Paradiso + 

I lift mine eyes, and all the windows blaze + 

With forms of Saints and holy men who died, + 

Here martyred and hereafter glorified; + 

And the great Rose upon its leaves displays + 

Christ’s Triumph, and the angelic roundelays, + 

With splendor upon splendor multiplied; + 

And Beatrice again at Dante’s side + 

No more rebukes, but smiles her words of praise. + 

And then the organ sounds, and unseen choirs + 

Sing the old Latin hymns of peace and love + 

And benedictions of the Holy Ghost; + 

And the melodious bells among the spires + 

O’er all the housetops and through heaven above + 

Proclaim the elevation of the Host! + 

O star of morning and of liberty! + 

O bringer of the light, whose splendor shines + 

Above the darkness of the Apennines, + 

Forerunner of the day that is to be! + 

The voices of the city and the sea, + 

The voices of the mountains and the pines, + 

Repeat thy song, till the familiar lines + 

Are footpaths for the thought of Italy! + 

Thy fame is blown abroad from all the heights, + 

Through all the nations, and a sound is heard, + 

As of a mighty wind, and men devout, + 

Strangers of Rome, and the new proselytes, + 

In their own language hear thy wondrous word, + 

And many are amazed and many doubt. + 

The glory of Him who moveth everything + 

Doth penetrate the universe, and shine + 

In one part more and in another less. + 

Within that heaven which most his light receives + 

Was I, and things beheld which to repeat + 

Nor knows, nor can, who from above descends; + 

Because in drawing near to its desire + 

Our intellect ingulphs itself so far, + 

That after it the memory cannot go. + 

Truly whatever of the holy realm + 

I had the power to treasure in my mind + 

Shall now become the subject of my song. + 

O good Apollo, for this last emprise + 

Make of me such a vessel of thy power + 

As giving the beloved laurel asks! + 

One summit of Parnassus hitherto + 

Has been enough for me, but now with both + 

I needs must enter the arena left. + 

Enter into my bosom, thou, and breathe + 

As at the time when Marsyas thou didst draw + 

Out of the scabbard of those limbs of his. + 

O power divine, lend’st thou thyself to me + 

So that the shadow of the blessed realm + 

Stamped in my brain I can make manifest, + 

Thou’lt see me come unto thy darling tree, + 

And crown myself thereafter with those leaves + 

Of which the theme and thou shall make me worthy. + 

So seldom, Father, do we gather them + 

For triumph or of Caesar or of Poet, + 

(The fault and shame of human inclinations,) + 

That the Peneian foliage should bring forth + 

Joy to the joyous Delphic deity, + 

When anyone it makes to thirst for it. + 

A little spark is followed by great flame; + 

Perchance with better voices after me + 

Shall prayer be made that Cyrrha may respond! + 

To mortal men by passages diverse + 

Uprises the world’s lamp; but by that one + 

Which circles four uniteth with three crosses, + 

With better course and with a better star + 

Conjoined it issues, and the mundane wax + 

Tempers and stamps more after its own fashion. + 

Almost that passage had made morning there + 

And evening here, and there was wholly white + 

That hemisphere, and black the other part, + 

When Beatrice towards the left-hand side + 

I saw turned round, and gazing at the sun; + 

Never did eagle fasten so upon it! + 

And even as a second ray is wont + 

To issue from the first and reascend, + 

Like to a pilgrim who would fain return, + 

Thus of her action, through the eyes infused + 

In my imagination, mine I made, + 

And sunward fixed mine eyes beyond our wont. + 

There much is lawful which is here unlawful + 

Unto our powers, by virtue of the place + 

Made for the human species as its own. + 

Not long I bore it, nor so little while + 

But I beheld it sparkle round about + 

Like iron that comes molten from the fire; + 

And suddenly it seemed that day to day + 

Was added, as if He who has the power + 

Had with another sun the heaven adorned. + 

With eyes upon the everlasting wheels + 

Stood Beatrice all intent, and I, on her + 

Fixing my vision from above removed, + 

Such at her aspect inwardly became + 

As Glaucus, tasting of the herb that made him + 

Peer of the other gods beneath the sea. + 

To represent transhumanize in words + 

Impossible were; the example, then, suffice + 

Him for whom Grace the experience reserves. + 

If I was merely what of me thou newly + 

Createdst, Love who governest the heaven, + 

Thou knowest, who didst lift me with thy light! + 

When now the wheel, which thou dost make eternal + 

Desiring thee, made me attentive to it + 

By harmony thou dost modulate and measure, + 

Then seemed to me so much of heaven enkindled + 

By the sun’s flame, that neither rain nor river + 

E’er made a lake so widely spread abroad. + 

The newness of the sound and the great light + 

Kindled in me a longing for their cause, + 

Never before with such acuteness felt; + 

Whence she, who saw me as I saw myself, + 

To quiet in me my perturbed mind, + 

Opened her mouth, ere I did mine to ask, + 

And she began: “Thou makest thyself so dull + 

With false imagining, that thou seest not + 

What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off. + 

Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest; + 

But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site, + 

Ne’er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.” + 

If of my former doubt I was divested + 

By these brief little words more smiled than spoken, + 

I in a new one was the more ensnared; + 

And said: “Already did I rest content + 

From great amazement; but am now amazed + 

In what way I transcend these bodies light.” + 

Whereupon she, after a pitying sigh, + 

Her eyes directed tow’rds me with that look + 

A mother casts on a delirious child; + 

And she began: “All things whate’er they be + 

Have order among themselves, and this is form, + 

That makes the universe resemble God. + 

Here do the higher creatures see the footprints + 

Of the Eternal Power, which is the end + 

Whereto is made the law already mentioned. + 

In the order that I speak of are inclined + 

All natures, by their destinies diverse, + 

More or less near unto their origin; + 

Hence they move onward unto ports diverse + 

O’er the great sea of being; and each one + 

With instinct given it which bears it on. + 

This bears away the fire towards the moon; + 

This is in mortal hearts the motive power; + 

This binds together and unites the earth. + 

Nor only the created things that are + 

Without intelligence this bow shoots forth, + 

But those that have both intellect and love. + 

The Providence that regulates all this + 

Makes with its light the heaven forever quiet, + 

Wherein that turns which has the greatest haste. + 

And thither now, as to a site decreed, + 

Bears us away the virtue of that cord + 

Which aims its arrows at a joyous mark. + 

True is it, that as oftentimes the form + 

Accords not with the intention of the art, + 

Because in answering is matter deaf, + 

So likewise from this course doth deviate + 

Sometimes the creature, who the power possesses, + 

Though thus impelled, to swerve some other way, + 

(In the same wise as one may see the fire + 

Fall from a cloud,) if the first impetus + 

Earthward is wrested by some false delight. + 

Thou shouldst not wonder more, if well I judge, + 

At thine ascent, than at a rivulet + 

From some high mount descending to the lowland. + 

Marvel it would be in thee, if deprived + 

Of hindrance, thou wert seated down below, + 

As if on earth the living fire were quiet.” + 

Thereat she heavenward turned again her face. + 

O Ye, who in some pretty little boat, + 

Eager to listen, have been following + 

Behind my ship, that singing sails along, + 

Turn back to look again upon your shores; + 

Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure, + 

In losing me, you might yourselves be lost. + 

The sea I sail has never yet been passed; + 

Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, + 

And Muses nine point out to me the Bears. + 

Ye other few who have the neck uplifted + 

Betimes to th’ bread of Angels upon which + 

One liveth here and grows not sated by it, + 

Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea + 

Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you + 

Upon the water that grows smooth again. + 

Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed + 

Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be, + 

When Jason they beheld a ploughman made! + 

The con-created and perpetual thirst + 

For the realm deiform did bear us on, + 

As swift almost as ye the heavens behold. + 

Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her; + 

And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt + 

And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself, + 

Arrived I saw me where a wondrous thing + 

Drew to itself my sight; and therefore she + 

From whom no care of mine could be concealed, + 

Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful, + 

Said unto me: “Fix gratefully thy mind + 

On God, who unto the first star has brought us.” + 

It seemed to me a cloud encompassed us, + 

Luminous, dense, consolidate and bright + 

As adamant on which the sun is striking. + 

Into itself did the eternal pearl + 

Receive us, even as water doth receive + 

A ray of light, remaining still unbroken. + 

If I was body, (and we here conceive not + 

How one dimension tolerates another, + 

Which needs must be if body enter body,) + 

More the desire should be enkindled in us + 

That essence to behold, wherein is seen + 

How God and our own nature were united. + 

There will be seen what we receive by faith, + 

Not demonstrated, but self-evident + 

In guise of the first truth that man believes. + 

I made reply: “Madonna, as devoutly + 

As most I can do I give thanks to Him + 

Who has removed me from the mortal world. + 

But tell me what the dusky spots may be + 

Upon this body, which below on earth + 

Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain?” + 

Somewhat she smiled; and then, “If the opinion + 

Of mortals be erroneous,” she said, + 

“Where’er the key of sense doth not unlock, + 

Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce thee + 

Now, forasmuch as, following the senses, + 

Thou seest that the reason has short wings. + 

But tell me what thou think’st of it thyself.” + 

And I: “What seems to us up here diverse, + 

Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense.” + 

And she: “Right truly shalt thou see immersed + 

In error thy belief, if well thou hearest + 

The argument that I shall make against it. + 

Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you + 

Which in their quality and quantity + 

May noted be of aspects different. + 

If this were caused by rare and dense alone, + 

One only virtue would there be in all + 

Or more or less diffused, or equally. + 

Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits + 

Of formal principles; and these, save one, + 

Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed. + 

Besides, if rarity were of this dimness + 

The cause thou askest, either through and through + 

This planet thus attenuate were of matter, + 

Or else, as in a body is apportioned + 

The fat and lean, so in like manner this + 

Would in its volume interchange the leaves. + 

Were it the former, in the sun’s eclipse + 

It would be manifest by the shining through + 

Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused. + 

This is not so; hence we must scan the other, + 

And if it chance the other I demolish, + 

Then falsified will thy opinion be. + 

But if this rarity go not through and through, + 

There needs must be a limit, beyond which + 

Its contrary prevents the further passing, + 

And thence the foreign radiance is reflected, + 

Even as a color cometh back from glass, + 

The which behind itself concealeth lead. + 

Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself + 

More dimly there than in the other parts, + 

By being there reflected farther back. + 

From this reply experiment will free thee + 

If e’er thou try it, which is wont to be + 

The fountain to the rivers of your arts. + 

Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove + 

Alike from thee, the other more remote + 

Between the former two shall meet thine eyes. + 

Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back + 

Be placed a light, illuming the three mirrors + 

And coming back to thee by all reflected. + 

Though in its quantity be not so ample + 

The image most remote, there shalt thou see + 

How it perforce is equally resplendent. + 

Now, as beneath the touches of warm rays + 

Naked the subject of the snow remains + 

Both of its former color and its cold, + 

Thee thus remaining in thy intellect, + 

Will I inform with such a living light, + 

That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee. + 

Within the heaven of the divine repose + 

Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies + 

The being of whatever it contains. + 

The following heaven, that has so many eyes, + 

Divides this being by essences diverse, + 

Distinguished from it, and by it contained. + 

The other spheres, by various differences, + 

All the distinctions which they have within them + 

Dispose unto their ends and their effects. + 

Thus do these organs of the world proceed, + 

As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade; + 

Since from above they take, and act beneath. + 

Observe me well, how through this place I come + 

Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter + 

Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford. + 

The power and motion of the holy spheres, + 

As from the artisan the hammer’s craft, + 

Forth from the blessed motors must proceed. + 

The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair, + 

From the Intelligence profound, which turns it, + 

The image takes, and makes of it a seal. + 

And even as the soul within your dust + 

Through members different and accommodated + 

To faculties diverse expands itself, + 

So likewise this Intelligence diffuses + 

Its virtue multiplied among the stars, + 

Itself revolving on its unity. + 

Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage + 

Make with the precious body that it quickens, + 

In which, as life in you, it is combined. + 

From the glad nature whence it is derived, + 

The mingled virtue through the body shines, + 

Even as gladness through the living pupil. + 

From this proceeds whate’er from light to light + 

Appeareth different, not from dense and rare: + 

This is the formal principle that produces, + 

According to its goodness, dark and bright.” + 

That Sun, which erst with love my bosom warmed, + 

Of beauteous truth had unto me discovered, + 

By proving and reproving, the sweet aspect. + 

And, that I might confess myself convinced + 

And confident, so far as was befitting, + 

I lifted more erect my head to speak. + 

But there appeared a vision, which withdrew me + 

So close to it, in order to be seen, + 

That my confession I remembered not. + 

Such as through polished and transparent glass, + 

Or waters crystalline and undisturbed, + 

But not so deep as that their bed be lost, + 

Come back again the outlines of our faces + 

So feeble, that a pearl on forehead white + 

Comes not less speedily unto our eyes; + 

Such saw I many faces prompt to speak, + 

So that I ran in error opposite + 

To that which kindled love ’twixt man and fountain. + 

As soon as I became aware of them, + 

Esteeming them as mirrored semblances, + 

To see of whom they were, mine eyes I turned, + 

And nothing saw, and once more turned them forward + 

Direct into the light of my sweet Guide, + 

Who smiling kindled in her holy eyes. + 

“Marvel thou not,” she said to me, “because + 

I smile at this thy puerile conceit, + 

Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot, + 

But turns thee, as ’tis wont, on emptiness. + 

True substances are these which thou beholdest, + 

Here relegate for breaking of some vow. + 

Therefore speak with them, listen and believe; + 

For the true light, which giveth peace to them, + 

Permits them not to turn from it their feet.” + 

And I unto the shade that seemed most wishful + 

To speak directed me, and I began, + 

As one whom too great eagerness bewilders: + 

“O well-created spirit, who in the rays + 

Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste + 

Which being untasted ne’er is comprehended, + 

Grateful ’twill be to me, if thou content me + 

Both with thy name and with your destiny.” + 

Whereat she promptly and with laughing eyes: + 

“Our charity doth never shut the doors + 

Against a just desire, except as one + 

Who wills that all her court be like herself. + 

I was a virgin sister in the world; + 

And if thy mind doth contemplate me well, + 

The being more fair will not conceal me from thee, + 

But thou shalt recognise I am Piccarda, + 

Who, stationed here among these other blessed, + 

Myself am blessed in the slowest sphere. + 

All our affections, that alone inflamed + 

Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost, + 

Rejoice at being of his order formed; + 

And this allotment, which appears so low, + 

Therefore is given us, because our vows + 

Have been neglected and in some part void.” + 

Whence I to her: “In your miraculous aspects + 

There shines I know not what of the divine, + 

Which doth transform you from our first conceptions. + 

Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance; + 

But what thou tellest me now aids me so, + 

That the refiguring is easier to me. + 

But tell me, ye who in this place are happy, + 

Are you desirous of a higher place, + 

To see more or to make yourselves more friends?” + 

First with those other shades she smiled a little; + 

Thereafter answered me so full of gladness, + 

She seemed to burn in the first fire of love: + 

“Brother, our will is quieted by virtue + 

Of charity, that makes us wish alone + 

For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more. + 

If to be more exalted we aspired, + 

Discordant would our aspirations be + 

Unto the will of Him who here secludes us; + 

Which thou shalt see finds no place in these circles, + 

If being in charity is needful here, + 

And if thou lookest well into its nature; + 

Nay, ’tis essential to this blest existence + 

To keep itself within the will divine, + 

Whereby our very wishes are made one; + 

So that, as we are station above station + 

Throughout this realm, to all the realm ’tis pleasing, + 

As to the King, who makes his will our will. + 

And his will is our peace; this is the sea + 

To which is moving onward whatsoever + 

It doth create, and all that nature makes.” + 

Then it was clear to me how everywhere + 

In heaven is Paradise, although the grace + 

Of good supreme there rain not in one measure. + 

But as it comes to pass, if one food sates, + 

And for another still remains the longing, + 

We ask for this, and that decline with thanks, + 

E’en thus did I; with gesture and with word, + 

To learn from her what was the web wherein + 

She did not ply the shuttle to the end. + 

“A perfect life and merit high in-heaven + 

A lady o’er us,” said she, “by whose rule + 

Down in your world they vest and veil themselves, + 

That until death they may both watch and sleep + 

Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts + 

Which charity conformeth to his pleasure. + 

To follow her, in girlhood from the world + 

I fled, and in her habit shut myself, + 

And pledged me to the pathway of her sect. + 

Then men accustomed unto evil more + 

Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me; + 

God knows what afterward my life became. + 

This other splendor, which to thee reveals + 

Itself on my right side, and is enkindled + 

With all the illumination of our sphere, + 

What of myself I say applies to her; + 

A nun was she, and likewise from her head + 

Was ta’en the shadow of the sacred wimple. + 

But when she too was to the world returned + 

Against her wishes and against good usage, + 

Of the heart’s veil she never was divested. + 

Of great Costanza this is the effulgence, + 

Who from the second wind of Suabia + 

Brought forth the third and latest puissance.” + 

Thus unto me she spake, and then began + 

“Ave Maria” singing, and in singing + 

Vanished, as through deep water something heavy. + 

My sight, that followed her as long a time + 

As it was possible, when it had lost her + 

Turned round unto the mark of more desire, + 

And wholly unto Beatrice reverted; + 

But she such lightnings flashed into mine eyes, + 

That at the first my sight endured it not; + 

And this in questioning more backward made me. + 

Between two viands, equally removed + 

And tempting, a free man would die of hunger + 

Ere either he could bring unto his teeth. + 

So would a lamb between the ravenings + 

Of two fierce wolves stand fearing both alike; + 

And so would stand a dog between two does. + 

Hence, if I held my peace, myself I blame not, + 

Impelled in equal measure by my doubts, + 

Since it must be so, nor do I commend. + 

I held my peace; but my desire was painted + 

Upon my face, and questioning with that + 

More fervent far than by articulate speech. + 

Beatrice did as Daniel had done + 

Relieving Nebuchadnezzar from the wrath + 

Which rendered him unjustly merciless, + 

And said: “Well see I how attracteth thee + 

One and the other wish, so that thy care + 

Binds itself so that forth it does not breathe. + 

Thou arguest, if good will be permanent, + 

The violence of others, for what reason + 

Doth it decrease the measure of my merit? + 

Again for doubting furnish thee occasion + 

Souls seeming to return unto the stars, + 

According to the sentiment of Plato. + 

These are the questions which upon thy wish + 

Are thrusting equally; and therefore first + 

Will I treat that which hath the most of gall. + 

He of the Seraphim most absorbed in God, + 

Moses, and Samuel, and whichever John + 

Thou mayst select, I say, and even Mary, + 

Have not in any other heaven their seats, + 

Than have those spirits that just appeared to thee, + 

Nor of existence more or fewer years; + 

But all make beautiful the primal circle, + 

And have sweet life in different degrees, + 

By feeling more or less the eternal breath. + 

They showed themselves here, not because allotted + 

This sphere has been to them, but to give sign + 

Of the celestial which is least exalted. + 

To speak thus is adapted to your mind, + 

Since only through the sense it apprehendeth + 

What then it worthy makes of intellect. + 

On this account the Scripture condescends + 

Unto your faculties, and feet and hands + 

To God attributes, and means something else; + 

And Holy Church under an aspect human + 

Gabriel and Michael represent to you, + 

And him who made Tobias whole again. + 

That which Timaeus argues of the soul + 

Doth not resemble that which here is seen, + 

Because it seems that as he speaks he thinks. + 

He says the soul unto its star returns, + 

Believing it to have been severed thence + 

Whenever nature gave it as a form. + 

Perhaps his doctrine is of other guise + 

Than the words sound, and possibly may be + 

With meaning that is not to be derided. + 

If he doth mean that to these wheels return + 

The honor of their influence and the blame, + 

Perhaps his bow doth hit upon some truth. + 

This principle ill understood once warped + 

The whole world nearly, till it went astray + 

Invoking Jove and Mercury and Mars. + 

The other doubt which doth disquiet thee + 

Less venom has, for its malevolence + 

Could never lead thee otherwhere from me. + 

That as unjust our justice should appear + 

In eyes of mortals, is an argument + 

Of faith, and not of sin heretical. + 

But still, that your perception may be able + 

To thoroughly penetrate this verity, + 

As thou desirest, I will satisfy thee. + 

If it be violence when he who suffers + 

Cooperates not with him who uses force, + 

These souls were not on that account excused; + 

For will is never quenched unless it will, + 

But operates as nature doth in fire + 

If violence a thousand times distort it. + 

Hence, if it yieldeth more or less, it seconds + 

The force; and these have done so, having power + 

Of turning back unto the holy place. + 

If their will had been perfect, like to that + 

Which Lawrence fast upon his gridiron held, + 

And Mutius made severe to his own hand, + 

It would have urged them back along the road + 

Whence they were dragged, as soon as they were free; + 

But such a solid will is all too rare. + 

And by these words, if thou hast gathered them + 

As thou shouldst do, the argument is refuted + 

That would have still annoyed thee many times. + 

But now another passage runs across + 

Before thine eyes, and such that by thyself + 

Thou couldst not thread it ere thou wouldst be weary. + 

I have for certain put into thy mind + 

That soul beatified could never lie, + 

For it is near the primal Truth, + 

And then thou from Piccarda might’st have heard + 

Costanza kept affection for the veil, + 

So that she seemeth here to contradict me. + 

Many times, brother, has it come to pass, + 

That, to escape from peril, with reluctance + 

That has been done it was not right to do, + 

E’en as Alcmaeon (who, being by his father + 

Thereto entreated, his own mother slew) + 

Not to lose pity pitiless became. + 

At this point I desire thee to remember + 

That force with will commingles, and they cause + 

That the offences cannot be excused. + 

Will absolute consenteth not to evil; + 

But in so far consenteth as it fears, + 

If it refrain, to fall into more harm. + 

Hence when Piccarda uses this expression, + 

She meaneth the will absolute, and I + 

The other, so that both of us speak truth.” + 

Such was the flowing of the holy river + 

That issued from the fount whence springs all truth; + 

This put to rest my wishes one and all. + 

“O love of the first lover, O divine,” + 

Said I forthwith, “whose speech inundates me + 

And warms me so, it more and more revives me, + 

My own affection is not so profound + 

As to suffice in rendering grace for grace; + 

Let Him, who sees and can, thereto respond. + 

Well I perceive that never sated is + 

Our intellect unless the Truth illume it, + 

Beyond which nothing true expands itself. + 

It rests therein, as wild beast in his lair, + 

When it attains it; and it can attain it; + 

If not, then each desire would frustrate be. + 

Therefore springs up, in fashion of a shoot, + 

Doubt at the foot of truth; and this is nature, + 

Which to the top from height to height impels us. + 

This doth invite me, this assurance give me + 

With reverence, Lady, to inquire of you + 

Another truth, which is obscure to me. + 

I wish to know if man can satisfy you + 

For broken vows with other good deeds, so + 

That in your balance they will not be light.” + 

Beatrice gazed upon me with her eyes + 

Full of the sparks of love, and so divine, + 

That, overcome my power, I turned my back + 

And almost lost myself with eyes downcast. + 

“If in the heat of love I flame upon thee + 

Beyond the measure that on earth is seen, + 

So that the valor of thine eyes I vanquish, + 

Marvel thou not thereat; for this proceeds + 

From perfect sight, which as it apprehends + 

To the good apprehended moves its feet. + 

Well I perceive how is already shining + 

Into thine intellect the eternal light, + 

