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Dante Alighieri - Paradiso (English)
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  The cause which draweth thee so near my side;

And tell me why is silent in this wheel
  The dulcet symphony of Paradise,
  That through the rest below sounds so devoutly."

"Thou hast thy hearing mortal as thy sight,"
  It answer made to me; "they sing not here,
  For the same cause that Beatrice has not smiled.

Thus far adown the holy stairway`s steps
  Have I descended but to give thee welcome
  With words, and with the light that mantles me;

Nor did more love cause me to be more ready,
  For love as much and more up there is burning,
  As doth the flaming manifest to thee.

But the high charity, that makes us servants
  Prompt to the counsel which controls the world,
  Allotteth here, even as thou dost observe."

"I see full well," said I, "O sacred lamp!
  How love unfettered in this court sufficeth
  To follow the eternal Providence;

But this is what seems hard for me to see,
  Wherefore predestinate wast thou alone
  Unto this office from among thy consorts."

No sooner had I come to the last word,
  Than of its middle made the light a centre,
  Whirling itself about like a swift millstone.

When answer made the love that was therein:
  "On me directed is a light divine,
  Piercing through this in which I am embosomed,

Of which the virtue with my sight conjoined
  Lifts me above myself so far, I see
  The supreme essence from which this is drawn.

Hence comes the joyfulness with which I flame,
  For to my sight, as far as it is clear,
  The clearness of the flame I equal make.

But that soul in the heaven which is most pure,
  That seraph which his eye on God most fixes,
  Could this demand of thine not satisfy;

Because so deeply sinks in the abyss
  Of the eternal statute what thou askest,
  From all created sight it is cut off.

And to the mortal world, when thou returnest,
  This carry back, that it may not presume
  Longer tow`rd such a goal to move its feet.

The mind, that shineth here, on earth doth smoke;
  From this observe how can it do below
  That which it cannot though the heaven assume it?"

Such limit did its words prescribe to me,
  The question I relinquished, and restricted
  Myself to ask it humbly who it was.

"Between two shores of Italy rise cliffs,
  And not far distant from thy native place,
  So high, the thunders far below them sound,

And form a ridge that Catria is called,
  `Neath which is consecrate a hermitage
  Wont to be dedicate to worship only."

Thus unto me the third speech recommenced,
  And then, continuing, it said: "Therein
  Unto God`s service I became so steadfast,

That feeding only on the juice of olives
  Lightly I passed away the heats and frosts,
  Contented in my thoughts contemplative.

That cloister used to render to these heavens
  Abundantly, and now is empty grown,
  So that perforce it soon must be revealed.

I in that place was Peter Damiano;
  And Peter the Sinner was I in the house
  Of Our Lady on the Adriatic shore.

Little of mortal life remained to me,
  When I was called and dragged forth to the hat
  Which shifteth evermore from bad to worse.

Came Cephas, and the mighty Vessel came
  Of the Holy Spirit, meagre and barefooted,
  Taking the food of any hostelry.

Now some one to support them on each side
  The modern shepherds need, and some to lead them,
  So heavy are they, and to hold their trains.

They cover up their palfreys with their cloaks,
  So that two beasts go underneath one skin;
  O Patience, that dost tolerate so much!"

At this voice saw I many little flames
  From step to step descending and revolving,
  And every revolution made them fairer.

Round about this one came they and stood still,
  And a cry uttered of so loud a sound,
  It here could find no parallel, nor I

Distinguished it, the thunder so o`ercame me.


Paradiso: Canto XXII


Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide
  Turned like a little child who always runs
  For refuge there where he confideth most;

And she, even as a mother who straightway
  Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy
  With voice whose wont it is to reassure him,

Said to me: "Knowest thou not thou art in heaven,
  And knowest thou not that heaven is holy all
  And what is done here cometh from good zeal?

After what wise the singing would have changed thee
  And I by smiling, thou canst now imagine,
  Since that the cry has startled thee so much,

In which if thou hadst understood its prayers
  Already would be known to thee the vengeance
  Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest.

The sword above here smiteth not in haste
  Nor tardily, howe`er it seem to him
  Who fearing or desiring waits for it.

But turn thee round towards the others now,
  For very illustrious spirits shalt thou see,
  If thou thy sight directest as I say."

As it seemed good to her mine eyes I turned,
  And saw a hundred spherules that together
  With mutual rays each other more embellished.

I stood as one who in himself represses
  The point of his desire, and ventures not
  To question, he so feareth the too much.

