Part 15

As turns herself, with feet together pressed And to the ground, a lady who is dancing, And hardly puts one foot before the other,

On the vermilion and the yellow flowerets She turned towards me, not in other wise Than maiden who her modest eyes casts down;

And my entreaties made to be content, So near approaching, that the dulcet sound Came unto me together with its meaning

As soon as she was where the grasses are. Bathed by the waters of the beauteous river, To lift her eyes she granted me the boon.

I do not think there shone so great a light Under the lids of Venus, when transfixed By her own son, beyond his usual custom!

Erect upon the other bank she smiled, Bearing full many colours in her hands, Which that high land produces without seed.

Apart three paces did the river make us; But Hellespont, where Xerxes passed across, (A curb still to all human arrogance,)

More hatred from Leander did not suffer For rolling between Sestos and Abydos, Than that from me, because it oped not then.

“Ye are new-comers; and because I smile,” Began she, “peradventure, in this place Elect to human nature for its nest,

Some apprehension keeps you marvelling; But the psalm ‘Delectasti’ giveth light Which has the power to uncloud your intellect.

And thou who foremost art, and didst entreat me, Speak, if thou wouldst hear more; for I came ready To all thy questionings, as far as needful.”

“The water,” said I, “and the forest’s sound, Are combating within me my new faith In something which I heard opposed to this.”

Whence she: “I will relate how from its cause Proceedeth that which maketh thee to wonder, And purge away the cloud that smites upon thee.

The Good Supreme, sole in itself delighting, Created man good, and this goodly place Gave him as hansel of eternal peace.

By his default short while he sojourned here; By his default to weeping and to toil He changed his innocent laughter and sweet play.

That the disturbance which below is made By exhalations of the land and water, (Which far as may be follow after heat,)

Might not upon mankind wage any war, This mount ascended tow’rds the heaven so high, And is exempt, from there where it is locked.

Now since the universal atmosphere Turns in a circuit with the primal motion Unless the circle is broken on some side,

Upon this height, that all is disengaged In living ether, doth this motion strike And make the forest sound, for it is dense;

And so much power the stricken plant possesses That with its virtue it impregns the air, And this, revolving, scatters it around;

And yonder earth, according as ’tis worthy In self or in its clime, conceives and bears Of divers qualities the divers trees;

It should not seem a marvel then on earth, This being heard, whenever any plant Without seed manifest there taketh root.

And thou must know, this holy table-land In which thou art is full of every seed, And fruit has in it never gathered there.

The water which thou seest springs not from vein Restored by vapour that the cold condenses, Like to a stream that gains or loses breath;

But issues from a fountain safe and certain, Which by the will of God as much regains As it discharges, open on two sides.

Upon this side with virtue it descends, Which takes away all memory of sin; On that, of every good deed done restores it.

Here Lethe, as upon the other side Eunoe, it is called; and worketh not If first on either side it be not tasted.

This every other savour doth transcend; And notwithstanding slaked so far may be Thy thirst, that I reveal to thee no more,

I’ll give thee a corollary still in grace, Nor think my speech will be to thee less dear If it spread out beyond my promise to thee.

Those who in ancient times have feigned in song The Age of Gold and its felicity, Dreamed of this place perhaps upon Parnassus.

Here was the human race in innocence; Here evermore was Spring, and every fruit; This is the nectar of which each one speaks.”

Then backward did I turn me wholly round Unto my Poets, and saw that with a smile They had been listening to these closing words;

Then to the beautiful lady turned mine eyes.

Purgatorio: Canto XXIX

Singing like unto an enamoured lady She, with the ending of her words, continued: “Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata.”

And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous One to avoid and one to see the sun,

She then against the stream moved onward, going Along the bank, and I abreast of her, Her little steps with little steps attending.

Between her steps and mine were not a hundred, When equally the margins gave a turn, In such a way, that to the East I faced.

Nor even thus our way continued far Before the lady wholly turned herself Unto me, saying, “Brother, look and listen!”

And lo! a sudden lustre ran across On every side athwart the spacious forest, Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.

But since the lightning ceases as it comes, And that continuing brightened more and more, Within my thought I said, “What thing is this?”

And a delicious melody there ran Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;

For there where earth and heaven obedient were, The woman only, and but just created, Could not endure to stay ’neath any veil;

Underneath which had she devoutly stayed, I sooner should have tasted those delights Ineffable, and for a longer time.

While ’mid such manifold first-fruits I walked Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt, And still solicitous of more delights,

In front of us like an enkindled fire Became the air beneath the verdant boughs, And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.

O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger, Vigils, or cold for you I have endured, The occasion spurs me their reward to claim!

Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me, And with her choir Urania must assist me, To put in verse things difficult to think.

A little farther on, seven trees of gold In semblance the long space still intervening Between ourselves and them did counterfeit;

But when I had approached so near to them The common object, which the sense deceives, Lost not by distance any of its marks,

The faculty that lends discourse to reason Did apprehend that they were candlesticks, And in the voices of the song “Hosanna!”

Above them flamed the harness beautiful, Far brighter than the moon in the serene Of midnight, at the middle of her month.

I turned me round, with admiration filled, To good Virgilius, and he answered me With visage no less full of wonderment.

Then back I turned my face to those high things, Which moved themselves towards us so sedately, They had been distanced by new-wedded brides.

The lady chid me: “Why dost thou burn only So with affection for the living lights, And dost not look at what comes after them?”

Then saw I people, as behind their leaders, Coming behind them, garmented in white, And such a whiteness never was on earth.

The water on my left flank was resplendent, And back to me reflected my left side, E’en as a mirror, if I looked therein.

When I upon my margin had such post That nothing but the stream divided us, Better to see I gave my steps repose;

And I beheld the flamelets onward go, Leaving behind themselves the air depicted, And they of trailing pennons had the semblance,

So that it overhead remained distinct With sevenfold lists, all of them of the colours Whence the sun’s bow is made, and Delia’s girdle.

These standards to the rearward longer were Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to me, Ten paces were the outermost apart.

Under so fair a heaven as I describe The four and twenty Elders, two by two, Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.

They all of them were singing: “Blessed thou Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed For evermore shall be thy loveliness.”

After the flowers and other tender grasses In front of me upon the other margin Were disencumbered of that race elect,

Even as in heaven star followeth after star, There came close after them four animals, Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.

Plumed with six wings was every one of them, The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of Argus If they were living would be such as these.

Reader! to trace their forms no more I waste My rhymes; for other spendings press me so, That I in this cannot be prodigal.

But read Ezekiel, who depicteth them As he beheld them from the region cold Coming with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire;

And such as thou shalt find them in his pages, Such were they here; saving that in their plumage John is with me, and differeth from him.

The interval between these four contained A chariot triumphal on two wheels, Which by a Griffin’s neck came drawn along;

And upward he extended both his wings Between the middle list and three and three, So that he injured none by cleaving it.

So high they rose that they were lost to sight; His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird, And white the others with vermilion mingled.

Not only Rome with no such splendid car E’er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus, But poor to it that of the Sun would be,—

That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt up At the importunate orison of Earth, When Jove was so mysteriously just.

Three maidens at the right wheel in a circle Came onward dancing; one so very red That in the fire she hardly had been noted.

The second was as if her flesh and bones Had all been fashioned out of emerald; The third appeared as snow but newly fallen.

And now they seemed conducted by the white, Now by the red, and from the song of her The others took their step, or slow or swift.

Upon the left hand four made holiday Vested in purple, following the measure Of one of them with three eyes in her head.

In rear of all the group here treated of Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit, But like in gait, each dignified and grave.

One showed himself as one of the disciples Of that supreme Hippocrates, whom nature Made for the animals she holds most dear;

Contrary care the other manifested, With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused Terror to me on this side of the river.

Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect, And behind all an aged man alone Walking in sleep with countenance acute.

And like the foremost company these seven Were habited; yet of the flower-de-luce No garland round about the head they wore,

But of the rose, and other flowers vermilion; At little distance would the sight have sworn That all were in a flame above their brows.

And when the car was opposite to me Thunder was heard; and all that folk august Seemed to have further progress interdicted,

There with the vanward ensigns standing still.

Purgatorio: Canto XXX

When the Septentrion of the highest heaven (Which never either setting knew or rising, Nor veil of other cloud than that of sin,

And which made every one therein aware Of his own duty, as the lower makes Whoever turns the helm to come to port)

Motionless halted, the veracious people, That came at first between it and the Griffin, Turned themselves to the car, as to their peace.

And one of them, as if by Heaven commissioned, Singing, “Veni, sponsa, de Libano” Shouted three times, and all the others after.

Even as the Blessed at the final summons Shall rise up quickened each one from his cavern, Uplifting light the reinvested flesh,

So upon that celestial chariot A hundred rose ‘ad vocem tanti senis,’ Ministers and messengers of life eternal.

They all were saying, “Benedictus qui venis,” And, scattering flowers above and round about, “Manibus o date lilia plenis.”