That only seen enkindles always love; + 

And if some other thing your love seduce, + 

’Tis nothing but a vestige of the same, + 

Ill understood, which there is shining through. + 

Thou fain wouldst know if with another service + 

For broken vow can such return be made + 

As to secure the soul from further claim.” + 

This Canto thus did Beatrice begin; + 

And, as a man who breaks not off his speech, + 

Continued thus her holy argument: + 

“The greatest gift that in his largess God + 

Creating made, and unto his own goodness + 

Nearest conformed, and that which he doth prize + 

Most highly, is the freedom of the will, + 

Wherewith the creatures of intelligence + 

Both all and only were and are endowed. + 

Now wilt thou see, if thence thou reasonest, + 

The high worth of a vow, if it he made + 

So that when thou consentest God consents: + 

For, closing between God and man the compact, + 

A sacrifice is of this treasure made, + 

Such as I say, and made by its own act. + 

What can be rendered then as compensation? + 

Think’st thou to make good use of what thou’st offered, + 

With gains ill gotten thou wouldst do good deed. + 

Now art thou certain of the greater point; + 

But because Holy Church in this dispenses, + 

Which seems against the truth which I have shown thee, + 

Behoves thee still to sit awhile at table, + 

Because the solid food which thou hast taken + 

Requireth further aid for thy digestion. + 

Open thy mind to that which I reveal, + 

And fix it there within; for ’tis not knowledge, + 

The having heard without retaining it. + 

In the essence of this sacrifice two things + 

Convene together; and the one is that + 

Of which ’tis made, the other is the agreement. + 

This last for evermore is cancelled not + 

Unless complied with, and concerning this + 

With such precision has above been spoken. + 

Therefore it was enjoined upon the Hebrews + 

To offer still, though sometimes what was offered + 

Might be commuted, as thou ought’st to know. + 

The other, which is known to thee as matter, + 

May well indeed be such that one errs not + 

If it for other matter be exchanged. + 

But let none shift the burden on his shoulder + 

At his arbitrament, without the turning + 

Both of the white and of the yellow key; + 

And every permutation deem as foolish, + 

If in the substitute the thing relinquished, + 

As the four is in six, be not contained. + 

Therefore whatever thing has so great weight + 

In value that it drags down every balance, + 

Cannot be satisfied with other spending. + 

Let mortals never take a vow in jest; + 

Be faithful and not blind in doing that, + 

As Jephthah was in his first offering, + 

Whom more beseemed to say, ‘I have done wrong, + 

Than to do worse by keeping; and as foolish + 

Thou the great leader of the Greeks wilt find, + 

Whence wept Iphigenia her fair face, + 

And made for her both wise and simple weep, + 

Who heard such kind of worship spoken of.’ + 

Christians, be ye more serious in your movements; + 

Be ye not like a feather at each wind, + 

And think not every water washes you. + 

Ye have the Old and the New Testament, + 

And the Pastor of the Church who guideth you + 

Let this suffice you unto your salvation. + 

If evil appetite cry aught else to you, + 

Be ye as men, and not as silly sheep, + 

So that the Jew among you may not mock you. + 

Be ye not as the lamb that doth abandon + 

Its mother’s milk, and frolicsome and simple + 

Combats at its own pleasure with itself.” + 

Thus Beatrice to me even as I write it; + 

Then all desireful turned herself again + 

To that part where the world is most alive. + 

Her silence and her change of countenance + 

Silence imposed upon my eager mind, + 

That had already in advance new questions; + 

And as an arrow that upon the mark + 

Strikes ere the bowstring quiet hath become, + 

So did we speed into the second realm. + 

My Lady there so joyful I beheld, + 

As into the brightness of that heaven she entered, + 

More luminous thereat the planet grew; + 

And if the star itself was changed and smiled, + 

What became I, who by my nature am + 

Exceeding mutable in every guise! + 

As, in a fishpond which is pure and tranquil, + 

The fishes draw to that which from without + 

Comes in such fashion that their food they deem it; + 

So I beheld more than a thousand splendors + 

Drawing towards us, and in each was heard: + 

“Lo, this is she who shall increase our love.” + 

And as each one was coming unto us, + 

Full of beatitude the shade was seen, + 

By the effulgence clear that issued from it. + 

Think, Reader, if what here is just beginning + 

No farther should proceed, how thou wouldst have + 

An agonizing need of knowing more; + 

And of thyself thou’lt see how I from these + 

Was in desire of hearing their conditions, + 

As they unto mine eyes were manifest. + 

“O thou wellborn, unto whom Grace concedes + 

To see the thrones of the eternal triumph, + 

Or ever yet the warfare be abandoned + 

With light that through the whole of heaven is spread + 

Kindled are we, and hence if thou desirest + 

To know of us, at thine own pleasure sate thee.” + 

Thus by someone among those holy spirits + 

Was spoken, and by Beatrice: “Speak, speak + 

Securely, and believe them even as Gods.” + 

“Well I perceive how thou dost nest thyself + 

In thine own light, and drawest it from thine eyes, + 

Because they coruscate when thou dost smile, + 

But know not who thou art, nor why thou hast, + 

Spirit august, thy station in the sphere + 

That veils itself to men in alien rays.” + 

This said I in direction of the light + 

Which first had spoken to me; whence it became + 

By far more lucent than it was before. + 

Even as the sun, that doth conceal himself + 

By too much light, when heat has worn away + 

The tempering influence of the vapors dense, + 

By greater rapture thus concealed itself + 

In its own radiance the figure saintly, + 

And thus close, close enfolded answered me + 

In fashion as the following Canto sings. + 

“After that Constantine the eagle turned + 

Against the course of heaven, which it had followed + 

Behind the ancient who Lavinia took, + 

Two hundred years and more the bird of God + 

In the extreme of Europe held itself, + 

Near to the mountains whence it issued first; + 

And under shadow of the sacred plumes + 

It governed there the world from hand to hand, + 

And, changing thus, upon mine own alighted. + 

Caesar I was, and am Justinian, + 

Who, by the will of primal Love I feel, + 

Took from the laws the useless and redundant; + 

And ere unto the work I was attent, + 

One nature to exist in Christ, not more, + 

Believed, and with such faith was I contented. + 

But blessed Agapetus, he who was + 

The supreme pastor, to the faith sincere + 

Pointed me out the way by words of his. + 

Him I believed, and what was his assertion + 

I now see clearly, even as thou seest + 

Each contradiction to be false and true. + 

As soon as with the Church I moved my feet, + 

God in his grace it pleased with this high task + 

To inspire me, and I gave me wholly to it, + 

And to my Belisarius I commended + 

The arms, to which was heaven’s right hand so joined + 

It was a signal that I should repose. + 

Now here to the first question terminates + 

My answer; but the character thereof + 

Constrains me to continue with a sequel, + 

In order that thou see with how great reason + 

Men move against the standard sacrosanct, + 

Both who appropriate and who oppose it. + 

Behold how great a power has made it worthy + 

Of reverence, beginning from the hour + 

When Pallas died to give it sovereignty. + 

Thou knowest it made in Alba its abode + 

Three hundred years and upward, till at last + 

The three to three fought for it yet again. + 

Thou knowest what it achieved from Sabine wrong + 

Down to Lucretia’s sorrow, in seven kings + 

O’ercoming round about the neighboring nations; + 

Thou knowest what it achieved, borne by the Romans + 

Illustrious against Brennus, against Pyrrhus, + 

Against the other princes and confederates. + 

Torquatus thence and Quinctius, who from locks + 

Unkempt was named, Decii and Fabii, + 

Received the fame I willingly embalm; + 

It struck to earth the pride of the Arabians, + 

Who, following Hannibal, had passed across + 

The Alpine ridges, Po, from which thou glidest; + 

Beneath it triumphed while they yet were young + 

Pompey and Scipio, and to the hill + 

Beneath which thou wast born it bitter seemed; + 

Then, near unto the time when heaven had willed + 

To bring the whole world to its mood serene, + 

Did Caesar by the will of Rome assume it. + 

What it achieved from Var unto the Rhine, + 

Isere beheld and Saone, beheld the Seine, + 

And every valley whence the Rhone is filled; + 

What it achieved when it had left Ravenna, + 

And leaped the Rubicon, was such a flight + 

That neither tongue nor pen could follow it. + 

Round towards Spain it wheeled its legions; then + 

Towards Durazzo, and Pharsalia smote + 

That to the calid Nile was felt the pain. + 

Antandros and the Simois, whence it started, + 

It saw again, and there where Hector lies, + 

And ill for Ptolemy then roused itself. + 

From thence it came like lightning upon Juba; + 

Then wheeled itself again into your West, + 

Where the Pompeian clarion it heard. + 

From what it wrought with the next standard-bearer + 

Brutus and Cassius howl in Hell together, + 

And Modena and Perugia dolent were; + 

Still doth the mournful Cleopatra weep + 

Because thereof, who, fleeing from before it, + 

Took from the adder sudden and black death. + 

With him it ran even to the Red Sea shore; + 

With him it placed the world in so great peace, + 

That unto Janus was his temple closed. + 

But what the standard that has made me speak + 

Achieved before, and after should achieve + 

Throughout the mortal realm that lies beneath it, + 

Becometh in appearance mean and dim, + 

If in the hand of the third Caesar seen + 

With eye unclouded and affection pure, + 

Because the living Justice that inspires me + 

Granted it, in the hand of him I speak of, + 

The glory of doing vengeance for its wrath. + 

Now here attend to what I answer thee; + 

Later it ran with Titus to do vengeance + 

Upon the vengeance of the ancient sin. + 

And when the tooth of Lombardy had bitten + 

The Holy Church, then underneath its wings + 

Did Charlemagne victorious succor her. + 

Now hast thou power to judge of such as those + 

Whom I accused above, and of their crimes, + 

Which are the cause of all your miseries. + 

To the public standard one the yellow lilies + 

Opposes, the other claims it for a party, + 

So that ’tis hard to see which sins the most. + 

Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft + 

Beneath some other standard; for this ever + 

Ill follows he who it and justice parts. + 

And let not this new Charles e’er strike it down, + 

He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons + 

That from a nobler lion stripped the fell. + 

Already oftentimes the sons have wept + 

The father’s crime; and let him not believe + 

That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies. + 

This little planet doth adorn itself + 

With the good spirits that have active been, + 

That fame and honor might come after them; + 

And whensoever the desires mount thither, + 

Thus deviating, must perforce the rays + 

Of the true love less vividly mount upward. + 

But in commensuration of our wages + 

With our desert is portion of our joy, + 

Because we see them neither less nor greater. + 

Herein doth living Justice sweeten so + 

Affection in us, that for evermore + 

It cannot warp to any iniquity. + 

Voices diverse make up sweet melodies; + 

So in this life of ours the seats diverse + 

Render sweet harmony among these spheres; + 

And in the compass of this present pearl + 

Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom + 

The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded. + 

But the Provençals who against him wrought, + 

They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he + 

Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others. + 

Four daughters, and each one of them a queen, + 

Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him + 

Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim; + 

And then malicious words incited him + 

To summon to a reckoning this just man, + 

Who rendered to him seven and five for ten. + 

Then he departed poor and stricken in years, + 

And if the world could know the heart he had, + 

In begging bit by bit his livelihood, + 

Though much it laud him, it would laud him more.” + 

“Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth, + 

Superillustrans claritate tua + 

Felices ignes horum malahoth!” + 

In this wise, to his melody returning, + 

This substance, upon which a double light + 

Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing, + 

And to their dance this and the others moved, + 

And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks + 

Veiled themselves from me with a sudden distance. + 

Doubting was I, and saying, “Tell her, tell her,” + 

Within me, “tell her,” saying, “tell my Lady,” + 

Who slakes my thirst with her sweet effluences; + 

And yet that reverence which doth lord it over + 

The whole of me only by b and ice, + 

Bowed me again like unto one who drowses. + 

Short while did Beatrice endure me thus; + 

And she began, lighting me with a smile + 

Such as would make one happy in the fire: + 

“According to infallible advisement, + 

After what manner a just vengeance justly + 

Could be avenged has put thee upon thinking, + 

But I will speedily thy mind unloose; + 

And do thou listen, for these words of mine + 

Of a great doctrine will a present make thee. + 

By not enduring on the power that wills + 

Curb for his good, that man who ne’er was born, + 

Damning himself damned all his progeny; + 

Whereby the human species down below + 

Lay sick for many centuries in great error, + 

Till to descend it pleased the Word of God + 

To where the nature, which from its own Maker + 

Estranged itself, he joined to him in person + 

By the sole act of his eternal love. + 

Now unto what is said direct thy sight; + 

This nature when united to its Maker, + 

Such as created, was sincere and good; + 

But by itself alone was banished forth + 

From Paradise, because it turned aside + 

Out of the way of truth and of its life. + 

Therefore the penalty the cross held out, + 

If measured by the nature thus assumed, + 

None ever yet with so great justice stung, + 

And none was ever of so great injustice, + 

Considering who the Person was that suffered, + 

Within whom such a nature was contracted. + 

From one act therefore issued things diverse; + 

To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; + 

Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened. + 

It should no longer now seem difficult + 

To thee, when it is said that a just vengeance + 

By a just court was afterward avenged. + 

But now do I behold thy mind entangled + 

From thought to thought within a knot, from which + 

With great desire it waits to free itself. + 

Thou sayest, ‘Well discern I what I hear; + 

But it is hidden from me why God willed + 

For our redemption only this one mode.’ + 

Buried remaineth, brother, this decree + 

Unto the eyes of everyone whose nature + 

Is in the flame of love not yet adult. + 

Verily, inasmuch as at this mark + 

One gazes long and little is discerned, + 

Wherefore this mode was worthiest will I say. + 

Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn + 

All envy, burning in itself so sparkles + 

That the eternal beauties it unfolds. + 

Whate’er from this immediately distils + 

Has afterwards no end, for ne’er removed + 

Is its impression when it sets its seal. + 

Whate’er from this immediately rains down + 

Is wholly free, because it is not subject + 

Unto the influences of novel things. + 

The more conformed thereto, the more it pleases; + 

For the blest ardor that irradiates all things + 

In that most like itself is most vivacious. + 

With all of these things has advantaged been + 

The human creature; and if one be wanting, + 

From his nobility he needs must fall. + 

’Tis sin alone which doth disfranchise him, + 

And render him unlike the Good Supreme, + 

So that he little with its light is blanched, + 

And to his dignity no more returns, + 

Unless he fill up where transgression empties + 

With righteous pains for criminal delights. + 

Your nature when it sinned so utterly + 

In its own seed, out of these dignities + 

Even as out of Paradise was driven, + 

Nor could itself recover, if thou notest + 

With nicest subtlety, by anyway, + 

Except by passing one of these two fords: + 

Either that God through clemency alone + 

Had pardon granted, or that man himself + 

Had satisfaction for his folly made. + 

Fix now thine eye deep into the abyss + 

Of the eternal counsel, to my speech + 

As far as may be fastened steadfastly! + 

Man in his limitations had not power + 

To satisfy, not having power to sink + 

In his humility obeying then, + 

Far as he disobeying thought to rise; + 

And for this reason man has been from power + 

Of satisfying by himself excluded. + 

Therefore it God behoved in his own ways + 

Man to restore unto his perfect life, + 

I say in one, or else in both of them. + 

But since the action of the doer is + 

So much more grateful, as it more presents + 

The goodness of the heart from which it issues, + 

Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world, + 

Has been contented to proceed by each + 

And all its ways to lift you up again; + 

Nor ’twixt the first day and the final night + 

Such high and such magnificent proceeding + 

By one or by the other was or shall be; + 

For God more bounteous was himself to give + 

To make man able to uplift himself, + 

Than if he only of himself had pardoned; + 

And all the other modes were insufficient + 

For justice, were it not the Son of God + 

Himself had humbled to become incarnate. + 

Now, to fill fully each desire of thine, + 

Return I to elucidate one place, + 

In order that thou there mayst see as I do. + 

Thou sayst: ‘I see the air, I see the fire, + 

The water, and the earth, and all their mixtures + 

Come to corruption, and short while endure; + 

And these things notwithstanding were created’; + 

Therefore if that which I have said were true, + 

They should have been secure against corruption. + 

The Angels, brother, and the land sincere + 

In which thou art, created may be called + 

Just as they are in their entire existence; + 

But all the elements which thou hast named, + 

And all those things which out of them are made, + 

By a created virtue are informed. + 

Created was the matter which they have; + 

Created was the informing influence + 

Within these stars that round about them go. + 

The soul of every brute and of the plants + 

By its potential temperament attracts + 

The ray and motion of the holy lights; + 

But your own life immediately inspires + 

Supreme Beneficence, and enamours it + 

So with herself, it evermore desires her. + 

And thou from this mayst argue furthermore + 

Your resurrection, if thou think again + 

How human flesh was fashioned at that time + 

When the first parents both of them were made.” + 

The world used in its peril to believe + 

That the fair Cypria delirious love + 

Rayed out, in the third epicycle turning; + 

Wherefore not only unto her paid honor + 

Of sacrifices and of votive cry + 

The ancient nations in the ancient error, + 

But both Dione honored they and Cupid, + 

That as her mother, this one as her son, + 

And said that he had sat in Dido’s lap; + 

And they from her, whence I beginning take, + 

Took the denomination of the star + 

That woos the sun, now following, now in front. + 

I was not ware of our ascending to it; + 

But of our being in it gave full faith + 

My Lady whom I saw more beauteous grow. + 

And as within a flame a spark is seen, + 

And as within a voice a voice discerned, + 

When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes, + 

Within that light beheld I other lamps + 

Move in a circle, speeding more and less, + 

Methinks in measure of their inward vision. + 

From a cold cloud descended never winds, + 

Or visible or not, so rapidly + 

They would not laggard and impeded seem + 

To anyone who had those lights divine + 

Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration + 

Begun at first in the high Seraphim. + 

And behind those that most in front appeared + 

Sounded “Osanna!” so that never since + 

To hear again was I without desire. + 

Then unto us more nearly one approached, + 

And it alone began: “We all are ready + 

Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us. + 

We turn around with the celestial Princes, + 

One gyre and one gyration and one thirst, + 

To whom thou in the world of old didst say, + 

‘Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving’; + 

And are so full of love, to pleasure thee + 

A little quiet will not be less sweet.” + 

After these eyes of mine themselves had offered + 

Unto my Lady reverently, and she + 

Content and certain of herself had made them, + 

Back to the light they turned, which so great promise + 

Made of itself, and “Say, who art thou?” was + 

My voice, imprinted with a great affection. + 

O how and how much I beheld it grow + 

With the new joy that superadded was + 

Unto its joys, as soon as I had spoken! + 

Thus changed, it said to me: “The world possessed me + 

Short time below; and, if it had been more, + 

Much evil will be which would not have been. + 

My gladness keepeth me concealed from thee, + 

Which rayeth round about me, and doth hide me + 

Like as a creature swathed in its own silk. + 

Much didst thou love me, and thou hadst good reason; + 

For had I been below, I should have shown thee + 

Somewhat beyond the foliage of my love. + 

That left-hand margin, which doth bathe itself + 

In Rhone, when it is mingled with the Sorgue, + 

Me for its lord awaited in due time, + 

And that horn of Ausonia, which is towned + 

With Bari, with Gaeta and Catona, + 

Whence Tronto and Verde in the sea disgorge. + 

Already flashed upon my brow the crown + 

Of that dominion which the Danube waters + 

After the German borders it abandons; + 

And beautiful Trinacria, that is murky + 

’Twixt Pachino and Peloro, (on the gulf + 

Which greatest scath from Eurus doth receive,) + 

Not through Typhoeus, but through nascent sulphur, + 

Would have awaited her own monarchs still, + 

Through me from Charles descended and from Rudolph, + 

If evil lordship, that exasperates ever + 

The subject populations, had not moved + 

Palermo to the outcry of ‘Death! death!’ + 

And if my brother could but this foresee, + 

The greedy poverty of Catalonia + 

Straight would he flee, that it might not molest him; + 

For verily ’tis needful to provide, + 

Through him or other, so that on his bark + 

Already freighted no more freight be placed. + 

His nature, which from liberal covetous + 

Descended, such a soldiery would need + 

As should not care for hoarding in a chest.” + 

“Because I do believe the lofty joy + 

Thy speech infuses into me, my Lord, + 

Where every good thing doth begin and end + 

Thou seest as I see it, the more grateful + 

Is it to me; and this too hold I dear, + 

That gazing upon God thou dost discern it. + 

Glad hast thou made me; so make clear to me, + 

Since speaking thou hast stirred me up to doubt, + 

How from sweet seed can bitter issue forth.” + 

This I to him; and he to me: “If I + 

Can show to thee a truth, to what thou askest + 

Thy face thou’lt hold as thou dost hold thy back. + 

The Good which all the realm thou art ascending + 

Turns and contents, maketh its providence + 

To be a power within these bodies vast; + 

And not alone the natures are foreseen + 

Within the mind that in itself is perfect, + 

But they together with their preservation. + 

For whatsoever thing this bow shoots forth + 

Falls foreordained unto an end foreseen, + 

Even as a shaft directed to its mark. + 

If that were not, the heaven which thou dost walk + 

Would in such manner its effects produce, + 

That they no longer would be arts, but ruins. + 

This cannot be, if the Intelligences + 

That keep these stars in motion are not maimed, + 

And maimed the First that has not made them perfect. + 

Wilt thou this truth have clearer made to thee?” + 

And I: “Not so; for ’tis impossible + 

That nature tire, I see, in what is needful.” + 

Whence he again: “Now say, would it be worse + 

For men on earth were they not citizens?” + 

“Yes,” I replied; “and here I ask no reason.” + 

“And can they be so, if below they live not + 

Diversely unto offices diverse? + 

No, if your master writeth well for you.” + 

So came he with deductions to this point; + 

Then he concluded: “Therefore it behoves + 

The roots of your effects to be diverse. + 

Hence one is Solon born, another Xerxes, + 

Another Melchisedec, and another he + 

Who, flying through the air, his son did lose. + 

Revolving Nature, which a signet is + 

To mortal wax, doth practise well her art, + 

But not one inn distinguish from another; + 

Thence happens it that Esau differeth + 

In seed from Jacob; and Quirinus comes + 

From sire so vile that he is given to Mars. + 

A generated nature its own way + 

Would always make like its progenitors, + 

If Providence divine were not triumphant. + 

Now that which was behind thee is before thee; + 

But that thou know that I with thee am pleased, + 

With a corollary will I mantle thee. + 

Evermore nature, if it fortune find + 

Discordant to it, like each other seed + 

Out of its region, maketh evil thrift; + 

And if the world below would fix its mind + 

On the foundation which is laid by nature, + 

Pursuing that, ’twould have the people good. + 

But you unto religion wrench aside + 

Him who was born to gird him with the sword, + 

And make a king of him who is for sermons; + 

Therefore your footsteps wander from the road.” + 

Beautiful Clemence, after that thy Charles + 

Had me enlightened, he narrated to me + 

The treacheries his seed should undergo; + 

But said: “Be still and let the years roll round”; + 

So I can only say, that lamentation + 

Legitimate shall follow on your wrongs. + 

And of that holy light the life already + 

Had to the Sun which fills it turned again, + 

As to that good which for each thing sufficeth. + 

Ah, souls deceived, and creatures impious, + 

Who from such good do turn away your hearts, + 

Directing upon vanity your foreheads! + 

And now, behold, another of those splendors + 

Approached me, and its will to pleasure me + 

It signified by brightening outwardly. + 

The eyes of Beatrice, that fastened were + 

Upon me, as before, of dear assent + 

To my desire assurance gave to me. + 

“Ah, bring swift compensation to my wish, + 

Thou blessed spirit,” I said, “and give me proof + 

That what I think in thee I can reflect!” + 

Whereat the light, that still was new to me, + 

Out of its depths, whence it before was singing, + 

As one delighted to do good, continued: + 

“Within that region of the land depraved + 

Of Italy, that lies between Rialto + 

And fountainheads of Brenta and of Piava, + 

Rises a hill, and mounts not very high, + 

Wherefrom descended formerly a torch + 

That made upon that region great assault. + 

Out of one root were born both I and it; + 

Cunizza was I called, and here I shine + 