And now the largest and most luculent
  Among those pearls came forward, that it might
  Make my desire concerning it content.

Within it then I heard: "If thou couldst see
  Even as myself the charity that burns
  Among us, thy conceits would be expressed;

But, that by waiting thou mayst not come late
  To the high end, I will make answer even
  Unto the thought of which thou art so chary.

That mountain on whose slope Cassino stands
  Was frequented of old upon its summit
  By a deluded folk and ill-disposed;

And I am he who first up thither bore
  The name of Him who brought upon the earth
  The truth that so much sublimateth us.

And such abundant grace upon me shone
  That all the neighbouring towns I drew away
  From the impious worship that seduced the world.

These other fires, each one of them, were men
  Contemplative, enkindled by that heat
  Which maketh holy flowers and fruits spring up.

Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus,
  Here are my brethren, who within the cloisters
  Their footsteps stayed and kept a steadfast heart."

And I to him: "The affection which thou showest
  Speaking with me, and the good countenance
  Which I behold and note in all your ardours,

In me have so my confidence dilated
  As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes
  As far unfolded as it hath the power.

Therefore I pray, and thou assure me, father,
  If I may so much grace receive, that I
  May thee behold with countenance unveiled."

He thereupon: "Brother, thy high desire
  In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled,
  Where are fulfilled all others and my own.

There perfect is, and ripened, and complete,
  Every desire; within that one alone
  Is every part where it has always been;

For it is not in space, nor turns on poles,
  And unto it our stairway reaches up,
  Whence thus from out thy sight it steals away.

Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it
  Extending its supernal part, what time
  So thronged with angels it appeared to him.

But to ascend it now no one uplifts
  His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule
  Below remaineth for mere waste of paper.

The walls that used of old to be an Abbey
  Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls
  Are sacks filled full of miserable flour.

But heavy usury is not taken up
  So much against God`s pleasure as that fruit
  Which maketh so insane the heart of monks;

For whatsoever hath the Church in keeping
  Is for the folk that ask it in God`s name,
  Not for one`s kindred or for something worse.

The flesh of mortals is so very soft,
  That good beginnings down below suffice not
  From springing of the oak to bearing acorns.

Peter began with neither gold nor silver,
  And I with orison and abstinence,
  And Francis with humility his convent.

And if thou lookest at each one`s beginning,
  And then regardest whither he has run,
  Thou shalt behold the white changed into brown.

In verity the Jordan backward turned,
  And the sea`s fleeing, when God willed were more
  A wonder to behold, than succour here."

Thus unto me he said; and then withdrew
  To his own band, and the band closed together;
  Then like a whirlwind all was upward rapt.

The gentle Lady urged me on behind them
  Up o`er that stairway by a single sign,
  So did her virtue overcome my nature;

Nor here below, where one goes up and down
  By natural law, was motion e`er so swift
  That it could be compared unto my wing.

Reader, as I may unto that devout
  Triumph return, on whose account I often
  For my transgressions weep and beat my breast,--

Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire
  And drawn it out again, before I saw
  The sign that follows Taurus, and was in it.

O glorious stars, O light impregnated
  With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge
  All of my genius, whatsoe`er it be,

With you was born, and hid himself with you,
  He who is father of all mortal life,
  When first I tasted of the Tuscan air;

And then when grace was freely given to me
  To enter the high wheel which turns you round,
  Your region was allotted unto me.

To you devoutly at this hour my soul
  Is sighing, that it virtue may acquire
  For the stern pass that draws it to itself.

"Thou art so near unto the last salvation,"
  Thus Beatrice began, "thou oughtest now
  To have thine eves unclouded and acute;

And therefore, ere thou enter farther in,
  Look down once more, and see how vast a world
  Thou hast already put beneath thy feet;

So that thy heart, as jocund as it may,
  Present itself to the triumphant throng
  That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether."

I with my sight returned through one and all
  The sevenfold spheres, and I beheld this globe
  Such that I smiled at its ignoble semblance;

And that opinion I approve as best
  Which doth account it least; and he who thinks
  Of something else may truly be called just.

I saw the daughter of Latona shining
  Without that shadow, which to me was cause
  That once I had believed her rare and dense.

The aspect of thy son, Hyperion,
  Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves
  Around and near him Maia and Dione.

Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove
  `Twixt son and father, and to me was clear
  The change that of their whereabout they make;

And all the seven made manifest to me
  How great they are, and eke how swift they are,
  And how they are in distant habitations.

The threshing-floor that maketh us so proud,
  To me revolving with the eternal Twins,
  Was all apparent made from hill to harbour!

Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes I turned.


Paradiso: Canto XXIII


Even as a bird, `mid the beloved leaves,
  Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood
  Throughout the night, that hideth all things from us,

Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks
  And find the food wherewith to nourish them,
  In which, to her, grave labours grateful are,

Anticipates the time on open spray
  And with an ardent longing waits the sun,
  Gazing intent as soon as breaks the dawn:

Even thus my Lady standing was, erect
  And vigilant, turned round towards the zone
  Underneath which the sun displays less haste;

So that beholding her distraught and wistful,
  Such I became as he is who desiring
  For something yearns, and hoping is appeased.

But brief the space from one When to the other;
  Of my awaiting, say I, and the seeing
  The welkin grow resplendent more and more.

And Beatrice exclaimed: "Behold the hosts
  Of Christ`s triumphal march, and all the fruit
  Harvested by the rolling of these spheres!"

It seemed to me her face was all aflame;
  And eyes she had so full of ecstasy
  That I must needs pass on without describing.

As when in nights serene of the full moon
  Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal
  Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs,

Saw I, above the myriads of lamps,
  A Sun that one and all of them enkindled,
  E`en as our own doth the supernal sights,

And through the living light transparent shone
  The lucent substance so intensely clear
  Into my sight, that I sustained it not.

O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!
  To me she said: "What overmasters thee
  A virtue is from which naught shields itself.

There are the wisdom and the omnipotence
  That oped the thoroughfares `twixt heaven and earth,
  For which there erst had been so long a yearning."

As fire from out a cloud unlocks itself,
  Dilating so it finds not room therein,
  And down, against its nature, falls to earth,

So did my mind, among those aliments
  Becoming larger, issue from itself,
  And that which it became cannot remember.

"Open thine eyes, and look at what I am:
  Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough
  Hast thou become to tolerate my smile."

I was as one who still retains the feeling
  Of a forgotten vision, and endeavours
  In vain to bring it back into his mind,

When I this invitation heard, deserving
  Of so much gratitude, it never fades
  Out of the book that chronicles the past.

If at this moment sounded all the tongues
  That Polyhymnia and her sisters made
  Most lubrical with their delicious milk,

To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth
  It would not reach, singing the holy smile
  And how the holy aspect it illumed.

And therefore, representing Paradise,
  The sacred poem must perforce leap over,
  Even as a man who finds his way cut off;

But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme,
  And of the mortal shoulder laden with it,
  Should blame it not, if under this it tremble.

It is no passage for a little boat
  This which goes cleaving the audacious prow,
  Nor for a pilot who would spare himself.

"Why doth my face so much enamour thee,
  That to the garden fair thou turnest not,
  Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming?

There is the Rose in which the Word Divine
  Became incarnate; there the lilies are
  By whose perfume the good way was discovered."

Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels
  Was wholly ready, once again betook me
  Unto the battle of the feeble brows.

As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams
  Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of flowers
  Mine eyes with shadow covered o`er have seen,

So troops of splendours manifold I saw
  Illumined from above with burning rays,
  Beholding not the source of the effulgence.

O power benignant that dost so imprint them!
  Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope
  There to mine eyes, that were not strong enough.

The name of that fair flower I e`er invoke
  Morning and evening utterly enthralled
  My soul to gaze upon the greater fire.

And when in both mine eyes depicted were
  The glory and greatness of the living star
  Which there excelleth, as it here excelled,

Athwart the heavens a little torch descended
  Formed in a circle like a coronal,
  And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it.

Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth
  On earth, and to itself most draws the soul,
  Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders,

Compared unto the sounding of that lyre
  Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful,
  Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue.

"I am Angelic Love, that circle round
  The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb
  That was the hostelry of our Desire;

And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while
  Thou followest thy Son, and mak`st diviner
  The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there."

Thus did the circulated melody
  Seal itself up; and all the other lights
  Were making to resound the name of Mary.

The regal mantle of the volumes all
  Of that world, which most fervid is and living
  With breath of God and with his works and ways,

Extended over us its inner border,
  So very distant, that the semblance of it
  There where I was not yet appeared to me.

Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power
  Of following the incoronated flame,
  Which mounted upward near to its own seed.

And as a little child, that towards its mother
  Stretches its arms, when it the milk has taken,
  Through impulse kindled into outward flame,

Each of those gleams of whiteness upward reached
  So with its summit, that the deep affection
  They had for Mary was revealed to me.

