The Portable Dante (80 page)

What folly in mankind’s credulity: no need of proof or testimonials, men rush at any promise just the same!

On this Saint Anthony fattens his pig, and bigger pigs than his get fatter too, paying their bills with forged indulgences.

We have digressed enough. Turn your mind’s eye back to the road of truth; we must adjust discussion to what time is left us here.

The angelic nature goes so far beyond the scale of mortal numbers that there is no word or concept that can reach that far.

Look in the Book of Daniel; you will see that when he speaks of thousands of these beings, no fixed or finite number is revealed.

The primal Light shines down through all of them and penetrates them in as many ways as there are splendors with which It may mate.

And since the visual act always precedes the act of loving, bliss of love in each burns differently: some glow while others blaze.

And now you see the height, you see the breadth of Eternal Goodness that divides Itself into these countless mirrors that reflect

Itself, remaining One, as It was always. ”

About six thousand miles away high noon is blazing, and the shadow of our world already slopes into a level bed,

when in the midst of heaven, so deep above, a change begins, and one star here and there starts fading from our sight at such a depth;

and as the brightest handmaid of the sun comes closer, and the heavens start to close light after light, until the fairest fades,

just so the Triumph that forever plays its round around the Point of dazzling light that seems contained by what Itself contains,

little by little faded from my sight; and seeing it no more, my love constrained my eyes to look again at Beatrice.

If all I said of her up to this time were gathered in a single poem of praise, it would be but a scanty comment now.

The beauty I saw there goes far beyond all mortal reach; I think that only He Who made it knows the full joy of its being.

At this point I admit to my defeat: no poet, comic or tragic, ever was more outdone by his theme than I am now;

for, as sunlight does to the weakest eyes, so did the mere thought of her lovely smile strike every recognition from my mind.

From the first day that I beheld her face in this life till the vision of her now, I could trust in my poems to sing her praise,

but now I must stop trying to pursue her beauty in my verse, for I have done as much as any artist at his best.

As such I leave her to the heralding of greater clarion than mine, which starts to draw its arduous theme now to a close.

She, with the tone and gesture of a guide whose task is done, said: “We have gone beyond— from greatest sphere to heaven of pure light,

light of the intellect, light full of love, love of the true good, full of ecstasy, ecstasy that transcends the sweetest joy.

Here you shall see the twofold soldiery of Paradise, and one host you will see as you will see them on the Final Day. ”

Just as a sudden flash of lightning strikes the visual spirits and so stuns the eyes, that even the clearest object fades from sight,

so glorious living light encompassed me, enfolding me so tightly in its veil of luminence that I saw only light.

“The Love that calms this heaven forever greets all those who enter with such salutation, so is the candle for Its flame prepared. ”

No sooner had these brief, assuring words entered my ears than I was full aware my senses now were raised beyond their powers;

the power of new sight lit up my eyes so that no light, however bright it were, would be too brilliant for my eyes to bear.

And I saw light that was a flowing stream, blazing in splendid sparks between two banks painted by spring in miracles of color.

Out of this stream the sparks of living light were shooting up and settling on the flowers: they looked like rubies set in rings of gold;

then as if all that fragrance made them drunk, they poured back into that miraculous flood, and as one plunged, another took to flight.

“The deep desire burning, urging you to seek the answers to what you have seen, pleases me more, the more I see it surge;

but you must first drink of these waters here before such thirst as yours is satisfied, ” —so did she speak, that sunlight of my eyes;

and then she said: “The stream, the jewels you see leap in and out of it, the smiling blooms, are all prefigurations of their truth.

These things are not imperfect in themselves; the defect, rather, lies within your sight, as yet not strong enough to reach such heights. ”

No baby, having slept too long, and now awakened late, could rush to turn his face more eagerly to seek his mother’s milk

than I bent down my face to make my eyes more lucid mirrors there within that stream which pours its light for their embetterment;

no sooner had the eaves of my eyes drunk within those waters, than the river turned from its straight course to a circumference.