Because the splendor of this star o’ercame me. + 

But gladly to myself the cause I pardon + 

Of my allotment, and it does not grieve me; + 

Which would perhaps seem strong unto your vulgar. + 

Of this so luculent and precious jewel, + 

Which of our heaven is nearest unto me, + 

Great fame remained; and ere it die away + 

This hundredth year shall yet quintupled be. + 

See if man ought to make him excellent, + 

So that another life the first may leave! + 

And thus thinks not the present multitude + 

Shut in by Adige and Tagliamento, + 

Nor yet for being scourged is penitent. + 

But soon ’twill be that Padua in the marsh + 

Will change the water that Vicenza bathes, + 

Because the folk are stubborn against duty; + 

And where the Sile and Cagnano join + 

One lordeth it, and goes with lofty head, + 

For catching whom e’en now the net is making. + 

Feltro moreover of her impious pastor + 

Shall weep the crime, which shall so monstrous be + 

That for the like none ever entered Malta. + 

Ample exceedingly would be the vat + 

That of the Ferrarese could hold the blood, + 

And weary who should weigh it ounce by ounce, + 

Of which this courteous priest shall make a gift + 

To show himself a partisan; and such gifts + 

Will to the living of the land conform. + 

Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them, + 

From which shines out on us God Judicant, + 

So that this utterance seems good to us.” + 

Here it was silent, and it had the semblance + 

Of being turned elsewhither, by the wheel + 

On which it entered as it was before. + 

The other joy, already known to me, + 

Became a thing transplendent in my sight, + 

As a fine ruby smitten by the sun. + 

Through joy effulgence is acquired above, + 

As here a smile; but down below, the shade + 

Outwardly darkens, as the mind is sad. + 

“God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit, + 

Thy sight is,” said I, “so that never will + 

Of his can possibly from thee be hidden; + 

Thy voice, then, that forever makes the heavens + 

Glad, with the singing of those holy fires + 

Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl, + 

Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? + 

Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning + 

If I in thee were as thou art in me.” + 

“The greatest of the valleys where the water + 

Expands itself,” forthwith its words began, + 

“That sea excepted which the earth engarlands, + 

Between discordant shores against the sun + 

Extends so far, that it meridian makes + 

Where it was wont before to make the horizon. + 

I was a dweller on that valley’s shore + 

’Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short + 

Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese. + 

With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly + 

Sit Buggia and the city whence I was, + 

That with its blood once made the harbour hot. + 

Folco that people called me unto whom + 

My name was known; and now with me this heaven + 

Imprints itself, as I did once with it; + 

For more the daughter of Belus never burned, + 

Offending both Sichaeus and Creusa, + 

Than I, so long as it became my locks, + 

Nor yet that Rodophean, who deluded + 

Was by Demophoon, nor yet Alcides, + 

When Iole he in his heart had locked. + 

Yet here is no repenting, but we smile, + 

Not at the fault, which comes not back to mind, + 

But at the power which ordered and foresaw. + 

Here we behold the art that doth adorn + 

With such affection, and the good discover + 

Whereby the world above turns that below. + 

But that thou wholly satisfied mayst bear + 

Thy wishes hence which in this sphere are born, + 

Still farther to proceed behoveth me. + 

Thou fain wouldst know who is within this light + 

That here beside me thus is scintillating, + 

Even as a sunbeam in the limpid water. + 

Then know thou, that within there is at rest + 

Rahab, and being to our order joined, + 

With her in its supremest grade ’tis sealed. + 

Into this heaven, where ends the shadowy cone + 

Cast by your world, before all other souls + 

First of Christ’s triumph was she taken up. + 

Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven, + 

Even as a palm of the high victory + 

Which he acquired with one palm and the other, + 

Because she favored the first glorious deed + 

Of Joshua upon the Holy Land, + 

That little stirs the memory of the Pope. + 

Thy city, which an offshoot is of him + 

Who first upon his Maker turned his back, + 

And whose ambition is so sorely wept, + 

Brings forth and scatters the accursed flower + 

Which both the sheep and lambs hath led astray + 

Since it has turned the shepherd to a wolf. + 

For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors + 

Are derelict, and only the Decretals + 

So studied that it shows upon their margins. + 

On this are Pope and Cardinals intent; + 

Their meditations reach not Nazareth, + 

There where his pinions Gabriel unfolded; + 

But Vatican and the other parts elect + 

Of Rome, which have a cemetery been + 

Unto the soldiery that followed Peter + 

Shall soon be free from this adultery.” + 

Looking into his Son with all the Love + 

Which each of them eternally breathes forth, + 

The Primal and unutterable Power + 

Whate’er before the mind or eye revolves + 

With so much order made, there can be none + 

Who this beholds without enjoying Him. + 

Lift up then, Reader, to the lofty wheels + 

With me thy vision straight unto that part + 

Where the one motion on the other strikes, + 

And there begin to contemplate with joy + 

That Master’s art, who in himself so loves it + 

That never doth his eye depart therefrom. + 

Behold how from that point goes branching off + 

The oblique circle, which conveys the planets, + 

To satisfy the world that calls upon them; + 

And if their pathway were not thus inflected, + 

Much virtue in the heavens would be in vain, + 

And almost every power below here dead. + 

If from the straight line distant more or less + 

Were the departure, much would wanting be + 

Above and underneath of mundane order. + 

Remain now, Reader, still upon thy bench, + 

In thought pursuing that which is foretasted, + 

If thou wouldst jocund be instead of weary. + 

I’ve set before thee; henceforth feed thyself, + 

For to itself diverteth all my care + 

That theme whereof I have been made the scribe. + 

The greatest of the ministers of nature, + 

Who with the power of heaven the world imprints + 

And measures with his light the time for us, + 

With that part which above is called to mind + 

Conjoined, along the spirals was revolving, + 

Where each time earlier he presents himself; + 

And I was with him; but of the ascending + 

I was not conscious, saving as a man + 

Of a first thought is conscious ere it come; + 

And Beatrice, she who is seen to pass + 

From good to better, and so suddenly + 

That not by time her action is expressed, + 

How lucent in herself must she have been! + 

And what was in the sun, wherein I entered, + 

Apparent not by color but by light, + 

I, though I call on genius, art, and practice, + 

Cannot so tell that it could be imagined; + 

Believe one can, and let him long to see it. + 

And if our fantasies too lowly are + 

For altitude so great, it is no marvel, + 

Since o’er the sun was never eye could go. + 

Such in this place was the fourth family + 

Of the high Father, who forever sates it, + 

Showing how he breathes forth and how begets. + 

And Beatrice began: “Give thanks, give thanks + 

Unto the Sun of Angels, who to this + 

Sensible one has raised thee by his grace!” + 

Never was heart of mortal so disposed + 

To worship, nor to give itself to God + 

With all its gratitude was it so ready, + 

As at those words did I myself become; + 

And all my love was so absorbed in Him, + 

That in oblivion Beatrice was eclipsed. + 

Nor this displeased her; but she smiled at it + 

So that the splendor of her laughing eyes + 

My single mind on many things divided. + 

Lights many saw I, vivid and triumphant, + 

Make us a centre and themselves a circle, + 

More sweet in voice than luminous in aspect. + 

Thus girt about the daughter of Latona + 

We sometimes see, when pregnant is the air, + 

So that it holds the thread which makes her zone. + 

Within the court of Heaven, whence I return, + 

Are many jewels found, so fair and precious + 

They cannot be transported from the realm; + 

And of them was the singing of those lights. + 

Who takes not wings that he may fly up thither, + 

The tidings thence may from the dumb await! + 

As soon as singing thus those burning suns + 

Had round about us whirled themselves three times, + 

Like unto stars neighboring the steadfast poles, + 

Ladies they seemed, not from the dance released, + 

But who stop short, in silence listening + 

Till they have gathered the new melody. + 

And within one I heard beginning: “When + 

The radiance of grace, by which is kindled + 

True love, and which thereafter grows by loving, + 

Within thee multiplied is so resplendent + 

That it conducts thee upward by that stair, + 

Where without reascending none descends, + 

Who should deny the wine out of his vial + 

Unto thy thirst, in liberty were not + 

Except as water which descends not seaward. + 

Fain wouldst thou know with what plants is enflowered + 

This garland that encircles with delight + 

The Lady fair who makes thee strong for heaven. + 

Of the lambs was I of the holy flock + 

Which Dominic conducteth by a road + 

Where well one fattens if he strayeth not. + 

He who is nearest to me on the right + 

My brother and master was; and he Albertus + 

Is of Cologne, I Thomas of Aquinum. + 

If thou of all the others wouldst be certain, + 

Follow behind my speaking with thy sight + 

Upward along the blessed garland turning. + 

That next effulgence issues from the smile + 

Of Gratian, who assisted both the courts + 

In such wise that it pleased in Paradise. + 

The other which near by adorns our choir + 

That Peter was who, e’en as the poor widow, + 

Offered his treasure unto Holy Church. + 

The fifth light, that among us is the fairest, + 

Breathes forth from such a love, that all the world + 

Below is greedy to learn tidings of it. + 

Within it is the lofty mind, where knowledge + 

So deep was put, that, if the true be true, + 

To see so much there never rose a second. + 

Thou seest next the lustre of that taper, + 

Which in the flesh below looked most within + 

The angelic nature and its ministry. + 

Within that other little light is smiling + 

The advocate of the Christian centuries, + 

Out of whose rhetoric Augustine was furnished. + 

Now if thou trainest thy mind’s eye along + 

From light to light pursuant of my praise, + 

With thirst already of the eighth thou waitest. + 

By seeing every good therein exults + 

The sainted soul, which the fallacious world + 

Makes manifest to him who listeneth well; + 

The body whence ’twas hunted forth is lying + 

Down in Cieldauro, and from martyrdom + 

And banishment it came unto this peace. + 

See farther onward flame the burning breath + 

Of Isidore, of Beda, and of Richard + 

Who was in contemplation more than man. + 

This, whence to me returneth thy regard, + 

The light is of a spirit unto whom + 

In his grave meditations death seemed slow. + 

It is the light eternal of Sigier, + 

Who, reading lectures in the Street of Straw, + 

Did syllogize invidious verities.” + 

Then, as a horologe that calleth us + 

What time the Bride of God is rising up + 

With matins to her Spouse that he may love her, + 

Wherein one part the other draws and urges, + 

Ting! ting! resounding with so sweet a note, + 

That swells with love the spirit well disposed, + 

Thus I beheld the glorious wheel move round, + 

And render voice to voice, in modulation + 

And sweetness that can not be comprehended, + 

Excepting there where joy is made eternal. + 

O Thou insensate care of mortal men, + 

How inconclusive are the syllogisms + 

That make thee beat thy wings in downward flight! + 

One after laws and one to aphorisms + 

Was going, and one following the priesthood, + 

And one to reign by force or sophistry, + 

And one in theft, and one in state affairs, + 

One in the pleasures of the flesh involved + 

Wearied himself, one gave himself to ease; + 

When I, from all these things emancipate, + 

With Beatrice above there in the Heavens + 

With such exceeding glory was received! + 

When each one had returned unto that point + 

Within the circle where it was before, + 

It stood as in a candlestick a candle; + 

And from within the effulgence which at first + 

Had spoken unto me, I heard begin + 

Smiling while it more luminous became: + 

“Even as I am kindled in its ray, + 

So, looking into the Eternal Light, + 

The occasion of thy thoughts I apprehend. + 

Thou doubtest, and wouldst have me to resift + 

In language so extended and so open + 

My speech, that to thy sense it may be plain, + 

Where just before I said, ‘where well one fattens,’ + 

And where I said, ‘there never rose a second’; + 

And here ’tis needful we distinguish well. + 

The Providence, which governeth the world + 

With counsel, wherein all created vision + 

Is vanquished ere it reach unto the bottom, + 

(So that towards her own Beloved might go + 

The bride of Him who, uttering a loud cry, + 

Espoused her with his consecrated blood, + 

Self-confident and unto Him more faithful,) + 

Two Princes did ordain in her behoof, + 

Which on this side and that might be her guide. + 

The one was all seraphical in ardor; + 

The other by his wisdom upon earth + 

A splendor was of light cherubical. + 

One will I speak of, for of both is spoken + 

In praising one, whichever may be taken, + 

Because unto one end their labors were. + 

Between Tupino and the stream that falls + 

Down from the hill elect of blessed Ubald, + 

A fertile slope of lofty mountain hangs, + 

From which Perugia feels the cold and heat + 

Through Porta Sole, and behind it weep + 

Gualdo and Nocera their grievous yoke. + 

From out that slope, there where it breaketh most + 

Its steepness, rose upon the world a sun + 

As this one does sometimes from out the Ganges; + 

Therefore let him who speaketh of that place, + 

Say not Ascesi, for he would say little, + 

But Orient, if he properly would speak. + 

He was not yet far distant from his rising + 

Before he had begun to make the earth + 

Some comfort from his mighty virtue feel. + 

For he in youth his father’s wrath incurred + 

For certain Dame, to whom, as unto death, + 

The gate of pleasure no one doth unlock; + 

And was before his spiritual court + 

Et coram patre unto her united; + 

Then day by day more fervently he loved her. + 

She, reft of her first husband, scorned, obscure, + 

One thousand and one hundred years and more, + 

Waited without a suitor till he came. + 

Naught it availed to hear, that with Amyclas + 

Found her unmoved at sounding of his voice + 

He who struck terror into all the world; + 

Naught it availed being constant and undaunted, + 

So that, when Mary still remained below, + 

She mounted up with Christ upon the cross. + 

But that too darkly I may not proceed, + 

Francis and Poverty for these two lovers + 

Take thou henceforward in my speech diffuse. + 

Their concord and their joyous semblances, + 

The love, the wonder, and the sweet regard, + 

They made to be the cause of holy thoughts; + 

So much so that the venerable Bernard + 

First bared his feet, and after so great peace + 

Ran, and, in running, thought himself too slow. + 

O wealth unknown! O veritable good! + 

Giles bares his feet, and bares his feet Sylvester + 

Behind the bridegroom, so doth please the bride! + 

Then goes his way that father and that master, + 

He and his Lady and that family + 

Which now was girding on the humble cord; + 

Nor cowardice of heart weighed down his brow + 

At being son of Peter Bernardone, + 

Nor for appearing marvellously scorned; + 

But regally his hard determination + 

To Innocent he opened, and from him + 

Received the primal seal upon his Order. + 

After the people mendicant increased + 

Behind this man, whose admirable life + 

Better in glory of the heavens were sung, + 

Incoronated with a second crown + 

Was through Honorius by the Eternal Spirit + 

The holy purpose of this Archimandrite. + 

And when he had, through thirst of martyrdom, + 

In the proud presence of the Sultan preached + 

Christ and the others who came after him, + 

And, finding for conversion too unripe + 

The folk, and not to tarry there in vain, + 

Returned to fruit of the Italic grass, + 

On the rude rock ’twixt Tiber and the Arno + 

From Christ did he receive the final seal, + 

Which during two whole years his members bore. + 

When He, who chose him unto so much good, + 

Was pleased to draw him up to the reward + 

That he had merited by being lowly, + 

Unto his friars, as to the rightful heirs, + 

His most dear Lady did he recommend, + 

And bade that they should love her faithfully; + 

And from her bosom the illustrious soul + 

Wished to depart, returning to its realm, + 

And for its body wished no other bier. + 

Think now what man was he, who was a fit + 

Companion over the high seas to keep + 

The bark of Peter to its proper bearings. + 

And this man was our Patriarch; hence whoever + 

Doth follow him as he commands can see + 

That he is laden with good merchandise. + 

But for new pasturage his flock has grown + 

So greedy, that it is impossible + 

They be not scattered over fields diverse; + 

And in proportion as his sheep remote + 

And vagabond go farther off from him, + 

More void of milk return they to the fold. + 

Verily some there are that fear a hurt, + 

And keep close to the shepherd; but so few, + 

That little cloth doth furnish forth their hoods. + 

Now if my utterance be not indistinct, + 

If thine own hearing hath attentive been, + 

If thou recall to mind what I have said, + 

In part contented shall thy wishes be; + 

For thou shalt see the plant that’s chipped away, + 

And the rebuke that lieth in the words, + 

‘Where well one fattens, if he strayeth not.’ ” + 

Soon as the blessed flame had taken up + 

The final word to give it utterance, + 

Began the holy millstone to revolve, + 

And in its gyre had not turned wholly round, + 

Before another in a ring enclosed it, + 

And motion joined to motion, song to song; + 

Song that as greatly doth transcend our Muses, + 

Our Sirens, in those dulcet clarions, + 

As primal splendor that which is reflected. + 

And as are spanned athwart a tender cloud + 

Two rainbows parallel and like in color, + 

When Juno to her handmaid gives command, + 

(The one without born of the one within, + 

Like to the speaking of that vagrant one + 

Whom love consumed as doth the sun the vapors,) + 

And make the people here, through covenant + 

God set with Noah, presageful of the world + 

That shall no more be covered with a flood, + 

In such wise of those sempiternal roses + 

The garlands twain encompassed us about, + 

And thus the outer to the inner answered. + 

After the dance, and other grand rejoicings, + 

Both of the singing, and the flaming forth + 

Effulgence with effulgence blithe and tender, + 

Together, at once, with one accord had stopped, + 

(Even as the eyes, that, as volition moves them, + 

Must needs together shut and lift themselves,) + 

Out of the heart of one of the new lights + 

There came a voice, that needle to the star + 

Made me appear in turning thitherward. + 

And it began: “The love that makes me fair + 

Draws me to speak about the other leader, + 

By whom so well is spoken here of mine. + 

’Tis right, where one is, to bring in the other, + 

That, as they were united in their warfare, + 

Together likewise may their glory shine. + 

The soldiery of Christ, which it had cost + 

So dear to arm again, behind the standard + 

Moved slow and doubtful and in numbers few, + 

When the Emperor who reigneth evermore + 

Provided for the host that was in peril, + 

Through grace alone and not that it was worthy; + 

And, as was said, he to his Bride brought succor + 

With champions twain, at whose deed, at whose word + 

The straggling people were together drawn. + 

Within that region where the sweet west wind + 

Rises to open the new leaves, wherewith + 

Europe is seen to clothe herself afresh, + 

Not far off from the beating of the waves, + 

Behind which in his long career the sun + 

Sometimes conceals himself from every man, + 

Is situate the fortunate Calahorra, + 

Under protection of the mighty shield + 

In which the Lion subject is and sovereign. + 

Therein was born the amorous paramour + 

Of Christian Faith, the athlete consecrate, + 

Kind to his own and cruel to his foes; + 

And when it was created was his mind + 

Replete with such a living energy, + 

That in his mother her it made prophetic. + 

As soon as the espousals were complete + 

Between him and the Faith at holy font, + 

Where they with mutual safety dowered each other, + 

The woman, who for him had given assent, + 

Saw in a dream the admirable fruit + 

That issue would from him and from his heirs; + 

And that he might be construed as he was, + 

A spirit from this place went forth to name him + 

With His possessive whose he wholly was. + 

Dominic was he called; and him I speak of + 

Even as of the husbandman whom Christ + 

Elected to his garden to assist him. + 

Envoy and servant sooth he seemed of Christ, + 

For the first love made manifest in him + 

Was the first counsel that was given by Christ. + 

Silent and wakeful many a time was he + 

Discovered by his nurse upon the ground, + 

As if he would have said, ‘For this I came.’ + 

O thou his father, Felix verily! + 

O thou his mother, verily Joanna, + 

If this, interpreted, means as is said! + 

Not for the world which people toil for now + 

In following Ostiense and Taddeo, + 

But through his longing after the true manna, + 

He in short time became so great a teacher, + 

That he began to go about the vineyard, + 

Which fadeth soon, if faithless be the dresser; + 

And of the See, (that once was more benignant + 

Unto the righteous poor, not through itself, + 

But him who sits there and degenerates,) + 

Not to dispense or two or three for six, + 

Not any fortune of first vacancy, + 

Non decimas quae sunt pauperum Dei, + 

He asked for, but against the errant world + 

Permission to do battle for the seed, + 

Of which these four and twenty plants surround thee. + 

Then with the doctrine and the will together, + 

With office apostolical he moved, + 

Like torrent which some lofty vein out-presses; + 

And in among the shoots heretical + 

His impetus with greater fury smote, + 

Wherever the resistance was the greatest. + 

Of him were made thereafter divers runnels, + 

Whereby the garden catholic is watered, + 

So that more living its plantations stand. + 

If such the one wheel of the Biga was, + 

In which the Holy Church itself defended + 

And in the field its civic battle won, + 

Truly full manifest should be to thee + 

The excellence of the other, unto whom + 

Thomas so courteous was before my coming. + 

But still the orbit, which the highest part + 

Of its circumference made, is derelict, + 

So that the mould is where was once the crust. + 

His family, that had straight forward moved + 

With feet upon his footprints, are turned round + 

So that they set the point upon the heel. + 

And soon aware they will be of the harvest + 

Of this bad husbandry, when shall the tares + 

Complain the granary is taken from them. + 

Yet say I, he who searcheth leaf by leaf + 

Our volume through, would still some page discover + 

Where he could read, ‘I am as I am wont.’ + 

’Twill not be from Casal nor Acquasparta, + 

From whence come such unto the written word + 

That one avoids it, and the other narrows. + 

Bonaventura of Bagnoregio’s life + 

Am I, who always in great offices + 

Postponed considerations sinister. + 

Here are Illuminato and Agostino, + 

Who of the first barefooted beggars were + 

That with the cord the friends of God became. + 

Hugh of Saint Victor is among them here, + 

And Peter Mangiador, and Peter of Spain, + 

Who down below in volumes twelve is shining; + 

Nathan the seer, and metropolitan + 

Chrysostom, and Anselmus, and Donatus + 

Who deigned to lay his hand to the first art; + 

Here is Rabanus, and beside me here + 

Shines the Calabrian Abbot Joachim, + 

He with the spirit of prophecy endowed. + 

To celebrate so great a paladin + 

Have moved me the impassioned courtesy + 

And the discreet discourses of Friar Thomas, + 

And with me they have moved this company.” + 

Let him imagine, who would well conceive + 

What now I saw, and let him while I speak + 

Retain the image as a steadfast rock, + 

The fifteen stars, that in their divers regions + 

The sky enliven with a light so great + 

That it transcends all clusters of the air; + 

Let him the Wain imagine unto which + 

Our vault of heaven sufficeth night and day, + 

So that in turning of its pole it fails not; + 

Let him the mouth imagine of the horn + 

That in the point beginneth of the axis + 

Round about which the primal wheel revolves⁠— + 

To have fashioned of themselves two signs in heaven, + 

Like unto that which Minos’ daughter made, + 

The moment when she felt the frost of death; + 

And one to have its rays within the other, + 

And both to whirl themselves in such a manner + 

That one should forward go, the other backward; + 

And he will have some shadowing forth of that + 

True constellation and the double dance + 

That circled round the point at which I was; + 

Because it is as much beyond our wont, + 

As swifter than the motion of the Chiana + 

Moveth the heaven that all the rest outspeeds. + 

There sang they neither Bacchus, nor Apollo, + 

But in the divine nature Persons three, + 

And in one person the divine and human. + 

The singing and the dance fulfilled their measure, + 

And unto us those holy lights gave need, + 

Growing in happiness from care to care. + 

Then broke the silence of those saints concordant + 

The light in which the admirable life + 

Of God’s own mendicant was told to me, + 

And said: “Now that one straw is trodden out + 

Now that its seed is garnered up already, + 

Sweet love invites me to thresh out the other. + 

Into that bosom, thou believest, whence + 

Was drawn the rib to form the beauteous cheek + 

Whose taste to all the world is costing dear, + 

And into that which, by the lance transfixed, + 

Before and since, such satisfaction made + 

That it weighs down the balance of all sin, + 

Whate’er of light it has to human nature + 

Been lawful to possess was all infused + 

By the same power that both of them created; + 

And hence at what I said above dost wonder, + 

When I narrated that no second had + 

The good which in the fifth light is enclosed. + 

Now ope thine eyes to what I answer thee, + 

And thou shalt see thy creed and my discourse + 

Fit in the truth as centre in a circle. + 

That which can die, and that which dieth not, + 

Are nothing but the splendor of the idea + 

Which by his love our Lord brings into being; + 

Because that living Light, which from its fount + 

Effulgent flows, so that it disunites not + 

From Him nor from the Love in them intrined, + 

Through its own goodness reunites its rays + 

In nine subsistences, as in a mirror, + 

Itself eternally remaining One. + 

Thence it descends to the last potencies, + 

Downward from act to act becoming such + 

That only brief contingencies it makes; + 

And these contingencies I hold to be + 

