The Portable Dante (51 page)

He said, “Take heart. The guiltiest of them all I see dragged to his death at a beast’s tail down to the pit that never pardons sin.

The beast with every stride increases speed, faster and faster, till it suddenly kicks free the body, hideously mangled.

Those spheres, ” and he looked up into the heavens, “will not revolve for long before my words, which I have left obscure, will be made clear.

Now I must leave you. I have lost much time, walking along with you at your own pace, and time is precious to us in this realm. ”

As sometimes from a troop riding to war a horseman at a gallop will rush out to win the honor of attacking first—

so he strode faster leaving me to go my way, accompanied by those two shades who were such mighty marshals of the world.

When he had raced so far ahead of us my eyes could follow him no better than my mind could understand what his words meant,

I took my eyes from him—and, suddenly, there in the road in front of me, appeared another tree with verdant, laden boughs.

Beneath the tree I saw shades, arms outstretched, crying out something up into the leaves, like greedy children begging foolishly

to someone who will not answer their plea but who, instead, tempting them all the more, holds in full view the things they cannot reach.

At last, the souls gave up and went away. Then we drew close to that imposing tree, which was impervious to prayers and tears.

“Pass on. Do not come closer. Higher up, there is a tree which gave its fruit to Eve, and this plant is an offshoot of its root. ”

Thus spoke a voice from somewhere in the leaves. So we moved on, Virgil, Statius, and I, close to each other as we hugged the cliff.

“Recall, ” the voice went on, “those wicked ones, born of a cloud who, in their drunkenness, fought double-breast to breast with Theseus.

Recall those Hebrews drinking at their ease, whom Gideon, then, refused to take along as comrades down the hills to Midian. ”

So, walking close to one side of the road, we listened to accounts of Gluttony and learned the wages that these sinners earned.

Then, walking freely on the open way, each of us silent, deeply lost in thought, we had gone more than a full thousand steps,

when, suddenly, a voice called out: “You there, you three alone, what occupies your mind?” I gave a start like some shy beast in panic.

I raised my head to see who just now spoke; and never in a furnace was there seen metal or glass so radiantly red

as was the being who said to me: “If you are looking for the way to climb, turn here: here is the path for those who search for peace. ”

Though blinded by the brilliance of his look, I turned around and groped behind my guides, letting the words just heard direct my feet.

Soft as the early morning breeze of May, which heralds dawn, rich with the grass and flowers, spreading in waves their breathing fragrances,

I felt a breeze strike soft upon my brow: I felt a wing caress it, I am sure, I sensed the sweetness of ambrosia.

I heard the words: “Blessed are those in whom grace shines so copiously that love of food does not arouse excessive appetite,

but lets them hunger after righteousness. ”

Now was the time to climb without delay, for Taurus held the sun’s meridian, and night had left its own to Scorpio.

Even as a man spurred by necessity can never be deterred no matter what, but goes straight on his way until the end,

so did wc make our entrance through the gap and, separated by that narrow space, in single file, we started climbing stairs.

And as a little stork that longs to fly will lift a wing, then, still not bold enough to leave the nest, will let it drop again—

just so was I: my longing to inquire, first bold, then weak; all I did was attempt to speak, and then I quickly changed my mind.

My gentle father, though our pace was swift, encouraged me to talk: “Release your bow of speech, I see it drawn right to the tip. ”

Then, moved by confidence, I spoke to him, asking: “How could they have become so lean since, anyway, they have no need for food?”

“If you recall how Meleager burned as simultaneously the brand burned through, this should not be too hard to understand.

Or think how, when you stand before a glass at every move you make your image moves. Does this not make things clearer than they were?

But now to set your anxious mind at ease, we have here Statius: I shall call on him to be the doctor for your open wound. ”

“If, in your presence, I explain to him, ” Statius replied, “God’s view of things, it is because I can deny no wish of yours. ”

Then he began: “Son, let your mind take in and ponder carefully these words of mine, they will explain the ‘how’ that troubles you.

The perfect blood—the blood that’s never drunk by thirsty veins (like food left on the table still unconsumed) but is preserved entire—

acquires, within the heart, formative powers to build the members of the human shape (as does the blood that serves to nourish them),

then, purified again, flows down into the part best left unmentioned; thence, it sprays in nature’s vessel on another’s blood,

and there the two bloods blend. Each is designed to play a passive or an active role, due to its perfect place of origin;

this joined to that begins to work on it: first it clots, then it quickens what it made compact to serve as working matter now.

The active force, having become a soul (like a plant’s soul, except that this has reached its goal—the active force has just begun),

reaches the stage, then, of a jellyfish: it moves and feels. Then organs start to form for faculties of which it is the seed.

It keeps on swelling, spreading out, my son, this force that comes from the begetter’s heart, where nature plans for all the body’s parts.

But how, from animal, this thing becomes a child, you cannot see yet—and this point has led astray a mind wiser than yours,

for in his teaching he would separate
possible intellect
from soul, because he found no organ for that faculty.

Open your heart to what I now reveal: when the articulation of the brain has been perfected in the embryo,

then the First Mover turns to it, with joy over such art in Nature, and He breathes a spirit into it, new, and with power

to assimilate what it finds active there, so that one single soul is formed complete, that lives and feels and contemplates itself.

(And if you find what I have said is strange, consider the sun’s heat that turns to wine when it joins forces with the juice that flows.)

Then, when Lachesis has run out of flax, the soul is freed of flesh and takes with it, in essence, both the human and divine;

its lower faculties no longer thrive, but memory, intelligence, and will are active and far keener than before.

By its own weight it falls, immediately, marvelously, on one or the other shore, and there it learns its course for the first time.

Then, once the soul is there, contained in space, the informing power radiates around to reshape what the body had before.

And as the air, after a heavy rain, adorns itself with different, fragile hues born of the outer rays reflected there,

just so, the air enveloping the soul where it has fallen must assume the form imprinted on it by the soul’s own powers;

as flame inevitably goes with fire, following it wherever it may shift, so the new form accompanies the soul.

Since air around it makes it visible, it’s called a ‘shade’; and out of air it forms organs for every sense, including sight.

And we can speak, we shades, and we can laugh, and we can shed those tears and breathe those sighs which you may well have heard here on the mount.

The shade takes on the form of our desire, it changes with the feelings we may have: this, then, is what amazed you earlier. ”

We had, by now, arrived at the last round and, having made our usual right turn, our minds became absorbed by something else:

there, from the inner bank, flames flashed out straight, while, from the ledge, a blast of air shot up, bending them back, leaving a narrow path

along the edge where we were forced to walk in single file; and I was terrified—
there
was the fire, and
here
I could fall off!

“In such a place as this, ” my leader said, “be sure to keep your eyes straight on the course, for one could slip here easily and fall. ”

Summae Deus clementiae,
I heard then, sung in the very heart of the great heat; this made me want to look there all the more.

And I saw spirits walking in the flames; I watched them, but I also watched my steps, caught between fear and curiosity.

When they had sung that hymn through to the end, they cried out loudly:
Virum non cognosco,
then, softly, they began the hymn again.

When it was finished, they cried out, “Diana kept to the woods and chased out Helice, whose blood had felt the poison lust of Venus. ”

Then came the hymn again; then came their shouts praising those married pairs who had been chaste, as virtue and the marriage laws require.

And this I think, they do continuously as long as they must burn within the fire: the cure of flames, the diet of the hymns—

with these the last of all their wounds is healed.