Thereafter they remained there in my sight,
  `Regina coeli` singing with such sweetness,
  That ne`er from me has the delight departed.

O, what exuberance is garnered up
  Within those richest coffers, which had been
  Good husbandmen for sowing here below!

There they enjoy and live upon the treasure
  Which was acquired while weeping in the exile
  Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left.

There triumpheth, beneath the exalted Son
  Of God and Mary, in his victory,
  Both with the ancient council and the new,

He who doth keep the keys of such a glory.


Paradiso: Canto XXIV


"O company elect to the great supper
  Of the Lamb benedight, who feedeth you
  So that for ever full is your desire,

If by the grace of God this man foretaste
  Something of that which falleth from your table,
  Or ever death prescribe to him the time,

Direct your mind to his immense desire,
  And him somewhat bedew; ye drinking are
  For ever at the fount whence comes his thought."

Thus Beatrice; and those souls beatified
  Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast poles,
  Flaming intensely in the guise of comets.

And as the wheels in works of horologes
  Revolve so that the first to the beholder
  Motionless seems, and the last one to fly,

So in like manner did those carols, dancing
  In different measure, of their affluence
  Give me the gauge, as they were swift or slow.

From that one which I noted of most beauty
  Beheld I issue forth a fire so happy
  That none it left there of a greater brightness;

And around Beatrice three several times
  It whirled itself with so divine a song,
  My fantasy repeats it not to me;

Therefore the pen skips, and I write it not,
  Since our imagination for such folds,
  Much more our speech, is of a tint too glaring.

"O holy sister mine, who us implorest
  With such devotion, by thine ardent love
  Thou dost unbind me from that beautiful sphere!"

Thereafter, having stopped, the blessed fire
  Unto my Lady did direct its breath,
  Which spake in fashion as I here have said.

And she: "O light eterne of the great man
  To whom our Lord delivered up the keys
  He carried down of this miraculous joy,

This one examine on points light and grave,
  As good beseemeth thee, about the Faith
  By means of which thou on the sea didst walk.

If he love well, and hope well, and believe,
  From thee `tis hid not; for thou hast thy sight
  There where depicted everything is seen.

But since this kingdom has made citizens
  By means of the true Faith, to glorify it
  `Tis well he have the chance to speak thereof."

As baccalaureate arms himself, and speaks not
  Until the master doth propose the question,
  To argue it, and not to terminate it,

So did I arm myself with every reason,
  While she was speaking, that I might be ready
  For such a questioner and such profession.

"Say, thou good Christian; manifest thyself;
  What is the Faith?"  Whereat I raised my brow
  Unto that light wherefrom was this breathed forth.

Then turned I round to Beatrice, and she
  Prompt signals made to me that I should pour
  The water forth from my internal fountain.

"May grace, that suffers me to make confession,"
  Began I, "to the great centurion,
  Cause my conceptions all to be explicit!"

And I continued: "As the truthful pen,
  Father, of thy dear brother wrote of it,
  Who put with thee Rome into the good way,

Faith is the substance of the things we hope for,
  And evidence of those that are not seen;
  And this appears to me its quiddity."

Then heard I: "Very rightly thou perceivest,
  If well thou understandest why he placed it
  With substances and then with evidences."

And I thereafterward: "The things profound,
  That here vouchsafe to me their apparition,
  Unto all eyes below are so concealed,

That they exist there only in belief,
  Upon the which is founded the high hope,
  And hence it takes the nature of a substance.

And it behoveth us from this belief
  To reason without having other sight,
  And hence it has the nature of evidence."

Then heard I: "If whatever is acquired
  Below by doctrine were thus understood,
  No sophist`s subtlety would there find place."

Thus was breathed forth from that enkindled love;
  Then added: "Very well has been gone over
  Already of this coin the alloy and weight;

But tell me if thou hast it in thy purse?"
  And I: "Yes, both so shining and so round
  That in its stamp there is no peradventure."

Thereafter issued from the light profound
  That there resplendent was: "This precious jewel,
  Upon the which is every virtue founded,

Whence hadst thou it?"  And I: "The large outpouring
  Of Holy Spirit, which has been diffused
  Upon the ancient parchments and the new,

A syllogism is, which proved it to me
  With such acuteness, that, compared therewith,
  All demonstration seems to me obtuse."

And then I heard: "The ancient and the new
  Postulates, that to thee are so conclusive,
  Why dost thou take them for the word divine?"

And I: "The proofs, which show the truth to me,
  Are the works subsequent, whereunto Nature
  Ne`er heated iron yet, nor anvil beat."

