The Divine Comedy · Dante Alighieri
St. Peter’s reproof of bad popes—The Ascent to the Ninth Heaven, or the Primum Mobile.
“Glory be to the Father, to the Son,1925
And Holy Ghost!” all Paradise began,
So that the melody inebriate made me.
What I beheld seemed unto me a smile
Of the universe; for my inebriation
Found entrance through the hearing and the sight.
O joy! O gladness inexpressible!
O perfect life of love and peacefulness!
O riches without hankering secure!1926
Before mine eyes were standing the four torches1927
Enkindled, and the one that first had come
Began to make itself more luminous;
And even such in semblance it became
As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars1928
Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers.
That Providence, which here distributeth
Season and service, in the blessed choir
Had silence upon every side imposed.
When I heard say: “If I my color change,
Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking
Thou shalt behold all these their color change.
He who usurps upon the earth my place,1929
My place, my place, which vacant has become
Before the presence of the Son of God,
Has of my cemetery made a sewer1930
Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,
Who fell from here, below there is appeased!”
With the same color which, through sun adverse,
Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn,
Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused.
And as a modest woman, who abides
Sure of herself, and at another’s failing,
From listening only, timorous becomes,
Even thus did Beatrice change countenance;
And I believe in heaven was such eclipse,
When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;1931
Thereafterward proceeded forth his words
With voice so much transmuted from itself,
The very countenance was not more changed.
“The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been
On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus,1932
To be made use of in acquest of gold;
But in acquest of this delightful life
Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus,1933
After much lamentation, shed their blood.
Our purpose was not, that on the right hand
Of our successors should in part be seated1934
The Christian folk, in part upon the other;
Nor that the keys which were to me confided
Should e’er become the escutcheon on a banner,1935
That should wage war on those who are baptized;1936
Nor I be made the figure of a seal
To privileges venal and mendacious,1937
Whereat I often redden and flash with fire.
In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves1938
Are seen from here above o’er all the pastures!
O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still?1939
To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons1940
Are making ready. O thou good beginning,
Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall!
But the high Providence, that with Scipio1941
At Rome the glory of the world defended,
Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive;
And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight
Shalt down return again, open thy mouth;
What I conceal not, do not thou conceal.”
As with its frozen vapors downward falls
In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn1942
Of the celestial Goat doth touch the sun,1943
Upward in such array saw I the ether
Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapors,
Which there together with us had remained.1944
My sight was following up their semblances,
And followed till the medium, by excess,1945
The passing farther onward took from it;
Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed
From gazing upward, said to me: “Cast down
Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round.”
Since the first time that I had downward looked,1946
I saw that I had moved through the whole arc
Which the first climate makes from midst to end;1947
So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses1948
Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore1949
Whereon became Europa a sweet burden.1950
And of this threshing-floor the site to me1951
Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding
Under my feet, a sign and more removed.1952
My mind enamoured, which is dallying1953
At all times with my Lady, to bring back
To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent.
And if or Art or Nature has made bait1954
To catch the eyes and so possess the mind,
In human flesh or in its portraiture,
All joined together would appear as nought
To the divine delight which shone upon me
When to her smiling face I turned me round.
The virtue that her look endowed me with
From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth,1955
And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me.
Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty
Are all so uniform, I cannot say
Which Beatrice selected for my place.
But she, who was aware of my desire,1956
Began, the while she smiled so joyously
That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice:
“The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet
The centre and all the rest about it moves,
From hence begins as from its starting point.
And in this heaven there is no other Where1957
Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled
The love that turns it, and the power it rains.
Within a circle light and love embrace it,
Even as this doth the others, and that precinct1958
He who encircles it alone controls.
Its motion is not by another meted,
But all the others measured are by this,
As ten is by the half and by the fifth.1959
And in what manner time in such a pot
May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,
Now unto thee can manifest be made.
O Covetousness, that mortals dost engulf
Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power
Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves!
Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will;
But the uninterrupted rain converts
Into abortive wildings the true plums.
Fidelity and innocence are found1960
Only in children; afterwards they both
Take flight or e’er the cheeks with down are covered.
One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,
Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours
Whatever food under whatever moon;
Another, while he prattles, loves and listens
Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect
Forthwith desires to see her in her grave.
Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white
In its first aspect of the daughter fair1961
Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night.
Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee,
Think that on earth there is no one who governs;1962
Whence goes astray the human family.
Ere January be unwintered wholly
By the centesimal on earth neglected,1963
Shall these supernal circles roar so loud
The tempest that has been so long awaited1964
Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows;
So that the fleet shall run its course direct,
And the true fruit shall follow on the flower.”
· · ·
End of part 95 of 101
Continue readingParadiso: Canto XXVIII
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