Paradiso: Canto XIX
Previous Contents Next
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."
Previous Contents Next