`Twas answered me: "Say, who assureth thee
  That those works ever were? the thing itself
  That must be proved, nought else to thee affirms it."

"Were the world to Christianity converted,"
  I said, "withouten miracles, this one
  Is such, the rest are not its hundredth part;

Because that poor and fasting thou didst enter
  Into the field to sow there the good plant,
  Which was a vine and has become a thorn!"

This being finished, the high, holy Court
  Resounded through the spheres, "One God we praise!"
  In melody that there above is chanted.

And then that Baron, who from branch to branch,
  Examining, had thus conducted me,
  Till the extremest leaves we were approaching,

Again began: "The Grace that dallying
  Plays with thine intellect thy mouth has opened,
  Up to this point, as it should opened be,

So that I do approve what forth emerged;
  But now thou must express what thou believest,
  And whence to thy belief it was presented."

"O holy father, spirit who beholdest
  What thou believedst so that thou o`ercamest,
  Towards the sepulchre, more youthful feet,"

Began I, "thou dost wish me in this place
  The form to manifest of my prompt belief,
  And likewise thou the cause thereof demandest.

And I respond: In one God I believe,
  Sole and eterne, who moveth all the heavens
  With love and with desire, himself unmoved;

And of such faith not only have I proofs
  Physical and metaphysical, but gives them
  Likewise the truth that from this place rains down

Through Moses, through the Prophets and the Psalms,
  Through the Evangel, and through you, who wrote
  After the fiery Spirit sanctified you;

In Persons three eterne believe, and these
  One essence I believe, so one and trine
  They bear conjunction both with `sunt` and `est.`

With the profound condition and divine
  Which now I touch upon, doth stamp my mind
  Ofttimes the doctrine evangelical.

This the beginning is, this is the spark
  Which afterwards dilates to vivid flame,
  And, like a star in heaven, is sparkling in me."

Even as a lord who hears what pleaseth him
  His servant straight embraces, gratulating
  For the good news as soon as he is silent;

So, giving me its benediction, singing,
  Three times encircled me, when I was silent,
  The apostolic light, at whose command

I spoken had, in speaking I so pleased him.


Paradiso: Canto XXV


If e`er it happen that the Poem Sacred,
  To which both heaven and earth have set their hand,
  So that it many a year hath made me lean,

O`ercome the cruelty that bars me out
  From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered,
  An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,

With other voice forthwith, with other fleece
  Poet will I return, and at my font
  Baptismal will I take the laurel crown;

Because into the Faith that maketh known
  All souls to God there entered I, and then
  Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled.

Thereafterward towards us moved a light
  Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits
  Which of his vicars Christ behind him left,

And then my Lady, full of ecstasy,
  Said unto me: "Look, look! behold the Baron
  For whom below Galicia is frequented."

In the same way as, when a dove alights
  Near his companion, both of them pour forth,
  Circling about and murmuring, their affection,

So one beheld I by the other grand
  Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted,
  Lauding the food that there above is eaten.

But when their gratulations were complete,
  Silently `coram me` each one stood still,
  So incandescent it o`ercame my sight.

Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice:
  "Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions
  Of our Basilica have been described,

Make Hope resound within this altitude;
  Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it
  As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness."--

"Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;
  For what comes hither from the mortal world
  Must needs be ripened in our radiance."

This comfort came to me from the second fire;
  Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills,
  Which bent them down before with too great weight.

"Since, through his grace, our Emperor wills that thou
  Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy death,
  In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,

So that, the truth beholden of this court,
  Hope, which below there rightfully enamours,
  Thereby thou strengthen in thyself and others,

Say what it is, and how is flowering with it
  Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee."
  Thus did the second light again continue.

And the Compassionate, who piloted
  The plumage of my wings in such high flight,
  Did in reply anticipate me thus:

"No child whatever the Church Militant
  Of greater hope possesses, as is written
  In that Sun which irradiates all our band;

Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt
  To come into Jerusalem to see,
  Or ever yet his warfare be completed.

The two remaining points, that not for knowledge
  Have been demanded, but that he report
  How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing,

To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,
  Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them;
  And may the grace of God in this assist him!"

As a disciple, who his teacher follows,
  Ready and willing, where he is expert,
  That his proficiency may be displayed,

"Hope," said I, "is the certain expectation
  Of future glory, which is the effect
  Of grace divine and merit precedent.

From many stars this light comes unto me;
  But he instilled it first into my heart
  Who was chief singer unto the chief captain.

