Purgatorio: Canto VIII

The hour was come which brings back yearning new
To those far out at sea, and melts their hearts.
The day that they have bid sweet friends adieu;

Whereat the pilgrim fresh with strong love starts.
If he perchance hear bells, far off yet clear,
Which seem to mourn the day's life that departs.

When I, unheeding sounds that met mine ear,
On one that then rose up began to gaze,
Who bade us with his hands to stand and hear.

He clasped his palms, and both did upward raise,
Fixing upon the distant East his eyes.
As telling God, " Nought else such joy conveys."

Te lucis ante did devoutly rise
From out his lips, and with such dulcet tone,
It bore me from myself in ecstacies,"

And then the others left him not alone.
Sweetly, devoutly, to the hymn's full end.
With eyes upon the sphere supernal thrown.

Now, Reader, to the truth thine eyes down bend.
For now so thin and subtle is the veil
Such barrier thou may'st easily transcend.

I saw that gentle army hushed and pale,
In silence upward gaze with fix eye.
As those with whom meek lowly hopes prevail.

And coming forth, descending from on high,
I saw two angels, each with sword of fire.
Truncated flames, of forms that points deny.

Verdant as new-born leaflets their attire
Was seen, while they with green wings onward drove.
Beaten and blown in many a breezy spire.

One near us came a little space above;
One on the.bank, o' the other side, did light.
So that the crowd between them both did move.

Well could I mark in them the head so bright,
But at the face the gazing eye must quail,"
As shrinks each sense beneath excess of might.

'' Both of them came, as guardians of the vale,
From Mary's bosom," then Sordello said,
"Lest, coming quick, the serpent should prevail."

Then I, who knew not where he might invade,
Turned and drew nearer to those arms so true.
So chill a terror had my spirit frayed.

Then spake Sordello; " Now this valley through
Pass we to speak to those great souls below;
Full sweet 'twill be for them to look on you."

But three steps down I deem that I did go,
And found myself beneath; there watching me
I saw one, as if longing me to know.

Already now the air grew dark to see,
But not so that, between his eyes and mine,
It failed to show what erst my sight did flee.

Then he and I did, each to each, incline;
Ah Nino, noble judge, how glad was I
Not with the damned to see that face of thine!

No greetings pleasant did we there pass by;"
And then he asked, 'How long is't since thou'rt come
Through the wide seas to where this Mount soars high?"

Ah," said I, " through the realms of mournful gloom
I came this morn, and in my first life still.
Albeit I seek the other as I roam."

And when my answer did their hearing fill,
Sordello and the other drew aside
As those whom great astonishment doth thrill.

One turned to Virgil, and the other cried
To one who sat there, " Rise, Currado, rise,
Come and see now what God's grace doth provide;"

Then turned to me: " By those great charities
Thou ow'st to Him who ever so doth hide
His primal Why, that there no passage lies.

When thou shalt pass beyond these waters wide,
Tell my Giovanna that for me she pray,
Where prayers which pure ones pour are satisfied;

Her mother's love, I trow, hath passed away,
Since she hath changed her weeds of whitest hue:
Well may the sad one wish for them to-day!

Thus clearly in her case is brought to view
How long in women dwells love's fire alone,
If sight or touch do not the glow renew;

The Viper, by the hosts of Milan known,
Will not for her make such fair burial-place,
As would the Cock Gallura bears have done."

So spake he, and his brow was marked with trace
Of that true righteous zeal which, in the heart.
Doth, with a measured temper, burn apace.

My eager eye as if for Heaven did start,
Still to the point where stars move on most slow.
As wheel where nearest to its axle-part.

And my Guide said, "Why look thine eyes up so?"
And I to him: " At those three bright fires there.
Wherewith this hither pole is all aglow."

And he to me: " The four stars bright and clear
Thou saw'st this morn are low in yonder track,
And these have mounted where before they were;

And as he spoke Sordello drew him back.
And said, " Behold, there comes our Adversary! ""
And pointed with his hand lest sight should lack.

There, on that side where no defence doth lie
For that small valley, was a serpent seen;
Such, may be, led Eve bitter food to try.

The evil snake wound grass and flowers between,
Wriggling its head at times and licking well
Its back, as when a beast itself doth clean.

I saw it not, and therefore cannot tell.
How downward swooped the falcons of high Heaven,
Yet that both swooped was plainly what befell.

Hearing the air before their green wings driven.
The serpent fled, and to their post on high
The angels turned, with ordered pace and even.

The spirit who had to the Judge drawn nigh
When he had called, through all that conflict dire
Had never ceased on me to fix his eye.

So may the light that leads thee with its fire,
Find wax enough in thy free-will's estate
As needeth for the azure plains up higher,"

So it began, " if thou can'st now relate
True news of Valdimagra or its coast.
Tell me, for there it was I once waxed great.

Currado Malaspina, so I boast
My name, though not the elder, yet his kin;
The love which here is cleansed mine own had most.""

"Oh," said I to him, " ne'er thy lands within
Have I yet been, but where can one abide
In Europe, where due praise they do not win?

The fame by which thy house is magnified
Proclaims its lords, proclaims its country too,
So that he knows who never thither hied.

And as I hope to mount on high, to you
I swear your great race hath not forfeited
The glory to free purse and sharp sword due.

Nature and use such grace upon it shed,
That though a vile head leads the world astray.
Sole it goes right, and scorns wrong path to tread."

And he: ' Now go; for ere the sun shall stay
Seven times at rest in Aries' bed again,
Which he with all his four feet holds in sway,"

This, thine opinion courteous, in thy brain
Shall be as to its centre riveted
With firmer nails than speech of other men.

Unless the course of justice stays its tread."