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Dante Alighieri - Paradiso (English)
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O how much better `twere to have as neighbours
  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
  To-day the man who binds it with a border.

Already were Gualterotti and Importuni;
  And still more quiet would the Borgo be
  If with new neighbours 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 honoured 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."


Paradiso: Canto XVII


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 neighbours 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 savour 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 honour.

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."


Paradiso: Canto XVIII


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 splendour 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."


Paradiso: Canto XIX


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 odours 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 splendours 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 for ever 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 valour 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 dishonoured, 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."


Paradiso: Canto XX


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 mountain-top.

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 to-morrow of to-day.

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 colour 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 short-sightedness,
  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.


Paradiso: Canto XXI


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 splendour,
  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 splendours, 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
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