Paradiso: Canto XIII
Previous Contents Next
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 swordqs 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."
Previous Contents Next