CANTO XXVII "GLORY be to the Father, to the Son, Of the universe; for my inebriation Found entrance through the hearing and the sight. O joy! O gladness inexpressible ! O perfect life of love and peacefulness! Before mine eyes were standing the four torches As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars. 5 ΙΟ Were birds, and they should interchange their plumes. That Providence, which here distributeth Season and service, in the blessed choir He who usurps upon the earth my place, My place, my place, which vacant has become Has of my cemetery made a sewer Line 15. Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers. 15 20 25 Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One, Who fell from here, below there is appeased! With the same color which, through sun adverse, Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn, Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused. And as a modest woman, who abides Sure of herself, and at another's failing, With voice so much transmuted from itself, Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus, ; Should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner, 50 That should wage war on those who are baptized; Nor I be made the figure of a seal To privileges venal and mendacious, In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves Are seen from here above o'er all the pastures! 55 To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons At Rome the glory of the world defended, In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapors, Which there together with us had remained. My sight was following up their semblances, And followed till the medium, by excess, The passing farther onward took from it; Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed 60 65 70 75 From gazing upward, said to me: "Cast down Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round." Since the first time that I had downward looked, I saw that I had moved through the whole arc 80 Which the first climate makes from midst to end; So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore Whereon became Europa a sweet burden. And of this threshing-floor the site to me Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding Under my feet, a sign and more removed. My mind enamored, which is dallying At all times with my Lady, to bring back 85 To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent. To catch the eyes and so possess the mind, From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth, But she, who was aware of my desire, Began, the while she smiled so joyously That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice: "The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled Even as this doth the others, and that precinct Its motion is not by another meted, But all the others measured are by this, And in what manner time in such a pot May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves, O covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf 90 95 100 106 115 120 Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves! Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will; But the uninterrupted rain converts Into abortive wildings the true plums. Fidelity and innocence are found Only in children; afterwards they both 125 Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered. One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts, 130 Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith de vours Whatever food under whatever moon; Another, while he prattles, loves and listens 135 Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night. Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee, Think that on earth there is no one who governs; Whence goes astray the human family. Ere January be unwintered wholly By the centesimal on earth neglected, Shall these supernal circles roar so loud, The tempest that has been so long awaited Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows; So that the fleet shall run its course direct, And the true fruit shall follow on the flower." 141 145 |