LITMIR.BIZ

      In similar wise my memory recollecteth

       That I did, looking into those fair eyes,

       Of which Love made the springes to ensnare me.

      And as I turned me round, and mine were touched

       By that which is apparent in that volume,

       Whenever on its gyre we gaze intent,

      A point beheld I, that was raying out

       Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles

       Must close perforce before such great acuteness.

      And whatsoever star seems smallest here

       Would seem to be a moon, if placed beside it.

       As one star with another star is placed.

      Perhaps at such a distance as appears

       A halo cincturing the light that paints it,

       When densest is the vapour that sustains it,

      Thus distant round the point a circle of fire

       So swiftly whirled, that it would have surpassed

       Whatever motion soonest girds the world;

      And this was by another circumcinct,

       That by a third, the third then by a fourth,

       By a fifth the fourth, and then by a sixth the fifth;

      The seventh followed thereupon in width

       So ample now, that Juno's messenger

       Entire would be too narrow to contain it.

      Even so the eighth and ninth; and every one

       More slowly moved, according as it was

       In number distant farther from the first.

      And that one had its flame most crystalline

       From which less distant was the stainless spark,

       I think because more with its truth imbued.

      My Lady, who in my anxiety

       Beheld me much perplexed, said: "From that point

       Dependent is the heaven and nature all.

      Behold that circle most conjoined to it,

       And know thou, that its motion is so swift

       Through burning love whereby it is spurred on."

      And I to her: "If the world were arranged

       In the order which I see in yonder wheels,

       What's set before me would have satisfied me;

      But in the world of sense we can perceive

       That evermore the circles are diviner

       As they are from the centre more remote

      Wherefore if my desire is to be ended

       In this miraculous and angelic temple,

       That has for confines only love and light,

      To hear behoves me still how the example

       And the exemplar go not in one fashion,

       Since for myself in vain I contemplate it."

      "If thine own fingers unto such a knot

       Be insufficient, it is no great wonder,

       So hard hath it become for want of trying."

      My Lady thus; then said she: "Do thou take

       What I shall tell thee, if thou wouldst be sated,

       And exercise on that thy subtlety.

      The circles corporal are wide and narrow

       According to the more or less of virtue

       Which is distributed through all their parts.

      The greater goodness works the greater weal,

       The greater weal the greater body holds,

       If perfect equally are all its parts.

      Therefore this one which sweeps along with it

       The universe sublime, doth correspond

       Unto the circle which most loves and knows.

      On which account, if thou unto the virtue

       Apply thy measure, not to the appearance

       Of substances that unto thee seem round,

      Thou wilt behold a marvellous agreement,

       Of more to greater, and of less to smaller,

       In every heaven, with its Intelligence."

      Even as remaineth splendid and serene

       The hemisphere of air, when Boreas

       Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest,

      Because is purified and resolved the rack

       That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs

       With all the beauties of its pageantry;

      Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady

       Had me provided with her clear response,

       And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.

      And soon as to a stop her words had come,

       Not otherwise does iron scintillate

       When molten, than those circles scintillated.

      Their coruscation all the sparks repeated,

       And they so many were, their number makes

       More millions than the doubling of the chess.

      I heard them sing hosanna choir by choir

       To the fixed point which holds them at the 'Ubi,'

       And ever will, where they have ever been.

      And she, who saw the dubious meditations

       Within my mind, "The primal circles," said,

       "Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim.

      Thus rapidly they follow their own bonds,

       To be as like the point as most they can,

       And can as far as they are high in vision.

      Those other Loves, that round about them go,

       Thrones of the countenance divine are called,

       Because they terminate the primal Triad.

      And thou shouldst know that they all have delight

       As much as their own vision penetrates

       The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest.

      From this it may be seen

Скачать книгу