Those two that sit above there most enraptured, Are as it were the two roots of this Rose. The father is, by whose audacious taste The human species so much bitter tastes. Upon the right thou seest that ancient father Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ Before his death, of her the beauteous bride Beside him sits, and by the other rests That leader under whom on manna lived Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated, So well content to look upon her daughter, Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna. 135 And opposite the eldest household father Lucìa sits, she who thy Lady moved When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows. But since the moments of thy vision fly, Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor And unto the first Love will turn our eyes, That looking upon Him thou penetrate As far as possible through his effulgence. Truly, lest peradventure thou recede, Moving thy wings believing to advance, By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained; Grace from that one who has the power to aid thee; And thou shalt follow me with thy affection That from my words thy heart turn not aside." And he began this holy orison. 140 345 CANTO XXXIII. "THOU Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, To human nature gave, that its Creator By heat of which in the eternal peace Of charity, and below there among mortals That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee, Not only thy benignity gives succour To him who asketh it, but oftentimes In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, In thee magnificence; in thee unites Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth Supplicate thee through grace for so much power More than I do for his, all of my prayers That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed. Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve Let thy protection conquer human movements; My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee !" The eyes beloved and revered of God, Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us How grateful unto her are prayers devout; Then unto the Eternal Light they turned, On which it is not credible could be By any creature bent an eye so clear. And I, who to the end of all desires Was now approaching, even as I ought The ardour of desire within me ended. Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling, That I should upward look; but I already Was entering more and more into the ray Even as he is who seeth in a dream, And after dreaming the imprinted passion Remains, and to his mind the rest returns not, Even such am I, for almost utterly Ceases my vision, and distilleth yet Within my heart the sweetness born of it; Even thus upon the wind in the light leaves From the conceits of mortals, to my mind And by a little sounding in these verses, Which I endured would have bewildered me, On this account to bear, so that I joined I saw that in its depth far down is lying Bound up with love together in one volume, That what I speak of is one simple light. Methinks I saw, since more abundantly Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise Of what I yet remember, than an infant's But through the sight, that fortified itself Within the deep and luminous subsistence Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, As Iris is by Iris, and the third Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed. O how all speech is feeble and falls short Sole knowest thyself, and, known unto thyself When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes, 190 125 Within itself, of its own very colour Seemed to me painted with our effigy, To square the circle, I wished to see how the image to the circle Had it not been that then my mind there smote But now was turning my desire and will, The Love which moves the sun and the other stars. |