Paradiso (43 page)

               
Bernard, who saw my eyes were fixed, intent   
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upon the very fire that made him warm,   
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turned his own on her with such affection

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that he made mine more ardent in their gaze.

               
Absorbed in his delight, that man of contemplation   
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took upon himself the teacher’s role   
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and spoke these holy words:

               
‘The wound that Mary closed up and anointed   
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was opened and inflicted

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by the lovely woman now at Mary’s feet.

               
‘Below her, in the order

               
formed by the third tier of the seats,   
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as you can see, Rachel sits with Beatrice.   
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‘Sarah and Rebecca, Judith and she—   
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great-grandmother of that singer who,   
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grieving for his sin, cried:
“Miserere mei”
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‘may be seen there, one beneath the other,   
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in their ordered ranks, while I, pausing for each name,

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move petal by petal down through the rose.

               
‘And downward from the seventh tier, or up,   
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parting all the petals of this flower,

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are the appointed seats of Hebrew women.

               
‘For, according to whether in their faith

               
they looked forward to Christ or back,

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this is the wall that separates the sacred tiers.

               
‘On this side, where the flower is in fullest bloom

               
with all its petals, those are seated

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who believed in Christ as yet to come.

               
‘On the other side, where the semicircles   
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are interspersed with vacant spaces, are seated

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those who kept their eyes on Christ already come.

               
‘And just as here the glorious seat

               
of heaven’s lady and the other seats beneath it

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form that long dividing line,

               
‘so, opposite, does that of the exalted soul of John,   
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who, holy since his birth, endured the wilderness   
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and martyrdom, and then two years of Hell.

               
‘Below him, and continuing that line,   
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sit Francis, Benedict, Augustine, and others,   
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assigned as far as this, down from tier to tier.   
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‘Now behold the depth of God’s foreseeing,   
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for both the ways of showing faith   
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shall fill this garden equally.

               
‘And know that downward from the row   
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that midway cuts the two dividing lines

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the seats are held by those who had no merit of their own,

               
‘but through deserving others, under fixed conditions,   
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were freed from sin, for all of these are spirits

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released before they exercised free choice.

               
‘This, indeed, you may discover for yourself   
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from their faces and their childish voices,

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if you look at them with care and if you listen.

               
‘Now you are perplexed and silent in perplexity.   
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Let me untie the complicated knot

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in which your oversubtle thoughts have bound you.

               
‘In all the ample range of this domain

               
no trace of chance can find a place—

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no more than sorrow, thirst, or hunger,

               
‘for all you see here is ordained by law eternal,

               
so that the circling ring here fits

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the finger that was meant for it.   
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‘Thus, the company of those who prematurely

               
came to this true life are not
sine causa

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placed more and less exalted here among themselves.

               
‘The King, through whom this kingdom rests   
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in love so great and in so great delight

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their will would never dare to ask for more,

               
‘creating every mind in His own bliss,

               
variously bestows His grace and as He pleases—

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and, in this case, let the fact suffice.

               
‘This is clearly and expressly noted for you   
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by Holy Scripture in the account of twins

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who, still in their mother’s womb, were moved to wrath.

               
‘Therefore, according to the color of the hair

               
bestowed with so much grace, the Sovereign Light

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will crown them with their fitting aureoles.

               
‘Not for what they’ve done or have not done

               
they thus are placed in separate ranks, separated

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only by the keenness of the vision they were born to.

               
‘In early times their parents’ faith alone,   
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coupled with the innocence that they possessed,

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gave sufficient proof of their salvation.

               
‘Once the first age had run its course,   
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male children had to find the strength

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for innocent wings in circumcision.

               
‘But once the time of grace had come,

               
then, without perfect baptism in Christ,   
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such innocents were cast below.

               
‘Look now on the face that most resembles Christ,   
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for nothing but its brightness

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can make you fit to look on Christ.’

               
I saw such joy rain down on her,   
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conveyed within the minds and borne

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by holy spirits framed to soar those heights,

               
that, however much I had seen before,

               
nothing had held me in such wonder and suspense,

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nor shown me so close a likeness to God,

               
and the loving spirit that had first descended,

               
singing
‘Ave Maria, gratia plena’
   
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hovered before her with his wings outspread.

               
From every side the blessèd court all sang,   
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responding to the solemn sacred chant,

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so that each face became more luminous with joy.