Ere now have I beheld, as day began, The eastern hemisphere all tinged with rose, And the other heaven with fair serene adorned;

And the sun’s face, uprising, overshadowed So that by tempering influence of vapours For a long interval the eye sustained it;

Thus in the bosom of a cloud of flowers Which from those hands angelical ascended, And downward fell again inside and out,

Over her snow-white veil with olive cinct Appeared a lady under a green mantle, Vested in colour of the living flame.

And my own spirit, that already now So long a time had been, that in her presence Trembling with awe it had not stood abashed,

Without more knowledge having by mine eyes, Through occult virtue that from her proceeded Of ancient love the mighty influence felt.

As soon as on my vision smote the power Sublime, that had already pierced me through Ere from my boyhood I had yet come forth,

To the left hand I turned with that reliance With which the little child runs to his mother, When he has fear, or when he is afflicted,

To say unto Virgilius: “Not a drachm Of blood remains in me, that does not tremble; I know the traces of the ancient flame.”

But us Virgilius of himself deprived Had left, Virgilius, sweetest of all fathers, Virgilius, to whom I for safety gave me:

Nor whatsoever lost the ancient mother Availed my cheeks now purified from dew, That weeping they should not again be darkened.

“Dante, because Virgilius has departed Do not weep yet, do not weep yet awhile; For by another sword thou need’st must weep.”

E’en as an admiral, who on poop and prow Comes to behold the people that are working In other ships, and cheers them to well-doing,

Upon the left hand border of the car, When at the sound I turned of my own name, Which of necessity is here recorded,

I saw the Lady, who erewhile appeared Veiled underneath the angelic festival, Direct her eyes to me across the river.

Although the veil, that from her head descended, Encircled with the foliage of Minerva, Did not permit her to appear distinctly,

In attitude still royally majestic Continued she, like unto one who speaks, And keeps his warmest utterance in reserve:

“Look at me well; in sooth I’m Beatrice! How didst thou deign to come unto the Mountain? Didst thou not know that man is happy here?”

Mine eyes fell downward into the clear fountain, But, seeing myself therein, I sought the grass, So great a shame did weigh my forehead down.

As to the son the mother seems superb, So she appeared to me; for somewhat bitter Tasteth the savour of severe compassion.

Silent became she, and the Angels sang Suddenly, “In te, Domine, speravi:” But beyond ‘pedes meos’ did not pass.

Even as the snow among the living rafters Upon the back of Italy congeals, Blown on and drifted by Sclavonian winds,

And then, dissolving, trickles through itself Whene’er the land that loses shadow breathes, So that it seems a fire that melts a taper;

E’en thus was I without a tear or sigh, Before the song of those who sing for ever After the music of the eternal spheres.

But when I heard in their sweet melodies Compassion for me, more than had they said, “O wherefore, lady, dost thou thus upbraid him?”

The ice, that was about my heart congealed, To air and water changed, and in my anguish Through mouth and eyes came gushing from my breast.

She, on the right-hand border of the car Still firmly standing, to those holy beings Thus her discourse directed afterwards:

“Ye keep your watch in the eternal day, So that nor night nor sleep can steal from you One step the ages make upon their path;

Therefore my answer is with greater care, That he may hear me who is weeping yonder, So that the sin and dole be of one measure.

Not only by the work of those great wheels, That destine every seed unto some end, According as the stars are in conjunction,

But by the largess of celestial graces, Which have such lofty vapours for their rain That near to them our sight approaches not,

Such had this man become in his new life Potentially, that every righteous habit Would have made admirable proof in him;

But so much more malignant and more savage Becomes the land untilled and with bad seed, The more good earthly vigour it possesses.

Some time did I sustain him with my look; Revealing unto him my youthful eyes, I led him with me turned in the right way.

As soon as ever of my second age I was upon the threshold and changed life, Himself from me he took and gave to others.

When from the flesh to spirit I ascended, And beauty and virtue were in me increased, I was to him less dear and less delightful;

And into ways untrue he turned his steps, Pursuing the false images of good, That never any promises fulfil;

Nor prayer for inspiration me availed, By means of which in dreams and otherwise I called him back, so little did he heed them.

So low he fell, that all appliances For his salvation were already short, Save showing him the people of perdition.

For this I visited the gates of death, And unto him, who so far up has led him, My intercessions were with weeping borne.

God’s lofty fiat would be violated, If Lethe should be passed, and if such viands Should tasted be, withouten any scot

Of penitence, that gushes forth in tears.”

Purgatorio: Canto XXXI

“O thou who art beyond the sacred river,” Turning to me the point of her discourse, That edgewise even had seemed to me so keen,

She recommenced, continuing without pause, “Say, say if this be true; to such a charge, Thy own confession needs must be conjoined.”