And then, as people at a masquerade take off the masks which have until that time been hiding their true selves—so, then and there,

before my eyes the sparks and flowers changed into a greater festival: I saw both courts of Heaven in their reality.

O splendid grace of God through which I saw the one true kingdom’s triumph, grant me now the power to find the words for what I saw!

There is a light above whose glory makes Creator visible to his creations whose only peace is in beholding Him;

in figure of a circle this light spreads, and is so vast that its circumference would be too loose a belt to bind the sun.

And its expanse comes from a single ray striking the summit of the First Moved Sphere from which it takes its vital force and power.

And as a hillside rich in grass and flowers looks down into a lake as if it were admiring the reflection of its wealth,

so, mirrored, tier on tier, within that light, more than a thousand were reflected there, I saw all those of us who won return.

And if the lowest tier alone can hold so great a brilliance, then how vast the space of this Rose to its outer petals’ reach!

And yet, by such enormous breadth and height my eyes were not confused; they took in all in number and in quality of bliss.

There, near and far nor adds nor takes away, for where God rules directly without agents, the laws of Nature in no way apply.

Into the gold of the eternal Rose, whose ranks of petals fragrantly unfold praise to the Sun of everlasting spring,

in silence—though I longed to speak—was I taken by Beatrice who said: “Look how vast is our white-robed consistory.

Look at our city, see its vast expanse. You see our seats so filled, only a few remain for souls that Heaven still desires.

In that great chair, already set with crown above it and which draws your eyes to it, before your summons to this nuptial feast,

shall sit the soul, predestined emperor, of that Great Henry who one day will come to set straight Italy before her time.

You are bewitched by blind cupidity that makes you starve to death like a poor child who has a nurse but pushes her away.

And at that time the prefect of God’s Court will be a man who publicly agrees to tread his path, but not so secretly.

But God will not permit him to stay long in Holy Office: he shall be thrust down, where Simon Magus pays his guilt, and he

shall stuff the Alagnese deeper down!”

So now, appearing to me in the form of a white rose was Heaven’s sacred host, those whom with His own blood Christ made His bride,

while the other host—that soaring see and sing the glory of the One who stirs their love, the goodness which made them great as they are,

like bees that in a single motion swarm and dip into the flowers, then return to heaven’s hive where their toil turns to joy—

descended all at once on that great bloom of precious petals, and then flew back up to where its source of love forever dwells.

Their faces showed the glow of living flame, their wings of gold, and all the rest of them whiter than any snow that falls to earth.

As they entered the flower, tier to tier, each spread the peace and ardor of the love they gathered with their wings in flight to Him.

Nor did this screen of flying plenitude between the flower and what reigned above impede the vision of His glorious light;

for God’s light penetrates the universe according to the merits of each part, and there is nothing that can block its way.

This unimperiled kingdom of all joy abounding with those saints, both old and new, had look and love fixed all upon one goal.

O Triune Light which sparkles in one star upon their sight, Fulfiller of full joy! look down upon us in our tempest here!

If the barbarians (coming from such parts as every day are spanned by Helice, travelling the sky with her belovëd son)

when they saw Rome, her mighty monuments (the days the Lateran, built high, outsoared all mortal art), were so struck with amazement,

then I—coming to Heaven from mortal earth, from man’s time to Divine eternity, from Florence to a people just and sane—

with what amazement must I have been struck! Truly, between my stupor and my joy, it was a pleasure not to hear or speak.

And as a pilgrim now refreshed with joy surveys the temple of his vow, and wonders how to describe it when he is back home,

so through the living light I let my eyes go wandering among the ranks of Blest, now up, now down, now searching all around.

I saw love-dedicated faces there, adorned in borrowed light and by their smiles and gestures graced with chastest dignity.

By now, my eyes had quickly taken in a general plan of all of Paradise but had not fixed themselves on any part;