully; and now is made vain, so that soon it must be revealed.

In that place was I Peter Damian, and Peter the Sinner was I in the house of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore.

Little mortal life remained to me, when I was asked and drawn to that hat, which only from bad to worse is decanted.

Came Caphas and came the great vessel of the Holy Spirit, lean and barefoot, taking food from whatsoever hostel.

Now they wish hence and thence who may prop the modern shepherds and who may lead them, so heavy are they, and who may lift them from behind.

They cover with their mantles the palfreys, so that two beasts go under one skin: O patience that endurest so much!”

At this voice I saw more little flames descend from grade to grade and wheel, and every turning made them more beautiful.

Around this one they came and stayed, and made a cry of so high sound, that it could not be likened here;

nor did I hear it, so the thunder overcame me.

Paradise Canto XXII

Oppressed with wonder, to my guide I turned, as child who runs ever where he most trusts;

and she, as mother who succors suddenly her pale and breathless son with her voice, that well disposes him,

said to me: “Knowest thou not that thou art in heaven? and knowest thou not that heaven is all holy, and that which is done here comes from good zeal?

How would the singing have transformed thee, and I smiling, now thou canst think, since the cry has moved thee so;

in which, if thou hadst heard its prayers, already would the vengeance be known to thee that thou shalt see before thou die.

The sword from up here cuts not in haste nor slow, but as seems to him who awaits it desiring or fearing.

But turn now toward others; for thou shalt see many illustrious spirits, if as I say thou bring back thine eyes.”

As pleased her, I returned the eyes, and saw a hundred little spheres that together beautified themselves more with mutual rays.

I stood like one who in himself restrains the point of desire, and dares not ask, so much he fears from excess;

and the greatest and most lucent of those pearls came forward, to make my wish content of itself.

Then within it I heard: “If thou sawest the charity that burns among us, thy thoughts would be expressed.

But that thou, awaiting, delay not the high end, I will make thee answer even to the thought, since thou regardest it so.

That mountain on whose flank Cassino lies was frequented once upon its summit by the deceived and ill-disposed people;

and I am he who first bore up there the name of Him who brought on earth the truth that so sublimates us;

and such grace shone upon me, that I drew the surrounding villages from the impious cult that seduced the world.

These other fires all contemplative men were, enkindled by that heat that makes the holy flowers and fruits to be born.

Here is Macarius, here is Romoald, here are my friars who within the cloisters fixed their feet and held the heart firm.”

And I to him: “The affection that thou showest speaking with me, and the good semblance that I see and note in all your ardors,

has so dilated my confidence, as the sun does the rose when opened it becomes as great as it has power.

Wherefore I pray thee, and do thou, father, assure me if I can take so much grace, that I may see thee with uncovered image.”

Wherefore he: “Brother, thy high desire shall be fulfilled in the ultimate sphere, where are fulfilled all the others and mine.

There is perfect, mature, and entire every desire; in that alone is every part there where it ever was, because it is not in place and does not roll;

and our stair even to it passes, whence thus from the sight it is withdrawn from thee.

Up there the patriarch Jacob saw it extend the supernal part, when it appeared to him charged with angels.

But, to climb it, now no one lifts the feet from earth, and my rule has remained through the damage of the papers.

The walls that were wont to be abbey are made caverns, and the cowls sacks full of foul flour.

But heavy usury is not so taken away against the pleasure of God, as that fruit which makes the heart of monks so mad;

for whatsoever the Church guards, all is of the people who for God demand it; not of relatives nor of other more base.

The flesh of mortals is so soft, that below suffices not good beginning from the birth of the oak to the making of the acorn.

Peter began without gold and without silver, and I with prayer and with fasting, and Francis humbly his convent;

and if thou regard the beginning of each, then look where it has run, thou shalt see of the white made brown.

Truly Jordan turned back was more, and the sea flee, when God willed, wonderful to see than here the succor.”

Thus he said to me, and then collected him to his college, and the college drew close; then, like a whirlwind, all uprolled itself.

The sweet lady behind them thrust me with a single sign up that stair, so her virtue vanquished my nature;

nor ever down here where one mounts and descends naturally, was there so swift motion that could be matched to my wing.

If I return ever, reader, to that devout triumph for which I weep often my sins and smite my breast,

thou wouldst not have in so much drawn and put the finger in the fire, as I saw the sign that follows the Bull and was within it.