Things generated, which the heaven produces + 

By its own motion, with seed and without. + 

Neither their wax, nor that which tempers it, + 

Remains immutable, and hence beneath + 

The ideal signet more and less shines through; + 

Therefore it happens, that the selfsame tree + 

After its kind bears worse and better fruit, + 

And ye are born with characters diverse. + 

If in perfection tempered were the wax, + 

And were the heaven in its supremest virtue, + 

The brilliance of the seal would all appear; + 

But nature gives it evermore deficient, + 

In the like manner working as the artist, + 

Who has the skill of art and hand that trembles. + 

If then the fervent Love, the Vision clear, + 

Of primal Virtue do dispose and seal, + 

Perfection absolute is there acquired. + 

Thus was of old the earth created worthy + 

Of all and every animal perfection; + 

And thus the Virgin was impregnate made; + 

So that thine own opinion I commend, + 

That human nature never yet has been, + 

Nor will be, what it was in those two persons. + 

Now if no farther forth I should proceed, + 

‘Then in what way was he without a peer?’ + 

Would be the first beginning of thy words. + 

But, that may well appear what now appears not, + 

Think who he was, and what occasion moved him + 

To make request, when it was told him, ‘Ask.’ + 

I’ve not so spoken that thou canst not see + 

Clearly he was a king who asked for wisdom, + 

That he might be sufficiently a king; + 

’Twas not to know the number in which are + 

The motors here above, or if necesse + 

With a contingent e’er necesse make, + 

Non si est dare primum motum esse, + 

Or if in semicircle can be made + 

Triangle so that it have no right angle. + 

Whence, if thou notest this and what I said, + 

A regal prudence is that peerless seeing + 

In which the shaft of my intention strikes. + 

And if on ‘rose’ thou turnest thy clear eyes, + 

Thou’lt see that it has reference alone + 

To kings who’re many, and the good are rare. + 

With this distinction take thou what I said, + 

And thus it can consist with thy belief + 

Of the first father and of our Delight. + 

And lead shall this be always to thy feet, + 

To make thee, like a weary man, move slowly + 

Both to the Yes and No thou seest not; + 

For very low among the fools is he + 

Who affirms without distinction, or denies, + 

As well in one as in the other case; + 

Because it happens that full often bends + 

Current opinion in the false direction, + 

And then the feelings bind the intellect. + 

Far more than uselessly he leaves the shore, + 

(Since he returneth not the same he went,) + 

Who fishes for the truth, and has no skill; + 

And in the world proofs manifest thereof + 

Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus are, + 

And many who went on and knew not whither; + 

Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools + 

Who have been even as swords unto the Scriptures + 

In rendering distorted their straight faces. + 

Nor yet shall people be too confident + 

In judging, even as he is who doth count + 

The corn in field or ever it be ripe. + 

For I have seen all winter long the thorn + 

First show itself intractable and fierce, + 

And after bear the rose upon its top; + 

And I have seen a ship direct and swift + 

Run o’er the sea throughout its course entire, + 

To perish at the harbour’s mouth at last. + 

Let not Dame Bertha nor Ser Martin think, + 

Seeing one steal, another offering make, + 

To see them in the arbitrament divine; + 

For one may rise, and fall the other may.” + 

From centre unto rim, from rim to centre, + 

In a round vase the water moves itself, + 

As from without ’tis struck or from within. + 

Into my mind upon a sudden dropped + 

What I am saying, at the moment when + 

Silent became the glorious life of Thomas, + 

Because of the resemblance that was born + 

Of his discourse and that of Beatrice, + 

Whom, after him, it pleased thus to begin: + 

“This man has need (and does not tell you so, + 

Nor with the voice, nor even in his thought) + 

Of going to the root of one truth more. + 

Declare unto him if the light wherewith + 

Blossoms your substance shall remain with you + 

Eternally the same that it is now; + 

And if it do remain, say in what manner, + 

After ye are again made visible, + 

It can be that it injure not your sight.” + 

As by a greater gladness urged and drawn + 

They who are dancing in a ring sometimes + 

Uplift their voices and their motions quicken; + 

So, at that orison devout and prompt, + 

The holy circles a new joy displayed + 

In their revolving and their wondrous song. + 

Whoso lamenteth him that here we die + 

That we may live above, has never there + 

Seen the refreshment of the eternal rain. + 

The One and Two and Three who ever liveth, + 

And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One, + 

Not circumscribed and all things circumscribing, + 

Three several times was chanted by each one + 

Among those spirits, with such melody + 

That for all merit it were just reward; + 

And, in the lustre most divine of all + 

The lesser ring, I heard a modest voice, + 

Such as perhaps the Angel’s was to Mary, + 

Answer: “As long as the festivity + 

Of Paradise shall be, so long our love + 

Shall radiate round about us such a vesture. + 

Its brightness is proportioned to the ardor, + 

The ardor to the vision; and the vision + 

Equals what grace it has above its worth. + 

When, glorious and sanctified, our flesh + 

Is reassumed, then shall our persons be + 

More pleasing by their being all complete; + 

For will increase whate’er bestows on us + 

Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme, + 

Light which enables us to look on Him; + 

Therefore the vision must perforce increase, + 

Increase the ardor which from that is kindled, + 

Increase the radiance which from this proceeds. + 

But even as a coal that sends forth flame, + 

And by its vivid whiteness overpowers it + 

So that its own appearance it maintains, + 

Thus the effulgence that surrounds us now + 

Shall be o’erpowered in aspect by the flesh, + 

Which still today the earth doth cover up; + 

Nor can so great a splendor weary us, + 

For strong will be the organs of the body + 

To everything which hath the power to please us.” + 

So sudden and alert appeared to me + 

Both one and the other choir to say Amen, + 

That well they showed desire for their dead bodies; + 

Nor sole for them perhaps, but for the mothers, + 

The fathers, and the rest who had been dear + 

Or ever they became eternal flames. + 

And lo! all round about of equal brightness + 

Arose a lustre over what was there, + 

Like an horizon that is clearing up. + 

And as at rise of early eve begin + 

Along the welkin new appearances, + 

So that the sight seems real and unreal, + 

It seemed to me that new subsistences + 

Began there to be seen, and make a circle + 

Outside the other two circumferences. + 

O very sparkling of the Holy Spirit, + 

How sudden and incandescent it became + 

Unto mine eyes, that vanquished bore it not! + 

But Beatrice so beautiful and smiling + 

Appeared to me, that with the other sights + 

That followed not my memory I must leave her. + 

Then to uplift themselves mine eyes resumed + 

The power, and I beheld myself translated + 

To higher salvation with my Lady only. + 

Well was I ware that I was more uplifted + 

By the enkindled smiling of the star, + 

That seemed to me more ruddy than its wont. + 

With all my heart, and in that dialect + 

Which is the same in all, such holocaust + 

To God I made as the new grace beseemed; + 

And not yet from my bosom was exhausted + 

The ardor of sacrifice, before I knew + 

This offering was accepted and auspicious; + 

For with so great a lustre and so red + 

Splendors appeared to me in twofold rays, + 

I said: “O Helios who dost so adorn them!” + 

Even as distinct with less and greater lights + 

Glimmers between the two poles of the world + 

The Galaxy that maketh wise men doubt, + 

Thus constellated in the depths of Mars, + 

Those rays described the venerable sign + 

That quadrants joining in a circle make. + 

Here doth my memory overcome my genius; + 

For on that cross as levin gleamed forth Christ, + 

So that I cannot find ensample worthy; + 

But he who takes his cross and follows Christ + 

Again will pardon me what I omit, + 

Seeing in that aurora lighten Christ. + 

From horn to horn, and ’twixt the top and base, + 

Lights were in motion, brightly scintillating + 

As they together met and passed each other; + 

Thus level and aslant and swift and slow + 

We here behold, renewing still the sight, + 

The particles of bodies long and short, + 

Across the sunbeam move, wherewith is listed + 

Sometimes the shade, which for their own defence + 

People with cunning and with art contrive. + 

And as a lute and harp, accordant strung + 

With many strings, a dulcet tinkling make + 

To him by whom the notes are not distinguished, + 

So from the lights that there to me appeared + 

Upgathered through the cross a melody, + 

Which rapt me, not distinguishing the hymn. + 

Well was I ware it was of lofty laud, + 

Because there came to me, “Arise and conquer!” + 

As unto him who hears and comprehends not. + 

So much enamoured I became therewith, + 

That until then there was not anything + 

That e’er had fettered me with such sweet bonds. + 

Perhaps my word appears somewhat too bold, + 

Postponing the delight of those fair eyes, + 

Into which gazing my desire has rest; + 

But who bethinks him that the living seals + 

Of every beauty grow in power ascending, + 

And that I there had not turned round to those, + 

Can me excuse, if I myself accuse + 

To excuse myself, and see that I speak truly: + 

For here the holy joy is not disclosed, + 

Because ascending it becomes more pure. + 

A will benign, in which reveals itself + 

Ever the love that righteously inspires, + 

As in the iniquitous, cupidity, + 

Silence imposed upon that dulcet lyre, + 

And quieted the consecrated chords, + 

That Heaven’s right hand doth tighten and relax. + 

How unto just entreaties shall be deaf + 

Those substances, which, to give me desire + 

Of praying them, with one accord grew silent? + 

’Tis well that without end he should lament, + 

Who for the love of thing that doth not last + 

Eternally despoils him of that love! + 

As through the pure and tranquil evening air + 

There shoots from time to time a sudden fire, + 

Moving the eyes that steadfast were before, + 

And seems to be a star that changeth place, + 

Except that in the part where it is kindled + 

Nothing is missed, and this endureth little; + 

So from the horn that to the right extends + 

Unto that cross’s foot there ran a star + 

Out of the constellation shining there; + 

Nor was the gem dissevered from its ribbon, + 

But down the radiant fillet ran along, + 

So that fire seemed it behind alabaster. + 

Thus piteous did Anchises’ shade reach forward, + 

If any faith our greatest Muse deserve, + 

When in Elysium he his son perceived. + 

“O sanguis meus, O superinfusa + 

Gratia Dei, sicut tibi, cui + 

Bis unquam Coeli janua reclusa?” + 

Thus that effulgence; whence I gave it heed; + 

Then round unto my Lady turned my sight, + 

And on this side and that was stupefied; + 

For in her eyes was burning such a smile + 

That with mine own methought I touched the bottom + 

Both of my grace and of my Paradise! + 

Then, pleasant to the hearing and the sight, + 

The spirit joined to its beginning things + 

I understood not, so profound it spake; + 

Nor did it hide itself from me by choice, + 

But by necessity; for its conception + 

Above the mark of mortals set itself. + 

And when the bow of burning sympathy + 

Was so far slackened, that its speech descended + 

Towards the mark of our intelligence, + 

The first thing that was understood by me + 

Was “Benedight be Thou, O Trine and One, + 

Who hast unto my seed so courteous been!” + 

And it continued: “Hunger long and grateful, + 

Drawn from the reading of the mighty volume + 

Wherein is never changed the white nor dark, + 

Thou hast appeased, my son, within this light + 

In which I speak to thee, by grace of her + 

Who to this lofty flight with plumage clothed thee. + 

Thou thinkest that to me thy thought doth pass + 

From Him who is the first, as from the unit, + 

If that be known, ray out the five and six; + 

And therefore who I am thou askest not, + 

And why I seem more joyous unto thee + 

Than any other of this gladsome crowd. + 

Thou think’st the truth; because the small and great + 

Of this existence look into the mirror + 

Wherein, before thou think’st, thy thought thou showest. + 

But that the sacred love, in which I watch + 

With sight perpetual, and which makes me thirst + 

With sweet desire, may better be fulfilled, + 

Now let thy voice secure and frank and glad + 

Proclaim the wishes, the desire proclaim, + 

To which my answer is decreed already.” + 

To Beatrice I turned me, and she heard + 

Before I spake, and smiled to me a sign, + 

That made the wings of my desire increase; + 

Then in this wise began I: “Love and knowledge, + 

When on you dawned the first Equality, + 

Of the same weight for each of you became; + 

For in the Sun, which lighted you and burned + 

With heat and radiance, they so equal are, + 

That all similitudes are insufficient. + 

But among mortals will and argument, + 

For reason that to you is manifest, + 

Diversely feathered in their pinions are. + 

Whence I, who mortal am, feel in myself + 

This inequality; so give not thanks, + 

Save in my heart, for this paternal welcome. + 

Truly do I entreat thee, living topaz! + 

Set in this precious jewel as a gem, + 

That thou wilt satisfy me with thy name.” + 

“O leaf of mine, in whom I pleasure took + 

E’en while awaiting, I was thine own root!” + 

Such a beginning he in answer made me. + 

Then said to me: “That one from whom is named + 

Thy race, and who a hundred years and more + 

Has circled round the mount on the first cornice, + 

A son of mine and thy great-grandsire was; + 

Well it behoves thee that the long fatigue + 

Thou shouldst for him make shorter with thy works. + 

Florence, within the ancient boundary + 

From which she taketh still her tierce and nones, + 

Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste. + 

No golden chain she had, nor coronal, + 

Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle + 

That caught the eye more than the person did. + 

Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear + 

Into the father, for the time and dower + 

Did not o’errun this side or that the measure. + 

No houses had she void of families, + 

Not yet had thither come Sardanapalus + 

To show what in a chamber can be done; + 

Not yet surpassed had Montemalo been + 

By your Uccellatojo, which surpassed + 

Shall in its downfall be as in its rise. + 

Bellincion Berti saw I go begirt + 

With leather and with bone, and from the mirror + 

His dame depart without a painted face; + 

And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio, + 

Contented with their simple suits of buff + 

And with the spindle and the flax their dames. + 

O fortunate women! and each one was certain + 

Of her own burial-place, and none as yet + 

For sake of France was in her bed deserted. + 

One o’er the cradle kept her studious watch, + 

And in her lullaby the language used + 

That first delights the fathers and the mothers; + 

Another, drawing tresses from her distaff, + 

Told o’er among her family the tales + 

Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome. + 

As great a marvel then would have been held + 

A Lapo Salterello, a Cianghella, + 

As Cincinnatus or Cornelia now. + 

To such a quiet, such a beautiful + 

Life of the citizen, to such a safe + 

Community, and to so sweet an inn, + 

Did Mary give me, with loud cries invoked, + 

And in your ancient Baptistery at once + 

Christian and Cacciaguida I became. + 

Moronto was my brother, and Eliseo; + 

From Val di Pado came to me my wife, + 

And from that place thy surname was derived. + 

I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad, + 

And he begirt me of his chivalry, + 

So much I pleased him with my noble deeds. + 

I followed in his train against that law’s + 

Iniquity, whose people doth usurp + 

Your just possession, through your Pastor’s fault. + 

There by that execrable race was I + 

Released from bonds of the fallacious world, + 

The love of which defileth many souls, + 

And came from martyrdom unto this peace.” + 

O thou our poor nobility of blood, + 

If thou dost make the people glory in thee + 

Down here where our affection languishes, + 

A marvellous thing it ne’er will be to me; + 

For there where appetite is not perverted, + 

I say in Heaven, of thee I made a boast! + 

Truly thou art a cloak that quickly shortens, + 

So that unless we piece thee day by day + 

Time goeth round about thee with his shears! + 

With You, which Rome was first to tolerate, + 

(Wherein her family less perseveres,) + 

Yet once again my words beginning made; + 

Whence Beatrice, who stood somewhat apart, + 

Smiling, appeared like unto her who coughed + 

At the first failing writ of Guenever. + 

And I began: “You are my ancestor, + 

You give to me all hardihood to speak, + 

You lift me so that I am more than I. + 

So many rivulets with gladness fill + 

My mind, that of itself it makes a joy + 

Because it can endure this and not burst. + 

Then tell me, my beloved root ancestral, + 

Who were your ancestors, and what the years + 

That in your boyhood chronicled themselves? + 

Tell me about the sheepfold of Saint John, + 

How large it was, and who the people were + 

Within it worthy of the highest seats.” + 

As at the blowing of the winds a coal + 

Quickens to flame, so I beheld that light + 

Become resplendent at my blandishments. + 

And as unto mine eyes it grew more fair, + 

With voice more sweet and tender, but not in + 

This modern dialect, it said to me: + 

“From uttering of the Ave, till the birth + 

In which my mother, who is now a saint, + 

Of me was lightened who had been her burden, + 

Unto its Lion had this fire returned + 

Five hundred fifty times and thirty more, + 

To reinflame itself beneath his paw. + 

My ancestors and I our birthplace had + 

Where first is found the last ward of the city + 

By him who runneth in your annual game. + 

Suffice it of my elders to hear this; + 

But who they were, and whence they thither came, + 

Silence is more considerate than speech. + 

All those who at that time were there between + 

Mars and the Baptist, fit for bearing arms, + 

Were a fifth part of those who now are living; + 

But the community, that now is mixed + 

With Campi and Certaldo and Figghine, + 

Pure in the lowest artisan was seen. + 

O how much better ’twere to have as neighbors + 

The folk of whom I speak, and at Galluzzo + 

And at Trespiano have your boundary, + 

Than have them in the town, and bear the stench + 

Of Aguglione’s churl, and him of Signa + 

Who has sharp eyes for trickery already. + 

Had not the folk, which most of all the world + 

Degenerates, been a step-dame unto Caesar, + 

But as a mother to her son benignant, + 

Some who turn Florentines, and trade and discount, + 

Would have gone back again to Simifonte + 

There where their grandsires went about as beggars. + 

At Montemurlo still would be the Counts, + 

The Cerchi in the parish of Acone, + 

Perhaps in Valdigrieve the Buondelmonti. + 

Ever the intermingling of the people + 

Has been the source of malady in cities, + 

As in the body food it surfeits on; + 

And a blind bull more headlong plunges down + 

Than a blind lamb; and very often cuts + 

Better and more a single sword than five. + 

If Luni thou regard, and Urbisaglia, + 

How they have passed away, and how are passing + 

Chiusi and Sinigaglia after them, + 

To hear how races waste themselves away, + 

Will seem to thee no novel thing nor hard, + 

Seeing that even cities have an end. + 

All things of yours have their mortality, + 

Even as yourselves; but it is hidden in some + 

That a long while endure, and lives are short; + 

And as the turning of the lunar heaven + 

Covers and bares the shores without a pause, + 

In the like manner fortune does with Florence. + 

Therefore should not appear a marvellous thing + 

What I shall say of the great Florentines + 

Of whom the fame is hidden in the Past. + 

I saw the Ughi, saw the Catellini, + 

Filippi, Greci, Ormanni, and Alberichi, + 

Even in their fall illustrious citizens; + 

And saw, as mighty as they ancient were, + 

With him of La Sannella him of Arca, + 

And Soldanier, Ardinghi, and Bostichi. + 

Near to the gate that is at present laden + 

With a new felony of so much weight + 

That soon it shall be jetsam from the bark, + 

The Ravignani were, from whom descended + 

The County Guido, and whoe’er the name + 

Of the great Bellincione since hath taken. + 

He of La Pressa knew the art of ruling + 

Already, and already Galigajo + 

Had hilt and pommel gilded in his house. + 

Mighty already was the Column Vair, + 

Sacchetti, Giuochi, Fifant, and Barucci, + 

And Galli, and they who for the bushel blush. + 

The stock from which were the Calfucci born + 

Was great already, and already chosen + 

To curule chairs the Sizii and Arrigucci. + 

O how beheld I those who are undone + 

By their own pride! and how the Balls of Gold + 

Florence enflowered in all their mighty deeds! + 

So likewise did the ancestors of those + 

Who evermore, when vacant is your church, + 

Fatten by staying in consistory. + 

The insolent race, that like a dragon follows + 

Whoever flees, and unto him that shows + 

His teeth or purse is gentle as a lamb, + 

Already rising was, but from low people; + 

So that it pleased not Ubertin Donato + 

That his wife’s father should make him their kin. + 

Already had Caponsacco to the Market + 

From Fesole descended, and already + 

Giuda and Infangato were good burghers. + 

I’ll tell a thing incredible, but true; + 

One entered the small circuit by a gate + 

Which from the Della Pera took its name! + 

Each one that bears the beautiful escutcheon + 

Of the great baron whose renown and name + 

The festival of Thomas keepeth fresh, + 

Knighthood and privilege from him received; + 

Though with the populace unites himself + 

Today the man who binds it with a border. + 

Already were Gualterotti and Importuni; + 

And still more quiet would the Borgo be + 

If with new neighbors it remained unfed. + 

The house from which is born your lamentation, + 

Through just disdain that death among you brought + 

And put an end unto your joyous life, + 

Was honored in itself and its companions. + 

O Buondelmonte, how in evil hour + 

Thou fled’st the bridal at another’s promptings! + 

Many would be rejoicing who are sad, + 

If God had thee surrendered to the Ema + 

The first time that thou camest to the city. + 

But it behoved the mutilated stone + 

Which guards the bridge, that Florence should provide + 

A victim in her latest hour of peace. + 

With all these families, and others with them, + 

Florence beheld I in so great repose, + 

That no occasion had she whence to weep; + 

With all these families beheld so just + 

And glorious her people, that the lily + 

Never upon the spear was placed reversed, + 

Nor by division was vermilion made.” + 

As came to Clymene, to be made certain + 

Of that which he had heard against himself, + 

He who makes fathers chary still to children, + 

Even such was I, and such was I perceived + 

By Beatrice and by the holy light + 

That first on my account had changed its place. + 

Therefore my Lady said to me: “Send forth + 

The flame of thy desire, so that it issue + 

Imprinted well with the internal stamp; + 

Not that our knowledge may be greater made + 

By speech of thine, but to accustom thee + 

To tell thy thirst, that we may give thee drink.” + 

“O my beloved tree, (that so dost lift thee, + 

That even as minds terrestrial perceive + 

No triangle containeth two obtuse, + 

So thou beholdest the contingent things + 

Ere in themselves they are, fixing thine eyes + 

Upon the point in which all times are present,) + 

While I was with Virgilius conjoined + 

Upon the mountain that the souls doth heal, + 

And when descending into the dead world, + 

Were spoken to me of my future life + 

Some grievous words; although I feel myself + 

In sooth foursquare against the blows of chance. + 

On this account my wish would be content + 

To hear what fortune is approaching me, + 

Because foreseen an arrow comes more slowly.” + 

Thus did I say unto that selfsame light + 

That unto me had spoken before; and even + 

As Beatrice willed was my own will confessed. + 

Not in vague phrase, in which the foolish folk + 

Ensnared themselves of old, ere yet was slain + 

The Lamb of God who taketh sins away, + 

But with clear words and unambiguous + 

Language responded that paternal love, + 

Hid and revealed by its own proper smile: + 

“Contingency, that outside of the volume + 

Of your materiality extends not, + 

Is all depicted in the eternal aspect. + 

Necessity however thence it takes not, + 

Except as from the eye, in which ’tis mirrored, + 

A ship that with the current down descends. + 

From thence, e’en as there cometh to the ear + 

Sweet harmony from an organ, comes in sight + 

To me the time that is preparing for thee. + 

As forth from Athens went Hippolytus, + 

By reason of his step-dame false and cruel, + 

So thou from Florence must perforce depart. + 

Already this is willed, and this is sought for; + 

And soon it shall be done by him who thinks it, + 

Where every day the Christ is bought and sold. + 

The blame shall follow the offended party + 

In outcry as is usual; but the vengeance + 

Shall witness to the truth that doth dispense it. + 

Thou shalt abandon everything beloved + 

Most tenderly, and this the arrow is + 

Which first the bow of banishment shoots forth. + 

Thou shalt have proof how savoureth of salt + 

The bread of others, and how hard a road + 

The going down and up another’s stairs. + 

And that which most shall weigh upon thy shoulders + 

Will be the bad and foolish company + 

With which into this valley thou shalt fall; + 

For all ingrate, all mad and impious + 

Will they become against thee; but soon after + 

They, and not thou, shall have the forehead scarlet. + 

Of their bestiality their own proceedings + 

Shall furnish proof; so ’twill be well for thee + 

A party to have made thee by thyself. + 

Thine earliest refuge and thine earliest inn + 

Shall be the mighty Lombard’s courtesy, + 

Who on the Ladder bears the holy bird, + 

Who such benign regard shall have for thee + 

That ’twixt you twain, in doing and in asking, + 

That shall be first which is with others last. + 

With him shalt thou see one who at his birth + 

Has by this star of strength been so impressed, + 

That notable shall his achievements be. + 

Not yet the people are aware of him + 

Through his young age, since only nine years yet + 

Around about him have these wheels revolved. + 

But ere the Gascon cheat the noble Henry, + 

Some sparkles of his virtue shall appear + 

In caring not for silver nor for toil. + 

So recognized shall his magnificence + 

Become hereafter, that his enemies + 

Will not have power to keep mute tongues about it. + 

On him rely, and on his benefits; + 

By him shall many people be transformed, + 

Changing condition rich and mendicant; + 

