Purgatorio: Canto XXIV
Nor speech the
going, nor the going that
Slackened;
but talking we went bravely on,
Even as a vessel urged by a good wind.
And shadows, that
appeared things doubly dead,
From
out the sepulchres of their eyes betrayed
Wonder at me, aware that I was living.
And I, continuing
my colloquy,
Said:
"Peradventure he goes up more slowly
Than he would do, for other people's sake.
But tell me, if
thou knowest, where is Piccarda;
Tell
me if any one of note I see
Among this folk that gazes at me so."
"My sister, who,
'twixt beautiful and good,
I
know not which was more, triumphs rejoicing
Already in her crown on high Olympus."
So said he first,
and then: "'Tis not forbidden
To
name each other here, so milked away
Is our resemblance by our dieting.
This," pointing
with his finger, "is Buonagiunta,
Buonagiunta,
of Lucca; and that face
Beyond him there, more peaked than the others,
Has held the holy
Church within his arms;
From
Tours was he, and purges by his fasting
Bolsena's eels and the Vernaccia wine."
He named me many
others one by one;
And
all contented seemed at being named,
So that for this I saw not one dark look.
I saw for hunger
bite the empty air
Ubaldin
dalla Pila, and Boniface,
Who with his crook had pastured many people.
I saw Messer
Marchese, who had leisure
Once
at Forli for drinking with less dryness,
And he was one who ne'er felt satisfied.
But as he does who
scans, and then doth prize
One
more than others, did I him of Lucca,
Who seemed to take most cognizance of me.
He murmured, and I
know not what Gentucca
From
that place heard I, where he felt the wound
Of justice, that doth macerate them so.
"O soul," I said,
"that seemest so desirous
To
speak with me, do so that I may hear thee,
And with thy speech appease thyself and me."
"A maid is born,
and wears not yet the veil,"
Began
he, "who to thee shall pleasant make
My city, howsoever men may blame it.
Thou shalt go on
thy way with this prevision;
If
by my murmuring thou hast been deceived,
True things hereafter will declare it to thee.
But say if him I
here behold, who forth
Evoked
the new-invented rhymes, beginning,
'Ladies, that have intelligence of love?'"
And I to him: "One
am I, who, whenever
Love
doth inspire me, note, and in that measure
Which he within me dictates, singing go."
"O brother, now I
see," he said, "the knot
Which
me, the Notary, and Guittone held
Short of the sweet new style that now I hear.
I do perceive full
clearly how your pens
Go
closely following after him who dictates,
Which with our own forsooth came not to pass;
And he who sets
himself to go beyond,
No
difference sees from one style to another;"
And as if satisfied, he held his peace.
Even as the birds,
that winter tow'rds the Nile,
Sometimes
into a phalanx form themselves,
Then fly in greater haste, and go in file;
In such wise all
the people who were there,
Turning
their faces, hurried on their steps,
Both by their leanness and their wishes light.
And as a man, who
weary is with trotting,
Lets
his companions onward go, and walks,
Until he vents the panting of his chest;
So did Forese let
the holy flock
Pass
by, and came with me behind it, saying,
"When will it be that I again shall see thee?"
"How long," I
answered, "I may live, I know not;
Yet
my return will not so speedy be,
But I shall sooner in desire arrive;
Because the place
where I was set to live
From
day to day of good is more depleted,
And unto dismal ruin seems ordained."
"Now go," he said,
"for him most guilty of it
At
a beast's tail behold I dragged along
Towards the valley where is no repentance.
Faster at every
step the beast is going,
Increasing
evermore until it smites him,
And leaves the body vilely mutilated.
Not long those
wheels shall turn," and he uplifted
His
eyes to heaven, "ere shall be clear to thee
That which my speech no farther can declare.
Now stay behind;
because the time so precious
Is
in this kingdom, that I lose too much
By coming onward thus abreast with thee."
As sometimes issues
forth upon a gallop
A
cavalier from out a troop that ride,
And seeks the honour of the first encounter,
So he with greater
strides departed from us;
And
on the road remained I with those two,
Who were such mighty marshals of the world.
And when before us
he had gone so far
Mine
eyes became to him such pursuivants
As was my understanding to his words,
Appeared to me with
laden and living boughs
Another
apple-tree, and not far distant,
From having but just then turned thitherward.
People I saw
beneath it lift their hands,
And
cry I know not what towards the leaves,
Like little children eager and deluded,
Who pray, and he
they pray to doth not answer,
But,
to make very keen their appetite,
Holds their desire aloft, and hides it not.
Then they departed
as if undeceived;
And
now we came unto the mighty tree
Which prayers and tears so manifold refuses.
"Pass farther
onward without drawing near;
The
tree of which Eve ate is higher up,
And out of that one has this tree been raised."
Thus said I know
not who among the branches;
Whereat
Virgilius, Statius, and myself
Went crowding forward on the side that rises.
"Be mindful," said
he, "of the accursed ones
Formed
of the cloud-rack, who inebriate
Combated Theseus with their double breasts;
And of the Jews who
showed them soft in drinking,
Whence
Gideon would not have them for companions
When he tow'rds Midian the hills descended."
Thus, closely
pressed to one of the two borders,
On
passed we, hearing sins of gluttony,
Followed forsooth by miserable gains;
Then set at large
upon the lonely road,
A
thousand steps and more we onward went,
In contemplation, each without a word.
"What go ye
thinking thus, ye three alone?"
Said
suddenly a voice, whereat I started
As terrified and timid beasts are wont.
I raised my head to
see who this might be,
And
never in a furnace was there seen
Metals or glass so lucent and so red
As one I saw who
said: "If it may please you
To
mount aloft, here it behoves you turn;
This way goes he who goeth after peace."
His aspect had
bereft me of my sight,
So
that I turned me back unto my Teachers,
Like one who goeth as his hearing guides him.
And as, the
harbinger of early dawn,
The
air of May doth move and breathe out fragrance,
Impregnate all with herbage and with flowers,
So did I feel a
breeze strike in the midst
My
front, and felt the moving of the plumes
That breathed around an odour of ambrosia;
And heard it said:
"Blessed are they whom grace
So
much illumines, that the love of taste
Excites not in their breasts too great desire,
Hungering at all
times so far as is just."