Paradiso: Canto VIII
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The world used in its
peril to believe
That the fair
Cypria delirious love
Rayed out, in the
third epicycle turning;
Wherefore not only unto her paid
honour
Of sacrifices and of
votive cry
The
ancient nations in the
ancient error,
But both
Dione honoured they and
Cupid,
That as her mother, this one as her
son,
And said that he had sat in
Dido's lap;
And they from her, whence I beginning take,
Took the
denomination of the star
That woos the sun, now following, now in
front.
I was not ware of our ascending to it;
But of our being in it gave full faith
My Lady whom I saw more
beauteous grow.
And as within a flame a spark is seen,
And as within a voice a voice
discerned,
When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes,
Within that light
beheld I other
lamps
Move in a circle,
speeding more and less,
Methinks in measure of their
inward vision.
From a cold cloud
descended never winds,
Or visible or not, so rapidly
They would not laggard and impeded seem
To any one who had those
lights divine
Seen come towards us, leaving the
gyration
Begun at first in the high
Seraphim.
And behind those that most in front appeared
Sounded "
Osanna!" so that never since
To hear again was I
without desire.
Then unto us more nearly one
approached,
And it alone began: "We all are ready
Unto thy
pleasure, that thou joy in us.
We turn around with the
celestial Princes,
One gyre and one
gyration and one
thirst,
To whom thou in the world of old didst say,
'Ye who,
intelligent, the third heaven are
moving;'
And are so
full of love, to
pleasure thee
A little quiet will not be
less sweet."
After these eyes of mine themselves had offered
Unto my
Lady reverently, and she
Content and certain of herself had made them,
Back to the light they turned, which so great promise
Made of itself, and "Say, who art thou?" was
My voice, imprinted with a great
affection.
O how and how much I beheld it grow
With the new joy that superadded was
Unto its joys, as soon as I had spoken!
Thus changed, it said to me: "The world
possessed me
Short time
below; and, if it had been more,
Much
evil will be which would not have been.
My
gladness keepeth me concealed from thee,
Which rayeth round about me, and doth hide me
Like as a creature swathed in its own silk.
Much didst thou love me, and thou hadst good
reason;
For had I been below, I should have shown thee
Somewhat beyond the
foliage of my love.
That left-hand margin, which doth bathe itself
In Rhone, when it is mingled with the
Sorgue,
Me for its
lord awaited in due time,
And that horn of
Ausonia, which is towned
With
Bari, with
Gaeta and
Catona,
Whence
Tronto and
Verde in the sea
disgorge.
Already flashed upon my brow the crown
Of that dominion which the
Danube waters
After the
German borders it abandons;
And beautiful
Trinacria, that is murky
'Twixt
Pachino and
Peloro, (on the gulf
Which greatest
scath from
Eurus doth receive,)
Not through
Typhoeus, but through nascent
sulphur,
Would have awaited her own monarchs still,
Through me from
Charles descended and from Rudolph,
If evil
lordship, that
exasperates ever
The subject
populations, had not moved
Palermo to the outcry of '
Death! death!'
And if my brother could but this foresee,
The greedy poverty of
Catalonia
Straight would he flee, that it might not molest him;
For verily 'tis needful to provide,
Through him or other, so that on his bark
Already freighted no more freight be placed.
His nature, which from liberal
covetous
Descended, such a soldiery would need
As should not care for hoarding in a chest."
"Because I do believe the
lofty joy
Thy speech
infuses into me, my
Lord,
Where every good thing doth
begin and end
Thou seest as I see it, the more grateful
Is it to me; and this too hold I dear,
That gazing upon
God thou dost discern it.
Glad hast thou made me; so make clear to me,
Since
speaking thou hast
stirred me up to
doubt,
How from sweet seed can bitter issue
forth."
This I to him; and he to me: "If I
Can show to thee a
truth, to what thou askest
Thy face thou'lt hold as thou dost
hold thy back.
The
Good which all the realm thou art ascending
Turns and
contents, maketh its providence
To be a power within these bodies vast;
And not alone the natures are foreseen
Within the mind that in itself is perfect,
But they together with their
preservation.
For
whatsoever thing this bow shoots forth
Falls
foreordained unto an end foreseen,
Even as a shaft directed to its
mark.
If that were not, the heaven which thou dost walk
Would in such manner its effects produce,
That they no longer would be arts, but
ruins.
This cannot be, if the
Intelligences
That keep these stars in motion are not
maimed,
And
maimed the First that has not made them perfect.
Wilt thou this truth have clearer made to thee?"
And I: "Not so; for 'tis impossible
That nature tire, I see, in what is needful."
Whence he again: "Now say, would it be worse
For men on earth were they not citizens?"
"Yes," I replied; "and here I ask no
reason."
"And can they be so, if below they live not
Diversely unto offices
diverse?
No, if your master
writeth well for you."
So came he with deductions to this point;
Then he concluded: "Therefore it behoves
The roots of your effects to be
diverse.
Hence one is
Solon born, another
Xerxes,
Another
Melchisedec, and another he
Who, flying through the air, his son did lose.
Revolving
Nature, which a signet is
To mortal wax, doth
practise well her art,
But not one inn distinguish from another;
Thence happens it that
Esau differeth
In seed from
Jacob; and
Quirinus comes
From sire so
vile that he is given to
Mars.
A
generated nature its own way
Would always make like its
progenitors,
If
Providence divine were not
triumphant.
Now that which was behind thee is before thee;
But that thou know that I with thee am pleased,
With a
corollary will I mantle thee.
Evermore nature, if it fortune find
Discordant to it, like each other seed
Out of its
region, maketh evil
thrift;
And if the world below would fix its mind
On the foundation which is laid by nature,
Pursuing that, 'twould have the people good.
But you unto religion wrench aside
Him who was
born to gird him with the
sword,
And make a king of him who is for
sermons;
Therefore your
footsteps wander from
the road."
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