Paradiso: Canto XXII
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Oppressed with
stupor, I unto my
guide
Turned like a little child who always runs
For refuge there where he
confideth most;
And she, even as a
mother who
straightway
Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy
With voice whose wont it is to reassure him,
Said to me: "
Knowest thou not thou art in heaven,
And knowest thou not that heaven is
holy all
And what is done here cometh from good zeal?
After what wise the singing would have changed thee
And I by
smiling,
thou canst
now imagine,
Since that the cry has startled thee so much,
In which if thou hadst understood its prayers
Already would be
known to thee the
vengeance
Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest.
The sword above here smiteth not in haste
Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him
Who fearing
or desiring waits for it.
But turn thee round towards the others now,
For very
illustrious spirits shalt thou see,
If thou thy
sight directest as I say."
As it seemed good to her
mine eyes I turned,
And saw a hundred spherules that together
With mutual rays each other more
embellished.
I stood as one who in himself
represses
The point of his
desire, and ventures not
To question, he so
feareth the too much.
And now the largest and most
luculent
Among those
pearls came forward, that it might
Make my
desire concerning it content.
Within it then I
heard: "If thou couldst see
Even as myself the charity that burns
Among us, thy conceits would be expressed;
But, that by waiting thou mayst not come late
To the high end, I will make answer even
Unto the thought
of which thou art so
chary.
That mountain on whose slope
Cassino stands
Was
frequented of old upon its summit
By a deluded folk and
ill-disposed;
And I am he who first up thither bore
The name of
Him who brought upon the earth
The truth that so much
sublimateth us.
And such
abundant grace upon me shone
That all the
neighbouring towns I drew away
From the impious worship that seduced the
world.
These other fires, each one of them, were men
Contemplative,
enkindled by that heat
Which maketh holy
flowers and
fruits spring up.
Here is
Macarius, here is
Romualdus,
Here are my
brethren, who
within the
cloisters
Their
footsteps stayed and kept a
steadfast heart."
And I to him: "The affection which thou showest
Speaking with me, and the good
countenance
Which I behold and note in all your
ardours,
In me have so my
confidence dilated
As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes
As far
unfolded as it hath the power.
Therefore I pray, and thou assure me, father,
If I may so much grace receive, that I
May thee behold with
countenance unveiled."
He thereupon: "
Brother, thy high
desire
In the remotest sphere shall be
fulfilled,
Where are
fulfilled all others and my own.
There perfect is, and
ripened, and
complete,
Every desire; within that
one alone
Is every part where it has always
been;
For it is not in
space, nor turns on
poles,
And unto it our
stairway reaches up,
Whence thus from out
thy sight it steals away.
Up to that height the
Patriarch Jacob saw it
Extending its
supernal part, what time
So thronged with
angels it appeared to him.
But to
ascend it now no one
uplifts
His feet from off the earth, and now
my Rule
Below remaineth for mere waste of
paper.
The walls that used of old to be an
Abbey
Are
changed to dens of
robbers, and the cowls
Are
sacks filled full of
miserable flour.
But heavy usury
is not taken up
So much against
God's
pleasure as that fruit
Which maketh so
insane the
heart of
monks;
For
whatsoever hath the
Church in keeping
Is for the folk that ask it in
God's name,
Not for one's kindred or for
something worse.
The flesh of
mortals is so very soft,
That good beginnings down below
suffice not
From springing of the
oak to
bearing acorns.
Peter began with
neither gold nor silver,
And I with
orison and
abstinence,
And
Francis with
humility his
convent.
And if thou
lookest at each one's
beginning,
And then regardest whither he has
run,
Thou shalt behold the white changed into
brown.
In verity the
Jordan backward turned,
And the sea's fleeing, when
God willed were more
A wonder to behold, than succour here."
Thus unto me he said; and then
withdrew
To his own band, and the band
closed together;
Then like a
whirlwind all was upward
rapt.
The gentle Lady urged me on behind them
Up o'er that stairway by a single
sign,
So did her
virtue overcome my
nature;
Nor here below, where one goes up and down
By natural law, was
motion e'er so swift
That it could be
compared unto
my wing.
Reader, as I may unto that devout
Triumph
return, on whose
account I often
For my
transgressions weep and beat my breast,--
Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire
And
drawn it out again, before I saw
The sign that follows
Taurus, and was in it.
O
glorious stars, O light
impregnated
With mighty
virtue, from which I
acknowledge
All of my
genius, whatsoe'er it be,
With you
was born, and hid himself with you,
He who is father of all mortal life,
When first I tasted of the
Tuscan air;
And then when grace was
freely given to me
To enter the high wheel which turns you round,
Your region was
allotted unto me.
To you
devoutly at this hour my soul
Is
sighing, that it virtue may
acquire
For the stern pass that draws it to
itself.
"Thou art so near unto the last
salvation,"
Thus
Beatrice began, "thou oughtest now
To have thine eves unclouded and acute;
And therefore, ere thou enter
farther in,
Look
down once more, and see how
vast a
world
Thou hast
already put beneath thy
feet;
So that thy heart, as
jocund as it may,
Present itself to the
triumphant throng
That comes rejoicing through this
rounded ether."
I with my sight
returned through
one and all
The sevenfold
spheres, and I
beheld this
globe
Such that I smiled at its
ignoble semblance;
And that opinion I
approve as best
Which doth account it least; and he who thinks
Of something else may truly be called just.
I saw the
daughter of
Latona shining
Without that
shadow, which to me was
cause
That once I had
believed her rare and dense.
The aspect of thy son,
Hyperion,
Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves
Around and near him
Maia and
Dione.
Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove
'Twixt son and father, and to me was clear
The change that of their
whereabout they make;
And all the seven made
manifest to me
How great they are, and eke how swift they are,
And how they are in distant
habitations.
The
threshing-floor that maketh us so proud,
To me revolving with the
eternal Twins,
Was all apparent made from hill to harbour!
Then to the
beauteous eyes mine eyes I
turned.
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