And written in thy mind thou hence shalt bear + 

Of him, but shalt not say it”⁠—and things said he + 

Incredible to those who shall be present. + 

Then added: “Son, these are the commentaries + 

On what was said to thee; behold the snares + 

That are concealed behind few revolutions; + 

Yet would I not thy neighbors thou shouldst envy, + 

Because thy life into the future reaches + 

Beyond the punishment of their perfidies.” + 

When by its silence showed that sainted soul + 

That it had finished putting in the woof + 

Into that web which I had given it warped, + 

Began I, even as he who yearneth after, + 

Being in doubt, some counsel from a person + 

Who seeth, and uprightly wills, and loves: + 

“Well see I, father mine, how spurreth on + 

The time towards me such a blow to deal me + 

As heaviest is to him who most gives way. + 

Therefore with foresight it is well I arm me, + 

That, if the dearest place be taken from me, + 

I may not lose the others by my songs. + 

Down through the world of infinite bitterness, + 

And o’er the mountain, from whose beauteous summit + 

The eyes of my own Lady lifted me, + 

And afterward through heaven from light to light, + 

I have learned that which, if I tell again, + 

Will be a savor of strong herbs to many. + 

And if I am a timid friend to truth, + 

I fear lest I may lose my life with those + 

Who will hereafter call this time the olden.” + 

The light in which was smiling my own treasure + 

Which there I had discovered, flashed at first + 

As in the sunshine doth a golden mirror; + 

Then made reply: “A conscience overcast + 

Or with its own or with another’s shame, + 

Will taste forsooth the tartness of thy word; + 

But ne’ertheless, all falsehood laid aside, + 

Make manifest thy vision utterly, + 

And let them scratch wherever is the itch; + 

For if thine utterance shall offensive be + 

At the first taste, a vital nutriment + 

’Twill leave thereafter, when it is digested. + 

This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind, + 

Which smiteth most the most exalted summits, + 

And that is no slight argument of honor. + 

Therefore are shown to thee within these wheels, + 

Upon the mount and in the dolorous valley, + 

Only the souls that unto fame are known; + 

Because the spirit of the hearer rests not, + 

Nor doth confirm its faith by an example + 

Which has the root of it unknown and hidden, + 

Or other reason that is not apparent.” + 

Now was alone rejoicing in its word + 

That soul beatified, and I was tasting + 

My own, the bitter tempering with the sweet, + 

And the Lady who to God was leading me + 

Said: “Change thy thought; consider that I am + 

Near unto Him who every wrong disburdens.” + 

Unto the loving accents of my comfort + 

I turned me round, and then what love I saw + 

Within those holy eyes I here relinquish; + 

Not only that my language I distrust, + 

But that my mind cannot return so far + 

Above itself, unless another guide it. + 

Thus much upon that point can I repeat, + 

That, her again beholding, my affection + 

From every other longing was released. + 

While the eternal pleasure, which direct + 

Rayed upon Beatrice, from her fair face + 

Contented me with its reflected aspect, + 

Conquering me with the radiance of a smile, + 

She said to me, “Turn thee about and listen; + 

Not in mine eyes alone is Paradise.” + 

Even as sometimes here do we behold + 

The affection in the look, if it be such + 

That all the soul is wrapt away by it, + 

So, by the flaming of the effulgence holy + 

To which I turned, I recognized therein + 

The wish of speaking to me somewhat farther. + 

And it began: “In this fifth resting-place + 

Upon the tree that liveth by its summit, + 

And aye bears fruit, and never loses leaf, + 

Are blessed spirits that below, ere yet + 

They came to Heaven, were of such great renown + 

That every Muse therewith would affluent be. + 

Therefore look thou upon the cross’s horns; + 

He whom I now shall name will there enact + 

What doth within a cloud its own swift fire.” + 

I saw athwart the Cross a splendor drawn + 

By naming Joshua, (even as he did it,) + 

Nor noted I the word before the deed; + 

And at the name of the great Maccabee + 

I saw another move itself revolving, + 

And gladness was the whip unto that top. + 

Likewise for Charlemagne and for Orlando, + 

Two of them my regard attentive followed + 

As followeth the eye its falcon flying. + 

William thereafterward, and Renouard, + 

And the Duke Godfrey, did attract my sight + 

Along upon that Cross, and Robert Guiscard. + 

Then, moved and mingled with the other lights, + 

The soul that had addressed me showed how great + 

An artist ’twas among the heavenly singers. + 

To my right side I turned myself around, + 

My duty to behold in Beatrice + 

Either by words or gesture signified; + 

And so translucent I beheld her eyes, + 

So full of pleasure, that her countenance + 

Surpassed its other and its latest wont. + 

And as, by feeling greater delectation, + 

A man in doing good from day to day + 

Becomes aware his virtue is increasing, + 

So I became aware that my gyration + 

With heaven together had increased its arc, + 

That miracle beholding more adorned. + 

And such as is the change, in little lapse + 

Of time, in a pale woman, when her face + 

Is from the load of bashfulness unladen, + 

Such was it in mine eyes, when I had turned, + 

Caused by the whiteness of the temperate star, + 

The sixth, which to itself had gathered me. + 

Within that Jovial torch did I behold + 

The sparkling of the love which was therein + 

Delineate our language to mine eyes. + 

And even as birds uprisen from the shore, + 

As in congratulation o’er their food, + 

Make squadrons of themselves, now round, now long, + 

So from within those lights the holy creatures + 

Sang flying to and fro, and in their figures + 

Made of themselves now d, now i, now l. + 

First singing they to their own music moved; + 

Then one becoming of these characters, + 

A little while they rested and were silent. + 

O divine Pegasea, thou who genius + 

Dost glorious make, and render it long-lived, + 

And this through thee the cities and the kingdoms, + 

Illume me with thyself, that I may bring + 

Their figures out as I have them conceived! + 

Apparent be thy power in these brief verses! + 

Themselves then they displayed in five times seven + 

Vowels and consonants; and I observed + 

The parts as they seemed spoken unto me. + 

Diligite justitiam, these were + 

First verb and noun of all that was depicted; + 

Qui judicatis terram were the last. + 

Thereafter in the m of the fifth word + 

Remained they so arranged, that Jupiter + 

Seemed to be silver there with gold inlaid. + 

And other lights I saw descend where was + 

The summit of the m, and pause there singing + 

The good, I think, that draws them to itself. + 

Then, as in striking upon burning logs + 

Upward there fly innumerable sparks, + 

Whence fools are wont to look for auguries, + 

More than a thousand lights seemed thence to rise, + 

And to ascend, some more, and others less, + 

Even as the Sun that lights them had allotted; + 

And, each one being quiet in its place, + 

The head and neck beheld I of an eagle + 

Delineated by that inlaid fire. + 

He who there paints has none to be his guide; + 

But Himself guides; and is from Him remembered + 

That virtue which is form unto the nest. + 

The other beatitude, that contented seemed + 

At first to bloom a lily on the m, + 

By a slight motion followed out the imprint. + 

O gentle star! what and how many gems + 

Did demonstrate to me, that all our justice + 

Effect is of that heaven which thou ingemmest! + 

Wherefore I pray the Mind, in which begin + 

Thy motion and thy virtue, to regard + 

Whence comes the smoke that vitiates thy rays; + 

So that a second time it now be wroth + 

With buying and with selling in the temple + 

Whose walls were built with signs and martyrdoms! + 

O soldiery of heaven, whom I contemplate, + 

Implore for those who are upon the earth + 

All gone astray after the bad example! + 

Once ’twas the custom to make war with swords; + 

But now ’tis made by taking here and there + 

The bread the pitying Father shuts from none. + 

Yet thou, who writest but to cancel, think + 

That Peter and that Paul, who for this vineyard + 

Which thou art spoiling died, are still alive! + 

Well canst thou say: “So steadfast my desire + 

Is unto him who willed to live alone, + 

And for a dance was led to martyrdom, + 

That I know not the Fisherman nor Paul.” + 

Appeared before me with its wings outspread + 

The beautiful image that in sweet fruition + 

Made jubilant the interwoven souls; + 

Appeared a little ruby each, wherein + 

Ray of the sun was burning so enkindled + 

That each into mine eyes refracted it. + 

And what it now behoves me to retrace + 

Nor voice has e’er reported, nor ink written, + 

Nor was by fantasy e’er comprehended; + 

For speak I saw, and likewise heard, the beak, + 

And utter with its voice both I and My, + 

When in conception it was We and Our. + 

And it began: “Being just and merciful + 

Am I exalted here unto that glory + 

Which cannot be exceeded by desire; + 

And upon earth I left my memory + 

Such, that the evil-minded people there + 

Commend it, but continue not the story.” + 

So doth a single heat from many embers + 

Make itself felt, even as from many loves + 

Issued a single sound from out that image. + 

Whence I thereafter: “O perpetual flowers + 

Of the eternal joy, that only one + 

Make me perceive your odors manifold, + 

Exhaling, break within me the great fast + 

Which a long season has in hunger held me, + 

Not finding for it any food on earth. + 

Well do I know, that if in heaven its mirror + 

Justice Divine another realm doth make, + 

Yours apprehends it not through any veil. + 

You know how I attentively address me + 

To listen; and you know what is the doubt + 

That is in me so very old a fast.” + 

Even as a falcon, issuing from his hood, + 

Doth move his head, and with his wings applaud him, + 

Showing desire, and making himself fine, + 

Saw I become that standard, which of lauds + 

Was interwoven of the grace divine, + 

With such songs as he knows who there rejoices. + 

Then it began: “He who a compass turned + 

On the world’s outer verge, and who within it + 

Devised so much occult and manifest, + 

Could not the impress of his power so make + 

On all the universe, as that his Word + 

Should not remain in infinite excess. + 

And this makes certain that the first proud being, + 

Who was the paragon of every creature, + 

By not awaiting light fell immature. + 

And hence appears it, that each minor nature + 

Is scant receptacle unto that good + 

Which has no end, and by itself is measured. + 

In consequence our vision, which perforce + 

Must be some ray of that intelligence + 

With which all things whatever are replete, + 

Cannot in its own nature be so potent, + 

That it shall not its origin discern + 

Far beyond that which is apparent to it. + 

Therefore into the justice sempiternal + 

The power of vision that your world receives, + 

As eye into the ocean, penetrates; + 

Which, though it see the bottom near the shore, + 

Upon the deep perceives it not, and yet + 

’Tis there, but it is hidden by the depth. + 

There is no light but comes from the serene + 

That never is o’ercast, nay, it is darkness + 

Or shadow of the flesh, or else its poison. + 

Amply to thee is opened now the cavern + 

Which has concealed from thee the living justice + 

Of which thou mad’st such frequent questioning. + 

For saidst thou: ‘Born a man is on the shore + 

Of Indus, and is none who there can speak + 

Of Christ, nor who can read, nor who can write; + 

And all his inclinations and his actions + 

Are good, so far as human reason sees, + 

Without a sin in life or in discourse: + 

He dieth unbaptised and without faith; + 

Where is this justice that condemneth him? + 

Where is his fault, if he do not believe?’ + 

Now who art thou, that on the bench wouldst sit + 

In judgment at a thousand miles away, + 

With the short vision of a single span? + 

Truly to him who with me subtilizes, + 

If so the Scripture were not over you, + 

For doubting there were marvellous occasion. + 

O animals terrene, O stolid minds, + 

The primal will, that in itself is good, + 

Ne’er from itself, the Good Supreme, has moved. + 

So much is just as is accordant with it; + 

No good created draws it to itself, + 

But it, by raying forth, occasions that.” + 

Even as above her nest goes circling round + 

The stork when she has fed her little ones, + 

And he who has been fed looks up at her, + 

So lifted I my brows, and even such + 

Became the blessed image, which its wings + 

Was moving, by so many counsels urged. + 

Circling around it sang, and said: “As are + 

My notes to thee, who dost not comprehend them, + 

Such is the eternal judgment to you mortals.” + 

Those lucent splendors of the Holy Spirit + 

Grew quiet then, but still within the standard + 

That made the Romans reverend to the world. + 

It recommenced: “Unto this kingdom never + 

Ascended one who had not faith in Christ, + 

Before or since he to the tree was nailed. + 

But look thou, many crying are, ‘Christ, Christ!’ + 

Who at the judgment shall be far less near + 

To him than some shall be who knew not Christ. + 

Such Christians shall the Ethiop condemn, + 

When the two companies shall be divided, + 

The one forever rich, the other poor. + 

What to your kings may not the Persians say, + 

When they that volume opened shall behold + 

In which are written down all their dispraises? + 

There shall be seen, among the deeds of Albert, + 

That which ere long shall set the pen in motion, + 

For which the realm of Prague shall be deserted. + 

There shall be seen the woe that on the Seine + 

He brings by falsifying of the coin, + 

Who by the blow of a wild boar shall die. + 

There shall be seen the pride that causes thirst, + 

Which makes the Scot and Englishman so mad + 

That they within their boundaries cannot rest; + 

Be seen the luxury and effeminate life + 

Of him of Spain, and the Bohemian, + 

Who valor never knew and never wished; + 

Be seen the Cripple of Jerusalem, + 

His goodness represented by an I, + 

While the reverse an m shall represent; + 

Be seen the avarice and poltroonery + 

Of him who guards the Island of the Fire, + 

Wherein Anchises finished his long life; + 

And to declare how pitiful he is + 

Shall be his record in contracted letters + 

Which shall make note of much in little space. + 

And shall appear to each one the foul deeds + 

Of uncle and of brother who a nation + 

So famous have dishonored, and two crowns. + 

And he of Portugal and he of Norway + 

Shall there be known, and he of Rascia too, + 

Who saw in evil hour the coin of Venice. + 

O happy Hungary, if she let herself + 

Be wronged no farther! and Navarre the happy, + 

If with the hills that gird her she be armed! + 

And each one may believe that now, as hansel + 

Thereof, do Nicosia and Famagosta + 

Lament and rage because of their own beast, + 

Who from the others’ flank departeth not.” + 

When he who all the world illuminates + 

Out of our hemisphere so far descends + 

That on all sides the daylight is consumed, + 

The heaven, that erst by him alone was kindled, + 

Doth suddenly reveal itself again + 

By many lights, wherein is one resplendent. + 

And came into my mind this act of heaven, + 

When the ensign of the world and of its leaders + 

Had silent in the blessed beak become; + 

Because those living luminaries all, + 

By far more luminous, did songs begin + 

Lapsing and falling from my memory. + 

O gentle Love, that with a smile dost cloak thee, + 

How ardent in those sparks didst thou appear, + 

That had the breath alone of holy thoughts! + 

After the precious and pellucid crystals, + 

With which begemmed the sixth light I beheld, + 

Silence imposed on the angelic bells, + 

I seemed to hear the murmuring of a river + 

That clear descendeth down from rock to rock, + 

Showing the affluence of its mountaintop. + 

And as the sound upon the cithern’s neck + 

Taketh its form, and as upon the vent + 

Of rustic pipe the wind that enters it, + 

Even thus, relieved from the delay of waiting, + 

That murmuring of the eagle mounted up + 

Along its neck, as if it had been hollow. + 

There it became a voice, and issued thence + 

From out its beak, in such a form of words + 

As the heart waited for wherein I wrote them. + 

“The part in me which sees and bears the sun + 

In mortal eagles,” it began to me, + 

“Now fixedly must needs be looked upon; + 

For of the fires of which I make my figure, + 

Those whence the eye doth sparkle in my head + 

Of all their orders the supremest are. + 

He who is shining in the midst as pupil + 

Was once the singer of the Holy Spirit, + 

Who bore the ark from city unto city; + 

Now knoweth he the merit of his song, + 

In so far as effect of his own counsel, + 

By the reward which is commensurate. + 

Of five, that make a circle for my brow, + 

He that approacheth nearest to my beak + 

Did the poor widow for her son console; + 

Now knoweth he how dearly it doth cost + 

Not following Christ, by the experience + 

Of this sweet life and of its opposite. + 

He who comes next in the circumference + 

Of which I speak, upon its highest arc, + 

Did death postpone by penitence sincere; + 

Now knoweth he that the eternal judgment + 

Suffers no change, albeit worthy prayer + 

Maketh below tomorrow of today. + 

The next who follows, with the laws and me, + 

Under the good intent that bore bad fruit + 

Became a Greek by ceding to the pastor; + 

Now knoweth he how all the ill deduced + 

From his good action is not harmful to him, + 

Although the world thereby may be destroyed. + 

And he, whom in the downward arc thou seest, + 

Guglielmo was, whom the same land deplores + 

That weepeth Charles and Frederick yet alive; + 

Now knoweth he how heaven enamoured is + 

With a just king; and in the outward show + 

Of his effulgence he reveals it still. + 

Who would believe, down in the errant world, + 

That e’er the Trojan Ripheus in this round + 

Could be the fifth one of the holy lights? + 

Now knoweth he enough of what the world + 

Has not the power to see of grace divine, + 

Although his sight may not discern the bottom.” + 

Like as a lark that in the air expatiates, + 

First singing and then silent with content + 

Of the last sweetness that doth satisfy her, + 

Such seemed to me the image of the imprint + 

Of the eternal pleasure, by whose will + 

Doth everything become the thing it is. + 

And notwithstanding to my doubt I was + 

As glass is to the color that invests it, + 

To wait the time in silence it endured not, + 

But forth from out my mouth, “What things are these?” + 

Extorted with the force of its own weight; + 

Whereat I saw great joy of coruscation. + 

Thereafterward with eye still more enkindled + 

The blessed standard made to me reply, + 

To keep me not in wonderment suspended: + 

“I see that thou believest in these things + 

Because I say them, but thou seest not how; + 

So that, although believed in, they are hidden. + 

Thou doest as he doth who a thing by name + 

Well apprehendeth, but its quiddity + 

Cannot perceive, unless another show it. + 

Regnum coelorum suffereth violence + 

From fervent love, and from that living hope + 

That overcometh the Divine volition; + 

Not in the guise that man o’ercometh man, + 

But conquers it because it will be conquered, + 

And conquered conquers by benignity. + 

The first life of the eyebrow and the fifth + 

Cause thee astonishment, because with them + 

Thou seest the region of the angels painted. + 

They passed not from their bodies, as thou thinkest, + 

Gentiles, but Christians in the steadfast faith + 

Of feet that were to suffer and had suffered. + 

For one from Hell, where no one e’er turns back + 

Unto good will, returned unto his bones, + 

And that of living hope was the reward⁠— + 

Of living hope, that placed its efficacy + 

In prayers to God made to resuscitate him, + 

So that ’twere possible to move his will. + 

The glorious soul concerning which I speak, + 

Returning to the flesh, where brief its stay, + 

Believed in Him who had the power to aid it; + 

And, in believing, kindled to such fire + 

Of genuine love, that at the second death + 

Worthy it was to come unto this joy. + 

The other one, through grace, that from so deep + 

A fountain wells that never hath the eye + 

Of any creature reached its primal wave, + 

Set all his love below on righteousness; + 

Wherefore from grace to grace did God unclose + 

His eye to our redemption yet to be, + 

Whence he believed therein, and suffered not + 

From that day forth the stench of paganism, + 

And he reproved therefor the folk perverse. + 

Those Maidens three, whom at the right-hand wheel + 

Thou didst behold, were unto him for baptism + 

More than a thousand years before baptizing. + 

O thou predestination, how remote + 

Thy root is from the aspect of all those + 

Who the First Cause do not behold entire! + 

And you, O mortals! hold yourselves restrained + 

In judging; for ourselves, who look on God, + 

We do not know as yet all the elect; + 

And sweet to us is such a deprivation, + 

Because our good in this good is made perfect, + 

That whatsoe’er God wills, we also will.” + 

After this manner by that shape divine, + 

To make clear in me my shortsightedness, + 

Was given to me a pleasant medicine; + 

And as good singer a good lutanist + 

Accompanies with vibrations of the chords, + 

Whereby more pleasantness the song acquires, + 

So, while it spake, do I remember me + 

That I beheld both of those blessed lights, + 

Even as the winking of the eyes concords, + 

Moving unto the words their little flames. + 

Already on my Lady’s face mine eyes + 

Again were fastened, and with these my mind, + 

And from all other purpose was withdrawn; + 

And she smiled not; but “If I were to smile,” + 

She unto me began, “thou wouldst become + 

Like Semele, when she was turned to ashes. + 

Because my beauty, that along the stairs + 

Of the eternal palace more enkindles, + 

As thou hast seen, the farther we ascend, + 

If it were tempered not, is so resplendent + 

That all thy mortal power in its effulgence + 

Would seem a leaflet that the thunder crushes. + 

We are uplifted to the seventh splendor, + 

That underneath the burning Lion’s breast + 

Now radiates downward mingled with his power. + 

Fix in direction of thine eyes the mind, + 

And make of them a mirror for the figure + 

That in this mirror shall appear to thee.” + 

He who could know what was the pasturage + 

My sight had in that blessed countenance, + 

When I transferred me to another care, + 

Would recognize how grateful was to me + 

Obedience unto my celestial escort, + 

By counterpoising one side with the other. + 

Within the crystal which, around the world + 

Revolving, bears the name of its dear leader, + 

Under whom every wickedness lay dead, + 

Coloured like gold, on which the sunshine gleams, + 

A stairway I beheld to such a height + 

Uplifted, that mine eye pursued it not. + 

Likewise beheld I down the steps descending + 

So many splendors, that I thought each light + 

That in the heaven appears was there diffused. + 

And as accordant with their natural custom + 

The rooks together at the break of day + 

Bestir themselves to warm their feathers cold; + 

Then some of them fly off without return, + 

Others come back to where they started from, + 

And others, wheeling round, still keep at home; + 

Such fashion it appeared to me was there + 

Within the sparkling that together came, + 

As soon as on a certain step it struck, + 

And that which nearest unto us remained + 

Became so clear, that in my thought I said, + 

“Well I perceive the love thou showest me; + 

But she, from whom I wait the how and when + 

Of speech and silence, standeth still; whence I + 

Against desire do well if I ask not.” + 

She thereupon, who saw my silentness + 

In the sight of Him who seeth everything, + 

Said unto me, “Let loose thy warm desire.” + 

And I began: “No merit of my own + 

Renders me worthy of response from thee; + 

But for her sake who granteth me the asking, + 

Thou blessed life that dost remain concealed + 

In thy beatitude, make known to me + 

The cause which draweth thee so near my side; + 

And tell me why is silent in this wheel + 

The dulcet symphony of Paradise, + 

That through the rest below sounds so devoutly.” + 

“Thou hast thy hearing mortal as thy sight,” + 

It answer made to me; “they sing not here, + 

For the same cause that Beatrice has not smiled. + 

Thus far adown the holy stairway’s steps + 

Have I descended but to give thee welcome + 

With words, and with the light that mantles me; + 

Nor did more love cause me to be more ready, + 

For love as much and more up there is burning, + 

As doth the flaming manifest to thee. + 

But the high charity, that makes us servants + 

Prompt to the counsel which controls the world, + 

Allotteth here, even as thou dost observe.” + 

“I see full well,” said I, “O sacred lamp! + 

How love unfettered in this court sufficeth + 

To follow the eternal Providence; + 

But this is what seems hard for me to see, + 

Wherefore predestinate wast thou alone + 

Unto this office from among thy consorts.” + 

No sooner had I come to the last word, + 

Than of its middle made the light a centre, + 

Whirling itself about like a swift millstone. + 

When answer made the love that was therein: + 

“On me directed is a light divine, + 

Piercing through this in which I am embosomed, + 

Of which the virtue with my sight conjoined + 

Lifts me above myself so far, I see + 

The supreme essence from which this is drawn. + 

Hence comes the joyfulness with which I flame, + 

For to my sight, as far as it is clear, + 

The clearness of the flame I equal make. + 

But that soul in the heaven which is most pure, + 

That seraph which his eye on God most fixes, + 

Could this demand of thine not satisfy; + 

Because so deeply sinks in the abyss + 

Of the eternal statute what thou askest, + 

From all created sight it is cut off. + 

And to the mortal world, when thou returnest, + 

This carry back, that it may not presume + 

Longer tow’rd such a goal to move its feet. + 

The mind, that shineth here, on earth doth smoke; + 

From this observe how can it do below + 

That which it cannot though the heaven assume it?” + 

Such limit did its words prescribe to me, + 

The question I relinquished, and restricted + 

Myself to ask it humbly who it was. + 

“Between two shores of Italy rise cliffs, + 

And not far distant from thy native place, + 

So high, the thunders far below them sound, + 

And form a ridge that Catria is called, + 

’Neath which is consecrate a hermitage + 

Wont to be dedicate to worship only.” + 

Thus unto me the third speech recommenced, + 

And then, continuing, it said: “Therein + 

Unto God’s service I became so steadfast, + 

That feeding only on the juice of olives + 

Lightly I passed away the heats and frosts, + 

Contented in my thoughts contemplative. + 

That cloister used to render to these heavens + 

Abundantly, and now is empty grown, + 

So that perforce it soon must be revealed. + 

I in that place was Peter Damiano; + 

And Peter the Sinner was I in the house + 

Of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore. + 

Little of mortal life remained to me, + 

