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Authors: Dante

BOOK: Paradiso
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PARADISO IV

               
Between two foods, equally near at hand and tempting,   

   

               
left free to choose, a man would die of hunger

3
             
before he could bring either to his teeth—

               
so would a lamb stand still, caught between the cravings   

               
of two ferocious wolves, in equal fear of both,

6
             
so would a hound, stock-still between two does:   

               
just so, if I kept silent, urged in equal measure

               
by my doubts, I merit neither praise nor blame,

9
             
since my silence was forced, not freely chosen.

               
I kept silent, but my longing

               
and my questions all were painted on my face

12
           
more ardently than words could have expressed.

               
Beatrice did what Daniel did   

               
when he freed Nebuchadnezzar from his wrath,

15
           
which had made him cruel unjustly,

               
by her words: ‘It is clear to me you feel the pull   

               
of two desires, so that your divided craving

18
           
binds itself so tight it can’t breathe out.

               
‘You reason: “If the will does not even waver   

   

               
in devotion to the good, how can the violence

21
           
of another reduce my measure of reward?”

               
‘Still another cause for your perplexity

               
is that you think, in accord with Plato’s teaching,

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the souls return to their own stars.   

               
‘These are the questions that weigh equally   

   

               
upon your will. First I shall deal

27
           
with the one that has more venom in it.

               
‘Not the Seraph that most ingods himself,   

   

               
not Moses, Samuel, or whichever John you please—   

   

30
           
none of these, I say, not even Mary,

               
‘have their seats in another heaven   

               
than do these spirits you have just now seen,

33
           
nor does their bliss last fewer years or more.   

               
‘No, all adorn the highest circle—   

               
but they enjoy sweet life in differing measure   

36
           
as they feel less or more of God’s eternal breath.   

               
‘Those souls put themselves on view here   

               
not because they are allotted to this sphere

39
           
but as a sign of less exalted rank in Heaven.   

               
‘It is necessary thus to address your faculties,   

   

               
since only in perceiving through the senses can they grasp

42
           
that which they then make fit for intellect.

               
‘For this reason Scripture condescends   

               
to your capacity when it attributes hands and feet

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to God, but has another meaning,

               
‘and for your sake Holy Church portrays   

               
Gabriel and Michael with the faces of men

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and that other angel who made Tobit well again.   

               
‘What Timaeus has to say about the souls   

               
does not resemble what one here observes

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because he seems to take his words for facts.   

               
‘He claims the soul returns to its own star,

               
from which he thinks that it was drawn

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when nature gave it bodily form.   

               
‘But perhaps his meaning differs   

   

   

               
from what his words seem to express

57
           
and may have an intention not lightly mocked.

               
‘If he intends to assign to these wheels   

               
the honor of their influence and the blame,

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then his shaft may strike a certain truth.

               
‘This principle, wrongly understood, once misled   

               
nearly all the world so that it went astray   

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and named stars Jupiter, Mercury, and Mars.

               
‘The other doubt that troubles you   

   

               
contains less venom because its harm

66
           
could not lead you away from me.

               
‘For divine justice to appear unjust   

               
in mortal eyes is evidence of faith,

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not of heretical iniquity.

               
‘Since your human understanding is quite able   

               
to penetrate this truth,

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I shall content you as you wish.

               
‘Even if violence is done when the one who bears it   

               
in no way consents to the one who deals it out,

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these souls were not excused on that account.

               
‘For the will, except by its own willing, is not spent,

               
but does as by its nature fire does in flame,   

78
           
though violence may force it down one thousand times.

               
‘Thus, if it stays bent, whether much or little,

               
it then accepts that force, as indeed did these,

81
           
since they could have retreated to their holy place.

               
‘Had their will remained unbroken,   

               
as did the will that fastened Lawrence to the grate

84
           
and which made Mucius harsh to his own hand,

               
‘then, once freed, it would have drawn them back

               
along the path from which they had been dragged.

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But will so firm is all too rare.

               
‘And these words, if you have correctly understood them,

               
have destroyed an argument   

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that would have often troubled you again.

               
‘But now before your eyes you find   

               
another obstacle, so vast that your attempt

93
           
to overcome it on your own would leave you spent.

               
‘Assuredly I have set it firmly in your mind   

               
that a soul in bliss could never tell a lie,

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since it is always near the primal Truth.

               
‘But then you may have heard Piccarda say

               
that Constance kept her true love for the veil,

99
           
so that in this she seems to contradict me.

               
‘Many times, brother, has it occurred   

               
that, if unwillingly, to escape from harm,

102
         
one does a thing that had better not been done,

               
‘as Alcmaeon, exhorted by his father,

               
slew his own mother: so as not to fail

105
         
in piety, he steeled himself to pity.

               
‘At this point, I would ask you to reflect,

               
the threat of violence so mingles with the will

108
         
that these offenses cannot be excused.

               
‘An absolute will consents not to the wrong,   

               
but the will
does
consent to the extent it fears,

111
         
if it draws back, to fall into still greater harm.

               
‘Piccarda, thus, in that which she affirms,

               
speaks of the absolute will, while I refer

114
         
to the other, so that we both maintain a truth.’

               
Such was the rippling of the holy stream,   

               
issuing from the source from which all truth derives,

117
         
that put each one of my desires at peace.

               
‘O belovèd of the first Lover,’ I said then,   

               
‘divine creature whose speech so floods and scalds me

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that I am more and more alive,

               
‘not all the depth of my affection

               
is enough to requite You grace for grace.   

123
         
But may He who sees, and has the power, reward You.

               
‘I now see clearly that our intellect

               
cannot be satisfied until that truth enlighten it

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beyond whose boundary no further truth extends.

               
‘In that truth, like a wild beast in its den, it rests

               
once it has made its way there—and it can do that,

129
         
or else its every wish would be in vain.

               
‘Like a shoot, doubt springs   

               
from the root of truth, and its nature

132
         
urges us toward the summit, from ridge to ridge.

               
‘It is this, lady, that invites and assures me

               
to ask You, with reverence, about another truth

135
         
that still remains obscure to me.

               
‘I would like to know if one can satisfy your court   

               
with such other works for vows left unfulfilled

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that in your scale their weight would not be scant.’

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