My faculties were in so great confusion, That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct Than by its organs it was set at large.

Awhile she waited; then she said: “What thinkest? Answer me; for the mournful memories In thee not yet are by the waters injured.”

Confusion and dismay together mingled Forced such a Yes! from out my mouth, that sight Was needful to the understanding of it.

Even as a cross-bow breaks, when ’tis discharged Too tensely drawn the bowstring and the bow, And with less force the arrow hits the mark,

So I gave way beneath that heavy burden, Outpouring in a torrent tears and sighs, And the voice flagged upon its passage forth.

Whence she to me: “In those desires of mine Which led thee to the loving of that good, Beyond which there is nothing to aspire to,

What trenches lying traverse or what chains Didst thou discover, that of passing onward Thou shouldst have thus despoiled thee of the hope?

And what allurements or what vantages Upon the forehead of the others showed, That thou shouldst turn thy footsteps unto them?”

After the heaving of a bitter sigh, Hardly had I the voice to make response, And with fatigue my lips did fashion it.

Weeping I said: “The things that present were With their false pleasure turned aside my steps, Soon as your countenance concealed itself.”

And she: “Shouldst thou be silent, or deny What thou confessest, not less manifest Would be thy fault, by such a Judge ’tis known.

But when from one’s own cheeks comes bursting forth The accusal of the sin, in our tribunal Against the edge the wheel doth turn itself.

But still, that thou mayst feel a greater shame For thy transgression, and another time Hearing the Sirens thou mayst be more strong,

Cast down the seed of weeping and attend; So shalt thou hear, how in an opposite way My buried flesh should have directed thee.

Never to thee presented art or nature Pleasure so great as the fair limbs wherein I was enclosed, which scattered are in earth.

And if the highest pleasure thus did fail thee By reason of my death, what mortal thing Should then have drawn thee into its desire?

Thou oughtest verily at the first shaft Of things fallacious to have risen up To follow me, who was no longer such.

Thou oughtest not to have stooped thy pinions downward To wait for further blows, or little girl, Or other vanity of such brief use.

The callow birdlet waits for two or three, But to the eyes of those already fledged, In vain the net is spread or shaft is shot.”

Even as children silent in their shame Stand listening with their eyes upon the ground, And conscious of their fault, and penitent;

So was I standing; and she said: “If thou In hearing sufferest pain, lift up thy beard And thou shalt feel a greater pain in seeing.”

With less resistance is a robust holm Uprooted, either by a native wind Or else by that from regions of Iarbas,

Than I upraised at her command my chin; And when she by the beard the face demanded, Well I perceived the venom of her meaning.

And as my countenance was lifted up, Mine eye perceived those creatures beautiful Had rested from the strewing of the flowers;

And, still but little reassured, mine eyes Saw Beatrice turned round towards the monster, That is one person only in two natures.

Beneath her veil, beyond the margent green, She seemed to me far more her ancient self To excel, than others here, when she was here.

So pricked me then the thorn of penitence, That of all other things the one which turned me Most to its love became the most my foe.

Such self-conviction stung me at the heart O’erpowered I fell, and what I then became She knoweth who had furnished me the cause.

Then, when the heart restored my outward sense, The lady I had found alone, above me I saw, and she was saying, “Hold me, hold me.”

Up to my throat she in the stream had drawn me, And, dragging me behind her, she was moving Upon the water lightly as a shuttle.

When I was near unto the blessed shore, “Asperges me,” I heard so sweetly sung, Remember it I cannot, much less write it.

The beautiful lady opened wide her arms, Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath, Where I was forced to swallow of the water.

Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought Into the dance of the four beautiful, And each one with her arm did cover me.

‘We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars; Ere Beatrice descended to the world, We as her handmaids were appointed her.

We’ll lead thee to her eyes; but for the pleasant Light that within them is, shall sharpen thine The three beyond, who more profoundly look.’

Thus singing they began; and afterwards Unto the Griffin’s breast they led me with them, Where Beatrice was standing, turned towards us.

“See that thou dost not spare thine eyes,” they said; “Before the emeralds have we stationed thee, Whence Love aforetime drew for thee his weapons.”

A thousand longings, hotter than the flame, Fastened mine eyes upon those eyes relucent, That still upon the Griffin steadfast stayed.

As in a glass the sun, not otherwise Within them was the twofold monster shining, Now with the one, now with the other nature.

Think, Reader, if within myself I marvelled, When I beheld the thing itself stand still, And in its image it transformed itself.

While with amazement filled and jubilant, My soul was tasting of the food, that while It satisfies us makes us hunger for it,

Themselves revealing of the highest rank In bearing, did the other three advance, Singing to their angelic saraband.