When I was called and dragged forth to the hat + 

Which shifteth evermore from bad to worse. + 

Came Cephas, and the mighty Vessel came + 

Of the Holy Spirit, meagre and barefooted, + 

Taking the food of any hostelry. + 

Now someone to support them on each side + 

The modern shepherds need, and some to lead them, + 

So heavy are they, and to hold their trains. + 

They cover up their palfreys with their cloaks, + 

So that two beasts go underneath one skin; + 

O Patience, that dost tolerate so much!” + 

At this voice saw I many little flames + 

From step to step descending and revolving, + 

And every revolution made them fairer. + 

Round about this one came they and stood still, + 

And a cry uttered of so loud a sound, + 

It here could find no parallel, nor I + 

Distinguished it, the thunder so o’ercame me. + 

Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide + 

Turned like a little child who always runs + 

For refuge there where he confideth most; + 

And she, even as a mother who straightway + 

Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy + 

With voice whose wont it is to reassure him, + 

Said to me: “Knowest thou not thou art in heaven, + 

And knowest thou not that heaven is holy all + 

And what is done here cometh from good zeal? + 

After what wise the singing would have changed thee + 

And I by smiling, thou canst now imagine, + 

Since that the cry has startled thee so much, + 

In which if thou hadst understood its prayers + 

Already would be known to thee the vengeance + 

Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest. + 

The sword above here smiteth not in haste + 

Nor tardily, howe’er it seem to him + 

Who fearing or desiring waits for it. + 

But turn thee round towards the others now, + 

For very illustrious spirits shalt thou see, + 

If thou thy sight directest as I say.” + 

As it seemed good to her mine eyes I turned, + 

And saw a hundred spherules that together + 

With mutual rays each other more embellished. + 

I stood as one who in himself represses + 

The point of his desire, and ventures not + 

To question, he so feareth the too much. + 

And now the largest and most luculent + 

Among those pearls came forward, that it might + 

Make my desire concerning it content. + 

Within it then I heard: “If thou couldst see + 

Even as myself the charity that burns + 

Among us, thy conceits would be expressed; + 

But, that by waiting thou mayst not come late + 

To the high end, I will make answer even + 

Unto the thought of which thou art so chary. + 

That mountain on whose slope Cassino stands + 

Was frequented of old upon its summit + 

By a deluded folk and ill-disposed; + 

And I am he who first up thither bore + 

The name of Him who brought upon the earth + 

The truth that so much sublimateth us. + 

And such abundant grace upon me shone + 

That all the neighboring towns I drew away + 

From the impious worship that seduced the world. + 

These other fires, each one of them, were men + 

Contemplative, enkindled by that heat + 

Which maketh holy flowers and fruits spring up. + 

Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus, + 

Here are my brethren, who within the cloisters + 

Their footsteps stayed and kept a steadfast heart.” + 

And I to him: “The affection which thou showest + 

Speaking with me, and the good countenance + 

Which I behold and note in all your ardors, + 

In me have so my confidence dilated + 

As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes + 

As far unfolded as it hath the power. + 

Therefore I pray, and thou assure me, father, + 

If I may so much grace receive, that I + 

May thee behold with countenance unveiled.” + 

He thereupon: “Brother, thy high desire + 

In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled, + 

Where are fulfilled all others and my own. + 

There perfect is, and ripened, and complete, + 

Every desire; within that one alone + 

Is every part where it has always been; + 

For it is not in space, nor turns on poles, + 

And unto it our stairway reaches up, + 

Whence thus from out thy sight it steals away. + 

Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it + 

Extending its supernal part, what time + 

So thronged with angels it appeared to him. + 

But to ascend it now no one uplifts + 

His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule + 

Below remaineth for mere waste of paper. + 

The walls that used of old to be an Abbey + 

Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls + 

Are sacks filled full of miserable flour. + 

But heavy usury is not taken up + 

So much against God’s pleasure as that fruit + 

Which maketh so insane the heart of monks; + 

For whatsoever hath the Church in keeping + 

Is for the folk that ask it in God’s name, + 

Not for one’s kindred or for something worse. + 

The flesh of mortals is so very soft, + 

That good beginnings down below suffice not + 

From springing of the oak to bearing acorns. + 

Peter began with neither gold nor silver, + 

And I with orison and abstinence, + 

And Francis with humility his convent. + 

And if thou lookest at each one’s beginning, + 

And then regardest whither he has run, + 

Thou shalt behold the white changed into brown. + 

In verity the Jordan backward turned, + 

And the sea’s fleeing, when God willed were more + 

A wonder to behold, than succor here.” + 

Thus unto me he said; and then withdrew + 

To his own band, and the band closed together; + 

Then like a whirlwind all was upward rapt. + 

The gentle Lady urged me on behind them + 

Up o’er that stairway by a single sign, + 

So did her virtue overcome my nature; + 

Nor here below, where one goes up and down + 

By natural law, was motion e’er so swift + 

That it could be compared unto my wing. + 

Reader, as I may unto that devout + 

Triumph return, on whose account I often + 

For my transgressions weep and beat my breast⁠— + 

Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire + 

And drawn it out again, before I saw + 

The sign that follows Taurus, and was in it. + 

O glorious stars, O light impregnated + 

With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge + 

All of my genius, whatsoe’er it be, + 

With you was born, and hid himself with you, + 

He who is father of all mortal life, + 

When first I tasted of the Tuscan air; + 

And then when grace was freely given to me + 

To enter the high wheel which turns you round, + 

Your region was allotted unto me. + 

To you devoutly at this hour my soul + 

Is sighing, that it virtue may acquire + 

For the stern pass that draws it to itself. + 

“Thou art so near unto the last salvation,” + 

Thus Beatrice began, “thou oughtest now + 

To have thine eyes unclouded and acute; + 

And therefore, ere thou enter farther in, + 

Look down once more, and see how vast a world + 

Thou hast already put beneath thy feet; + 

So that thy heart, as jocund as it may, + 

Present itself to the triumphant throng + 

That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether.” + 

I with my sight returned through one and all + 

The sevenfold spheres, and I beheld this globe + 

Such that I smiled at its ignoble semblance; + 

And that opinion I approve as best + 

Which doth account it least; and he who thinks + 

Of something else may truly be called just. + 

I saw the daughter of Latona shining + 

Without that shadow, which to me was cause + 

That once I had believed her rare and dense. + 

The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, + 

Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves + 

Around and near him Maia and Dione. + 

Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove + 

’Twixt son and father, and to me was clear + 

The change that of their whereabout they make; + 

And all the seven made manifest to me + 

How great they are, and eke how swift they are, + 

And how they are in distant habitations. + 

The threshing-floor that maketh us so proud, + 

To me revolving with the eternal Twins, + 

Was all apparent made from hill to harbour! + 

Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes I turned. + 

Even as a bird, ’mid the beloved leaves, + 

Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood + 

Throughout the night, that hideth all things from us, + 

Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks + 

And find the food wherewith to nourish them, + 

In which, to her, grave labors grateful are, + 

Anticipates the time on open spray + 

And with an ardent longing waits the sun, + 

Gazing intent as soon as breaks the dawn: + 

Even thus my Lady standing was, erect + 

And vigilant, turned round towards the zone + 

Underneath which the sun displays less haste; + 

So that beholding her distraught and wistful, + 

Such I became as he is who desiring + 

For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. + 

But brief the space from one When to the other; + 

Of my awaiting, say I, and the seeing + 

The welkin grow resplendent more and more. + 

And Beatrice exclaimed: “Behold the hosts + 

Of Christ’s triumphal march, and all the fruit + 

Harvested by the rolling of these spheres!” + 

It seemed to me her face was all aflame; + 

And eyes she had so full of ecstasy + 

That I must needs pass on without describing. + 

As when in nights serene of the full moon + 

Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal + 

Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs, + 

Saw I, above the myriads of lamps, + 

A Sun that one and all of them enkindled, + 

E’en as our own doth the supernal sights, + 

And through the living light transparent shone + 

The lucent substance so intensely clear + 

Into my sight, that I sustained it not. + 

O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear! + 

To me she said: “What overmasters thee + 

A virtue is from which naught shields itself. + 

There are the wisdom and the omnipotence + 

That oped the thoroughfares ’twixt heaven and earth, + 

For which there erst had been so long a yearning.” + 

As fire from out a cloud unlocks itself, + 

Dilating so it finds not room therein, + 

And down, against its nature, falls to earth, + 

So did my mind, among those aliments + 

Becoming larger, issue from itself, + 

And that which it became cannot remember. + 

“Open thine eyes, and look at what I am: + 

Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough + 

Hast thou become to tolerate my smile.” + 

I was as one who still retains the feeling + 

Of a forgotten vision, and endeavors + 

In vain to bring it back into his mind, + 

When I this invitation heard, deserving + 

Of so much gratitude, it never fades + 

Out of the book that chronicles the past. + 

If at this moment sounded all the tongues + 

That Polyhymnia and her sisters made + 

Most lubrical with their delicious milk, + 

To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth + 

It would not reach, singing the holy smile + 

And how the holy aspect it illumed. + 

And therefore, representing Paradise, + 

The sacred poem must perforce leap over, + 

Even as a man who finds his way cut off; + 

But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme, + 

And of the mortal shoulder laden with it, + 

Should blame it not, if under this it tremble. + 

It is no passage for a little boat + 

This which goes cleaving the audacious prow, + 

Nor for a pilot who would spare himself. + 

“Why doth my face so much enamour thee, + 

That to the garden fair thou turnest not, + 

Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming? + 

There is the Rose in which the Word Divine + 

Became incarnate; there the lilies are + 

By whose perfume the good way was discovered.” + 

Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels + 

Was wholly ready, once again betook me + 

Unto the battle of the feeble brows. + 

As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams + 

Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of flowers + 

Mine eyes with shadow covered o’er have seen, + 

So troops of splendors manifold I saw + 

Illumined from above with burning rays, + 

Beholding not the source of the effulgence. + 

O power benignant that dost so imprint them! + 

Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope + 

There to mine eyes, that were not strong enough. + 

The name of that fair flower I e’er invoke + 

Morning and evening utterly enthralled + 

My soul to gaze upon the greater fire. + 

And when in both mine eyes depicted were + 

The glory and greatness of the living star + 

Which there excelleth, as it here excelled, + 

Athwart the heavens a little torch descended + 

Formed in a circle like a coronal, + 

And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it. + 

Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth + 

On earth, and to itself most draws the soul, + 

Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders, + 

Compared unto the sounding of that lyre + 

Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful, + 

Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue. + 

“I am Angelic Love, that circle round + 

The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb + 

That was the hostelry of our Desire; + 

And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while + 

Thou followest thy Son, and mak’st diviner + 

The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there.” + 

Thus did the circulated melody + 

Seal itself up; and all the other lights + 

Were making to resound the name of Mary. + 

The regal mantle of the volumes all + 

Of that world, which most fervid is and living + 

With breath of God and with his works and ways, + 

Extended over us its inner border, + 

So very distant, that the semblance of it + 

There where I was not yet appeared to me. + 

Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power + 

Of following the incoronated flame, + 

Which mounted upward near to its own seed. + 

And as a little child, that towards its mother + 

Stretches its arms, when it the milk has taken, + 

Through impulse kindled into outward flame, + 

Each of those gleams of whiteness upward reached + 

So with its summit, that the deep affection + 

They had for Mary was revealed to me. + 

Thereafter they remained there in my sight, + 

Regina coeli singing with such sweetness, + 

That ne’er from me has the delight departed. + 

O, what exuberance is garnered up + 

Within those richest coffers, which had been + 

Good husbandmen for sowing here below! + 

There they enjoy and live upon the treasure + 

Which was acquired while weeping in the exile + 

Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left. + 

There triumpheth, beneath the exalted Son + 

Of God and Mary, in his victory, + 

Both with the ancient council and the new, + 

He who doth keep the keys of such a glory. + 

“O company elect to the great supper + 

Of the Lamb benedight, who feedeth you + 

So that forever full is your desire, + 

If by the grace of God this man foretaste + 

Something of that which falleth from your table, + 

Or ever death prescribe to him the time, + 

Direct your mind to his immense desire, + 

And him somewhat bedew; ye drinking are + 

Forever at the fount whence comes his thought.” + 

Thus Beatrice; and those souls beatified + 

Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast poles, + 

Flaming intensely in the guise of comets. + 

And as the wheels in works of horologes + 

Revolve so that the first to the beholder + 

Motionless seems, and the last one to fly, + 

So in like manner did those carols, dancing + 

In different measure, of their affluence + 

Give me the gauge, as they were swift or slow. + 

From that one which I noted of most beauty + 

Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy + 

That none it left there of a greater brightness; + 

And around Beatrice three several times + 

It whirled itself with so divine a song, + 

My fantasy repeats it not to me; + 

Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not, + 

Since our imagination for such folds, + 

Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring. + 

“O holy sister mine, who us implorest + 

With such devotion, by thine ardent love + 

Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!” + 

Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire + 

Unto my Lady did direct its breath, + 

Which spake in fashion as I here have said. + 

And she: “O light eterne of the great man + 

To whom our Lord delivered up the keys + 

He carried down of this miraculous joy, + 

This one examine on points light and grave, + 

As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith + 

By means of which thou on the sea didst walk. + 

If he love well, and hope well, and believe, + 

From thee ’tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight + 

There where depicted everything is seen. + 

But since this kingdom has made citizens + 

By means of the true Faith, to glorify it + 

’Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof.” + 

As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not + 

Until the master doth propose the question, + 

To argue it, and not to terminate it, + 

So did I arm myself with every reason, + 

While she was speaking, that I might be ready + 

For such a questioner and such profession. + 

“Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself; + 

What is the Faith?” Whereat I raised my brow + 

Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth. + 

Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she + 

Prompt signals made to me that I should pour + 

The water forth from my internal fountain. + 

“May grace, that suffers me to make confession,” + 

Began I, “to the great centurion, + 

Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!” + 

And I continued: “As the truthful pen, + 

Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it, + 

Who put with thee Rome into the good way, + 

Faith is the substance of the things we hope for, + 

And evidence of those that are not seen; + 

And this appears to me its quiddity.” + 

Then heard I: “Very rightly thou perceivest, + 

If well thou understandest why he placed it + 

With substances and then with evidences.” + 

And I thereafterward: “The things profound, + 

That here vouchsafe to me their apparition, + 

Unto all eyes below are so concealed, + 

That they exist there only in belief, + 

Upon the which is founded the high hope, + 

And hence it takes the nature of a substance. + 

And it behoveth us from this belief + 

To reason without having other sight, + 

And hence it has the nature of evidence.” + 

Then heard I: “If whatever is acquired + 

Below by doctrine were thus understood, + 

No sophist’s subtlety would there find place.” + 

Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love; + 

Then added: “Very well has been gone over + 

Already of this coin the alloy and weight; + 

But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?” + 

And I: “Yes, both so shining and so round + 

That in its stamp there is no peradventure.” + 

Thereafter issued from the light profound + 

That there resplendent was: “This precious jewel, + 

Upon the which is every virtue founded, + 

Whence hadst thou it?” And I: “The large outpouring + 

Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused + 

Upon the ancient parchments and the new, + 

A syllogism is, which proved it to me + 

With such acuteness, that, compared therewith, + 

All demonstration seems to me obtuse.” + 

And then I heard: “The ancient and the new + 

Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive, + 

Why dost thou take them for the word divine?” + 

And I: “The proofs, which show the truth to me, + 

Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature + 

Ne’er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat.” + 

’Twas answered me: “Say, who assureth thee + 

That those works ever were? the thing itself + 

That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms it.” + 

“Were the world to Christianity converted,” + 

I said, “withouten miracles, this one + 

Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part; + 

Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter + 

Into the field to sow there the good plant, + 

Which was a vine and has become a thorn!” + 

This being finished, the high, holy Court + 

Resounded through the spheres, “One God we praise!” + 

In melody that there above is chanted. + 

And then that Baron, who from branch to branch, + 

Examining, had thus conducted me, + 

Till the extremest leaves we were approaching, + 

Again began: “The Grace that dallying + 

Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened, + 

Up to this point, as it should opened be, + 

So that I do approve what forth emerged; + 

But now thou must express what thou believest, + 

And whence to thy belief it was presented.” + 

“O holy father, spirit who beholdest + 

What thou believedst so that thou o’ercamest, + 

Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,” + 

Began I, “thou dost wish me in this place + 

The form to manifest of my prompt belief, + 

And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest. + 

And I respond: In one God I believe, + 

Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens + 

With love and with desire, himself unmoved; + 

And of such faith not only have I proofs + 

Physical and metaphysical, but gives them + 

Likewise the truth that from this place rains down + 

Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Psalms, + 

Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote + 

After the fiery Spirit sanctified you; + 

In Persons three eterne believe, and these + 

One essence I believe, so one and trine + 

They bear conjunction both with sunt and est. + 

With the profound condition and divine + 

Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind + 

Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical. + 

This the beginning is, this is the spark + 

Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame, + 

And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me.” + 

Even as a lord who hears what pleaseth him + 

His servant straight embraces, gratulating + 

For the good news as soon as he is silent; + 

So, giving me its benediction, singing, + 

Three times encircled me, when I was silent, + 

The apostolic light, at whose command + 

I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him. + 

If e’er it happen that the Poem Sacred, + 

To which both heaven and earth have set their hand, + 

So that it many a year hath made me lean, + 

O’ercome the cruelty that bars me out + 

From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered, + 

An enemy to the wolves that war upon it, + 

With other voice forthwith, with other fleece + 

Poet will I return, and at my font + 

Baptismal will I take the laurel crown; + 

Because into the Faith that maketh known + 

All souls to God there entered I, and then + 

Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled. + 

Thereafterward towards us moved a light + 

Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits + 

Which of his vicars Christ behind him left, + 

And then my Lady, full of ecstasy, + 

Said unto me: “Look, look! behold the Baron + 

For whom below Galicia is frequented.” + 

In the same way as, when a dove alights + 

Near his companion, both of them pour forth, + 

Circling about and murmuring, their affection, + 

So one beheld I by the other grand + 

Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted, + 

Lauding the food that there above is eaten. + 

But when their gratulations were complete, + 

Silently coram me each one stood still, + 

So incandescent it o’ercame my sight. + 

Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice: + 

“Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions + 

Of our Basilica have been described, + 

Make Hope resound within this altitude; + 

Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it + 

As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness.”⁠— + 

“Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured; + 

For what comes hither from the mortal world + 

Must needs be ripened in our radiance.” + 

This comfort came to me from the second fire; + 

Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills, + 

Which bent them down before with too great weight. + 

“Since, through his grace, our Emperor wills that thou + 

Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy death, + 

In the most secret chamber, with his Counts, + 

So that, the truth beholden of this court, + 

Hope, which below there rightfully enamours, + 

Thereby thou strengthen in thyself and others, + 

Say what it is, and how is flowering with it + 

Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee.” + 

Thus did the second light again continue. + 

And the Compassionate, who piloted + 

The plumage of my wings in such high flight, + 

Did in reply anticipate me thus: + 

“No child whatever the Church Militant + 

Of greater hope possesses, as is written + 

In that Sun which irradiates all our band; + 

Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt + 

To come into Jerusalem to see, + 

Or ever yet his warfare be completed. + 

The two remaining points, that not for knowledge + 

Have been demanded, but that he report + 

How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing, + 

To him I leave; for hard he will not find them, + 

Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them; + 

And may the grace of God in this assist him!” + 

As a disciple, who his teacher follows, + 

Ready and willing, where he is expert, + 

That his proficiency may be displayed, + 

“Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation + 

Of future glory, which is the effect + 

Of grace divine and merit precedent. + 

From many stars this light comes unto me; + 

But he instilled it first into my heart + 

Who was chief singer unto the chief captain. + 

Sperent in te, in the high Theody + 

He sayeth, ‘those who know thy name’; and who + 

Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess? + 

Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling + 

In the Epistle, so that I am full, + 

And upon others rain again your rain.” + 

While I was speaking, in the living bosom + 

Of that combustion quivered an effulgence, + 

Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning; + 

Then breathed: “The love wherewith I am inflamed + 

Towards the virtue still which followed me + 

Unto the palm and issue of the field, + 

Wills that I breathe to thee that thou delight + 

In her; and grateful to me is thy telling + 

Whatever things Hope promises to thee.” + 

And I: “The ancient Scriptures and the new + 

The mark establish, and this shows it me, + 

Of all the souls whom God hath made his friends. + 

Isaiah saith, that each one garmented + 

In his own land shall be with twofold garments, + 

And his own land is this delightful life. + 

Thy brother, too, far more explicitly, + 

There where he treateth of the robes of white, + 

This revelation manifests to us.” + 

And first, and near the ending of these words, + 

“Sperent in te” from over us was heard, + 

To which responsive answered all the carols. + 

Thereafterward a light among them brightened, + 

So that, if Cancer one such crystal had, + 

Winter would have a month of one sole day. + 

And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance + 

A winsome maiden, only to do honor + 

To the new bride, and not from any failing, + 

Even thus did I behold the brightened splendor + 

Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved + 

As was beseeming to their ardent love. + 

