Page images
PDF
EPUB

Now hast thou power to judge of such as those
Whom I accused above, and of their crimes,
Which are the cause of all your miseries.
To the public standard one the yellow lilies
Opposes, the other claims it for a party,
So that 't is hard to see which sins the most.
Let, let the Ghibellines ply their handicraft
Beneath some other standard; for this ever
Ill follows he who it and justice parts.
And let not this new Charles e'er strike it down,
He and his Guelfs, but let him fear the talons
That from a nobler lion stripped the fell.
Already oftentimes the sons have wept

100

105

110

The father's crime; and let him not believe That God will change His scutcheon for the lilies. This little planet doth adorn itself

With the good spirits that have active been, That fame and honor might come after them; And whensoever the desires mount thither,

Thus deviating, must perforce the rays
Of the true love less vividly mount upward.
But in commensuration of our wages

With our desert is portion of our joy,

115

Because we see them neither less nor greater. 120 Herein doth living Justice sweeten so

Affection in us, that forevermore
It cannot warp to any iniquity.
Voices diverse make up sweet melodies;
So in this life of ours the seats diverse
Render sweet harmony among these spheres;

And in the compass of this present pearl
Shineth the sheen of Romeo, of whom

125

The grand and beauteous work was ill rewarded.

But the Provençals who against him wrought,

130

They have not laughed, and therefore ill goes he Who makes his hurt of the good deeds of others. Four daughters, and each one of them a queen, Had Raymond Berenger, and this for him Did Romeo, a poor man and a pilgrim ; And then malicious words incited him

To summon to a reckoning this just man, Who rendered to him seven and five for ten. Then he departed poor and stricken in years, And if the world could know the heart he had, In begging bit by bit his livelihood,

135

141

Though much it laud him, it would laud him more."

CANTO VII.

"Osanna sanctus Deus Sabaoth,
Superillustrans claritate tua
Felices ignes horum malahoth!”
In this wise, to its melody returning,
This substance, upon which a double light
Doubles itself, was seen by me to sing,

And to their dance this and the others moved,
And in the manner of swift-hurrying sparks

Veiled themselves from me with a sudden dis

tance.

Doubting was I, and saying, "Tell her, tell her,” 10 Within me, "tell her," saying, "tell my Lady," Who slakes my thirst with her sweet effluences; And yet that reverence which doth lord it over The whole of me only by B and ICE,

Bowed me again like unto one who drowses. Short while did Beatrice endure me thus ;

And she began, lighting me with a smile Such as would make one happy in the fire: According to infallible advisement, After what manner a just vengeance justly Could be avenged has put thee upon thinking, But I will speedily thy mind unloose;

And do thou listen, for these words of mine Of a great doctrine will a present make thee. By not enduring on the power that wills

20

25

Curb for his good, that man who ne'er was born, Damning himself damned all his progeny; Whereby the human species down below

Lay sick for many centuries in great error, Till to descend it pleased the Word of God 30 To where the nature, which from its own Maker Estranged itself, he joined to him in person By the sole act of his eternal love. Now unto what is said direct thy sight; This nature when united to its Maker, Such as created, was sincere and good; But by itself alone was banished forth From Paradise, because it turned aside Out of the way of truth and of its life. Therefore the penalty the cross held out,

If measured by the nature thus assumed, None ever yet with so great justice stung, And none was ever of so great injustice,

25

45

Considering who the Person was that suffered, Within whom such a nature was contracted. From one act therefore issued things diverse; To God and to the Jews one death was pleasing; Earth trembled at it and the Heaven was opened. It should no longer now seem difficult

To thee, when it is said that a just vengeance 50

By a just court was afterward avenged.

But now do I behold thy mind entangled

From thought to thought within a knot, from which

With great desire it waits to free itself. Thou sayest, Well discern I what I hear

6

;

But it is hidden from me why God willed For our redemption only this one mode.' Buried remaineth, brother, this decree

Unto the eyes of every one whose nature Is in the flame of love not yet adult. Verily, inasmuch as at this mark

say.

One gazes long and little is discerned,
Wherefore this mode was worthiest will I
Goodness Divine, which from itself doth spurn
All envy, burning in itself so sparkles
That the eternal beauties it unfolds.
Whate'er from this immediately distils
Has afterwards no end, for ne'er removed
Is its impression when it sets its seal.
Whate'er from this immediately rains down
Is wholly free, because it is not subject
Unto the influences of novel things.

The more conformed thereto, the more it pleases;
For the blest ardor that irradiates all things
In that most like itself is most vivacious.
With all of these things has advantaged been
The human creature; and if one be wanting,
From his nobility he needs must fall.
Tis sin alone which doth disfranchise him,
And render him unlike the Good Supreme,
So that he little with its light is blanched,

55

60

65

70

75

8

And to his dignity no more returns,

Unless he fill up where transgression empties
With righteous pains for criminal delights.
Your nature when it sinned so utterly
In its own seed, out of these dignities
Even as out of Paradise was driven,
Nor could itself recover, if thou notest
With nicest subtilty, by any way,

Except by passing one of these two fords:
Either that God through clemency alone
Had pardon granted, or that man himself
Had satisfaction for his folly made.
Fix now thine eye deep into the abyss

Of the eternal counsel, to my speech
As far as may be fastened steadfastly!
Man in his limitations had not power

To satisfy, not having power to sink
In his humility obeying then,

Far as he disobeying thought to rise ;

And for this reason man has been from power

Of satisfying by himself excluded.

Therefore it God behoved in his own ways

Man to restore unto his perfect life,

I

say in one, or else in both of them.

But since the action of the doer is

So much more grateful, as it more presents The goodness of the heart from which it issues, Goodness Divine, that doth imprint the world, Has been contented to proceed by each And all its ways to lift you up again; Nor 'twixt the first day and the final night Such high and such magnificent proceeding By one or by the other was or shall be;

85

95

100

105

114

« PreviousContinue »