Paradiso: Canto XXV
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If e'er it happen that the
Poem Sacred,
To which both
heaven and earth have set their
hand,
So that it many a year hath made me
lean,
O'ercome the cruelty that bars me out
From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I
slumbered,
An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,
With other voice forthwith, with other
fleece
Poet will I return, and at my font
Baptismal will I take the
laurel crown;
Because into the
Faith that maketh known
All souls to
God there
entered I, and then
Peter for her sake thus my brow
encircled.
Thereafterward towards us moved a light
Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits
Which of his
vicars Christ behind him left,
And then my Lady, full of
ecstasy,
Said unto me: "Look, look! behold the
Baron
For whom below
Galicia is frequented."
In the same way as, when a dove
alights
Near his
companion, both of them pour forth,
Circling about and
murmuring, their
affection,
So one
beheld I by the other grand
Prince
glorified to be with welcome
greeted,
Lauding the food that there above is
eaten.
But when their
gratulations were
complete,
Silently '
coram me' each one stood still,
So incandescent it o'ercame my sight.
Smiling
thereafterwards, said
Beatrice:
"Illustrious life, by whom the
benefactions
Of our
Basilica have been
described,
Make
Hope resound within this
altitude;
Thou knowest as oft thou dost
personify it
As
Jesus to the three gave
greater clearness."--
"
Lift up thy head, and make
thyself assured;
For what comes hither from the
mortal world
Must needs be
ripened in our
radiance."
This comfort came to me from the
second fire;
Wherefore mine
eyes I lifted to the hills,
Which bent them down before with too great
weight.
"Since, through his grace, our
Emperor wills that thou
Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy
death,
In the most secret chamber, with his
Counts,
So that, the truth beholden of this court,
Hope, which below there rightfully
enamours,
Thereby thou
strengthen in
thyself and others,
Say what it is, and how is flowering with it
Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee."
Thus did the second light again
continue.
And the
Compassionate, who piloted
The
plumage of my
wings in such high flight,
Did in reply anticipate me
thus:
"No
child whatever the
Church Militant
Of greater hope
possesses, as is written
In that Sun which
irradiates all our
band;
Therefore it is
conceded him from
Egypt
To come into
Jerusalem to see,
Or ever yet his warfare be
completed.
The two remaining
points, that not for
knowledge
Have been
demanded, but that he report
How much this virtue unto thee is
pleasing,
To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,
Nor of
self-praise; and let him
answer them;
And may the grace of
God in this
assist him!"
As a disciple, who his teacher follows,
Ready and willing, where he is
expert,
That his
proficiency may be
displayed,
"Hope," said I, "is the certain
expectation
Of future
Glory, which
is the
effect
Of
grace divine and
merit precedent.
From many
stars this light comes unto me;
But he instilled it first into my heart
Who was chief singer unto the chief captain.
'
Sperent in te,' in the high
Theody
He sayeth, 'those who know thy name;' and who
Knoweth it not, if he my faith
possess?
Thou didst instil me, then, with his
instilling
In the
Epistle, so that I am full,
And upon others rain again your
rain."
While I was
speaking, in the living
bosom
Of that
combustion quivered an
effulgence,
Sudden and frequent, in the
guise of
lightning;
Then breathed: "The love wherewith I am inflamed
Towards the
virtue still which followed me
Unto the palm and issue of the
field,
Wills that I breathe to thee that thou
delight
In her; and
grateful to me is thy telling
Whatever things
Hope promises to thee."
And I: "The
ancient Scriptures and the new
The mark establish, and this shows it me,
Of all the souls whom
God hath
made his
friends.
Isaiah saith, that each one
garmented
In his own land shall be with
twofold garments,
And his own land is this delightful life.
Thy brother, too, far more
explicitly,
There where he
treateth of the
robes of
white,
This
revelation manifests to us."
And first, and near the ending of these words,
"Sperent in te" from over us was heard,
To which
responsive answered all the carols.
Thereafterward a light among them
brightened,
So that, if
Cancer one such
crystal had,
Winter would have a month of one sole day.
And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance
A
winsome maiden, only to do
honour
To the new bride, and not from any
failing,
Even thus did I behold the brightened
splendour
Approach the two, who in a wheel
revolved
As was
beseeming to their ardent love.
Into the song and music there it entered;
And fixed on them my
Lady kept her look,
Even as a bride silent and
motionless.
"This is the one who lay upon the breast
Of him our
Pelican; and this is he
To the great office from the cross
elected."
My Lady thus; but therefore none the more
Did move her sight from its attentive gaze
Before or afterward these words of hers.
Even as a man who gazes, and
endeavours
To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,
And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,
So I became before that latest fire,
While it was said, "Why dost thou daze thyself
To see a thing which here hath no
existence?
Earth in the earth my body is, and shall be
With all the others there, until our number
With the eternal proposition tallies.
With the two garments in the blessed cloister
Are the two lights alone that have
ascended:
And this shalt thou take back into your
world."
And at this
utterance the flaming
circle
Grew
quiet, with the
dulcet intermingling
Of sound that by the
trinal breath was made,
As to escape from danger or
fatigue
The oars that
erst were in the water beaten
Are all
suspended at a whistle's sound.
Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed,
When I turned round to look on
Beatrice,
That her I could not see,
although I was
Close at her side and in the
Happy World!
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