Into the song and music there it entered; + 

And fixed on them my Lady kept her look, + 

Even as a bride silent and motionless. + 

“This is the one who lay upon the breast + 

Of him our Pelican; and this is he + 

To the great office from the cross elected.” + 

My Lady thus; but therefore none the more + 

Did move her sight from its attentive gaze + 

Before or afterward these words of hers. + 

Even as a man who gazes, and endeavors + 

To see the eclipsing of the sun a little, + 

And who, by seeing, sightless doth become, + 

So I became before that latest fire, + 

While it was said, “Why dost thou daze thyself + 

To see a thing which here hath no existence? + 

Earth in the earth my body is, and shall be + 

With all the others there, until our number + 

With the eternal proposition tallies. + 

With the two garments in the blessed cloister + 

Are the two lights alone that have ascended: + 

And this shalt thou take back into your world.” + 

And at this utterance the flaming circle + 

Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling + 

Of sound that by the trinal breath was made, + 

As to escape from danger or fatigue + 

The oars that erst were in the water beaten + 

Are all suspended at a whistle’s sound. + 

Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed, + 

When I turned round to look on Beatrice, + 

That her I could not see, although I was + 

Close at her side and in the Happy World! + 

While I was doubting for my vision quenched, + 

Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched it + 

Issued a breathing, that attentive made me, + 

Saying: “While thou recoverest the sense + 

Of seeing which in me thou hast consumed, + 

’Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate it. + 

Begin then, and declare to what thy soul + 

Is aimed, and count it for a certainty, + 

Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead; + 

Because the Lady, who through this divine + 

Region conducteth thee, has in her look + 

The power the hand of Ananias had.” + 

I said: “As pleaseth her, or soon or late + 

Let the cure come to eyes that portals were + 

When she with fire I ever burn with entered. + 

The Good, that gives contentment to this Court, + 

The Alpha and Omega is of all + 

The writing that love reads me low or loud.” + 

The selfsame voice, that taken had from me + 

The terror of the sudden dazzlement, + 

To speak still farther put it in my thought; + 

And said: “In verity with finer sieve + 

Behoveth thee to sift; thee it behoveth + 

To say who aimed thy bow at such a target.” + 

And I: “By philosophic arguments, + 

And by authority that hence descends, + 

Such love must needs imprint itself in me; + 

For Good, so far as good, when comprehended + 

Doth straight enkindle love, and so much greater + 

As more of goodness in itself it holds; + 

Then to that Essence (whose is such advantage + 

That every good which out of it is found + 

Is nothing but a ray of its own light) + 

More than elsewhither must the mind be moved + 

Of everyone, in loving, who discerns + 

The truth in which this evidence is founded. + 

Such truth he to my intellect reveals + 

Who demonstrates to me the primal love + 

Of all the sempiternal substances. + 

The voice reveals it of the truthful Author, + 

Who says to Moses, speaking of Himself, + 

‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee.’ + 

Thou too revealest it to me, beginning + 

The loud Evangel, that proclaims the secret + 

Of heaven to earth above all other edict.” + 

And I heard say: “By human intellect + 

And by authority concordant with it, + 

Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest. + 

But say again if other cords thou feelest, + 

Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst proclaim + 

With how many teeth this love is biting thee.” + 

The holy purpose of the Eagle of Christ + 

Not latent was, nay, rather I perceived + 

Whither he fain would my profession lead. + 

Therefore I recommenced: “All of those bites + 

Which have the power to turn the heart to God + 

Unto my charity have been concurrent. + 

The being of the world, and my own being, + 

The death which He endured that I may live, + 

And that which all the faithful hope, as I do, + 

With the forementioned vivid consciousness + 

Have drawn me from the sea of love perverse, + 

And of the right have placed me on the shore. + 

The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the garden + 

Of the Eternal Gardener, do I love + 

As much as he has granted them of good.” + 

As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweet + 

Throughout the heaven resounded, and my Lady + 

Said with the others, “Holy, holy, holy!” + 

And as at some keen light one wakes from sleep + 

By reason of the visual spirit that runs + 

Unto the splendor passed from coat to coat, + 

And he who wakes abhorreth what he sees, + 

So all unconscious is his sudden waking, + 

Until the judgment cometh to his aid, + 

So from before mine eyes did Beatrice + 

Chase every mote with radiance of her own, + 

That cast its light a thousand miles and more. + 

Whence better after than before I saw, + 

And in a kind of wonderment I asked + 

About a fourth light that I saw with us. + 

And said my Lady: “There within those rays + 

Gazes upon its Maker the first soul + 

That ever the first virtue did create.” + 

Even as the bough that downward bends its top + 

At transit of the wind, and then is lifted + 

By its own virtue, which inclines it upward, + 

Likewise did I, the while that she was speaking, + 

Being amazed, and then I was made bold + 

By a desire to speak wherewith I burned. + 

And I began: “O apple, that mature + 

Alone hast been produced, O ancient father, + 

To whom each wife is daughter and daughter-in-law, + 

Devoutly as I can I supplicate thee + 

That thou wouldst speak to me; thou seest my wish; + 

And I, to hear thee quickly, speak it not.” + 

Sometimes an animal, when covered, struggles + 

So that his impulse needs must be apparent, + 

By reason of the wrappage following it; + 

And in like manner the primeval soul + 

Made clear to me athwart its covering + 

How jubilant it was to give me pleasure. + 

Then breathed: “Without thy uttering it to me, + 

Thine inclination better I discern + 

Than thou whatever thing is surest to thee; + 

For I behold it in the truthful mirror, + 

That of Himself all things parhelion makes, + 

And none makes Him parhelion of itself. + 

Thou fain wouldst hear how long ago God placed me + 

Within the lofty garden, where this Lady + 

Unto so long a stairway thee disposed. + 

And how long to mine eyes it was a pleasure, + 

And of the great disdain the proper cause, + 

And the language that I used and that I made. + 

Now, son of mine, the tasting of the tree + 

Not in itself was cause of so great exile, + 

But solely the o’erstepping of the bounds. + 

There, whence thy Lady moved Virgilius, + 

Four thousand and three hundred and two circuits + 

Made by the sun, this Council I desired; + 

And him I saw return to all the lights + 

Of his highway nine hundred times and thirty, + 

Whilst I upon the earth was tarrying. + 

The language that I spake was quite extinct + 

Before that in the work interminable + 

The people under Nimrod were employed; + 

For nevermore result of reasoning + 

(Because of human pleasure that doth change, + 

Obedient to the heavens) was durable. + 

A natural action is it that man speaks; + 

But whether thus or thus, doth nature leave + 

To your own art, as seemeth best to you. + 

Ere I descended to the infernal anguish, + 

El was on earth the name of the Chief Good, + 

From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round + 

Eli he then was called, and that is proper, + 

Because the use of men is like a leaf + 

On bough, which goeth and another cometh. + 

Upon the mount that highest o’er the wave + 

Rises was I, in life or pure or sinful, + 

From the first hour to that which is the second, + 

As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth.” + 

“Glory be to the Father, to the Son, + 

And Holy Ghost!” all Paradise began, + 

So that the melody inebriate made me. + 

What I beheld seemed unto me a smile + 

Of the universe; for my inebriation + 

Found entrance through the hearing and the sight. + 

O joy! O gladness inexpressible! + 

O perfect life of love and peacefulness! + 

O riches without hankering secure! + 

Before mine eyes were standing the four torches + 

Enkindled, and the one that first had come + 

Began to make itself more luminous; + 

And even such in semblance it became + 

As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars + 

Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers. + 

That Providence, which here distributeth + 

Season and service, in the blessed choir + 

Had silence upon every side imposed. + 

When I heard say: “If I my color change, + 

Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking + 

Thou shalt behold all these their color change. + 

He who usurps upon the earth my place, + 

My place, my place, which vacant has become + 

Before the presence of the Son of God, + 

Has of my cemetery made a sewer + 

Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One, + 

Who fell from here, below there is appeased!” + 

With the same color which, through sun adverse, + 

Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn, + 

Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused. + 

And as a modest woman, who abides + 

Sure of herself, and at another’s failing, + 

From listening only, timorous becomes, + 

Even thus did Beatrice change countenance; + 

And I believe in heaven was such eclipse, + 

When suffered the supreme Omnipotence; + 

Thereafterward proceeded forth his words + 

With voice so much transmuted from itself, + 

The very countenance was not more changed. + 

“The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been + 

On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus, + 

To be made use of in acquest of gold; + 

But in acquest of this delightful life + 

Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus, + 

After much lamentation, shed their blood. + 

Our purpose was not, that on the right hand + 

Of our successors should in part be seated + 

The Christian folk, in part upon the other; + 

Nor that the keys which were to me confided + 

Should e’er become the escutcheon on a banner, + 

That should wage war on those who are baptized; + 

Nor I be made the figure of a seal + 

To privileges venal and mendacious, + 

Whereat I often redden and flash with fire. + 

In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves + 

Are seen from here above o’er all the pastures! + 

O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still? + 

To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons + 

Are making ready. O thou good beginning, + 

Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall! + 

But the high Providence, that with Scipio + 

At Rome the glory of the world defended, + 

Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive; + 

And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight + 

Shalt down return again, open thy mouth; + 

What I conceal not, do not thou conceal.” + 

As with its frozen vapors downward falls + 

In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn + 

Of the celestial Goat doth touch the sun, + 

Upward in such array saw I the ether + 

Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapors, + 

Which there together with us had remained. + 

My sight was following up their semblances, + 

And followed till the medium, by excess, + 

The passing farther onward took from it; + 

Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed + 

From gazing upward, said to me: “Cast down + 

Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round.” + 

Since the first time that I had downward looked, + 

I saw that I had moved through the whole arc + 

Which the first climate makes from midst to end; + 

So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses + 

Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore + 

Whereon became Europa a sweet burden. + 

And of this threshing-floor the site to me + 

Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding + 

Under my feet, a sign and more removed. + 

My mind enamoured, which is dallying + 

At all times with my Lady, to bring back + 

To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent. + 

And if or Art or Nature has made bait + 

To catch the eyes and so possess the mind, + 

In human flesh or in its portraiture, + 

All joined together would appear as nought + 

To the divine delight which shone upon me + 

When to her smiling face I turned me round. + 

The virtue that her look endowed me with + 

From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth, + 

And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me. + 

Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty + 

Are all so uniform, I cannot say + 

Which Beatrice selected for my place. + 

But she, who was aware of my desire, + 

Began, the while she smiled so joyously + 

That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice: + 

“The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet + 

The centre and all the rest about it moves, + 

From hence begins as from its starting point. + 

And in this heaven there is no other Where + 

Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled + 

The love that turns it, and the power it rains. + 

Within a circle light and love embrace it, + 

Even as this doth the others, and that precinct + 

He who encircles it alone controls. + 

Its motion is not by another meted, + 

But all the others measured are by this, + 

As ten is by the half and by the fifth. + 

And in what manner time in such a pot + 

May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves, + 

Now unto thee can manifest be made. + 

O Covetousness, that mortals dost engulf + 

Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power + 

Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves! + 

Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will; + 

But the uninterrupted rain converts + 

Into abortive wildings the true plums. + 

Fidelity and innocence are found + 

Only in children; afterwards they both + 

Take flight or e’er the cheeks with down are covered. + 

One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts, + 

Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours + 

Whatever food under whatever moon; + 

Another, while he prattles, loves and listens + 

Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect + 

Forthwith desires to see her in her grave. + 

Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white + 

In its first aspect of the daughter fair + 

Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night. + 

Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee, + 

Think that on earth there is no one who governs; + 

Whence goes astray the human family. + 

Ere January be unwintered wholly + 

By the centesimal on earth neglected, + 

Shall these supernal circles roar so loud + 

The tempest that has been so long awaited + 

Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows; + 

So that the fleet shall run its course direct, + 

And the true fruit shall follow on the flower.” + 

After the truth against the present life + 

Of miserable mortals was unfolded + 

By her who doth imparadise my mind, + 

As in a looking-glass a taper’s flame + 

He sees who from behind is lighted by it, + 

Before he has it in his sight or thought, + 

And turns him round to see if so the glass + 

Tell him the truth, and sees that it accords + 

Therewith as doth a music with its metre, + 

In similar wise my memory recollecteth + 

That I did, looking into those fair eyes, + 

Of which Love made the springes to ensnare me. + 

And as I turned me round, and mine were touched + 

By that which is apparent in that volume, + 

Whenever on its gyre we gaze intent, + 

A point beheld I, that was raying out + 

Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles + 

Must close perforce before such great acuteness. + 

And whatsoever star seems smallest here + 

Would seem to be a moon, if placed beside it. + 

As one star with another star is placed. + 

Perhaps at such a distance as appears + 

A halo cincturing the light that paints it, + 

When densest is the vapor that sustains it, + 

Thus distant round the point a circle of fire + 

So swiftly whirled, that it would have surpassed + 

Whatever motion soonest girds the world; + 

And this was by another circumcinct, + 

That by a third, the third then by a fourth, + 

By a fifth the fourth, and then by a sixth the fifth; + 

The seventh followed thereupon in width + 

So ample now, that Juno’s messenger + 

Entire would be too narrow to contain it. + 

Even so the eighth and ninth; and everyone + 

More slowly moved, according as it was + 

In number distant farther from the first. + 

And that one had its flame most crystalline + 

From which less distant was the stainless spark, + 

I think because more with its truth imbued. + 

My Lady, who in my anxiety + 

Beheld me much perplexed, said: “From that point + 

Dependent is the heaven and nature all. + 

Behold that circle most conjoined to it, + 

And know thou, that its motion is so swift + 

Through burning love whereby it is spurred on.” + 

And I to her: “If the world were arranged + 

In the order which I see in yonder wheels, + 

What’s set before me would have satisfied me; + 

But in the world of sense we can perceive + 

That evermore the circles are diviner + 

As they are from the centre more remote + 

Wherefore if my desire is to be ended + 

In this miraculous and angelic temple, + 

That has for confines only love and light, + 

To hear behoves me still how the example + 

And the exemplar go not in one fashion, + 

Since for myself in vain I contemplate it.” + 

“If thine own fingers unto such a knot + 

Be insufficient, it is no great wonder, + 

So hard hath it become for want of trying.” + 

My Lady thus; then said she: “Do thou take + 

What I shall tell thee, if thou wouldst be sated, + 

And exercise on that thy subtlety. + 

The circles corporal are wide and narrow + 

According to the more or less of virtue + 

Which is distributed through all their parts. + 

The greater goodness works the greater weal, + 

The greater weal the greater body holds, + 

If perfect equally are all its parts. + 

Therefore this one which sweeps along with it + 

The universe sublime, doth correspond + 

Unto the circle which most loves and knows. + 

On which account, if thou unto the virtue + 

Apply thy measure, not to the appearance + 

Of substances that unto thee seem round, + 

Thou wilt behold a marvellous agreement, + 

Of more to greater, and of less to smaller, + 

In every heaven, with its Intelligence.” + 

Even as remaineth splendid and serene + 

The hemisphere of air, when Boreas + 

Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest, + 

Because is purified and resolved the rack + 

That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs + 

With all the beauties of its pageantry; + 

Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady + 

Had me provided with her clear response, + 

And like a star in heaven the truth was seen. + 

And soon as to a stop her words had come, + 

Not otherwise does iron scintillate + 

When molten, than those circles scintillated. + 

Their coruscation all the sparks repeated, + 

And they so many were, their number makes + 

More millions than the doubling of the chess. + 

I heard them sing hosanna choir by choir + 

To the fixed point which holds them at the Ubi, + 

And ever will, where they have ever been. + 

And she, who saw the dubious meditations + 

Within my mind, “The primal circles,” said, + 

“Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim. + 

Thus rapidly they follow their own bonds, + 

To be as like the point as most they can, + 

And can as far as they are high in vision. + 

Those other Loves, that round about them go, + 

Thrones of the countenance divine are called, + 

Because they terminate the primal Triad. + 

And thou shouldst know that they all have delight + 

As much as their own vision penetrates + 

The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest. + 

From this it may be seen how blessedness + 

Is founded in the faculty which sees, + 

And not in that which loves, and follows next; + 

And of this seeing merit is the measure, + 

Which is brought forth by grace, and by good will; + 

Thus on from grade to grade doth it proceed. + 

The second Triad, which is germinating + 

In such wise in this sempiternal spring, + 

That no nocturnal Aries despoils, + 

Perpetually hosanna warbles forth + 

With threefold melody, that sounds in three + 

Orders of joy, with which it is intrined. + 

The three Divine are in this hierarchy, + 

First the Dominions, and the Virtues next; + 

And the third order is that of the Powers. + 

Then in the dances twain penultimate + 

The Principalities and Archangels wheel; + 

The last is wholly of angelic sports. + 

These orders upward all of them are gazing, + 

And downward so prevail, that unto God + 

They all attracted are and all attract. + 

And Dionysius with so great desire + 

To contemplate these Orders set himself, + 

He named them and distinguished them as I do. + 

But Gregory afterwards dissented from him; + 

Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes + 

Within this heaven, he at himself did smile. + 

And if so much of secret truth a mortal + 

Proffered on earth, I would not have thee marvel, + 

For he who saw it here revealed it to him, + 

With much more of the truth about these circles.” + 

At what time both the children of Latona, + 

Surmounted by the Ram and by the Scales, + 

Together make a zone of the horizon, + 

As long as from the time the zenith holds them + 

In equipoise, till from that girdle both + 

Changing their hemisphere disturb the balance, + 

So long, her face depicted with a smile, + 

Did Beatrice keep silence while she gazed + 

Fixedly at the point which had o’ercome me. + 

Then she began: “I say, and I ask not + 

What thou dost wish to hear, for I have seen it + 

Where centres every When and every Ubi. + 

Not to acquire some good unto himself, + 

Which is impossible, but that his splendor + 

In its resplendency may say, ‘Subsisto,’ + 

In his eternity outside of time, + 

Outside all other limits, as it pleased him, + 

Into new Loves the Eternal Love unfolded. + 

Nor as if torpid did he lie before; + 

For neither after nor before proceeded + 

The going forth of God upon these waters. + 

Matter and Form unmingled and conjoined + 

Came into being that had no defect, + 

E’en as three arrows from a three-stringed bow. + 

And as in glass, in amber, or in crystal + 

A sunbeam flashes so, that from its coming + 

To its full being is no interval, + 

So from its Lord did the triform effect + 

Ray forth into its being all together, + 

Without discrimination of beginning. + 

Order was con-created and constructed + 

In substances, and summit of the world + 

Were those wherein the pure act was produced. + 

Pure potentiality held the lowest part; + 

Midway bound potentiality with act + 

Such bond that it shall never be unbound. + 

Jerome has written unto you of angels + 

Created a long lapse of centuries + 

Or ever yet the other world was made; + 

But written is this truth in many places + 

By writers of the Holy Ghost, and thou + 

Shalt see it, if thou lookest well thereat. + 

And even reason seeth it somewhat, + 

For it would not concede that for so long + 

Could be the motors without their perfection. + 

Now dost thou know both where and when these Loves + 

Created were, and how; so that extinct + 

In thy desire already are three fires. + 

Nor could one reach, in counting, unto twenty + 

So swiftly, as a portion of these angels + 

Disturbed the subject of your elements. + 

The rest remained, and they began this art + 

Which thou discernest, with so great delight + 

That never from their circling do they cease. + 

The occasion of the fall was the accursed + 

Presumption of that One, whom thou hast seen + 

By all the burden of the world constrained. + 

Those whom thou here beholdest modest were + 

To recognise themselves as of that goodness + 

Which made them apt for so much understanding; + 

On which account their vision was exalted + 

By the enlightening grace and their own merit, + 

So that they have a full and steadfast will. + 

I would not have thee doubt, but certain be, + 

’Tis meritorious to receive this grace, + 

According as the affection opens to it. + 

Now round about in this consistory + 

Much mayst thou contemplate, if these my words + 

Be gathered up, without all further aid. + 

But since upon the earth, throughout your schools, + 

They teach that such is the angelic nature + 

That it doth hear, and recollect, and will, + 

More will I say, that thou mayst see unmixed + 

The truth that is confounded there below, + 

Equivocating in suchlike prelections. + 

These substances, since in God’s countenance + 

They jocund were, turned not away their sight + 

From that wherefrom not anything is hidden; + 

Hence they have not their vision intercepted + 

By object new, and hence they do not need + 

To recollect, through interrupted thought. + 

So that below, not sleeping, people dream, + 

Believing they speak truth, and not believing; + 

And in the last is greater sin and shame. + 

Below you do not journey by one path + 

Philosophising; so transporteth you + 

Love of appearance and the thought thereof. + 

And even this above here is endured + 

With less disdain, than when is set aside + 

The Holy Writ, or when it is distorted. + 

They think not there how much of blood it costs + 

To sow it in the world, and how he pleases + 

Who in humility keeps close to it. + 

Each striveth for appearance, and doth make + 

His own inventions; and these treated are + 

By preachers, and the Evangel holds its peace. + 

One sayeth that the moon did backward turn, + 

In the Passion of Christ, and interpose herself + 

So that the sunlight reached not down below; + 

And lies; for of its own accord the light + 

Hid itself; whence to Spaniards and to Indians, + 

As to the Jews, did such eclipse respond. + 

Florence has not so many Lapi and Bindi + 

As fables such as these, that every year + 

Are shouted from the pulpit back and forth, + 

In such wise that the lambs, who do not know, + 

Come back from pasture fed upon the wind, + 

And not to see the harm doth not excuse them. + 

Christ did not to his first disciples say, + 

‘Go forth, and to the world preach idle tales,’ + 

But unto them a true foundation gave; + 

And this so loudly sounded from their lips, + 

That, in the warfare to enkindle Faith, + 

They made of the Evangel shields and lances. + 

Now men go forth with jests and drolleries + 

To preach, and if but well the people laugh, + 

The hood puffs out, and nothing more is asked. + 

But in the cowl there nestles such a bird, + 

That, if the common people were to see it, + 

They would perceive what pardons they confide in, + 

For which so great on earth has grown the folly, + 

That, without proof of any testimony, + 

To each indulgence they would flock together. + 

By this Saint Anthony his pig doth fatten, + 

And many others, who are worse than pigs, + 

Paying in money without mark of coinage. + 

But since we have digressed abundantly, + 

Turn back thine eyes forthwith to the right path, + 

