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Authors: Dante

BOOK: Paradiso
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And I: ‘Both philosophic reasoning   

               
and the authority that descends from here

27
           
made me receive the imprint of such love,

               
‘for the good, by measure of its goodness, kindles   

               
love as soon as it is known, and so much more

30
           
the more of goodness it contains.

               
‘To that essence, then, which holds such store of goodness

               
that every good outside of it is nothing

33
           
but a light reflected of its rays,

               
‘the mind of everyone who sees the truth

               
on which this argument is based

36
           
must, more than anything, be moved by love.

               
‘This truth is set forth to my understanding   

               
by him who demonstrates to me the primal love

39
           
of all eternal substances.

               
‘And the voice of the truthful Author sets it forth   

               
when, speaking of Himself, He says to Moses:

42
           
“I will make all My goodness pass before you.”   

               
‘You also set it forth to me in the beginning

               
of your great message, which, more than any other herald,   

45
           
proclaims the mystery of this high place on earth.’

               
And I heard: ‘In accord with human reason   

               
and with the authorities concordant with it,

48
           
the highest of your loves is turned to God.

               
‘Say further if you feel still other cords   

               
that draw you to Him, so that you may declare

51
           
the many teeth with which this love does bite.’

               
The holy purpose of Christ’s Eagle was not hidden.

               
Indeed, I readily perceived the road   

54
           
on which he set my declaration on its way.

               
Thus I began again: ‘All those things   

               
the bite of which can make hearts turn to God

57
           
converge with one another in my love.

               
‘The world’s existence and my own,

               
the death He bore that I might live,

60
           
and that which all believers hope for as do I,

               
‘all these—and the certain knowledge of which I spoke—

               
have drawn me from the sea of twisted love   

63
           
and brought me to the shore where love is just.

               
‘I love the leaves with which the garden   

               
of the eternal Gardener is in leaf

66
           
in measure of the good He has bestowed on them.’

               
As soon as I was silent, the sweetest song   

               
resounded through that heaven, and my lady

69
           
chanted with the others: ‘Holy, holy, holy!’

               
As sleep is broken by a piercing light   

   

               
when the spirit of sight runs to meet the brightness

72
           
that passes through its filmy membranes,

               
and the awakened man recoils from what he sees,   

               
his senses stunned in that abrupt awakening

75
           
until his judgment rushes to his aid—

               
exactly thus did Beatrice drive away each mote   

               
from my eyes with the radiance of her own,

78
           
which could be seen a thousand miles away,

               
so that I then saw better than I had before.

               
And almost dazed with wonder I inquired   

   

81
           
about a fourth light shining there among us.

               
My lady answered: ‘Within these rays   

               
the first soul ever made by the First Power

84
           
looks with love upon his Maker.’

               
As the tree that bends its highest branches   

               
in a gust of wind and then springs back,

87
           
raised up by natural inclination,

               
so was I overcome while she was speaking—

               
awestruck—and then restored to confidence

90
           
by the words that burned in me to be expressed.

               
I began: ‘O fruit who alone were brought forth ripe,   

               
O ancient father, of whom each bride

93
           
is at once daughter and daughter-in-law,   

               
‘as humbly as I am able, I make supplication

               
for you to speak with me. You know what I long for.   

96
           
To have your answer sooner I leave that unsaid.’

               
Sometimes, beneath its covering, an animal   

               
stirs, thus making its desire clear

99
           
by how its wrappings follow and reveal its movement.

               
In just this manner the very first soul

               
revealed to me, through its covering,

102
         
how joyously it came to do me pleasure.

               
Then it breathed forth: ‘Without your telling me,   

               
I can discern your wishes even better   

105
         
than you can picture anything you know as certain.

               
‘For I can see them in that truthful mirror

               
which makes itself reflective of all else   

108
         
but which can be reflected nowhere else.

