With ye the parent of all mortal life
Arose and set, when I did first inhale
The Tuscan air; and afterward, when grace Vouchsaf 'd me entrance to the lofty wheel That in its orb impels ye, fate decreed
My passage at your clime. To you my soul
Devoutly sighs, for virtue even now
To meet the hard emprize that draws me on.
"Thou art so near the sum of blessedness," Said Beatrice, "that behooves thy ken
Be vigilant and clear. And, to this end,
Or even thou advance thee further, hence
Look downward, and contemplate, what a world
Already stretched under our feet there lies: So as thy heart may, in its blithest mood, Present itself to the triumphal throng,
Which through the' etherial concave comes rejoicing."
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I straight obey'd; and with mine eye return'd Through all the seven spheres, and saw this globe So pitiful of semblance, that perforce
It moved my smiles: and him in truth I hold
For wisest, who esteems it least: whose thoughts
Elsewhere are fix'd, him worthiest call and best.
I saw the daughter of Latona shine
Without the shadow, whereof late I deem'd
That dense and rare were cause. Here I sustain'd
The visage, Hyperion! of thy sun;
And mark'd, how near him with their circle, round
Move Maia and Dione; here discern'd
Jove's tempering 'twixt his sire and son; and hence
Their changes and their various aspects Distinctly scann'd. Nor might I not descry Of all the seven, how bulky each, how swift; Nor of their several distances not learn.
This petty area (o'er the which we stride
So fiercely), as along the eternal twins
I wound my way, appear'd before me all,
Forth from the havens stretch'd unto the hills. Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes return'd.
CANTO XXIII
E'en as the bird, who midst the leafy bower
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Has, in her nest, sat darkling through the night, With her sweet brood, impatient to descry
Their wished looks, and to bring home their food, In the fond quest unconscious of her toil:
She, of the time prevenient, on the spray,
That overhangs their couch, with wakeful gaze Expects the sun; nor ever, till the dawn, Removeth from the east her eager ken;
So stood the dame erect, and bent her glance Wistfully on that region, where the sun Abateth most his speed; that, seeing her Suspense and wand'ring, I became as one,
In whom desire is waken'd, and the hope
Of somewhat new to come fills with delight.
Short space ensued; I was not held, I say, Long in expectance, when I saw the heav'n
Wax more and more resplendent; and, "Behold," Cried Beatrice, "the triumphal hosts
Of Christ, and all the harvest reap'd at length Of thy ascending up these spheres." Meseem'd, That, while she spake her image all did burn, And in her eyes such fullness was of joy,
And I am fain to pass unconstrued by.
As in the calm full moon, when Trivia smiles, In peerless beauty, 'mid th' eternal nympus,
That paint through all its gulfs the blue profound
In bright pre-eminence so saw I there,
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O'er million lamps a sun, from whom all drew Their radiance as from ours the starry train: And through the living light so lustrous glow'd The substance, that my ken endur'd it not.
O Beatrice! sweet and precious guide!
Who cheer'd me with her comfortable words! "Against the virtue, that o'erpow'reth thee, Avails not to resist. Here is the might,
And here the wisdom, which did open lay The path, that had been yearned for so long, Betwixt the heav'n and earth." Like to the fire, That, in a cloud imprison'd doth break out Expansive, so that from its womb enlarg'd,
It falleth against nature to the ground; Thus in that heav'nly banqueting my soul Outgrew herself; and, in the transport lost.
Holds now remembrance none of what she was.
"Ope thou thine eyes, and mark me: thou hast seen
Things, that empower thee to sustain my smile."
I was as one, when a forgotten dream
Doth come across him, and he strives in vain
To shape it in his fantasy again,
Whenas that gracious boon was proffer'd me, Which never may be cancel'd from the book, Wherein the past is written. Now were all
Those tongues to sound, that have on sweetest milk
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Of Polyhymnia and her sisters fed
And fatten'd, not with all their help to boot, Unto the thousandth parcel of the truth,
My song might shadow forth that saintly smile,
flow merely in her saintly looks it wrought. And with such figuring of Paradise
The sacred strain must leap, like one, that meets
A sudden interruption to his road.
But he, who thinks how ponderous the theme, And that 't is lain upon a mortal shoulder,
May pardon, if it tremble with the burden.
The track, our ventrous keel must furrow, brooks
No unribb'd pinnace, no self-sparing pilot.
"Why doth my face," said Beatrice, "thus Enamour thee, as that thou dost not turn Unto the beautiful garden, blossoming Beneath the rays of Christ? Here is the rose, Wherein the word divine was made incarnate; And here the lilies, by whose odour known
The way of life was follow'd." Prompt I heard
Her bidding, and encounter once again
The strife of aching vision. As erewhile,
Through glance of sunlight, stream'd through broken cloud,
Mine eyes a flower-besprinkled mead have seen, Though veil'd themselves in shade; so saw I there Legions of splendours, on whom burning rays Shed lightnings from above, yet saw I not
The fountain whence they flow'd. O gracious virtue!
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Thou, whose broad stamp is on them, higher up
Thou didst exalt thy glory to give room
To my o'erlabour'd sight: when at the name
Of that fair flower, whom duly I invoke
Both morn and eve, my soul, with all her might
Collected, on the goodliest ardour fix'd. And, as the bright dimensions of the star In heav'n excelling, as once here on earth Were, in my eyeballs lively portray'd,
Lo! from within the sky a cresset fell, Circling in fashion of a diadem,
And girt the star, and hov'ring round it wheel'd.
Whatever melody sounds sweetest here, And draws the spirit most unto itself,
Might seem a rent cloud when it grates the thunder, Compar'd unto the sounding of that lyre, Wherewith the goodliest sapphire, that inlays
The floor of heav'n, was crown'd. "Angelic Love