Authors: Dante
‘But it was destined that, to the shattered stone
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that guards the bridge, Florence should offer
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a sacrificial victim in her final days of peace.
‘With these noble families, and with others still,
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I saw Florence in such tranquility
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that there was nothing that might cause her grief.
‘With these noble families I saw her people
so glorious and just, that the lily
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had not yet been reversed upon the lance
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MARS
Like him who came to Clymene to cast out doubt
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upon the rumor he had heard against himself,
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who still makes fathers cautious with their sons,
such was I and such was I perceived to be
both by Beatrice and by the holy light
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that earlier for me had changed its place.
And so my lady said to me: ‘Send forth
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the flame of your desire, and let it issue
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with the clear imprint of its inner stamp,
‘not that our knowledge be increased by what you say
but that you rehearse the telling of your thirst
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so that the drink be poured for you.’
‘so you, gazing on the point that holds all time
are able to discern contingencies
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before they are apparent in themselves.
‘While I was still in Virgil’s company,
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both on the mountain that restores our souls
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and during our descent into the region of the dead,
‘grave words were said to me about my future life—
however much I feel myself prepared
‘so that my will would be content
if I could know what fate draws near,
I said these words to the very light
that had just spoken and, as Beatrice wished,
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my wish was now declared.
Not with cloudy sayings, by which the foolish folk
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were once ensnared, before the Lamb of God,
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who takes away our sins, was slain,
but in plain words and with clear speech
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that paternal love replied,
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hidden and yet revealed in his own smile:
‘Contingent things, which do not extend
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beyond the pages of your material world,
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are all depicted in the Eternal Sight,
‘yet are by that no more enjoined
than is a ship, moved downstream on a river’s flow,
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by the eyes that mirror it.
‘And thus, as harmony’s sweet sound may rise
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from mingled voices to the ear, so rises to my sight
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a vision of the time that lies in store for you.
‘As Hippolytus was forced to flee from Athens,
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because of his stepmother, treacherous and fierce,
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so shall you be forced to flee from Florence.
‘This is the plan, already set in motion,
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that soon will bring success to him who plots it
‘The populace shall blame the injured party,
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as it always does, but vengeance
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shall bear witness to the Truth that metes it out.
‘You shall leave behind all you most dearly love,
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and that shall be the arrow
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first loosed from exile’s bow.
‘You shall learn how salt is the taste
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of another man’s bread and how hard is the way,
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going down and then up another man’s stairs.
‘But the heaviest burden your shoulders must bear
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shall be the companions, wicked and witless,
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among whom you shall fall in your descent.
‘They, utterly ungrateful, mad, and faithless,
shall turn against you. But soon enough they, not you,
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shall feel their faces blushing past their brows.
‘Of their brutish state the results
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shall offer proof. And it shall bring you honor
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to have made a single party of yourself alone.
‘You shall find welcome and a first refuge
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in the courtesy of the noble Lombard,
‘It is he who will hold you in such gracious favor
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that, as for granting and asking, between you two,
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that shall be first which, between all others, happens after.
‘In his company you shall find one who, at birth,
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so took the imprint of this mighty star
‘As yet the people, because of his youth,
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take small note of him, since these wheels
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have revolved above him only for nine years.
‘But, before the Gascon can deceive the noble Henry,
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sparks of his virtue shall at first shine forth
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in his indifference to wealth or toil,
‘and his munificence shall one day be so widely known
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even his enemies will not contrive
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to keep their tongues from praising it.