So that the way be shortened with the time. + 

This nature doth so multiply itself + 

In numbers, that there never yet was speech + 

Nor mortal fancy that can go so far. + 

And if thou notest that which is revealed + 

By Daniel, thou wilt see that in his thousands + 

Number determinate is kept concealed. + 

The primal light, that all irradiates it, + 

By modes as many is received therein, + 

As are the splendors wherewith it is mated. + 

Hence, inasmuch as on the act conceptive + 

The affection followeth, of love the sweetness + 

Therein diversely fervid is or tepid. + 

The height behold now and the amplitude + 

Of the eternal power, since it hath made + 

Itself so many mirrors, where ’tis broken, + 

One in itself remaining as before.” + 

Perchance six thousand miles remote from us + 

Is glowing the sixth hour, and now this world + 

Inclines its shadow almost to a level, + 

When the mid-heaven begins to make itself + 

So deep to us, that here and there a star + 

Ceases to shine so far down as this depth, + 

And as advances bright exceedingly + 

The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed + 

Light after light to the most beautiful; + 

Not otherwise the Triumph, which forever + 

Plays round about the point that vanquished me, + 

Seeming enclosed by what itself encloses, + 

Little by little from my vision faded; + 

Whereat to turn mine eyes on Beatrice + 

My seeing nothing and my love constrained me. + 

If what has hitherto been said of her + 

Were all concluded in a single praise, + 

Scant would it be to serve the present turn. + 

Not only does the beauty I beheld + 

Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe + 

Its Maker only may enjoy it all. + 

Vanquished do I confess me by this passage + 

More than by problem of his theme was ever + 

O’ercome the comic or the tragic poet; + 

For as the sun the sight that trembles most, + 

Even so the memory of that sweet smile + 

My mind depriveth of its very self. + 

From the first day that I beheld her face + 

In this life, to the moment of this look, + 

The sequence of my song has ne’er been severed; + 

But now perforce this sequence must desist + 

From following her beauty with my verse, + 

As every artist at his uttermost. + 

Such as I leave her to a greater fame + 

Than any of my trumpet, which is bringing + 

Its arduous matter to a final close, + 

With voice and gesture of a perfect leader + 

She recommenced: “We from the greatest body + 

Have issued to the heaven that is pure light; + 

Light intellectual replete with love, + 

Love of true good replete with ecstasy, + 

Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness. + 

Here shalt thou see the one host and the other + 

Of Paradise, and one in the same aspects + 

Which at the final judgment thou shalt see.” + 

Even as a sudden lightning that disperses + 

The visual spirits, so that it deprives + 

The eye of impress from the strongest objects, + 

Thus round about me flashed a living light, + 

And left me swathed around with such a veil + 

Of its effulgence, that I nothing saw. + 

“Ever the Love which quieteth this heaven + 

Welcomes into itself with such salute, + 

To make the candle ready for its flame.” + 

No sooner had within me these brief words + 

An entrance found, than I perceived myself + 

To be uplifted over my own power, + 

And I with vision new rekindled me, + 

Such that no light whatever is so pure + 

But that mine eyes were fortified against it. + 

And light I saw in fashion of a river + 

Fulvid with its effulgence, ’twixt two banks + 

Depicted with an admirable Spring. + 

Out of this river issued living sparks, + 

And on all sides sank down into the flowers, + 

Like unto rubies that are set in gold; + 

And then, as if inebriate with the odors, + 

They plunged again into the wondrous torrent, + 

And as one entered issued forth another. + 

“The high desire, that now inflames and moves thee + 

To have intelligence of what thou seest, + 

Pleaseth me all the more, the more it swells. + 

But of this water it behoves thee drink + 

Before so great a thirst in thee be slaked.” + 

Thus said to me the sunshine of mine eyes; + 

And added: “The river and the topazes + 

Going in and out, and the laughing of the herbage, + 

Are of their truth foreshadowing prefaces; + 

Not that these things are difficult in themselves, + 

But the deficiency is on thy side, + 

For yet thou hast not vision so exalted.” + 

There is no babe that leaps so suddenly + 

With face towards the milk, if he awake + 

Much later than his usual custom is, + 

As I did, that I might make better mirrors + 

Still of mine eyes, down stooping to the wave + 

Which flows that we therein be better made. + 

And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids + 

Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me + 

Out of its length to be transformed to round. + 

Then as a folk who have been under masks + 

Seem other than before, if they divest + 

The semblance not their own they disappeared in, + 

Thus into greater pomp were changed for me + 

The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw + 

Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest. + 

O splendor of God! by means of which I saw + 

The lofty triumph of the realm veracious, + 

Give me the power to say how it I saw! + 

There is a light above, which visible + 

Makes the Creator unto every creature, + 

Who only in beholding Him has peace, + 

And it expands itself in circular form + 

To such extent, that its circumference + 

Would be too large a girdle for the sun. + 

The semblance of it is all made of rays + 

Reflected from the top of Primal Motion, + 

Which takes therefrom vitality and power. + 

And as a hill in water at its base + 

Mirrors itself, as if to see its beauty + 

When affluent most in verdure and in flowers, + 

So, ranged aloft all round about the light, + 

Mirrored I saw in more ranks than a thousand + 

All who above there have from us returned. + 

And if the lowest row collect within it + 

So great a light, how vast the amplitude + 

Is of this Rose in its extremest leaves! + 

My vision in the vastness and the height + 

Lost not itself, but comprehended all + 

The quantity and quality of that gladness. + 

There near and far nor add nor take away; + 

For there where God immediately doth govern, + 

The natural law in naught is relevant. + 

Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal + 

That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odor + 

Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun, + 

As one who silent is and fain would speak, + 

Me Beatrice drew on, and said: “Behold + 

Of the white stoles how vast the convent is! + 

Behold how vast the circuit of our city! + 

Behold our seats so filled to overflowing, + 

That here henceforward are few people wanting! + 

On that great throne whereon thine eyes are fixed + 

For the crown’s sake already placed upon it, + 

Before thou suppest at this wedding feast + 

Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus + 

On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come + 

To redress Italy ere she be ready. + 

Blind covetousness, that casts its spell upon you, + 

Has made you like unto the little child, + 

Who dies of hunger and drives off the nurse. + 

And in the sacred forum then shall be + 

A Prefect such, that openly or covert + 

On the same road he will not walk with him. + 

But long of God he will not be endured + 

In holy office; he shall be thrust down + 

Where Simon Magus is for his deserts, + 

And make him of Alagna lower go!” + 

In fashion then as of a snow-white rose + 

Displayed itself to me the saintly host, + 

Whom Christ in his own blood had made his bride, + 

But the other host, that flying sees and sings + 

The glory of Him who doth enamour it, + 

And the goodness that created it so noble, + 

Even as a swarm of bees, that sinks in flowers + 

One moment, and the next returns again + 

To where its labor is to sweetness turned, + 

Sank into the great flower, that is adorned + 

With leaves so many, and thence reascended + 

To where its love abideth evermore. + 

Their faces had they all of living flame, + 

And wings of gold, and all the rest so white + 

No snow unto that limit doth attain. + 

From bench to bench, into the flower descending, + 

They carried something of the peace and ardor + 

Which by the fanning of their flanks they won. + 

Nor did the interposing ’twixt the flower + 

And what was o’er it of such plenitude + 

Of flying shapes impede the sight and splendor; + 

Because the light divine so penetrates + 

The universe, according to its merit, + 

That naught can be an obstacle against it. + 

This realm secure and full of gladsomeness, + 

Crowded with ancient people and with modern, + 

Unto one mark had all its look and love. + 

O Trinal Light, that in a single star + 

Sparkling upon their sight so satisfies them, + 

Look down upon our tempest here below! + 

If the barbarians, coming from some region + 

That every day by Helice is covered, + 

Revolving with her son whom she delights in, + 

Beholding Rome and all her noble works, + 

Were wonder-struck, what time the Lateran + 

Above all mortal things was eminent⁠— + 

I who to the divine had from the human, + 

From time unto eternity, had come, + 

From Florence to a people just and sane, + 

With what amazement must I have been filled! + 

Truly between this and the joy, it was + 

My pleasure not to hear, and to be mute. + 

And as a pilgrim who delighteth him + 

In gazing round the temple of his vow, + 

And hopes some day to retell how it was, + 

So through the living light my way pursuing + 

Directed I mine eyes o’er all the ranks, + 

Now up, now down, and now all round about. + 

Faces I saw of charity persuasive, + 

Embellished by His light and their own smile, + 

And attitudes adorned with every grace. + 

The general form of Paradise already + 

My glance had comprehended as a whole, + 

In no part hitherto remaining fixed, + 

And round I turned me with rekindled wish + 

My Lady to interrogate of things + 

Concerning which my mind was in suspense. + 

One thing I meant, another answered me; + 

I thought I should see Beatrice, and saw + 

An Old Man habited like the glorious people. + 

O’erflowing was he in his eyes and cheeks + 

With joy benign, in attitude of pity + 

As to a tender father is becoming. + 

And “She, where is she?” instantly I said; + 

Whence he: “To put an end to thy desire, + 

Me Beatrice hath sent from mine own place. + 

And if thou lookest up to the third round + 

Of the first rank, again shalt thou behold her + 

Upon the throne her merits have assigned her.” + 

Without reply I lifted up mine eyes, + 

And saw her, as she made herself a crown + 

Reflecting from herself the eternal rays. + 

Not from that region which the highest thunders + 

Is any mortal eye so far removed, + 

In whatsoever sea it deepest sinks, + 

As there from Beatrice my sight; but this + 

Was nothing unto me; because her image + 

Descended not to me by medium blurred. + 

“O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong, + 

And who for my salvation didst endure + 

In Hell to leave the imprint of thy feet, + 

Of whatsoever things I have beheld, + 

As coming from thy power and from thy goodness + 

I recognise the virtue and the grace. + 

Thou from a slave hast brought me unto freedom, + 

By all those ways, by all the expedients, + 

Whereby thou hadst the power of doing it. + 

Preserve towards me thy magnificence, + 

So that this soul of mine, which thou hast healed, + 

Pleasing to thee be loosened from the body.” + 

Thus I implored; and she, so far away, + 

Smiled, as it seemed, and looked once more at me; + 

Then unto the eternal fountain turned. + 

And said the Old Man holy: “That thou mayst + 

Accomplish perfectly thy journeying, + 

Whereunto prayer and holy love have sent me, + 

Fly with thine eyes all round about this garden; + 

For seeing it will discipline thy sight + 

Farther to mount along the ray divine. + 

And she, the Queen of Heaven, for whom I burn + 

Wholly with love, will grant us every grace, + 

Because that I her faithful Bernard am.” + 

As he who peradventure from Croatia + 

Cometh to gaze at our Veronica, + 

Who through its ancient fame is never sated, + 

But says in thought, the while it is displayed, + 

“My Lord, Christ Jesus, God of very God, + 

Now was your semblance made like unto this?” + 

Even such was I while gazing at the living + 

Charity of the man, who in this world + 

By contemplation tasted of that peace. + 

“Thou son of grace, this jocund life,” began he, + 

“Will not be known to thee by keeping ever + 

Thine eyes below here on the lowest place; + 

But mark the circles to the most remote, + 

Until thou shalt behold enthroned the Queen + 

To whom this realm is subject and devoted.” + 

I lifted up mine eyes, and as at morn + 

The oriental part of the horizon + 

Surpasses that wherein the sun goes down, + 

Thus, as if going with mine eyes from vale + 

To mount, I saw a part in the remoteness + 

Surpass in splendor all the other front. + 

And even as there where we await the pole + 

That Phaeton drove badly, blazes more + 

The light, and is on either side diminished, + 

So likewise that pacific oriflamme + 

Gleamed brightest in the centre, and each side + 

In equal measure did the flame abate. + 

And at that centre, with their wings expanded, + 

More than a thousand jubilant Angels saw I, + 

Each differing in effulgence and in kind. + 

I saw there at their sports and at their songs + 

A beauty smiling, which the gladness was + 

Within the eyes of all the other saints; + 

And if I had in speaking as much wealth + 

As in imagining, I should not dare + 

To attempt the smallest part of its delight. + 

Bernard, as soon as he beheld mine eyes + 

Fixed and intent upon its fervid fervor, + 

His own with such affection turned to her + 

That it made mine more ardent to behold. + 

Absorbed in his delight, that contemplator + 

Assumed the willing office of a teacher, + 

And gave beginning to these holy words: + 

“The wound that Mary closed up and anointed, + 

She at her feet who is so beautiful, + 

She is the one who opened it and pierced it. + 

Within that order which the third seats make + 

Is seated Rachel, lower than the other, + 

With Beatrice, in manner as thou seest. + 

Sarah, Rebecca, Judith, and her who was + 

Ancestress of the Singer, who for dole + 

Of the misdeed said, ‘Miserere mei,’ + 

Canst thou behold from seat to seat descending + 

Down in gradation, as with each one’s name + 

I through the Rose go down from leaf to leaf. + 

And downward from the seventh row, even as + 

Above the same, succeed the Hebrew women, + 

Dividing all the tresses of the flower; + 

Because, according to the view which Faith + 

In Christ had taken, these are the partition + 

By which the sacred stairways are divided. + 

Upon this side, where perfect is the flower + 

With each one of its petals, seated are + 

Those who believed in Christ who was to come. + 

Upon the other side, where intersected + 

With vacant spaces are the semicircles, + 

Are those who looked to Christ already come. + 

And as, upon this side, the glorious seat + 

Of the Lady of Heaven, and the other seats + 

Below it, such a great division make, + 

So opposite doth that of the great John, + 

Who, ever holy, desert and martyrdom + 

Endured, and afterwards two years in Hell. + 

And under him thus to divide were chosen + 

Francis, and Benedict, and Augustine, + 

And down to us the rest from round to round. + 

Behold now the high providence divine; + 

For one and other aspect of the Faith + 

In equal measure shall this garden fill. + 

And know that downward from that rank which cleaves + 

Midway the sequence of the two divisions, + 

Not by their proper merit are they seated; + 

But by another’s under fixed conditions; + 

For these are spirits one and all assoiled + 

Before they any true election had. + 

Well canst thou recognise it in their faces, + 

And also in their voices puerile, + 

If thou regard them well and hearken to them. + 

Now doubtest thou, and doubting thou art silent; + 

But I will loosen for thee the strong bond + 

In which thy subtle fancies hold thee fast. + 

Within the amplitude of this domain + 

No casual point can possibly find place, + 

No more than sadness can, or thirst, or hunger; + 

For by eternal law has been established + 

Whatever thou beholdest, so that closely + 

The ring is fitted to the finger here. + 

And therefore are these people, festinate + 

Unto true life, not sine causa here + 

More and less excellent among themselves. + 

The King, by means of whom this realm reposes + 

In so great love and in so great delight + 

That no will ventureth to ask for more, + 

In his own joyous aspect every mind + 

Creating, at his pleasure dowers with grace + 

Diversely; and let here the effect suffice. + 

And this is clearly and expressly noted + 

For you in Holy Scripture, in those twins + 

Who in their mother had their anger roused. + 

According to the color of the hair, + 

Therefore, with such a grace the light supreme + 

Consenteth that they worthily be crowned. + 

Without, then, any merit of their deeds, + 

Stationed are they in different gradations, + 

Differing only in their first acuteness. + 

’Tis true that in the early centuries, + 

With innocence, to work out their salvation + 

Sufficient was the faith of parents only. + 

After the earlier ages were completed, + 

Behoved it that the males by circumcision + 

Unto their innocent wings should virtue add; + 

But after that the time of grace had come + 

Without the baptism absolute of Christ, + 

Such innocence below there was retained. + 

Look now into the face that unto Christ + 

Hath most resemblance; for its brightness only + 

Is able to prepare thee to see Christ.” + 

On her did I behold so great a gladness + 

Rain down, borne onward in the holy minds + 

Created through that altitude to fly, + 

That whatsoever I had seen before + 

Did not suspend me in such admiration, + 

Nor show me such similitude of God. + 

And the same Love that first descended there, + 

“Ave Maria, gratia plena,” singing, + 

In front of her his wings expanded wide. + 

Unto the canticle divine responded + 

From every part the court beatified, + 

So that each sight became serener for it. + 

“O holy father, who for me endurest + 

To be below here, leaving the sweet place + 

In which thou sittest by eternal lot, + 

Who is the Angel that with so much joy + 

Into the eyes is looking of our Queen, + 

Enamoured so that he seems made of fire?” + 

Thus I again recourse had to the teaching + 

Of that one who delighted him in Mary + 

As doth the star of morning in the sun. + 

And he to me: “Such gallantry and grace + 

As there can be in Angel and in soul, + 

All is in him; and thus we fain would have it; + 

Because he is the one who bore the palm + 

Down unto Mary, when the Son of God + 

To take our burden on himself decreed. + 

But now come onward with thine eyes, as I + 

Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians + 

Of this most just and merciful of empires. + 

Those two that sit above there most enrapture + 

As being very near unto Augusta, + 

Are as it were the two roots of this Rose. + 

He who upon the left is near her placed + 

The father is, by whose audacious taste + 

The human species so much bitter tastes. + 

Upon the right thou seest that ancient father + 

Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ + 

The keys committed of this lovely flower. + 

And he who all the evil days beheld, + 

Before his death, of her the beauteous bride + 

Who with the spear and with the nails was won, + 

Beside him sits, and by the other rests + 

That leader under whom on manna lived + 

The people ingrate, fickle, and stiff-necked. + 

Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated, + 

So well content to look upon her daughter, + 

Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna. + 

And opposite the eldest household father + 

Lucia sits, she who thy Lady moved + 

When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows. + 

But since the moments of thy vision fly, + 

Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor + 

Who makes the gown according to his cloth, + 

And unto the first Love will turn our eyes, + 

That looking upon Him thou penetrate + 

As far as possible through his effulgence. + 

Truly, lest peradventure thou recede, + 

Moving thy wings believing to advance, + 

By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained; + 

Grace from that one who has the power to aid thee; + 

And thou shalt follow me with thy affection + 

That from my words thy heart turn not aside.” + 

And he began this holy orison. + 

“Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, + 

Humble and high beyond all other creature, + 

The limit fixed of the eternal counsel, + 

Thou art the one who such nobility + 

To human nature gave, that its Creator + 

Did not disdain to make himself its creature. + 

Within thy womb rekindled was the love, + 

By heat of which in the eternal peace + 

After such wise this flower has germinated. + 

Here unto us thou art a noonday torch + 

Of charity, and below there among mortals + 

Thou art the living fountainhead of hope. + 

Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing, + 

That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee, + 

His aspirations without wings would fly. + 

Not only thy benignity gives succor + 

To him who asketh it, but oftentimes + 

Forerunneth of its own accord the asking. + 

In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, + 

In thee magnificence; in thee unites + 

Whate’er of goodness is in any creature. + 

Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth + 

Of the universe as far as here has seen + 

One after one the spiritual lives, + 

Supplicate thee through grace for so much power + 

That with his eyes he may uplift himself + 

Higher towards the uttermost salvation. + 

And I, who never burned for my own seeing + 

More than I do for his, all of my prayers + 

Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short, + 

That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud + 

Of his mortality so with thy prayers, + 

That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed. + 

Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst + 

Whate’er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve + 

After so great a vision his affections. + 

Let thy protection conquer human movements; + 

See Beatrice and all the blessed ones + 

My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!” + 

The eyes beloved and revered of God, + 

Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us + 

How grateful unto her are prayers devout; + 

Then unto the Eternal Light they turned, + 

On which it is not credible could be + 

By any creature bent an eye so clear. + 

And I, who to the end of all desires + 

Was now approaching, even as I ought + 

The ardor of desire within me ended. + 

Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling, + 

That I should upward look; but I already + 

Was of my own accord such as he wished; + 

Because my sight, becoming purified, + 

Was entering more and more into the ray + 

Of the High Light which of itself is true. + 

From that time forward what I saw was greater + 

Than our discourse, that to such vision yields, + 

And yields the memory unto such excess. + 

Even as he is who seeth in a dream, + 

And after dreaming the imprinted passion + 

Remains, and to his mind the rest returns not, + 

Even such am I, for almost utterly + 

Ceases my vision, and distilleth yet + 

Within my heart the sweetness born of it; + 

Even thus the snow is in the sun unsealed, + 

Even thus upon the wind in the light leaves + 

Were the soothsayings of the Sibyl lost. + 

O Light Supreme, that dost so far uplift thee + 

From the conceits of mortals, to my mind + 

Of what thou didst appear re-lend a little, + 

And make my tongue of so great puissance, + 

That but a single sparkle of thy glory + 

It may bequeath unto the future people; + 

For by returning to my memory somewhat, + 

And by a little sounding in these verses, + 

More of thy victory shall be conceived! + 

I think the keenness of the living ray + 

Which I endured would have bewildered me, + 

If but mine eyes had been averted from it; + 

And I remember that I was more bold + 

On this account to bear, so that I joined + 

My aspect with the Glory Infinite. + 

O grace abundant, by which I presumed + 

To fix my sight upon the Light Eternal, + 

So that the seeing I consumed therein! + 

I saw that in its depth far down is lying + 

Bound up with love together in one volume, + 

What through the universe in leaves is scattered; + 

Substance, and accident, and their operations, + 

All interfused together in such wise + 

That what I speak of is one simple light. + 

The universal fashion of this knot + 

Methinks I saw, since more abundantly + 

In saying this I feel that I rejoice. + 

One moment is more lethargy to me, + 

Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise + 

That startled Neptune with the shade of Argo! + 

My mind in this wise wholly in suspense, + 

Steadfast, immovable, attentive gazed, + 

And evermore with gazing grew enkindled. + 

In presence of that light one such becomes, + 

That to withdraw therefrom for other prospect + 

It is impossible he e’er consent; + 

Because the good, which object is of will, + 

Is gathered all in this, and out of it + 

That is defective which is perfect there. + 

Shorter henceforward will my language fall + 

Of what I yet remember, than an infant’s + 

Who still his tongue doth moisten at the breast. + 

Not because more than one unmingled semblance + 

Was in the living light on which I looked, + 

For it is always what it was before; + 

But through the sight, that fortified itself + 

In me by looking, one appearance only + 

To me was ever changing as I changed. + 

Within the deep and luminous subsistence + 

Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, + 

Of threefold color and of one dimension, + 

And by the second seemed the first reflected + 

As Iris is by Iris, and the third + 

Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed. + 

O how all speech is feeble and falls short + 

Of my conceit, and this to what I saw + 

Is such, ’tis not enough to call it little! + 

O Light Eterne, sole in thyself that dwellest, + 

Sole knowest thyself, and, known unto thyself + 

And knowing, lovest and smilest on thyself! + 

That circulation, which being thus conceived + 

Appeared in thee as a reflected light, + 

When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes, + 

Within itself, of its own very color + 

Seemed to me painted with our effigy, + 

Wherefore my sight was all absorbed therein. + 

As the geometrician, who endeavors + 

To square the circle, and discovers not, + 

By taking thought, the principle he wants, + 

Even such was I at that new apparition; + 

I wished to see how the image to the circle + 

Conformed itself, and how it there finds place; + 

But my own wings were not enough for this, + 

Had it not been that then my mind there smote + 

A flash of lightning, wherein came its wish. + 

Here vigor failed the lofty fantasy: + 

But now was turning my desire and will, + 

Even as a wheel that equally is moved, + 

The Love which moves the sun and the other stars. + 