Paradiso: Canto XXVII
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"
Glory be to the
Father, to
the Son,
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!
Before mine eyes were standing the four
torches
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
Mars
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
colour change,
Marvel not at it; for
while I am
speaking
Thou shalt behold all these their
colour change.
He who usurps upon the earth my place,
My place, my place, which
vacant has
become
Before the presence of the
Son of God,
Has of my
cemetery made a
sewer
Of blood and
stench, whereby the
Perverse One,
Who fell from here, below there is
appeased!"
With the same colour 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;
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,
To be made use of in acquest of gold;
But in acquest of this delightful life
Sixtus and
Pius,
Urban and
Calixtus,
After much
lamentation,
shed their blood.
Our purpose was not, that on the right hand
Of our
successors should in part be seated
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,
That should wage war on those who are
baptized;
Nor I be made the figure of a
seal
To
privileges venal and
mendacious,
Whereat I often
redden and
flash with fire.
In garb of
shepherds the rapacious
wolves
Are seen from here above o'er all the
pastures!
O wrath of
God, why dost thou slumber still?
To drink our blood the
Caorsines and
Gascons
Are making ready. O thou good beginning,
Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall!
But the high
Providence, that with
Scipio
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
vapours downward falls
In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn
Of the celestial
Goat doth touch the sun,
Upward in such array saw I the ether
Become, and flaked with the triumphant
vapours,
Which there together with us had
remained.
My sight was following up their
semblances,
And followed till the medium, by
excess,
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,
I saw that I had moved through the whole arc
Which the first climate makes from midst to end;
So that I saw the mad track of
Ulysses
Past
Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore
Whereon became
Europa a sweet burden.
And of this threshing-floor the site to me
Were more
unveiled, but the sun was
proceeding
Under my feet, a
sign and more removed.
My mind
enamoured, which is
dallying
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 bait
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,
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,
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
Where
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 precinct
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.
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 ingulf
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 found
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 fair
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;
Whence goes astray the human
family.
Ere
January be
unwintered wholly
By the centesimal
on earth neglected,
Shall these
supernal circles
roar so loud
The tempest that has
been so long awaited
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."
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