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Dante Alighieri - Paradiso (English)
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  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 ardour;
  The other by his wisdom upon earth
  A splendour 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 labours 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.`"


Paradiso: Canto XII


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 splendour that which is reflected.

And as are spanned athwart a tender cloud
  Two rainbows parallel and like in colour,
  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 vapours,)

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 succour
  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."


Paradiso: Canto XIII


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 splendour 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."


Paradiso: Canto XIV


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 ardour,
  The ardour 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 ardour 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 to-day the earth doth cover up;

Nor can so great a splendour 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 ardour of sacrifice, before I knew
  This offering was accepted and auspicious;

For with so great a lustre and so red
  Splendours 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.


Paradiso: Canto XV


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."


Paradiso: Canto XVI


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.

Source
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