Paradiso: Canto XXVII
"Glory be to the
Father, to the Son,
And
Holy Ghost!" all Paradise began,
So that the melody inebriate made me.
What I beheld
seemed unto me a smile
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!
O riches without hankering secure!
Before mine eyes
were standing the four torches
Enkindled,
and the one that first had come
Began to make itself more luminous;
And even such in
semblance it became
As
Jupiter would become, if he and Mars
Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers.
That Providence,
which here distributeth
Season
and service, in the blessed choir
Had silence upon every side imposed.
When I heard say:
"If I my colour change,
Marvel
not at it; for while I am speaking
Thou shalt behold all these their colour change.
He who usurps upon
the earth my place,
My
place, my place, which vacant has become
Before the presence of the Son of God,
Has of my cemetery
made a sewer
Of
blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,
Who fell from here, below there is appeased!"
With the same
colour 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,
From listening only, timorous becomes,
Even thus did
Beatrice change countenance;
And
I believe in heaven was such eclipse,
When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;
Thereafterward
proceeded forth his words
With
voice so much transmuted from itself,
The very countenance was not more changed.
"The spouse of
Christ has never nurtured been
On
blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus,
To be made use of in acquest of gold;
But in acquest of
this delightful life
Sixtus
and Pius, Urban and Calixtus,
After much lamentation, shed their blood.
Our purpose was
not, that on the right hand
Of
our successors should in part be seated
The Christian folk, in part upon the other;
Nor that the keys
which were to me confided
Should
e'er become the escutcheon on a banner,
That should wage war on those who are baptized;
Nor I be made the
figure of a seal
To
privileges venal and mendacious,
Whereat I often redden and flash with fire.
In garb of
shepherds the rapacious wolves
Are
seen from here above o'er all the pastures!
O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still?
To drink our blood
the Caorsines and Gascons
Are
making ready. O thou good beginning,
Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall!
But the high
Providence, that with Scipio
At
Rome the glory of the world defended,
Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive;
And thou, my son,
who by thy mortal weight
Shalt
down return again, open thy mouth;
What I conceal not, do not thou conceal."
As with its frozen
vapours downward falls
In
flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn
Of the celestial Goat doth touch the sun,
Upward in such
array saw I the ether
Become,
and flaked with the triumphant vapours,
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
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
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 enamoured,
which is dallying
At
all times with my Lady, to bring back
To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent.
And if or Art or
Nature has made bait
To
catch the eyes and so possess the mind,
In human flesh or in its portraiture,
All joined together
would appear as nought
To
the divine delight which shone upon me
When to her smiling face I turned me round.
The virtue that her
look endowed me with
From
the fair nest of Leda tore me forth,
And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me.
Its parts exceeding
full of life and lofty
Are
all so uniform, I cannot say
Which Beatrice selected for my place.
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
The
centre and all the rest about it moves,
From hence begins as from its starting point.
And in this heaven
there is no other Where
Than
in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled
The love that turns it, and the power it rains.
Within a circle
light and love embrace it,
Even
as this doth the others, and that precinct
He who encircles it alone controls.
Its motion is not
by another meted,
But
all the others measured are by this,
As ten is by the half and by the fifth.
And in what manner
time in such a pot
May
have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,
Now unto thee can manifest be made.
O Covetousness,
that mortals dost ingulf
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
Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered.
One, while he
prattles still, observes the fasts,
Who,
when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours
Whatever food under whatever moon;
Another, while he
prattles, loves and listens
Unto
his mother, who when speech is perfect
Forthwith desires to see her in her grave.
Even thus is
swarthy made the skin so white
In
its first aspect of the daughter fair
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."