Paradiso (38 page)

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Authors: Dante

BOOK: Paradiso
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‘But, before all January leaves the winter   

   

               
for the hundredth part neglected there below,

144
         
rays from these lofty circles shall shine forth   

               
‘so that the long-awaited tempest turn the ships,   

               
setting their poops where now they have their prows.   

               
Then shall the fleet run its true course

148
         
and the blossom shall be followed by good fruit.’   

OUTLINE: PARADISO XXVIII

CRYSTALLINE SPHERE

1–3
   
retrospective attention to Beatrice’s prophecy;
4–12
   
simile: as a man, seeing a torch in a mirror, looks back to see if it is actually behind him, so Dante turned back to see the reflection in Beatrice’s eyes;
13–21
   
he sees [reflected?] in the sphere itself a tiny
point
22–42
   
and then
nine concentric circles
of light [nine orders of angels] revolving around that point, which is God
43–45
   
Beatrice on the
Seraphim,
the order closest to God
46–57
   
Dante’s question about the inverse relations between speed and distance in these two “universes”
58–63
   
Beatrice’s first response: “If you cannot undo this knot, it is no wonder, since no one else has tried to”
64–78
   
and her second: the “astronomy” of the Empyrean
79–87
   
similes:
Boreas
clears out the night sky just as Beatrice explains these things; her truthful words resemble a star in the heavens
88–90
   
the angels’ response to her explanation:
91–96
   
myriads of them emit Hosannahs to God
97–139
   
Beatrice explains the hierarchy of the angels:
97–114
   
the first triad: Seraphim,
Cherubim,
and
Thrones
;
115–126
   
the next two triads:
Dominions, Virtues, Powers
;
Principalities
,
Archangels
,
Angels
;
127–129
   
all angelic orders look up but interact below
130–135
   
Dionysius
had the order right, but not
Gregory
136–139
   
and Dionysius was informed directly by
St. Paul
.
PARADISO XXVIII

               
When she who does imparadise my mind   

               
had revealed the truth against   

3
             
the present life of wretched mortals,   

               
then, as one whose way is lit by a double-candled lamp   

   

               
held at his back, who suddenly in a mirror sees

6
             
the flame before he has seen or even thought of it

               
and turns to see if the glass is telling him the truth,

               
and then sees that it reflects things as they are—   

9
             
as notes reflect the score when they are sung—

               
just so do I remember having done,   

               
gazing into the beautiful eyes

12
           
which Love had made into the snare that caught me.   

               
When I turned back and my eyes were struck   

               
by what appears on that revolving sphere—   

15
           
if one but contemplates its circling—   

               
I saw a point that flashed a beam of light   

               
so sharp the eye on which it burns

18
           
must close against its piercing brightness.

               
The star that, seen from here below, seems smallest

               
would seem a moon if put beside it,

21
           
as when one star is set beside another.

               
As near, perhaps, as a halo seems to be   

   

               
when it encircles the light that colors it,

24
           
where the vapor that forms it is most dense,

               
there whirled about that point a ring of fire   

               
so quick it would have easily outsped

27
           
the swiftest sphere circling the universe.   

               
This ring was encircled by another ring,   

               
and that by the third, the third by the fourth,

30
           
the fourth by the fifth, and the fifth by the sixth.

               
Higher there followed the seventh, now spread so wide   

               
that the messenger of Juno, in full circle,

33
           
would be unable to contain its size.

               
And so, too, the eighth and ninth,   

               
each one revolving with diminished speed

36
           
the farther it was wheeling from the first.

               
And that one least removed from the blazing point of light   

               
possessed the clearest flame, because, I think,

39
           
it was the one that is the most intruthed by it.

               
My lady, who saw me in grave doubt

               
yet eager to know and comprehend, said:   

   

42
           
‘From that point depend the heavens and all nature.

               
‘Observe that circle nearest it,   

               
and understand its motion is so swift

45
           
because it is spurred on by flaming love.’

               
And I to her: ‘If the universe were arranged   

               
in the order I see here among these wheels

48
           
I would be content with what you’ve set before me.

               
‘However, in the world of sense we see

               
the farther from the center they revolve

51
           
the more divinity is in their orbits.

               
‘And so, if my desire to know shall gain its end   

               
in this rare temple of the angels,

54
           
which has but light and love for boundaries,

               
‘then I still need to learn exactly why   

               
the model and copy fail to follow the same plan,

57
           
for, using my own powers, I reflect on this in vain.’

               
‘That your fingers are not fit to undo this knot   

               
is not surprising, so entangled

60
           
has it become from never being tried.’

               
My lady said this, then went on: ‘Take

               
what I shall tell you if you would be fed,

63
           
and see you sharpen your wits on it.

               
‘The material heavens are wide or narrow   

               
according as power, greater or less,

66
           
is diffused through all their parts.

               
‘Greater goodness makes for greater bliss,

               
and greater bliss takes on a greater body

69
           
when all its parts are equal in perfection.

               
‘This sphere, therefore, which sweeps into its motion

               
the rest of the universe, must correspond

72
           
to the ring that loves and knows the most,   

               
‘so that, if you apply your measure,

               
not to their appearances but to the powers themselves

75
           
of the angels that appear to you as circles,

               
‘you will see a marvelous congruence,

               
larger with more, smaller with less, in each sphere

78
           
according to its celestial Intelligence.’

               
As the vault of our air is left   

               
serene and shining when Boreas

81
           
blows from his gentler cheek

               
and the dark refuse of the sky is cleared

               
and purged away so that the heavens smile

84
           
as all their quarters fill with loveliness,

               
just so did I feel when my lady

               
bestowed on me her lucid answer,

87
           
and, like a star in heaven, the truth shone clear.   

               
And, when she paused in her speech,   

               
as boiling iron shoots out sparks

90
           
so did these circles sparkle,

               
each spark keeping to its flaming ring. They were   

               
so many that their number ran to thousands more

93
           
than the successive doubling of a chessboard’s squares.

               
From choir to choir I heard
Hosanna
sung   

               
to the fixed point, which holds them—and forever shall—   

96
           
in those
ubi
that have always been theirs.

               
And she, who understood the puzzled thoughts   

               
now present in my mind, said: ‘The closer rings   

99
           
reveal to you both Seraphim and Cherubim.

               
‘They seek their bonds so swiftly, hoping they may gain

               
as much as they can hold of likeness to the point,

102
         
and this they can attain, the loftier their vision.

               
‘These other loving spirits circling them   

   

               
are called the Thrones of God,   

105
         
and with them the first triad was complete.   

               
‘And you should know that all of them delight   

               
in measure of the depth to which their sight

108
         
can penetrate the truth, where every intellect finds rest.

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