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not be grievous, but delightful to thee

       As much as nature fashioned thee to feel."

      When we had reached the Angel benedight,

       With joyful voice he said: "Here enter in

       To stairway far less steep than are the others."

      We mounting were, already thence departed,

       And "Beati misericordes" was

       Behind us sung, "Rejoice, thou that o'ercomest!"

      My Master and myself, we two alone

       Were going upward, and I thought, in going,

       Some profit to acquire from words of his;

      And I to him directed me, thus asking:

       "What did the spirit of Romagna mean,

       Mentioning interdict and partnership?"

      Whence he to me: "Of his own greatest failing

       He knows the harm; and therefore wonder not

       If he reprove us, that we less may rue it.

      Because are thither pointed your desires

       Where by companionship each share is lessened,

       Envy doth ply the bellows to your sighs.

      But if the love of the supernal sphere

       Should upwardly direct your aspiration,

       There would not be that fear within your breast;

      For there, as much the more as one says 'Our,'

       So much the more of good each one possesses,

       And more of charity in that cloister burns."

      "I am more hungering to be satisfied,"

       I said, "than if I had before been silent,

       And more of doubt within my mind I gather.

      How can it be, that boon distributed

       The more possessors can more wealthy make

       Therein, than if by few it be possessed?"

      And he to me: "Because thou fixest still

       Thy mind entirely upon earthly things,

       Thou pluckest darkness from the very light.

      That goodness infinite and ineffable

       Which is above there, runneth unto love,

       As to a lucid body comes the sunbeam.

      So much it gives itself as it finds ardour,

       So that as far as charity extends,

       O'er it increases the eternal valour.

      And the more people thitherward aspire,

       More are there to love well, and more they love there,

       And, as a mirror, one reflects the other.

      And if my reasoning appease thee not,

       Thou shalt see Beatrice; and she will fully

       Take from thee this and every other longing.

      Endeavour, then, that soon may be extinct,

       As are the two already, the five wounds

       That close themselves again by being painful."

      Even as I wished to say, "Thou dost appease me,"

       I saw that I had reached another circle,

       So that my eager eyes made me keep silence.

      There it appeared to me that in a vision

       Ecstatic on a sudden I was rapt,

       And in a temple many persons saw;

      And at the door a woman, with the sweet

       Behaviour of a mother, saying: "Son,

       Why in this manner hast thou dealt with us?

      Lo, sorrowing, thy father and myself

       Were seeking for thee;"—and as here she ceased,

       That which appeared at first had disappeared.

      Then I beheld another with those waters

       Adown her cheeks which grief distils whenever

       From great disdain of others it is born,

      And saying: "If of that city thou art lord,

       For whose name was such strife among the gods,

       And whence doth every science scintillate,

      Avenge thyself on those audacious arms

       That clasped our daughter, O Pisistratus;"

       And the lord seemed to me benign and mild

      To answer her with aspect temperate:

       "What shall we do to those who wish us ill,

       If he who loves us be by us condemned?"

      Then saw I people hot in fire of wrath,

       With stones a young man slaying, clamorously

       Still crying to each other, "Kill him! kill him!"

      And him I saw bow down, because of death

       That weighed already on him, to the earth,

       But of his eyes made ever gates to heaven,

      Imploring the high Lord, in so great strife,

       That he would pardon those his persecutors,

       With such an aspect as unlocks compassion.

      Soon as my soul had outwardly returned

       To things external to it which are true,

       Did I my not false errors recognize.

      My Leader, who could see me bear myself

       Like to a man that rouses him from sleep,

       Exclaimed: "What ails thee, that thou canst not stand?

      But hast been coming more than half a league

       Veiling thine eyes, and with thy legs entangled,

       In guise of one whom wine or sleep subdues?"

      "O my sweet Father, if thou listen to me,

       I'll tell thee," said I, "what appeared to me,

       When thus from me my legs were ta'en away."

      And he: "If thou shouldst have a hundred masks

       Upon thy face, from me would not be shut

       Thy cogitations, howsoever small.

      What thou hast seen was that thou mayst not fail

       To ope thy heart unto the waters of peace,

       Which from the eternal fountain are diffused.

      I did not ask, 'What ails thee?' as he does

       Who only looketh with the eyes that see not

       When of the soul bereft the body lies,

      But asked it to give vigour to thy feet;

       Thus must we needs urge on the sluggards, slow

       To use their wakefulness when it returns."

      We passed along, athwart the twilight peering

       Forward as far as ever eye could stretch

       Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent;

      And lo! by slow degrees a smoke approached

       In our direction, sombre as the night,

       Nor was there place to hide one's self therefrom.

      This of our eyes and the pure air bereft us.

      XVI. Marco Lombardo.

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