Paradiso (9 page)

               
Beatrice looked at me with eyes so full   
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of the radiance of love and so divine

               
that, overcome, my power of sight faded and fled,

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and, eyes cast down, I almost lost my senses.

               
‘If I flame at you with a heat of love   
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beyond all measure known on earth

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so that I overcome your power of sight,

               
‘do not wonder, for this is the result

               
of perfect vision, which, even as it apprehends,

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moves its foot toward the apprehended good.   
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‘I see clearly how, reflected in your mind,   
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the eternal light that, once beheld,

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alone and always kindles love, is shining.

               
‘And, if anything else beguiles your mortal love,   
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it is nothing but a remnant of that light, which,   
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incompletely understood, still shines in it.

               
‘You want to know if a vow left unfulfilled   
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may be redeemed by some exchange

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that then secures the soul from challenge.’

               
Thus did Beatrice begin this canto and,   
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like a man who does not interrupt his speech,

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continued thus her holy discourse:

               
‘The greatest gift that God in His largesse   
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gave to creation, the most attuned

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to His goodness and that He accounts most dear,

               
‘was the freedom of the will:

               
all creatures possessed of intellect,   
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all of them and they alone, were and are so endowed.

               
‘Now will be clear to you, reasoning from this,   
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the lofty worth of vows, as long as they are such

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that God consent when you consent.

               
‘For when man makes a pact with God,

               
this treasure, as I have suggested, then becomes

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the sacrificial pledge, an action freely chosen.

               
‘What, then, may you render in its place?

               
If you think of doing good with what you’ve offered,

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you would do good works with gains ill-gotten.

               
‘Now you may be certain of the major point.   
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Since Holy Church gives dispensations in this matter—

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which seems to contradict the truth I have declared—

               
‘you’ll have to linger longer over dinner,

               
for the tough food that you have swallowed

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still requires some aid for your digesting.

               
‘Open your mind to what I now explain

               
and fix it in your memory, for to hear

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and not remember does not lead to knowledge.

               
‘Two things compose the essence   
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of this sacrificial act,

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first that which is promised, then the pact itself.

               
‘This pact can never be annulled   
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until it is fulfilled. It was of this

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I spoke just now with such precision.

               
‘Thus it was incumbent on the Hebrews   
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still to offer sacrifice, even if some offerings

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allowed for substitution, as surely you must know.   
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‘The first part, as has been explained, is the object   
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of the vow. It may indeed be such there is no fault

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in substituting other objects for it.

               
‘But let no man shift the burden on his shoulders

               
at the call of his own will, for such change requires

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that both the white and yellow keys be turned.   
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‘Let each exchange be reckoned vain

               
unless the burden laid aside is found,

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as four is found in six, in the one assumed.

               
‘Whatever, therefore, has such worth

               
as would unbalance any scale

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shall not be replaced, no matter what the cost.

               
‘Let not mortals take vows lightly.   
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Be faithful and, as well, not injudicious,

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as was Jephthah, offering up what first he saw,   
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‘who had done better had he said “I have done ill”

               
than keeping faith and doing worse. And you can find

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this sort of folly in the leader of the Greeks,

               
‘who made Iphigenia lament the beauty of her face   
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and who made all those, whether wise or foolish,

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who heard reports of such a rite lament as well.

               
‘Be more grave, Christians, in your endeavors.   
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Do not resemble feathers in the wind, nor think   
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that any sort of water has the power to wash you clean.

               
‘You have the Testaments, both New and Old,   
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and the shepherd of the Church to guide you.

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Let these suffice for your salvation.

               
‘If wicked greed should call you elsewhere,   
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be men, not maddened sheep, lest the Jew

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there in your midst make mock of you.   
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‘Be not like the lamb that leaves

               
its mother’s milk and, silly and wanton,

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pretends to battle with itself in play.’

               
Just as I am writing, thus did Beatrice speak.   
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And then, still filled with longing, she turned

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to where the universe shines brightest.   
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Her falling silent and her transformed look   
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imposed a silence on my eager mind,

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which was already teeming with new questions.   
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And next, like a shaft that strikes its target

               
before the cord is still,

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we sped into the second realm.

               
There I saw my lady so radiant with joy   
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as she passed into that heaven’s brightness

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that the planet shone the brighter for it.

               
And if even that star then changed and smiled,

               
what did I become who by my very nature

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am subject to each and every kind of change?

               
As to the surface of a fishpond, calm and clear,   
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the fish draw close to what they see above them,

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believing it to be their food,