LITMIR.BIZ

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thine eyes, and look at what I am:

       Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough

       Hast thou become to tolerate my smile."

      I was as one who still retains the feeling

       Of a forgotten vision, and endeavours

       In vain to bring it back into his mind,

      When I this invitation heard, deserving

       Of so much gratitude, it never fades

       Out of the book that chronicles the past.

      If at this moment sounded all the tongues

       That Polyhymnia and her sisters made

       Most lubrical with their delicious milk,

      To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth

       It would not reach, singing the holy smile

       And how the holy aspect it illumed.

      And therefore, representing Paradise,

       The sacred poem must perforce leap over,

       Even as a man who finds his way cut off;

      But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme,

       And of the mortal shoulder laden with it,

       Should blame it not, if under this it tremble.

      It is no passage for a little boat

       This which goes cleaving the audacious prow,

       Nor for a pilot who would spare himself.

      "Why doth my face so much enamour thee,

       That to the garden fair thou turnest not,

       Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming?

      There is the Rose in which the Word Divine

       Became incarnate; there the lilies are

       By whose perfume the good way was discovered."

      Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels

       Was wholly ready, once again betook me

       Unto the battle of the feeble brows.

      As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams

       Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of flowers

       Mine eyes with shadow covered o'er have seen,

      So troops of splendours manifold I saw

       Illumined from above with burning rays,

       Beholding not the source of the effulgence.

      O power benignant that dost so imprint them!

       Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope

       There to mine eyes, that were not strong enough.

      The name of that fair flower I e'er invoke

       Morning and evening utterly enthralled

       My soul to gaze upon the greater fire.

      And when in both mine eyes depicted were

       The glory and greatness of the living star

       Which there excelleth, as it here excelled,

      Athwart the heavens a little torch descended

       Formed in a circle like a coronal,

       And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it.

      Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth

       On earth, and to itself most draws the soul,

       Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders,

      Compared unto the sounding of that lyre

       Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful,

       Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue.

      "I am Angelic Love, that circle round

       The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb

       That was the hostelry of our Desire;

      And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while

       Thou followest thy Son, and mak'st diviner

       The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there."

      Thus did the circulated melody

       Seal itself up; and all the other lights

       Were making to resound the name of Mary.

      The regal mantle of the volumes all

       Of that world, which most fervid is and living

       With breath of God and with his works and ways,

      Extended over us its inner border,

       So very distant, that the semblance of it

       There where I was not yet appeared to me.

      Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power

       Of following the incoronated flame,

       Which mounted upward near to its own seed.

      And as a little child, that towards its mother

       Stretches its arms, when it the milk has taken,

       Through impulse kindled into outward flame,

      Each of those gleams of whiteness upward reached

       So with its summit, that the deep affection

       They had for Mary was revealed to me.

      Thereafter they remained there in my sight,

       'Regina coeli' singing with such sweetness,

       That ne'er from me has the delight departed.

      O, what exuberance is garnered up

       Within those richest coffers, which had been

       Good husbandmen for sowing here below!

      There they enjoy and live upon the treasure

       Which was acquired while weeping in the exile

       Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left.

      There triumpheth, beneath the exalted Son

       Of God and Mary, in his victory,

       Both with the ancient council and the new,

      He who doth keep the keys of such a glory.

      XXIV. The Radiant Wheel. St. Peter examines Dante on Faith.

       Table of Contents

      "O company elect to the great supper

       Of the Lamb benedight, who feedeth you

       So that for ever full is your desire,

      If by the grace of God this man foretaste

       Something of that which falleth from your table,

       Or ever death prescribe to him the time,

      Direct your mind to his immense desire,

       And him somewhat bedew; ye drinking are

       For ever at the fount whence comes his thought."

      Thus Beatrice; and those souls beatified

       Transformed themselves to spheres on steadfast poles,

       Flaming intensely in the guise of comets.

      And as the wheels in works of horologes

       Revolve so that the first to the beholder

       Motionless seems, and the last one to fly,

      So in like manner did those carols, dancing

       In different measure, of their affluence

       Give me the

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