Paradiso (45 page)

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Authors: Dante

BOOK: Paradiso
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With his smile, Bernard signaled   

               
that I look upward, but of my own accord   

51
           
I was already doing what he wished,

               
for my sight, becoming pure,   

               
rose higher and higher through the ray

54
           
of the exalted light that in itself is true.

               
From that time on my power of sight exceeded   

               
that of speech, which fails at such a vision,

57
           
as memory fails at such abundance.   

               
Just as the dreamer, after he awakens,   

   

   

               
still stirred by feelings that the dream evoked,

60
           
cannot bring the rest of it to mind,

               
such am I, my vision almost faded from my mind,   

               
while in my heart there still endures   

   

63
           
the sweetness that was born of it.

               
Thus the sun unseals an imprint in the snow.   

               
Thus the Sibyl’s oracles, on weightless leaves,   

66
           
lifted by the wind, were swept away.   

               
O Light exalted beyond mortal thought,   

   

               
grant that in memory I see again

69
           
but one small part of how you then appeared

               
and grant my tongue sufficient power

               
that it may leave behind a single spark

72
           
of glory for the people yet to come,

               
since, if you return but briefly to my mind

               
and then resound but softly in these lines,

75
           
the better will your victory be conceived.

               
I believe, from the keenness of the living ray   

               
that I endured, I would have been undone   

78
           
had I withdrawn my eyes from it.

               
And I remember that, on this account,

               
I grew more bold and thus sustained my gaze

81
           
until I reached the Goodness that is infinite.

               
O plenitude of grace, by which I could presume

               
to fix my eyes upon eternal Light

84
           
until my sight was spent on it!

               
In its depth I saw contained,   

   

   

               
by love into a single volume bound,

87
           
the pages scattered through the universe:

               
substances, accidents, and the interplay between them,

               
as though they were conflated in such ways

90
           
that what I tell is but a simple light.

               
I believe I understood the universal form   

               
of this dense knot because I feel my joy expand,

93
           
rejoicing as I speak of it.

               
My memory of that moment is more lost   

   

               
than five and twenty centuries make dim that enterprise   

96
           
when, in wonder, Neptune at the
Argo
’s shadow stared.   

               
Thus all my mind, absorbed,   

               
was gazing, fixed, unmoving and intent,   

99
           
becoming more enraptured in its gazing.

               
He who beholds that Light is so enthralled   

               
that he would never willingly consent

102
         
to turn away from it for any other sight,

               
because the good that is the object of the will

               
is held and gathered in perfection there

105
         
that elsewhere would imperfect show.

               
Now my words will come far short   

               
of what I still remember, like a babe’s

108
         
who at his mother’s breast still wets his tongue.

               
Not that the living Light at which I gazed

               
took on other than a single aspect—

111
         
for It is always what It was before—   

               
but that my sight was gaining strength, even as I gazed

               
at that sole semblance and, as I changed,

114
         
it too was being, in my eyes, transformed.

               
In the deep, transparent essence of the lofty Light   

               
there appeared to me three circles   

117
         
having three colors but the same extent,

               
and each one seemed reflected by the other   

               
as rainbow is by rainbow, while the third seemed fire,

120
         
equally breathed forth by one and by the other.

               
O how scant is speech, too weak to frame my thoughts.   

               
Compared to what I still recall my words are faint—

123
         
to call them “little” is to praise them much.

               
O eternal Light, abiding in yourself alone,   

               
knowing yourself alone, and, known to yourself

126
         
and knowing, loving and smiling on yourself!

               
That circling which, thus conceived,   

   

               
appeared in you as light’s reflection,

129
         
once my eyes had gazed on it a while, seemed,

               
within itself and in its very color,   

               
to be painted with our likeness,   

132
         
so that my sight was all absorbed in it.

               
Like the geometer who fully applies himself   

               
to square the circle and, for all his thought,

135
         
cannot discover the principle he lacks,

               
such was I at that strange new sight.

               
I tried to see how the image fit the circle   

138
         
and how it found its where in it.   

               
But my wings had not sufficed for that   

               
had not my mind been struck by a bolt

141
         
of lightning that granted what I asked.

               
Here my exalted vision lost its power.   

   

               
But now my will and my desire, like wheels revolving   

               
with an even motion, were turning with   

145
         
the Love that moves the sun and all the other stars.   

The Paradiso: Italian
PARADISO I

               
La gloria di colui che tutto move   

   

               
per l’universo penetra, e risplende   

3
             
in una parte più e meno altrove.

               
Nel ciel che più de la sua luce prende   

   

   

               
fu’ io, e vidi cose che ridire   

6
             
né sa né può chi di là sù discende;

               
perché appressando sé al suo disire,   

               
nostro intelletto si profonda tanto,

9
             
che dietro la memoria non può ire.   

               
Veramente quant’ io del regno santo   

   

               
ne la mia mente potei far tesoro,   

12
           
sarà ora materia del mio canto.   

               
O buono Appollo, a l’ultimo lavoro   

   

   

               
fammi del tuo valor sì fatto vaso,

15
           
come dimandi a dar l’amato alloro.

               
Infino a qui l’un giogo di Parnaso   

               
assai mi fu; ma or con amendue

18
           
m’è uopo intrar ne l’aringo rimaso.   

               
Entra nel petto mio, e spira tue   

               
sì come quando Marsïa traesti   

21
           
de la vagina de le membra sue.

               
O divina virtù, se mi ti presti   

               
tanto che l’ombra del beato regno

24
           
segnata nel mio capo io manifesti,

               
vedra’mi al piè del tuo diletto legno   

               
venire, e coronarmi de le foglie

27
           
che la materia e tu mi farai degno.

               
Sì rade volte, padre, se ne coglie   

               
per trïunfare o cesare o poeta,   

30
           
colpa e vergogna de l’umane voglie,

               
che parturir letizia in su la lieta

               
delfica deïtà dovria la fronda

33
           
peneia, quando alcun di sé asseta.

               
Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda:   

               
forse di retro a me con miglior voci   

36
           
si pregherà perché Cirra risponda.

               
Surge ai mortali per diverse foci   

               
la lucerna del mondo; ma da quella

39
           
che quattro cerchi giugne con tre croci,

               
con miglior corso e con migliore stella

               
esce congiunta, e la mondana cera

42
           
più a suo modo tempera e suggella.

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