Purgatorio: Canto XXXIII

"Deus, venerunt gentes" thus in strain
Alternate, three and four, sweet psalmody.
The ladies then began to weep amain,

And Beatrice, breathing many a sigh,
And sad, in such wise listening stood, her hue
With Mary's pallor at the Cross might vie;

But when the others from their song withdrew.
Then standing up to speaks aloud cried she.
And answer made, all fiery-red to view:

"Modicum et non videbitis me"
Et iterum Ah! listen, sisters dear:
Modicum et vos videbitis me

Then placing all the seven in front of her.
And beckoning only, bade me next to move,
Me and the lady, and that poet-seer.

So she passed on, nor deem I that above
Ten steps she onward went, ere with her eyes
She rested on mine own with light of love.

And with calm aspect, "Come more quickly," cries;
"So if it be my will to speak with thee,
Thou mayst be near to hear what I advise."

And when I drew nigh, as was meet for me,
She said, " My brother, wherefore art not bold
To question, now thou hast my company?"

And as with those whom too much awe doth hold,
Who, when they speak to men of greater might,
Scarce from their teeth their living speech unfold,

So chanced it with me that my voice aright
I scarce could frame. " Dear lady, what I seek
Thou knowest, and what best may give me light."

Then she to me: " From shame and shrinking weak
I wish thee now thyself to extricate.
So that no more as dreamer thou mayst speak.

Know that the car the serpent broke of late
Was and is not; let him that's guilty know
God's vengeance fears no sop that bars its hate.

The eagle shall not always heirless go,
That to the chariot left his plumed wings.
Whence it a monster, then a prey did grow.

Surely I see, and sight true utterance brings,
The stars already near the appointed hour.
And knowing not delays nor hinderings.

When the Five Hundred, Five, and Ten, with power
As sent from God, shall slay that harlot vile.
And with her, too, her giant paramour.

Perchance my speech, obscure and dark awhile,
As Sphinx or Themis, may persuade thee less,
Because, like them, it clouds the mind awhile.

But soon events shall be the Naiades,
Who shall the great enigma make full clear,
Nor dearth nor murrain on our nation press.

Note this, and just as thou my words dost hear,
So teach thou them to those who live, yet lead
A life which unto death doth swiftly bear.

And when thou writest, take thou then good heed
Not to conceal that thou the plant hast seen
Which now twice o'er hath felt the plunderer's greed.

He who despoils or plunders it, I ween,
Offends his God in blasphemy of fact,
Who for His own use made it pure and clean.

For biting that, five thousand years exact.
Or more, the first soul paid of longing pain.
For Him who on Himself avenged the act.

Thy spirit -slumbers if it see not plain
That for some great cause it was raised so high
And in its summit so transformed again;

And, if the vain thoughts of thy mental eye
Had not become to thee as Elsa's spring.
Their joy, as Pyramus at the mulberry.

Such facts alone to thee would knowledge bring
Of the deep moral meaning of the tree.
And show God just in His prohibiting.

But since thy understanding shows to me
As turned to stone and petrified in hue.
So that my speech's brightness dazzles thee,

I will that, though unwrit, yet painted true,
Thou carry back what now is in thy mind.
As pilgrims, palm in hand, their way pursue."

And I: "As wax that with the seal is signed.
Which changeth not the figure there imprest,
Thy signet on my brain is well defined.

But why so far beyond my vision rest
Thy words I hoped my longing thirst would cool,
That more is lost the more the search is prest?"

"That thou mayst know," she said, " how stands that school
Which thou hast followed, and its doctrines scan.
And learn how far it follows my true rule.

And see how far apart from God's thy plan,
As far as is from earth that highest sphere
Whose movements swiftest, widest circle span.""

And then I answered: " Memory writes not here
That I have ere estranged myself from thee,
Nor doth my conscience wake remorseful fear."

"Nay, if thou fail est so in memory,"
She answered, smiling, " call thou this to mind,
How that this day thy Lethe-draught was free;

And as in smoke the proof of fire we find,
This thy oblivion proveth all too well
Guilt in thy will to other things inclined.

Henceforth my words in very deed shall tell"
The naked truth, as far as, in thy case,
'Tis meet thy rude gaze on their beauties dwell."

Brighter at once and slower in its pace.
The sun was holding the meridian bright,
Which shifts or here or there with change of place,

When the seven ladies halted fall in sight,
As halteth one who goes in front as guide,
If on some object strange his glances light,

Just on a dim dark shadow's border-side.
Shade such as, with swarth boughs and foliage green,
O'er their cold streams the Alps throw far and wide.

Euphrates, Tigris, both in front were seen:
Their course I seemed from one clear fount to trace.
Like dear friends, slow to leave a space between.

"O light, O glory of the human race I"
What stream is this that from one source doth bear
Two streams, and from itself doth flow apace?"

And to my quest came answer, " Let thy prayer
Matilda ask to tell thee; " and reply
Came, as of one who from blame sets him clear,

From that fair lady's lips: These things have I,
And much else, told him, and full clear I see
That Lethe hath not hid them from his eye."

And Beatrice: " Deeper cares, may be,
Which often Memory of her strength deprive,"
Have clouded o'er his mental vision free.

But see, Eunoe's waters hence derive;
Lead him to them, and, as thou'rt wont to do,
Once more his half-dead energy revive."

As gentle soul whom ne'er excuse withdrew
From others' will, but takes it as its own,
Soon as 'tis patent made by token true.

Soon as my hands she clasped, that beauteous one
Moved on, and as a gracious lady spake
To Statius, saying, "With him come thou on."

Could I, O reader, wider limits take
For writing, I might hope to sing in part
Of that sweet drink which ne'er my thirst could slake;

But since I've filled each corner of my chart.
To this my second cantique given as due,
My course is checked by bridle of my art.

I from that stream that holy is and true
Returned refreshed, as tender flowerets are
Revived and freshened with a foliage new,

Pure and made meet to mount where shines each star."