“Turn, Beatrice, O turn thy holy eyes,” Such was their song, “unto thy faithful one, Who has to see thee ta’en so many steps.

In grace do us the grace that thou unveil Thy face to him, so that he may discern The second beauty which thou dost conceal.”

O splendour of the living light eternal! Who underneath the shadow of Parnassus Has grown so pale, or drunk so at its cistern,

He would not seem to have his mind encumbered Striving to paint thee as thou didst appear, Where the harmonious heaven o’ershadowed thee,

When in the open air thou didst unveil?

Purgatorio: Canto XXXII

So steadfast and attentive were mine eyes In satisfying their decennial thirst, That all my other senses were extinct,

And upon this side and on that they had Walls of indifference, so the holy smile Drew them unto itself with the old net

When forcibly my sight was turned away Towards my left hand by those goddesses, Because I heard from them a “Too intently!”

And that condition of the sight which is In eyes but lately smitten by the sun Bereft me of my vision some short while;

But to the less when sight re-shaped itself, I say the less in reference to the greater Splendour from which perforce I had withdrawn,

I saw upon its right wing wheeled about The glorious host returning with the sun And with the sevenfold flames upon their faces.

As underneath its shields, to save itself, A squadron turns, and with its banner wheels, Before the whole thereof can change its front,

That soldiery of the celestial kingdom Which marched in the advance had wholly passed us Before the chariot had turned its pole.

Then to the wheels the maidens turned themselves, And the Griffin moved his burden benedight, But so that not a feather of him fluttered.

The lady fair who drew me through the ford Followed with Statius and myself the wheel Which made its orbit with the lesser arc.

So passing through the lofty forest, vacant By fault of her who in the serpent trusted, Angelic music made our steps keep time.

Perchance as great a space had in three flights An arrow loosened from the string o’erpassed, As we had moved when Beatrice descended.

I heard them murmur altogether, “Adam!” Then circled they about a tree despoiled Of blooms and other leafage on each bough.

Its tresses, which so much the more dilate As higher they ascend, had been by Indians Among their forests marvelled at for height.

“Blessed art thou, O Griffin, who dost not Pluck with thy beak these branches sweet to taste, Since appetite by this was turned to evil.”

After this fashion round the tree robust The others shouted; and the twofold creature: “Thus is preserved the seed of all the just.”

And turning to the pole which he had dragged, He drew it close beneath the widowed bough, And what was of it unto it left bound.

In the same manner as our trees (when downward Falls the great light, with that together mingled Which after the celestial Lasca shines)

Begin to swell, and then renew themselves, Each one with its own colour, ere the Sun Harness his steeds beneath another star:

Less than of rose and more than violet A hue disclosing, was renewed the tree That had erewhile its boughs so desolate.

I never heard, nor here below is sung, The hymn which afterward that people sang, Nor did I bear the melody throughout.

Had I the power to paint how fell asleep Those eyes compassionless, of Syrinx hearing, Those eyes to which more watching cost so dear,

Even as a painter who from model paints I would portray how I was lulled asleep; He may, who well can picture drowsihood.

Therefore I pass to what time I awoke, And say a splendour rent from me the veil Of slumber, and a calling: “Rise, what dost thou?”

As to behold the apple-tree in blossom Which makes the Angels greedy for its fruit, And keeps perpetual bridals in the Heaven,

Peter and John and James conducted were, And, overcome, recovered at the word By which still greater slumbers have been broken,

And saw their school diminished by the loss Not only of Elias, but of Moses, And the apparel of their Master changed;

So I revived, and saw that piteous one Above me standing, who had been conductress Aforetime of my steps beside the river,

And all in doubt I said, “Where’s Beatrice?” And she: “Behold her seated underneath The leafage new, upon the root of it.

Behold the company that circles her; The rest behind the Griffin are ascending With more melodious song, and more profound.”

And if her speech were more diffuse I know not, Because already in my sight was she Who from the hearing of aught else had shut me.

Alone she sat upon the very earth, Left there as guardian of the chariot Which I had seen the biform monster fasten.

Encircling her, a cloister made themselves The seven Nymphs, with those lights in their hands Which are secure from Aquilon and Auster.

“Short while shalt thou be here a forester, And thou shalt be with me for evermore A citizen of that Rome where Christ is Roman.

Therefore, for that world’s good which liveth ill, Fix on the car thine eyes, and what thou seest, Having returned to earth, take heed thou write.”

Thus Beatrice; and I, who at the feet Of her commandments all devoted was, My mind and eyes directed where she willed.

“One work. Many languages. One reading experience.”