Purgatorio: Canto XXII
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Already was the
Angel left behind us,
The Angel who to the
sixth round had turned us,
Having erased one mark from off my face;
And those who have in
justice their desire
Had said to us, "
Beati," in their voices,
With "
sitio," and without more ended it.
And I, more light than through the other passes,
Went onward so, that without any labour
I followed upward the swift-footed spirits;
When thus
Virgilius began: "The love
Kindled by virtue aye another kindles,
Provided outwardly its flame appear.
Hence from the hour that
Juvenal descended
Among us into the
infernal Limbo,
Who made apparent to me thy affection,
My kindliness towards thee was as great
As ever bound one to an unseen person,
So that these stairs will now seem short to me.
But tell me, and forgive me as a friend,
If too great confidence let loose the rein,
And as a friend now hold discourse with me;
How was it possible within thy breast
For
Avarice to find place, 'mid so much wisdom
As thou wast filled with by thy
diligence?"
These words excited
Statius at first
Somewhat to
laughter; afterward he answered:
"Each word of thine is love's dear sign to me.
Verily
oftentimes do things appear
Which give
fallacious matter to our doubts,
Instead of the true causes which are hidden!
Thy question shows me thy belief to be
That I was
niggard in the other life,
It may be from the circle where I was;
Therefore know thou, that
Avarice was removed
Too far from me; and this
extravagance
Thousands of
lunar periods have punished.
And were it not that I my thoughts uplifted,
When I the passage heard where thou exclaimest,
As if indignant, unto human
Nature,
'To what impellest thou not, O cursed hunger
Of gold, the appetite of mortal men?'
Revolving I should feel the
dismal joustings.
Then I perceived the hands could spread
too wide
Their wings in spending, and
repented me
As well of that as of my other
sins;
How many with
shorn hair shall
rise again
Because of ignorance, which from this
sin
Cuts off repentance living and in
death!
And know that the
transgression which rebuts
By direct opposition any
sin
Together with it here its
verdure dries.
Therefore if I have been among that folk
Which mourns its
Avarice, to
purify me,
For its opposite has this befallen me."
"Now when thou sangest the relentless weapons
Of the twofold
affliction of
Jocasta,"
The singer of the
Songs Bucolic said,
"From that which
Clio there with thee
preludes,
It does not seem that yet had made thee
faithful
That faith without which no good works suffice.
If this be so, what candles or what sun
Scattered thy darkness so that thou didst trim
Thy sails behind the
Fisherman thereafter?"
And he to him: "Thou first directedst me
Towards
Parnassus, in its
grots to drink,
And first concerning
God didst me
enlighten.
Thou didst as he who walketh in the night],
Who bears his light behind, which helps him not,
But wary makes the persons after him,
When thou didst say: 'The age
renews itself,
Justice returns, and man's
primeval time,
And a new progeny descends from
heaven.'
Through thee I
Poet was, through thee a
Christian;
But that thou better see what I design,
To colour it will
I extend my hand.
Already was the world in every part
Pregnant with the true creed,
disseminated
By messengers of the
eternal kingdom;
And thy
assertion, spoken of above,
With the new preachers was in
unison;
Whence I to visit them the
custom took.
Then they became so holy in my sight,
That, when
Domitian persecuted them,
Not without tears of mine were their
laments;
And all the while that I on earth remained,
Them I befriended, and their upright
customs
Made me disparage all the other
sects.
And ere I led the
Greeks unto the rivers
Of
Thebes, in poetry, I was
baptized,
But out of fear was
covertly a
Christian,
For a long time professing
paganism;
And this
lukewarmness caused me the fourth circle
To circuit round more than four centuries.
Thou, therefore, who hast raised the covering
That hid from me whatever good I speak of,
While in ascending we have time to spare,
Tell me, in what place is our friend
Terentius,
Caecilius,
Plautus,
Varro, if thou knowest;
Tell me if they are damned, and in what
alley."
"These,
Persius and myself, and others many,"
Replied my Leader, "with that
Grecian are
Whom more than all the rest the
Muses suckled,
In the first circle of the prison blind;
Ofttimes we of the
Mountain hold discourse
Which has our nurses ever with itself.
Euripides is with us,
Antiphon,
Simonides,
Agatho, and many other
Greeks who of old their brows with
laurel decked.
There some of thine own people may be seen,
Antigone,
Deiphile and
Argia,
And there
Ismene mournful as of old.
There she is seen who pointed out
Langia;
There is
Tiresias' daughter, and there
Thetis,
And there
Deidamia with her sisters."
Silent already were the
poets both,
Attent once more in looking round about,
From the ascent and from the walls released;
And four
handmaidens of the day already
Were left behind, and at the pole the fifth
Was pointing upward still its burning horn,
What time my
Guide: "I think that tow'rds the edge
Our
dexter shoulders it behoves us turn,
Circling the mount as we are wont to do."
Thus in that region custom was our
ensign;
And we resumed our way with less suspicion
For the assenting of that worthy soul
They in advance went on, and I alone
Behind them, and I listened to their speech,
Which gave me lessons in the art of song.
But soon their sweet
discourses interrupted
A tree which midway in the road we found,
With apples sweet and grateful to the smell.
And even as a
fir-tree tapers upward
From bough to
bough, so downwardly did that;
I think in order that no one might climb it.
On that side where our pathway was enclosed
Fell from the lofty rock a
limpid water,
And spread itself abroad upon the
leaves.
The Poets twain unto the tree drew near,
And from among the foliage a voice
Cried: "Of this food ye shall have
scarcity."
Then said: "More thoughtful
Mary was of making
The marriage feast complete and honourable,
Than of her mouth which now for you responds;
And for their drink the ancient
Roman women
With water were content; and
Daniel
Disparaged food, and understanding won.
The
primal age was beautiful as gold;
Acorns it made with hunger
savorous,
And nectar every rivulet with
thirst.
Honey and locusts were the
aliments
That fed the
Baptist in the wilderness;
Whence he is
glorious, and so magnified
As by the
Evangel is revealed to you."
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