O glorious stars, O light pregnant with great virtue, from which I recognize all, whatsoever it be, my genius,

with you was born and hid itself with you he who is father of all mortal life, when I first felt the Tuscan air;

and then, when grace was largely given me to enter the high wheel that turns you, your region was allotted to me.

To you devoutly now sighs my soul, to acquire virtue for the hard passage that draws it to itself.

“Thou art so near to the ultimate salvation,” began Beatrice, “that thou oughtest to have thine eyes clear and keen;

and therefore, before thou enfold thyself more, look down, and see how much world already I made to be beneath thy feet;

so that thy heart, as much as it can, joyful may present itself to the triumphant crowd that comes glad through this ethereal round.”

With the face I returned through all the seven spheres, and saw this globe such that I smiled at its vile semblance;

and that counsel I approve for better which holds it for least; and who thinks otherwise can be called truly probate.

I saw the daughter of Latona enkindled without that shadow which was cause to me why I once believed her rare and dense.

The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, there I sustained, and saw how around and near to him move Maia and Dione.

Thence appeared to me the tempering of Jove between father and son; and thence was clear to me the varying they make of their places;

and all the seven showed themselves to me how great they are and how swift and how in distant retreat.

The little threshing-floor that makes us so fierce, turning me with the eternal Twins, all appeared to me from hills to mouths;

then I turned the eyes to the beautiful eyes.

Paradise Canto XXIII

As the bird, among the beloved fronds, settled on the nest of its sweet offspring in the night that hides things from us,

which, to see the desired faces and to find the food wherewith to feed them, in which heavy labors are pleasing to it,

anticipates the time on open branch, and with ardent affection awaits the sun, fixedly gazing only that the dawn be born;

so my lady stood erect and attentive, turned toward the region beneath which the sun shows less haste:

so that, seeing her suspended and eager, I became like him who desiring would wish otherwise, and hoping is satisfied.

But little was between one and the other when, of my waiting, I say, and of seeing the heaven come more and more clarifying;

and Beatrice said: “Behold the hosts of the triumph of Christ and all the fruit gathered of the turning of these spheres!”

Her face seemed all enkindled, and the eyes had of joy so full, that I must pass on without construct.

As in the serene full moons Trivia smiles among the eternal nymphs that paint the heaven through all its bosoms,

I saw above thousands of lamps a sun that kindled them all, as ours does the supernal sights;

and through the living light shone the lucent substance so clear in my face, that it sustained it not.

O Beatrice, sweet and dear guide! She said to me: “That which overpowers thee is virtue from which nothing is shielded.

There is the wisdom and the power that opened the ways between heaven and earth, whence was once so long desire.”

As fire from cloud unlocks itself by dilating so that it contains not, and out of its nature falls downward,

my mind thus, among those feasts made greater, issued from itself, and what it became it knows not to remember.

“Open thine eyes and regard what I am; thou hast seen things, that powerful thou art made to sustain my smile.”

I was like him who recovers from forgotten vision and strives in vain to bring it back to mind,

when I heard this offer, worthy of so much gratitude, that never is extinguished from the book that records the past.

If now sounded all those tongues that Polymnia with her sisters made of their sweetest milk more rich,

to aid me, to the thousandth of the truth it would not come, singing the holy smile and how much the holy aspect made pure;

and thus, figuring paradise, needs must the sacred poem leap, as one who finds his path cut off.

But who should think the weighty theme and the mortal shoulder that loads itself with it, would not blame it if it trembles beneath;

it is not match for small bark that which cleaving goes the bold prow, nor for pilot who spares himself.

“Why does my face so enamor thee, that thou turnest not to the fair garden that under the rays of Christ is flowered?

There is the rose in which the divine Word made itself flesh; there are the lilies whose odor the good path took.”

Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels was all prompt, again rendered me to the battle of the weak eyelids.

As at ray of sun, that pure enters through broken cloud, already meadow of flowers seen, covered with shadow, my eyes;

I saw thus more troops of splendors, lightened from above by ardent rays, without seeing beginning of lightnings.

O benign virtue that so imprints them, thou exaltedst thyself, to give me place to the eyes there that were not potent to thee.

The name of the fair flower that I ever invoke morn and eve, all restrained my mind to advise me of the greater fire;

and as both the eyes depicted to me the which and the how much of the living star that there conquers as here below it conquered,

“Stories of the world, in your language.”