Will to the living of the land conform. Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them, As here a smile; but down below, the shade 60 65 70 75 Thy sight is," said I," so that never will Of his can possibly from thee be hidden; Thy voice, then, that forever makes the heavens Glad, with the singing of those holy fires Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl, Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning If I in thee were as thou art in me." "The greatest of the valleys where the water Expands itself," forthwith its words began, "That sea excepted which the earth engarlands, Between discordant shores against the sun Extends so far, that it meridian makes Where it was wont before to make the horizon. I was a dweller on that valley's shore 'Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese. With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly 80 85 90 Sit Buggia and the city whence I was, That with its blood once made the harbor hot. Folco that people called me unto whom My name was known; and now with me this heaven Imprints itself, as I did once with it; For more the daughter of Belus never burned, Yet here is no repenting, but we smile, Not at the fault, which comes not back to mind, But at the power which ordered and foresaw. Here we behold the art that doth adorn With such affection, and the good discover But that thou wholly satisfied mayst bear Thy wishes hence which in this sphere are born, Still farther to proceed behoveth me. Thou fain wouldst know who is within this light That here beside me thus is scintillating, Even as a sunbeam in the limpid water. Then know thou, that within there is at rest Rahab, and being to our order joined, With her in its supremest grade 't is sealed. Into this heaven, where ends the shadowy cone Cast by your world, before all other souls First of Christ's Triumph was she taken up. Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven, Even as a palm of the high victory 120 Which he acquired with one palm and the other, Because she favored the first glorious deed Of Joshua upon the Holy Land, That little stirs the memory of the Pope. Thy city, which an offshoot is of him Who first upon his Maker turned his back, And whose ambition is so sorely wept, Brings forth and scatters the accursed flower Which both the sheep and lambs hath led astray, Since it has turned the shepherd to a wolf. For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors Are derelict, and only the Decretals So studied that it shows upon their margins. On this are Pope and Cardinals intent; Their meditations reach not Nazareth, There where his pinions Gabriel unfolded; But Vatican and the other parts elect Of Rome, which have a cemetery been Unto the soldiery that followed Peter, Shall soon be free from the adulterer." 125 130 135 140 CANTO X LOOKING into his Son with all the Love That Master's art, who in himself so loves it The oblique circle, which conveys the planets, Were the departure, much would wanting be In thought pursuing that which is foretasted, If thou wouldst jocund be instead of weary. I've set before thee; henceforth feed thyself, For to itself diverteth all my care Line 6. Who this beholds without enjoying Him. ΙΟ 15 20 25 5. That theme whereof I have been made the scribe. The greatest of the ministers of nature, Who with the power of heaven the world imprints And measures with his light the time for us, With that part which above is called to mind Conjoined, along the spirals was revolving, I was not conscious, saving as a man From good to better, and so suddenly And what was in the sun, wherein I entered, I, though I call on genius, art, and practice, For altitude so great, it is no marvel, Of the high Father, who forever sates it, 30 35 40 45 50 55 |