Paradiso (40 page)

               
‘Thus down there men are dreaming while they wake,   
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believing that they speak the truth. And those

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who don’t believe so share the greater guilt and shame.

               
‘Down there, when you philosophize, you fail   
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to follow one true path, so does the love of show

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preoccupy your mind and carry you away,

               
‘and even this is tolerated here

               
with less wrath than when holy Scripture

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is neglected or its doctrines are mistaught.

               
‘There is no thought among you of the blood it costs   
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to sow the world with it, or how acceptable he is

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who humbly makes his way to it.

               
‘Each strives to gain attention by inventing new ideas,   
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expounded by the preachers at some length—

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but the Gospel remains silent.

               
‘One says that at Christ’s passion the moon turned back   
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and interposed itself in such a way

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the sun’s light did not reach below.

               
‘He lies, for the light chose to hide itself.   
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And therefore Spaniards and Indians,

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as well as Jews, could all see that eclipse take place.

               
‘Florence has not as many named Lapo and Bindo   
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as it has tales like these that are proclaimed

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from the pulpit, here and there, throughout the year,   
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‘so that the ignorant flocks return from feeding   
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fed on wind. And that they fail

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to see their loss does not excuse them.

               
‘Christ did not say to His first congregation:   
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“Go preach idle nonsense to the world,”

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but gave to them a sound foundation.   
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‘And that alone resounded from their lips,   
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so that, in their warfare to ignite the faith,

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they used the Gospel as their shield and lance.

               
‘Now preachers ply their trade with buffoonery and jokes,

               
their cowls inflating if they get a laugh,

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and the people ask for nothing more.   
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‘But such a bird nests in their hoods   
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that, if the people saw it, they would see

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the kind of pardoning to which they give their trust.

               
‘Because of these such foolishness has grown on earth   
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that, with no warrant vouching for its truth,

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they still would flock to any promise.

               
‘On this Saint Anthony fattens his swine,   
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along with many others who are still more swinish,

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repaying them with unstamped coin.   
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‘But, since we have digressed enough,   
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now turn your eyes to the true road again,

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that the way may be made shorter—and the time.

               
‘The angelic host mounts by degrees   
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to such high numbers, no mortal speech or thought

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could ever count so far,

               
‘and, if you consider what Daniel reveals,   
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you shall see that in his many thousands

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a finite number stays concealed.

               
‘The Primal Light that irradiates them all   
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is received by them in just as many ways

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as there are splendors joined with It.

               
‘Therefore, since affection follows

               
the act of conceiving, love’s sweetness glows

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with differing radiance, more brightly or subdued.

               
‘See now the height and breadth of the Eternal Worth,   
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one light, which shines dispersed among

               
so many mirrors yet remains

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in Itself one, just as It was before.’

               
About six thousand miles away from here   
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the sixth hour burns and even now this world   
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inclines its shadow almost to a level bed,   
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when, deep in intervening air, above us,   
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begins such change that here and there,

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at our depth, a star is lost to sight.

               
And, as that brightest handmaid of the sun advances,   
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the sky extinguishes its lights,

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even the most beautiful, one by one.   
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Not otherwise the victory that revels   
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in eternal joy around the point that overcame me   
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and seems enclosed by that which it encloses   
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little by little faded from my sight,

               
so that, compelled by seeing nothing and by love,

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I turned my eyes to gaze on Beatrice.

               
If all things said of her up to this point   
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were gathered in a single hymn of praise,   
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it would be paltry, matched to what is due.   
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The beauty that I saw transcends   
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all thought of beauty, and I must believe

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that only its maker may savor it all.

               
I declare myself defeated at this point   
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more than any poet, whether comic or tragic,

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was ever thwarted by a topic in his theme,

               
for, like sunlight striking on the weakest eyes,   
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the memory of the sweetness of that smile

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deprives me of my mental powers.   
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From the first day, when in this life I saw her face   
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until my vision of her now, pursuit

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of her in song has never been cut off.   
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But now I must desist in my pursuit,   
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no longer following her beauty in my verse,

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as every artist, having reached his limit, must.   
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Thus I leave her to more glorious trumpeting   
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than that of my own music, as, laboring on,

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I bring my difficult subject toward its close.

               
With the voice and bearing of a guide

               
who has discharged his duty, she began: ‘We have issued   
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from the largest body to the Heaven of pure light,   
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‘light intellectual, full of love,

               
love of true good, full of joy,

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joy that surpasses every sweetness.