The Battle of Darkness and Light - Джон Мильтон

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canticle divine responded

       From every part the court beatified,

       So that each sight became serener for it.

      "O holy father, who for me endurest

       To be below here, leaving the sweet place

       In which thou sittest by eternal lot,

      Who is the Angel that with so much joy

       Into the eyes is looking of our Queen,

       Enamoured so that he seems made of fire?"

      Thus I again recourse had to the teaching

       Of that one who delighted him in Mary

       As doth the star of morning in the sun.

      And he to me: "Such gallantry and grace

       As there can be in Angel and in soul,

       All is in him; and thus we fain would have it;

      Because he is the one who bore the palm

       Down unto Mary, when the Son of God

       To take our burden on himself decreed.

      But now come onward with thine eyes, as I

       Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians

       Of this most just and merciful of empires.

      Those two that sit above there most enrapture

       As being very near unto Augusta,

       Are as it were the two roots of this Rose.

      He who upon the left is near her placed

       The father is, by whose audacious taste

       The human species so much bitter tastes.

      Upon the right thou seest that ancient father

       Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ

       The keys committed of this lovely flower.

      And he who all the evil days beheld,

       Before his death, of her the beauteous bride

       Who with the spear and with the nails was won,

      Beside him sits, and by the other rests

       That leader under whom on manna lived

       The people ingrate, fickle, and stiff-necked.

      Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated,

       So well content to look upon her daughter,

       Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna.

      And opposite the eldest household father

       Lucia sits, she who thy Lady moved

       When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows.

      But since the moments of thy vision fly,

       Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor

       Who makes the gown according to his cloth,

      And unto the first Love will turn our eyes,

       That looking upon Him thou penetrate

       As far as possible through his effulgence.

      Truly, lest peradventure thou recede,

       Moving thy wings believing to advance,

       By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained;

      Grace from that one who has the power to aid thee;

       And thou shalt follow me with thy affection

       That from my words thy heart turn not aside."

      And he began this holy orison.

      XXXIII. Prayer to the Virgin. The Threefold Circle of the Trinity. Mystery of the Divine and Human Nature.

       Table of Contents

      "Thou Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son,

       Humble and high beyond all other creature,

       The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

      Thou art the one who such nobility

       To human nature gave, that its Creator

       Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

      Within thy womb rekindled was the love,

       By heat of which in the eternal peace

       After such wise this flower has germinated.

      Here unto us thou art a noonday torch

       Of charity, and below there among mortals

       Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.

      Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing,

       That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,

       His aspirations without wings would fly.

      Not only thy benignity gives succour

       To him who asketh it, but oftentimes

       Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.

      In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,

       In thee magnificence; in thee unites

       Whate'er of goodness is in any creature.

      Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth

       Of the universe as far as here has seen

       One after one the spiritual lives,

      Supplicate thee through grace for so much power

       That with his eyes he may uplift himself

       Higher towards the uttermost salvation.

      And I, who never burned for my own seeing

       More than I do for his, all of my prayers

       Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short,

      That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud

       Of his mortality so with thy prayers,

       That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed.

      Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst

       Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve

       After so great a vision his affections.

      Let thy protection conquer human movements;

       See Beatrice and all the blessed ones

       My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!"

      The eyes beloved and revered of God,

       Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us

       How grateful unto her are prayers devout;

      Then unto the Eternal Light they turned,

       On which it is not credible could be

       By any creature bent an eye so clear.

      And I, who to the end of all desires

       Was now approaching, even as I ought

       The ardour of desire within me ended.

      Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling,

       That I should upward look; but I already

       Was of my own accord such as he wished;

      Because my sight, becoming purified,

       Was entering more and more into the ray

       Of the High Light which of itself is true.

      From that time forward what I saw was greater

       Than our discourse, that to such vision yields,

       And yields the memory unto such excess.

      Even

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