Paradiso: Canto III
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That
Sun, which erst with love my
bosom warmed,
Of
beauteous truth had unto me
discovered,
By
proving and
reproving, the sweet
aspect.
And, that I might confess myself
convinced
And
confident, so far as was befitting,
I lifted more erect my head to speak.
But there appeared a vision, which
withdrew me
So close to it, in order to be seen,
That my confession I
remembered not.
Such as through
polished and
transparent glass,
Or waters
crystalline and
undisturbed,
But not so deep as that their bed be lost,
Come back again the outlines of our faces
So feeble, that a pearl on forehead white
Comes not less speedily unto our eyes;
Such saw I many faces
prompt to speak,
So that I ran in error
opposite
To that which kindled love 'twixt man and
fountain.
As soon as I became aware of them,
Esteeming them as
mirrored semblances,
To see of whom they were, mine eyes I turned,
And nothing saw, and once more turned them forward
Direct into the light of my sweet Guide,
Who smiling kindled in her holy eyes.
"Marvel thou not," she said to me, "because
I smile at this thy
puerile conceit,
Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot,
But turns thee, as 'tis wont, on
emptiness.
True
substances are these which thou
beholdest,
Here relegate for breaking of some vow.
Therefore speak with them, listen and believe;
For the true light, which giveth peace to them,
Permits them not to turn from it their feet."
And I unto the shade that seemed most wishful
To speak directed me, and I began,
As one whom too great eagerness bewilders:
"O well-created spirit, who in the rays
Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste
Which being untasted ne'er is
comprehended,
Grateful 'twill be to me, if thou content me
Both with thy name and with your destiny."
Whereat she
promptly and with
laughing eyes:
"Our
charity doth never
shut the doors
Against a
just desire, except as one
Who wills that all her court be like
herself.
I was a
virgin sister in the world;
And if thy mind doth contemplate me well,
The being more fair will not conceal me from thee,
But thou shalt
recognise I am
Piccarda,
Who, stationed here among these other blessed,
Myself am
blessed in the slowest sphere.
All our
affections, that alone inflamed
Are in the pleasure of the
Holy Ghost,
Rejoice at being of his order formed;
And this
allotment, which appears so low,
Therefore is given us, because our vows
Have been neglected and in some part void."
Whence I to her: "In your
miraculous aspects
There shines I know not what of the
divine,
Which doth transform you from our first
conceptions.
Therefore I was not swift in my
remembrance;
But what thou tellest me now
aids me so,
That the refiguring is easier to me.
But tell me, ye who in this place are happy,
Are you
desirous of a higher place,
To see more or to make yourselves more friends?"
First with those other shades she
smiled a little;
Thereafter answered me so full of
gladness,
She seemed to burn in the first fire of love:
"Brother, our will is
quieted by
virtue
Of
charity, that makes us
wish alone
For what we have, nor gives us
thirst for more.
If to be more
exalted we aspired,
Discordant would our
aspirations be
Unto the will of
Him who here
secludes us;
Which thou shalt see finds no place in these circles,
If being in charity is needful here,
And if thou lookest well into its nature;
Nay, 'tis essential to this blest existence
To keep itself within the will divine,
Whereby our very wishes are made one;
So that, as we are station above station
Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing,
As to the
King, who makes his will our will.
And his will is our peace; this is the
sea
To which is moving onward whatsoever
It doth create, and all that
nature makes."
Then it was clear to me how everywhere
In heaven is
Paradise, although the
grace
Of good
supreme there rain not in one
measure.
But as it comes to pass, if one
food sates,
And for another still remains the longing,
We ask for this, and that decline with thanks,
E'en
thus did I; with
gesture and with word,
To learn from her what was
the web wherein
She did not ply the
shuttle to the end.
"A perfect life and merit high in-
heaven
A lady o'er us," said she, "by whose rule
Down in your world they
vest and
veil themselves,
That until
death they may both watch and sleep
Beside that
Spouse who every vow accepts
Which
charity conformeth to
his pleasure.
To follow her, in
girlhood from the world
I fled, and in her habit shut myself,
And pledged me to the pathway of her sect.
Then men accustomed unto evil more
Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me;
God knows what afterward my life became.
This other
splendour, which to thee reveals
Itself on my right side, and is
enkindled
With all the illumination of our sphere,
What of myself I say applies to her;
A
nun was she, and likewise from her head
Was ta'en the shadow of the
sacred wimple.
But when she too was to the world returned
Against her
wishes and against good usage,
Of the heart's veil she never was divested.
Of great
Costanza this is the
effulgence,
Who from the second wind of
Suabia
Brought forth the third and latest
puissance."
Thus unto me she spake, and then began
"
Ave Maria" singing, and in singing
Vanished, as through deep water something heavy.
My sight, that followed her as long a time
As it was possible, when it had lost her
Turned round unto the mark of more desire,
And wholly unto
Beatrice reverted;
But she such
lightnings flashed into mine eyes,
That at the first my sight endured it not;
And this in
questioning more
backward made me.
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