The Portable Dante (71 page)

All those who bear the handsome quarterings of the great Baron Hugh whose name and worth are celebrated on Saint Thomas’ Day,

received from him knighthood and privilege, though he who decks that coat of arms with fringe today has taken up the people’s cause.

The Gualterrotti and the Importuni existed then; their Borgo would have been a quieter place had they been spared new neighbors.

The House that was the source of all your tears, whose just resentment was the death of you and put an end to all your joy of life,

was highly honored as were all its clan. O Buondelmonte, wrong you were to flee the nuptials at the promptings of another!

Many who now are sad would have been pleased if God had let the Ema drown you when you started for our city the first time.

How fitting for Florence to sacrifice a victim to the mutilated stone that guards her bridge to mark the end of peace!

With these and other men who ruled like them I saw a Florence prospering in peace with no cause, then, to grieve as she has now.

With families like these in charge I saw the glory and the justice of her people: never the lily on the staff reversed,

nor through dissension changed from white to red. ”

Like him who came to Clymene to learn the truth of those things said against him, he who still makes fathers chary of their sons,

was I, and just so was I felt to be by Beatrice and that holy light who for my sake had moved from where he was.

Wherefore my lady said: “Release the flame of your consuming wish; let it come forth marked clearly with the stamp of your desire,

not that your words would add to what we know, but that you better learn to speak your thirst in order that your cup be filled for you. ”

“O my own cherished root, so highly raised that, as men see no triangle contains among its angles two that are obtuse,

you see, gazing upon the final Point where time is timeless, those contingent things before they ever come into true being.

While I was still in Virgil’s company, climbing the mountain where the souls are healed, descending through the kingdom of the dead,

ominous words about my future life were said to me—the truth is that I feel my soul foursquare against the blows of chance;

and so, it is my keenest wish to know whatever fortune has in store for me: fate’s arrow, when expected, travels slow. ”

These were the words I spoke to that same light who spoke to me before, and so my wish, as Beatrice wished, was now confessed.

Not with dark oracles that once ensnared the foolish folk before the Lamb of God, Who takes away all sins, was crucified,

but in plain words, with clarity of thought, did that paternal love respond to me, both hidden and revealed by his own smile:

“Contingency, which in no way extends beyond the pages of your world of matter, is all depicted in the eternal sight;

but this no more confers necessity than does the movement of a boat downstream depend upon the eyes that mirror it.

As organ music sweetly strikes the ear, so from this Vision there comes to my eyes the shape of things the future holds for you.

As Hippolytus was forced to flee from Athens by his devious and merciless stepmother, just so you too shall have to leave your Florence.

So it is willed, so it is being planned, and shall be done soon by the one who plots it there where daily Christ is up for sale.

The public will, as always, blame the party that has been wronged; vengeance that Truth demands, although, shall yet bear witness to the truth.

You shall be forced to leave behind those things you love most dearly, and this is the first arrow the bow of your exile will shoot.

And you will know how salty is the taste of others’ bread, how hard the road that takes you down and up the stairs of others’ homes.

But what will weigh you down the most will be the despicable, senseless company whom you shall have to bear in that sad vale;

and all ungrateful, all completely mad and vicious, they shall turn on you, but soon their cheeks, not yours, will have to blush from shame.

Proof of their bestiality will show through their own deeds! It will be to your honor to have become a party of your own.

Your first abode, your first refuge, will be the courtesy of the great Lombard lord who bears the sacred bird upon the ladder,

and he will hold you in such high regard that in your give and take relationship the one will give before the other asks.

With him you shall see one who at his birth was stamped so hard with this star’s seal that all of his achievements will win great renown.

The world has not yet taken note of him; he is still very young, for Heaven’s wheels have circled round him now for just nine years.

But even before the Gascon tricks proud Henry, this one will show some of his mettle’s sparks by scorning wealth and making light of toil.

Knowledge of his munificence will yet be spread abroad: even his enemies will not be able to deny his worth.

Look you to him, expect from him good things. Through him the fate of many men shall change, rich men and beggars changing their estate.

Now write this in your mind but do not tell the world”—and he said things concerning him incredible even to those who see

them all come true. Then he said: “Son, you have my gloss of what was told you. Now you see the snares that hide behind a few years’ time!

No envy toward your neighbors should you bear, for you will have a future that endures far longer than their crime and punishment. ”

When, by his silence, that blest soul revealed that he had ceased weaving the woof across the warp that I had set in readiness,

I said, as one who is in doubt and longs to have the guidance of a soul who sees the truth and knows of virtue and has love:

“Father, well do I see how time attacks, spurring toward me to deal me such a blow as falls the hardest on the least prepared;

so, it is good that foresight lend me arms; thus, should the place most dear to me be lost, my verse, at least, shall not lose me all others.

Down through the world of endless bitterness and on the mountain from whose lovely crown I was raised upward by my lady’s eyes,

then through the heavens, rising from light to light— I learned things that, were they to be retold, would leave a bitter taste in many mouths;

yet, if I am a timid friend to truth, I fear my name may not live on with those who will look back at these as the old days. ”

The light that was resplendent in the treasure I had found there began to flash more light, just like a golden mirror in the sun,

and then replied: “The conscience that is dark with shame for his own deeds or for another’s, may well, indeed, feel harshness in your words;

nevertheless, do not resort to lies, let what you write reveal all you have seen, and let those men who itch scratch where it hurts.

Though when your words are taken in at first they may taste bitter, but once well-digested they will become a vital nutriment.