`Sperent in te,` in the high Theody
  He sayeth, `those who know thy name;` and who
  Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess?

Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling
  In the Epistle, so that I am full,
  And upon others rain again your rain."

While I was speaking, in the living bosom
  Of that combustion quivered an effulgence,
  Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning;

Then breathed: "The love wherewith I am inflamed
  Towards the virtue still which followed me
  Unto the palm and issue of the field,

Wills that I breathe to thee that thou delight
  In her; and grateful to me is thy telling
  Whatever things Hope promises to thee."

And I: "The ancient Scriptures and the new
  The mark establish, and this shows it me,
  Of all the souls whom God hath made his friends.

Isaiah saith, that each one garmented
  In his own land shall be with twofold garments,
  And his own land is this delightful life.

Thy brother, too, far more explicitly,
  There where he treateth of the robes of white,
  This revelation manifests to us."

And first, and near the ending of these words,
  "Sperent in te" from over us was heard,
  To which responsive answered all the carols.

Thereafterward a light among them brightened,
  So that, if Cancer one such crystal had,
  Winter would have a month of one sole day.

And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance
  A winsome maiden, only to do honour
  To the new bride, and not from any failing,

Even thus did I behold the brightened splendour
  Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved
  As was beseeming to their ardent love.

Into the song and music there it entered;
  And fixed on them my Lady kept her look,
  Even as a bride silent and motionless.

"This is the one who lay upon the breast
  Of him our Pelican; and this is he
  To the great office from the cross elected."

My Lady thus; but therefore none the more
  Did move her sight from its attentive gaze
  Before or afterward these words of hers.

Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours
  To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,
  And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,

So I became before that latest fire,
  While it was said, "Why dost thou daze thyself
  To see a thing which here hath no existence?

Earth in the earth my body is, and shall be
  With all the others there, until our number
  With the eternal proposition tallies.

With the two garments in the blessed cloister
  Are the two lights alone that have ascended:
  And this shalt thou take back into your world."

And at this utterance the flaming circle
  Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling
  Of sound that by the trinal breath was made,

As to escape from danger or fatigue
  The oars that erst were in the water beaten
  Are all suspended at a whistle`s sound.

Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed,
  When I turned round to look on Beatrice,
  That her I could not see, although I was

Close at her side and in the Happy World!


Paradiso: Canto XXVI


While I was doubting for my vision quenched,
  Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched it
  Issued a breathing, that attentive made me,

Saying: "While thou recoverest the sense
  Of seeing which in me thou hast consumed,
  `Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate it.

Begin then, and declare to what thy soul
  Is aimed, and count it for a certainty,
  Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead;

Because the Lady, who through this divine
  Region conducteth thee, has in her look
  The power the hand of Ananias had."

I said: "As pleaseth her, or soon or late
  Let the cure come to eyes that portals were
  When she with fire I ever burn with entered.

The Good, that gives contentment to this Court,
  The Alpha and Omega is of all
  The writing that love reads me low or loud."

The selfsame voice, that taken had from me
  The terror of the sudden dazzlement,
  To speak still farther put it in my thought;

And said: "In verity with finer sieve
  Behoveth thee to sift; thee it behoveth
  To say who aimed thy bow at such a target."

And I: "By philosophic arguments,
  And by authority that hence descends,
  Such love must needs imprint itself in me;

For Good, so far as good, when comprehended
  Doth straight enkindle love, and so much greater
  As more of goodness in itself it holds;

Then to that Essence (whose is such advantage
  That every good which out of it is found
  Is nothing but a ray of its own light)

More than elsewhither must the mind be moved
  Of every one, in loving, who discerns
  The truth in which this evidence is founded.

Such truth he to my intellect reveals
  Who demonstrates to me the primal love
  Of all the sempiternal substances.

The voice reveals it of the truthful Author,
  Who says to Moses, speaking of Himself,
  `I will make all my goodness pass before thee.`

Thou too revealest it to me, beginning
  The loud Evangel, that proclaims the secret
  Of heaven to earth above all other edict."

And I heard say: "By human intellect
  And by authority concordant with it,
  Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest.

But say again if other cords thou feelest,
  Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst proclaim
  With how many teeth this love is biting thee."

The holy purpose of the Eagle of Christ
  Not latent was, nay, rather I perceived
  Whither he fain would my profession lead.

Therefore I recommenced: "All of those bites
  Which have the power to turn the heart to God
  Unto my charity have been concurrent.

The being of the world, and my own being,
  The death which He endured that I may live,
  And that which all the faithful hope, as I do,

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