Paradiso (29 page)
Authors: Dante
‘and, believing, was kindled to such fire
of the one true love that, on his second death,
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he was deemed worthy to enjoy our happiness.
‘The other soul, through grace, which wells up
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from a source so deep there never was a creature
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who could thrust his vision to its primal spring,
‘set all his love below on righteousness.
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And for that reason, from grace to grace,
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God opened his eyes to our redemption yet to come,
‘so that he believed and, from that time on,
endured no longer paganism’s stench
‘The three ladies you saw near the right-hand wheel
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served to baptize him one thousand years and more
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before the sacrament existed.
‘O predestination, how distant is your root
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from the gaze of those who cannot grasp
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the Primal Cause in its entirety!
‘And you mortals, find some restraint
in making judgments, for we, who gaze on God,
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have yet to know all those who are elect.
‘And to us this very lack is sweet,
because in this good is our good perfected,
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for that which God wills we will too.’
Thus did that holy image,
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to cure the shortness of my vision,
And, as a practiced lute player will follow
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a practiced singer with his quivering chords,
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giving the song a sweeter sound,
so, all the while the eagle spoke, as I recall,
I kept my eyes on those two blessèd lights and saw,
just as blinking eyes keep time as one,
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they timed their flames’ pulsations to the words.
SATURN
Semele
, would burn to ash
[Peter Damian]
and his answers:
you, not from personal affection, but in accord with God’s will”;
you
destined to do this?”
Now my eyes were fixed again
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upon my lady’s face. And with my eyes,
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my mind drew back from any other thought.
She was not smiling. ‘If I smiled,’
she said, ‘you would become what Semele became
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when she was turned to ashes,
‘for my beauty, which you have seen
flame up more brilliantly the higher we ascend
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the stairs of this eternal palace,
‘is so resplendent that, were it not tempered
in its blazing, your mortal powers would be
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like tree limbs rent and scorched by lightning.
‘We have risen to the seventh splendor,
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which, beneath the burning Lion’s breast,
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sends down its rays, now mingled with his power.
‘Set your mind behind your eyes
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so that they may become the mirrors for the shape
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that in this heaven’s mirror will appear to you.’
When I was told to set my mind on other things,
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only one who knew how much my eyes could feast
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upon that blessèd countenance
would understand what joy it was to me
but to obey my heavenly guide,
Within the crystal, circling our earth,
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that bears the name of the world’s belovèd king,
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under whose rule all wickedness lay dead,
The color of gold in a ray of sunlight,
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I saw a ladder, rising to so great a height
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my eyesight could not rise along with it.
I also saw, descending on its rungs,
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so many splendors that I thought that every light
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shining in the heavens was pouring down.
And as, following their normal instinct,
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rooks rise up together at the break of day,
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warming their feathers, stiffened by the cold,
and some of them fly off, not to return,
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while some turn back to where they had set out,
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and some keep wheeling overhead,
just such varied motions did I observe
within that sparkling throng, which came as one
And the one that stayed the closest there to us
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grew so shining bright I said, but not aloud,
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‘This sign makes clear your love for me.
‘But she, upon whose word I wait to know
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when and how to speak or to be silent, she keeps still
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and I do well, against my will, to ask no question.’
She, therefore, who could see my silence plain
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in the sight of Him whose sight beholds all things,
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then said: ‘Satisfy the ardent wish that burns within you.’
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And I: ‘My merit does not make me worthy
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of your answer, but for the sake of her
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who gives me leave to ask,
‘blessèd living soul, still hidden
in the radiance of your joy, make known to me
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the cause that made you draw so near
‘and tell me why, within this wheel,
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the sweet symphony of Paradise falls silent,
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which lower down resounds with such devotion.’
‘Your hearing is as mortal as your sight,’
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he answered. ‘Thus here there is no song
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for the very reason Beatrice has not smiled.
‘I have come down the sacred ladder’s rungs this far
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only to bid you welcome with my words
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and with the light that wraps me in its glow.
‘It was not greater love that made me come more swiftly,
for as much and more love burns above,
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as that flaming luminescence shows,
