Purgatorio: Canto XVI

Gloom as of hell and of a night bereft
Of every planet under scanty sky,
With nought unclouded by the dim gloom left.

Ne'er laid so thick a veil upon mine eye,
As did that smoke which covered us all o'er,
Nor sackcloth e'er so rough the sense to try;

For I could look with open eyes no more;
Wherefore my Escort, wise and good and tried,
Came near, and my hand to his shoulder bore.

So, as a blind man walks behind his guide,
Lest he should lose his way, and stumble on
Aught through which hurt or death, perchance, betide,

I through that keen foul air my pathway won,
Heark'ning to my Guide's voice, which spake to me
But this: "Take heed I leave thee not alone.""

Voices I heard, and each most piteously,
Appeared for mercy and for peace to pray
The Lamb of God, who all our sins puts by.

Still Agnus Dei led them on their way,
One word for all, for all one melody,
So that their song full concord did display.

Do I hear spirits. Master? " then said I.
And he to me: " Thou rightly hast descried.
And thus they march till wrath's bonds loosened lie."

"Who then art thou who didst our smoke divide,"
And speak'st of us as though thou still wert there,
Where men by calends measure time and tide?"

Thus speaking to us we a voice did hear.
Whereon my Master said: "Make answer thou,
And ask if hence a path doth upward bear."

And I: " O Being, who dost cleanse thee now.
That fair to Him who made thee thou return,
Great marvel, if thou follow me, thou'lt know."

Far as I may with thee I'll gladly turn,"
He answered, " and if smoke our sight arrest,
By hearing we in company shall learn."

Then I began: "In fleshly weeds still drest,
Which death dissolves, I take mine upward way.
And hither have I come through Hell's unrest;

And if God in His grace the truth display,
So that He wills that I His court shall see,
In manner strange to this our later day.

Hide not thy story ere death came on thee.
But tell me that, and if the pass be nigh:
So let thy words be as true guide to me."

"A Lombard born, and Marco named was I;
I knew the world, and did that true worth love
Which slackened bows to hit no longer try.

Straight on before thee lies the path above."
So spake he, and then added: " Thee I pray,
Pray thou for me when thou on high shalt move."

And I to him: ' In all good faith I say,
I'll do what thou dost ask, but I am tried
Within by doubt, until 'tis cleared away;

First it was simple, now 'tis multiplied,
By that thy speech which makes me well aware.
Here and elsewhere, of what had doubt supplied.

The world in sooth is desolate and bare
Of every virtue, as thou tellest me.
With evil big, and o'erlaid everywhere.

I pray thee point out what the cause may be.
That I may learn it and to others show;
For some that cause in heaven, on earth some see.''

First a deep sigh, " Ah me! " in bitter woe
He breathed, and then began he: "Brother mine,"
The world is blind; and thence thou comest so.

Ye who live now the cause of all assign
To Heaven above, as though necessity
Moved all with it along predestined line;

If this were so, then in your deeds would lie
Free will destroyed, and 'twere unjust to give
Joy for good deeds, for evil, misery.

Ye from the heavens your impulse first receive, —
I say not all — but, granting that I say,
Light too is given, or well or ill to live,

And free volition, which, although it stay.
Faint in first fight with those star-destinies,
Conquers at last, if trained in Wisdom's way.

Ye to a better Nature, Might more wise.
Though free, are subject: and that makes in you
The mind which is not subject to the skies.

Hence if the present world take path undue
In you the cause, on you the blame must rest:
And now to thee will I be escort true.

Forth from His hands whose acts His love attest,"
Ere yet it be, as child the soul is brought,
Weeping and smiling, prattling and caressed.

The soul so simple that it knoweth nought
But this, that from a joyous Maker sprung,
It turns to that which with delight is fraught.

At first a small good tempts with savour strong,
By it 'tis tricked and after it doth press.
If guide or bit keep not its love from wrong.

Hence laws must as a curb the will repress.
A king we need, one who, at least, shall see
That city's towers, where dwells true Righteousness.

Those laws are there, but who doth them obey i
Not one; because the shepherd who presides
But chews the cud; no cloven hoof hath he.

And hence the people that beholds its guides
Seek only the same good itself doth seek,
Feeds on that only, asking nought besides.

Well may'st thou see that guidance base doth speak
The true cause that hath made the world go wrong,
Not the corruption of thy nature weak.

Rome once, when she to bless the world was strong,
Was wont to have two suns that brought to sight
The paths that to the world and God belong.

This has quenched that; and now the sword doth smite.
Joined with the crosier, and 'tis ill that they"
Should go together by sheer force of might;

Since joined, this casts the fear of that away.
If thou believe not, look upon the seed;
For by their fruits all plants their kind display.

Where Po and Adige water every mead,"
Once courtesy and valour had their home,
Ere Frederick came his quarrel there to plead.

Now with full safety one that way may roam
Who will abstain, as touched by sense of shame,
From speaking with the good, nor near them come.

True, three old men are left, whose lives throw blame
From the old age upon the new, and slow
God seems the better life to let them claim:

Conrado of Palazzo, Gherardo
The good, and Guido Castel, better styled
The simple Lombard, as the French words go.

Say henceforth that the Roman Church, beguiled
To blend two governments distinct in one.
Hath in the mire itself and them defiled.''

"O Marco mine," I said, " right well is shown
The proof, and now I see why Levi's race
Were left without a heritage, alone.

But what Gherardo nam'st thou of such grace
That he remains, as from a vanished age.
To show a barbarous world its foul disgrace?"

Either thy speech deceives, or else would gauge
My knowledge," said he, " that, with Tuscan tongue.
Thou know'st not good Gherardo's lineage

No other name I know to him belong.
Unless his daughter Gaia one supply.
God keep thee: I may not my course prolong.

Behold the dawn that gleams through dusky sky,
E'en now grows bright, and I must needs depart, —
Yonder the Angel comes — ere he draw nigh."

And he no more would hear, but walked apart.