Paradiso: Canto XX
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When he who all the world
illuminates
Out of our
hemisphere so far descends
That on all sides the daylight is
consumed,
The heaven, that erst by him alone was
kindled,
Doth
suddenly reveal itself
again
By many lights, wherein is one
resplendent.
And came into my mind this act of heaven,
When the ensign of the world and of its leaders
Had silent in the blessed beak become;
Because those living
luminaries all,
By far more
luminous, did
songs begin
Lapsing and
falling from my
memory.
O gentle Love, that with a
smile dost
cloak thee,
How
ardent in those sparks didst thou
appear,
That had the breath
alone of
holy thoughts!
After the
precious and pellucid crystals,
With which
begemmed the sixth light I beheld,
Silence imposed on the angelic bells,
I seemed to hear the murmuring of a river
That clear
descendeth down from rock to
rock,
Showing the
affluence of its
mountain-top.
And as the sound upon the
cithern's neck
Taketh its form, and as upon the vent
Of
rustic pipe the wind that enters it,
Even thus,
relieved from the delay of waiting,
That murmuring of the eagle mounted up
Along its neck, as if it had been hollow.
There it became a voice, and
issued thence
From out its beak, in such a form of words
As the heart waited for wherein I wrote them.
"The part in me which sees and bears the sun
In
mortal eagles," it began to me,
"Now
fixedly must needs be looked upon;
For of the fires of which I make my figure,
Those whence the eye doth sparkle in my head
Of all their orders the supremest are.
He who is
shining in the midst as
pupil
Was once the singer of the
Holy Spirit,
Who bore the ark from city unto
city;
Now knoweth he the merit of his song,
In so far as effect of his own counsel,
By the reward which is
commensurate.
Of five, that make a circle for my brow,
He that
approacheth nearest to my beak
Did the poor widow for her son
console;
Now knoweth he how dearly it doth cost
Not following
Christ, by the experience
Of this sweet life and of its
opposite.
He who comes next in the
circumference
Of which I speak, upon its highest arc,
Did death postpone by penitence sincere;
Now knoweth he that the eternal judgment
Suffers no change, albeit worthy
prayer
Maketh below to-morrow of to-day.
The next who follows, with the laws and me,
Under the good intent that bore bad fruit
Became a
Greek by ceding to the pastor;
Now knoweth he how all the ill
deduced
From his good
action is not harmful to him,
Although the world thereby may be
destroyed.
And he, whom in the downward arc thou seest,
Guglielmo was, whom the same land deplores
That weepeth
Charles and
Frederick yet alive;
Now knoweth he how heaven
enamoured is
With a just king; and in the outward show
Of his
effulgence he reveals it
still.
Who would believe, down in the errant world,
That e'er the
Trojan Ripheus in this round
Could be the fifth one of the
holy lights?
Now knoweth he enough of what the world
Has not the power to see of
grace divine,
Although his
sight may not
discern the bottom."
Like as a lark that in the air
expatiates,
First singing and then silent with content
Of the last
sweetness that doth satisfy her,
Such seemed to me the
image of the
imprint
Of the
eternal pleasure, by whose will
Doth everything become the thing it is.
And
notwithstanding to my doubt I was
As glass is to the colour that invests it,
To wait the time in silence it endured not,
But forth from out my
mouth, "What things are
these?"
Extorted with the force of its own weight;
Whereat I saw great joy of
coruscation.
Thereafterward with eye still more
enkindled
The blessed standard made to me reply,
To keep me not in
wonderment suspended:
"I see that thou
believest in these things
Because I say
them, but thou seest not how;
So that, although believed in, they are
hidden.
Thou doest as he doth who a thing by name
Well
apprehendeth, but its
quiddity
Cannot perceive, unless another show it.
'Regnum coelorum'
suffereth violence
From
fervent love, and from that living
hope
That
overcometh the
Divine volition;
Not in the guise that
man o'ercometh man,
But conquers it because it will be conquered,
And
conquered conquers by
benignity.
The first life of the eyebrow and the fifth
Cause thee
astonishment, because with them
Thou seest the region of the angels
painted.
They passed not from their bodies, as thou thinkest,
Gentiles, but
Christians in the steadfast faith
Of feet that were to suffer and had suffered.
For one from Hell, where no one e'er turns back
Unto good will, returned unto his bones,
And that of living hope was the reward,--
Of living hope, that placed its efficacy
In prayers to
God made to resuscitate him,
So that 'twere possible to move his will.
The glorious soul
concerning which I speak,
Returning to the flesh, where brief its stay,
Believed in Him who had the power to
aid it;
And, in believing,
kindled to such fire
Of genuine love, that at the second death
Worthy it was to come unto this joy.
The other one, through
grace, that from so deep
A fountain wells that
never hath the eye
Of any creature reached its primal wave,
Set all his love below on
righteousness;
Wherefore from grace to grace did
God unclose
His eye to our
redemption yet to be,
Whence he believed
therein, and suffered not
From that day forth the stench of paganism,
And he reproved therefor the folk
perverse.
Those Maidens three, whom at the right-hand
wheel
Thou didst behold, were unto him for
baptism
More than a
thousand years before
baptizing.
O thou
predestination, how
remote
Thy
root is from the aspect of all those
Who the
First Cause do not behold entire!
And you, O mortals! hold yourselves
restrained
In judging; for ourselves, who look on
God,
We do not know as yet all the elect;
And sweet to us is such a
deprivation,
Because our good in this good is made
perfect,
That whatsoe'er
God wills, we also will."
After this manner by that shape
divine,
To make clear in me my
short-sightedness,
Was given to me a
pleasant medicine;
And as good singer a good
lutanist
Accompanies with
vibrations of the
chords,
Whereby more
pleasantness the song
acquires,
So, while it spake, do I remember me
That I beheld both of those blessed lights,
Even as the winking of the eyes concords,
Moving unto the
words their
little flames.
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