Read Paradiso Online

Authors: Dante

Paradiso (10 page)

BOOK: Paradiso
13.44Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

               
so I saw more than a thousand splendors

               
drawing toward us, and from each was heard:

105
         
‘Oh, here is one who will increase our loves!’   

               
And as these shades approached,

               
each one of them seemed filled with joy,   

108
         
so brilliant was the light that shone from them.

               
Merely consider, reader, if what I here begin   

               
went on no farther, how keen would be

111
         
your anguished craving to know more.

               
But you shall see for yourself what great desire

               
I felt to hear about their state from them

114
         
as soon as they appeared to me.

               
‘O spirit born for bliss, whom grace allows   

               
to see the thrones of the eternal triumph   

117
         
before you leave the battlefield,

               
‘we are on fire with the light that fills all Heaven.   

               
And so, if you would like us to enlighten you,

120
         
content yourself as you desire.’

               
This came to me from one of those good spirits.

               
And Beatrice began: ‘Speak, speak with confidence,   

123
         
having faith in them as you would trust in gods.’

               
‘I clearly see you nest in your own light,   

               
and that you flash it from your eyes,

126
         
because it sparkles when you smile.

               
‘But I know not who you are, nor why,   

               
worthy soul, you take your rank here from the sphere

129
         
most veiled from mortals in another’s rays,’   

               
I said, addressing myself to the radiance   

               
that had been first to speak,

132
         
which then became more brilliant than before.

               
As the sun, once its heat has gnawed away

               
the dense and tempering vapors,

135
         
hides itself in its own excess of light,

               
so, with increasing joy, the holy form

               
concealed itself from me within its rays

               
and, thus concealed, it made response   

139
         
in the very manner that the next song sings.

OUTLINE: PARADISO VI

MERCURY

1–27
   
Justinian
answers Dante’s first question: his involvement in the Empire; his identity; his former heresy;
Belisarius
; his inspired reform of Roman law
28–33
   
Giustinian justifies what will follow (vv. 34–96), a history of Rome, by saying that it will explain the failures of both
Guelphs
and
Ghibellines
:
34–36
   
death of
Pallas
: the Eagle “takes flight”
37–39
   
from
Ascanius
to the
Horatii
and
Curiatii
40–42
   
from
Romulus
to
Tarquin
(rapes of
Sabines
and
Lucrece
)
43–54
   
the republican period and its military triumphs
55–96
   
empire            [Benvenuto da Imola’s list:
55–72
   
(1)
Julius Caesar
Julius
73–81
   
(2)
Augustus
Augustus
82–90
   
(3)
Tiberius
[!]
Trajan
91–93
   
(4)
Titus
[!]
Constantine
(5) Justinian
Justinian
94–96
   
(6)
Charlemagne
Theodosius Charlemagne]
97–111
   
Justinian returns to Guelphs and Ghibellines:
97–102
   
it is they who cause Italy’s unhappiness
103–105
     
Ghibellines remove justice from the ensign
106–111
     
but let not
Charles II
oppose it with his Guelphs
112–126
   
Response to Dante’s second question: the spirits here
112–117
   
seekers of honor and fame fell short in charity,
118–123
   
but they now may rejoice as though they had not
124–126
   
the heavenly polyphony made by their lesser merit
127–142
   
Romeo di Villanova
:
127–132
   
his worthiness and Provençal envy
133–138
   
Raimondo
’s four daughters queens; his gratitude?
139–142
   
Romeo’s graceful, Dante-like exile.
PARADISO VI

               
‘Once Constantine reversed the eagle’s flight,   

   

               
counter to the course of heaven it had followed   

3
             
behind that ancient who took Lavinia to wife,

               
‘for two hundred years and more the bird of God   

   

               
remained at Europe’s borders,

6
             
near the mountains from which it first came forth.

               
‘There it ruled the world beneath the shadow   

               
of its sacred wings, passing from hand to hand   

9
             
and, changing in this way, at last came into mine.

               
‘Caesar I was and am Justinian,   

               
who, by will of the Primal Love I feel,   

12
           
pruned from the laws what was superfluous and vain.

               
‘Before I had set my mind to that hard task   

               
I believed Christ had but a single nature,

15
           
and not a second, and was content in that belief.

               
‘But the blessèd Agapetus,

               
the most exalted of our shepherds,

18
           
brought me to the true faith with his words.

               
‘I believed him. What he held by faith   

               
I now see just as clearly as you understand

21
           
that any contradiction is both false and true.

               
‘As soon as my footsteps moved at the Church’s side,   

               
it pleased God, in His grace, to grant me inspiration

24
           
in the noble task to which I wholly gave myself,

               
‘entrusting my weapons to Belisarius,   

               
with whom Heaven’s right hand was so conjoined

27
           
it was a sign for me to give them up.

               
‘Here, then, ends my reply to your first question,

               
but its nature still constrains me

30
           
to follow up with something further   

               
‘so that you may consider if with reason some rebel   

               
against that sacred standard, both those opposed

33
           
and those who take it as their own.

               
‘Consider how much valor has made it worthy   

   

               
of reverence, beginning with the hour   

36
           
when Pallas gave his life to give it sway.

               
‘You know it made its home in Alba   

               
for three hundred years and more until, at last,

39
           
again for its sake, three made war on three.

               
‘And you know what it accomplished under seven kings,   

               
from the wrongs done Sabine women to Lucretia’s woes,

42
           
conquering the nearby people all around.

               
‘You know what it accomplished when it was held aloft   

               
by the noble Romans against Brennus, against Pyrrhus,

45
           
against the other kingdoms and republics,   

               
‘so that Torquatus, Quintius—named   

               
for his unkempt locks—the Decii, the Fabii:   

48
           
all achieved the fame that I am glad to keep.   

               
‘It brought the pride of Arabs low   

               
when they followed Hannibal along the Alpine crags

51
           
from which, O river Po, you fall.

               
‘Under it triumphed youthful Scipio and Pompey,   

               
and to that hill beneath which you were born

54
           
it seemed indeed a bitter sight.   

               
‘Then, as the time approached when Heaven willed   

   

               
to bring the world to its own state of peace,

57
           
Caesar, by the will of Rome, laid hold on it.

               
‘And what it accomplished, from the Var to the Rhine,

               
the Isère and the Loire and the Seine beheld,

60
           
as did all the valleys that supply the Rhone.

               
‘What it accomplished when it issued from Ravenna   

               
and leapt the Rubicon was such a flight

63
           
that neither tongue nor pen could follow it.

               
‘Toward Spain it wheeled in arms,

               
then toward Durazzo, and smote Pharsalia,   

66
           
thus bringing grief to the tepid waters of the Nile.

               
‘Antandros and the Simois, where it had set out,

               
it saw again, and the place where Hector lies.

69
           
Then it roused itself—at Ptolemy’s expense.   

               
‘From there, like lightning, it fell on Juba,

               
then turned toward the region to your west,

72
           
where it heard the sound of Pompey’s trumpet.

BOOK: Paradiso
13.44Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

Other books

Keeping It Secret by Terry Towers
My Big Fat Supernatural Wedding by Esther M. Friesner, Sherrilyn Kenyon, Susan Krinard, Rachel Caine, Charlaine Harris, Jim Butcher, Lori Handeland, L. A. Banks, P. N. Elrod
Savage: Iron Dragons MC by Olivia Stephens
Camino al futuro by Peter Rinearson Bill Gates
Morning Song by Karen Robards
The Woman by David Bishop
Replicant Night by K. W. Jeter
The Tide: Deadrise by Melchiorri, Anthony J
The Nemesis Blade by Elaina J Davidson