               
‘You wish to know how long it is since God   

               
placed me in the lofty garden where this lady   

111
         
prepared you for so long a stairway,

               
‘and how long it was a pleasure to my eyes,

               
and the true cause of the great wrath,

114
         
and the language that I used and that I shaped.   

               
‘Know then, my son, that in itself the tasting of the tree   

   

               
was not the cause of such long exile—   

117
         
it lay in trespassing the boundary line.

               
‘In the place from which your lady sent down Virgil   

   

               
I longed for this assembly more than four thousand

120
         
three hundred and two revolutions of the sun,

               
‘and I saw it return to all the lights   

               
along its track nine hundred thirty times

123
         
while I was living on the earth.

               
‘The tongue I spoke was utterly extinct   

               
before the followers of Nimrod turned their minds

126
         
to their unattainable ambition.

               
‘For nothing ever produced by reason—

               
since human tastes reflect the motion

129
         
of the moving stars—can last forever.

               
‘It is the work of nature man should speak   

               
but, if in this way or in that, nature leaves to you,

132
         
allowing you to choose at your own pleasure.   

               
‘Before I descended to anguish of Hell,   

               
I
was the name on earth of the Sovereign Good,   

135
         
whose joyous rays envelop and surround me.   

               
‘Later
El
became His name, and that is as it should be,   

               
for mortal custom is like a leaf upon a branch,   

138
         
which goes and then another comes.

               
‘On the mountain that rises highest   

               
from the sea, I lived, pure, then guilty,

               
from the first hour until the sun changed quadrant,

142
         
in the hour that follows on the sixth.’

OUTLINE: PARADISO XXVII

STARRY SPHERE; CRYSTALLINE SPHERE

1–3
   
the “Gloria” sung by all the saints makes Dante drunk;
4–6
   
they seemed to be smiling, so that his “drunkenness” was brought about by both his hearing and his sight;
7–9
   
the poet apostrophizes joy, gladness, a life of love and peace, and wealth.
10–18
   
Peter, Luke, John, and Adam flame before Dante, Peter more than the other three; God has quieted the rest.
19–21
   
Peter: “If you think
I
changed color, wait until you see the rest of these souls!”
22–27
   
Peter’s denunciation of
Boniface VIII,
Christ’s vicar
28–30
   
the redness promised by Peter overspreads the host;
31–36
   
double simile: chaste lady blushing at another’s fault, Beatrice’s shame (the eclipse at the
Crucifixion
);
37–39
   
Peter’s voice now as changed as his color:
40–45
   
(1) amassing wealth not the aim of Peter or of his martyred successors,
46–48
   
(2) nor that the pope should divide his flock into two,
49–51
   
(3) nor that the Guelphs should bear the papal keys as their military insignia;
52–54
   
(4) nor that the popes should sell indulgences under the seal bearing Peter’s likeness;
55–57
   
the corrupt clergy: why does God delay His vengeance?
58–60
   
foreign [popes] drink Peter’s and his followers’ blood
61–63
   
but Providence, which sided with
Scipio,
will act soon;
64–66
   
Peter to Dante: “When you return, tell them the truth!”
67–72
   
Simile: as in winter, under Capricorn, snowflakes fall downward, so the souls of the blessed “fall” upward
73–78
   
Dante follows their upward flight as long as he can, at which point Beatrice invites him to look down:
79–87
   
Dante’s second look down into the revolving universe;
88–96
   
ascent to the ninth sphere: Beatrice’s smiling face;
97–99
   
as Dante gazes, he is transported out of Gemini in the sphere of the fixed stars and into the Primum Mobile;
100–102
   
this sphere has no recognizable “landmarks,” all its “parts” being uniform;
103–105
   
smiling, Beatrice explains to Dante where they are:
106–120
   
Beatrice on the Primum Mobile as imparting motion to the rest of the universe and thus as the source of time
121–141
   
Beatrice’s apostrophe of greed;
142–148
   
Beatrice’s prophecy: the coming “storm at sea.”

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