As far unfolded as it hath the power. In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled, Is every part where it has always been; And unto it our stairway reaches up, Extending its supernal part, what time So thronged with angels it appeared to him. His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule The walls that used of old to be an Abbey Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls So much against God's pleasure as that fruit Is for the folk that ask it in God's name, That good beginnings down below suffice not 60 65 70 75 80 85 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 succor here." Thus unto me he said; and then withdrew To his own band, and the band closed together; The gentle Lady urged me on behind them Triumph return, on whose account I often 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 With you was born, and hid himself with you, And then when grace was freely given to me 90 95 100 105 IIO 115 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 eyes 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 120 125 130 That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether." I with my sight returned through one and all 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 The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves Around and near him Maia and Dione. 135 140 Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove 145 '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. 150 The threshing-floor that maketh us so proud, To me revolving with the eternal Twins, Was all apparent made from hill to harbor! Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes I turned. CANTO XXIII EVEN as a bird, 'mid the beloved leaves, And with an ardent longing waits the sun, And vigilant, turned round towards the zone Underneath which the sun displays less haste; So that beholding her suspense and wistful, Such I became as he is who desiring For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. Of Christ's triumphal march, and all the fruit It seemed to me her face was all aflame ; And she had so full of ecstasy Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs, 5 10 15 20 25 |