ot be changed ughout ages, nd of yore created it. I ENTER, and I see thee in the gloom And strive to make my steps keep pace with thine. The congregation of the dead make room For thee to pass; the votive tapers shine ; Like rooks that haunt Ravenna's groves of pine The hovering echoes fly from tomb to tomb. From the confessionals I hear arise Rehearsals of forgotten tragedies, And lamentations from the crypts below; With the pathetic words, “Although your sins PURGATORIO. CANTO I. To run o'er better waters hoists its sail Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, O holy Muses, since that I am yours, That was upgathered in the cloudless aspect Unto mine eyes did recommence delight Soon as I issued forth from the dead air, Which had with sadness filled mine eyes and breast. The beauteous planet, that to love incites, Was making all the orient to laugh, Veiling the Fishes that were in her escort. To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind Upon the other pole, and saw four stars Ne'er seen before save by the primal people. Rejoicing in their flamelets seemed the heaven. O thou septentrional and widowed site, Because thou art deprived of seeing these! When from regarding them I had withdrawn, Turning a little to the other pole, There where the Wain had disappeared already, K I saw beside me an old man alone, Worthy of so much reverence in his look, Did so adorn his countenance with light, Or is there changed in heaven some council new, That being damned ye come unto my crags?' Then did my Leader lay his grasp upon me, And with his words, and with his hands and signs, Then answered him: "I came not of myself; A Lady from Heaven descended, at whose prayers But since it is thy will more be unfolded Of our condition, how it truly is, Mine cannot be that this should be denied thee. This one has never his last evening seen, But by his folly was so near to it As I have said, I unto him was sent To rescue him, and other way was none Than this to which I have myself betaken. I've shown him all the people of perdition, And now those spirits I intend to show Who purge themselves beneath thy guardianship. How I have brought him would be long to tell thee. Virtue descendeth from on high that aids me To lead him to behold thee and to hear thee. Now may it please thee to vouchsafe his coming; He seeketh Liberty, which is so dear, As knoweth he who life for her refuses. Thou know'st it; since, for her, to thee not bitter Was death in Utica, where thou didst leave The vesture, that will shine so, the great day. By us the eternal edicts are not broken; Since this one lives, and Minos binds not me; I will take back this grace from thee to her, While I was on the other side," then said he, Now that she dwells beyond the evil river, She can no longer move me, by that law Which, when I issued forth from there, was made. But if a Lady of Heaven do move and rule thee, Go, then, and see thou gird this one about With a smooth rush, and that thou wash his face, For 'twere not fitting that the eye o'ercast Below there, yonder, where the billow beats it, Or that doth indurate, can there have life, The sun, which now is rising, will direct you Without a word, and wholly drew myself As one who unto the lost road returns, As soon as we were come to where the dew In gentle manner did my Master place; There did he make in me uncovered wholly That hue which Hell had covered up in me. Then came we down upon the desert shore Which never yet saw navigate its waters O marvellous! for even as he culled CANTO II. ALREADY had the sun the horizon reached Was issuing forth from Ganges with the Scales So that the white and the vermilion cheeks Of beautiful Aurora, where I was, By too great age were changing into orange. We still were on the border of the sea, Like people who are thinking of their road, Appeared to me-may I again behold it !--- Mine eyes, that I might question my Conductor, Then on each side of it appeared to me I knew not what of white, and underneath it 10 20 |