'Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compen sate it. Begin then, and declare to what thy soul Is aimed, and count it for a certainty, Let the cure come to eyes that portals were When she with fire I ever burn with entered. 15 The Good, that gives contentment to this Court, The Alpha and Omega is of all The writing that love reads me low or loud." Behoveth thee to sift; thee it behoveth 20 25 30 And by authority that hence descends, Such love must needs imprint itself in me; For good, so far as good, when comprehended Doth straight enkindle love, and so much greater As more of goodness in itself it holds; Then to that Essence (whose is such advantage That every good which out of it is found Is nothing but a ray of its own light) More than elsewhither must the mind be moved Of every one, in loving, who discerns The truth in which this evidence is founded. Such truth he to my intellect reveals 35 Who demonstrates to me the primal love 'I will make all my goodness pass before thee.' Thou too revealest it to me, beginning The loud Evangel, that proclaims the secret Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest. 45 51 55 Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst proclaim With how many teeth this love is biting thee." The holy purpose of the Eagle of Christ Not latent was, nay, rather I perceived Whither he fain would my profession lead. Therefore I recommenced: "All of those bites Which have the power to turn the heart to God Unto my charity have been concurrent. The being of the world, and my own being, The death which He endured that I may live, And that which all the faithful hope, as I do, With the forementioned vivid consciousness 60 Have drawn me from the sea of love perverse, And of the right have placed me on the shore. The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the garden Of the Eternal Gardener, do I love As much as he has granted them of good." As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweet 65 Throughout the heaven resounded, and my Lady Said with the others, "Holy, holy, holy!" And as at some keen light one wakes from sleep 7 By reason of the visual spirit that runs Unto the splendor passed from coat to coat, And he who wakes abhorreth what he sees, So all unconscious is his sudden waking, Until the judgment cometh to his aid, So from before mine eyes did Beatrice Chase every mote with radiance of her own, That cast its light a thousand miles and more. Whence better after than before I saw, And in a kind of wonderment I asked About a fourth light that I saw with us. And said my Lady: "There within those rays Gazes upon its Maker the first soul That ever the first virtue did create." Even as the bough that downward bends its top At transit of the wind, and then is lifted By its own virtue, which inclines it upward, Likewise did I, the while that she was speaking, Being amazed, and then I was made bold By a desire to speak wherewith I burned. And I began: "O apple, that mature 75 80 85 90 Alone hast been produced, O ancient father, law, Devoutly as I can I supplicate thee That thou wouldst speak to me; thou seest my wish ; And I, to hear thee quickly, speak it not." Sometimes an animal, when covered, struggles So that his impulse needs must be apparent, By reason of the wrappage following it; And in like manner the primeval soul Made clear to me athwart its covering 95 100 How jubilant it was to give me pleasure. Then breathed: "Without thy uttering it to me, Thine inclination better I discern Than thou whatever thing is surest to thee; For I behold it in the truthful mirror, 105 110 That of Himself all things parhelion makes, And none makes Him parhelion of itself. Thou fain wouldst hear how long ago God placed me Within the lofty garden, where this Lady Unto so long a stairway thee disposed. And how long to mine eyes it was a pleasure, And of the great disdain the proper cause, And the language that I used and that I made. Now, son of mine, the tasting of the tree 115 Not in itself was cause of so great exile, But solely the o'erstepping of the bounds. There, whence thy Lady moved Virgilius, Four thousand and three hundred and two circuits Made by the sun, this Council I desired; And him I saw return to all the lights Of his highway nine hundred times and thirty, Whilst I upon the earth was tarrying. The language that I spake was quite extinct Before that in the work interminable The people under Nimrod were employed; For nevermore result of reasoning (Because of human pleasure that doth change, Obedient to the heavens) was durable. A natural action is it that man speaks; But whether thus or thus, doth nature leave To your own art, as seemeth best to you. Ere I descended to the infernal anguish, El was on earth the name of the Chief Good, 120 125 130 From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round ; Eli he then was called, and that is proper, Because the use of men is like a leaf On bough, which goeth and another cometh. Upon the mount that highest o'er the wave Rises was I, in life or pure or sinful, 135 From the first hour to that which is the second, As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth." CANTO XXVII. 140 "Glory be to the Father, to the Son, O joy! O gladness inexpressible ! O perfect life of love and peacefulness! O riches without hankering secure! 5 Before mine eyes were standing the four torches 10 Enkindled, and the one that first had come Began to make itself more luminous; And even such in semblance it became As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars Were birds, and they should interchange their plumes. That Providence, which here distributeth Line 15. Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers. 15 |
