Paradiso: Canto XV

A WILL benign, wherein we ever see
The love which breatheth rightly flow amain.
As base desire does in iniquity,

Imposed a silence on that sweet refrain,
And all the holy chords were hushed and still,'
Which Heaven's right hand doth slacken or doth strain.

How can our righteous prayers meet answer chill
From beings who in concord stayed the flow
Of song to breathe in me a prayerful will?

Well is it he should suffer endless woe"
Who, for the love of thing that cannot last.
For ever of this love despoiled doth go.

As in clear heaven, by not a cloud o'ercast.
There shoots at times a sudden-kindled fire,
Rousing the eyes, till then set firm and fast.

And seems a star that doth new place desire,
Save that where it was seen to flash in sight
Not one is lost, while it doth soon expire;

So from the arm that stretched towards the right,
Unto that cross's foot, there moved a star
From out the constellation shining bright.

Nor strayed the gem beyond its radiant bar.
But sped along the central column's way.
As fire is seen through alabaster spar.

So pitying moved Anchises' soul, they say,
If we may credence give to that high Musa,
His son beholding in Elysian day.

"O sanguis meus, O super infusa
Gratia Dei; sicut tibi, cui
Bis unquam Coeli janua reclusa?

Thus spake that light, and so I turned to see,
And then I to my Lady turned mine eyes
On either side, in sore perplexity;

For in her eyes a glowing smile did rise.
Such that I thought I plumbed the depth with mine
Both of my grace and of my Paradise.

Then, joyous both to see and hear, the line
Which he began, the spirit carried on.
And spake of deep things I could not divine.

Not by his choice his words obscurely shone,
But of necessity; for e'en his thought
Had far beyond the grasp of mortal gone.

And when the bow of ardent love, o'erwrought.
Was slackened to the standard of our sense.
So that his speech now plainer meaning taught,

These were the first words that I heard from thence:
"Blessed be ever Thou, the One, the Three,
Who to my seed such bounty dost dispense!"

And then went on: " Long hunger, sweet to me,
That moved me as the volume great I read,
Wherein nor white nor dark e'er changed can be,

Thou hast, my son, within this glory fed,
This wherein now I speak to thee, through grace
Of her who for such flight thy wings hath sped.

Thou deem'st that I thine every thought can trace
In Him who is the First, as when we know
The five and six developed from the ace.

And therefore who I am and why I grow
Joyous at sight of thee more than the rest
Of this glad crowd, thou dost not bid me show.

Thou thinkest right; who live among the blest.
Greater or less, have truth in that glass spied
Where, ere thou think'st, thy thought is manifest.

But that the holy love, which I long tide
Have watched, which fills my soul, in very deed,
With sweet desire, may best be satisfied.

Let thy speech now free, frank and open plead.
Find word each wish, each fond desire find word.
For which e'en now my answer is decreed."

I turned to Beatrice, and she heard
Before I spake, and smiled to me a sign
By which the wings of my desire were stirred.

Then I began: " In you doth Love combine
With Wisdom, since the first Equality
Upon you dawned, in equal weight and line:

For in the Sun, whence light and heat flow free,
And burn and shine, they are so equal found
That all comparisons but feeble be;

But will and power upon our mortal ground,
For reason which to you is manifest,
Are as to wings of diverse pinions bound.

Whence I, who am but mortal, am opprest
With this diverseness, nor can fit thanks frame.
Save in my heart, when by such father blest.

But let me ask, O living topaz-flame,
Who in this precious jewel thus art set.
That thou would'st still my cravings with thy name."

"O scion of my house, in whom I,
Waiting, found joy, thy root behold in me."
So he began when me his answer met;

And then he said, " The stock whence came to thee
Thy kindred's name, a hundred years and more
Has circled this Mount's lowest gallery.

Thy father's grandsire was, my son of yore;
Well were it thou his lengthened weary toil
Should'st sooner by thy works to rest restore.

Florence, whose ancient walls, around her soil,
Still hear the tierce and nones of neighbouring shrine,
Was chaste and sober, and without turmoil.

No golden chains, nor crowns that glittering shine,
Nor sandalled dames had she, nor bordered zone
That from the wearer drew the gazer's eyne;

She made not then the father's heart to groan
O'er daughter's birth, for then the year and dower
Had not, this side or that, due bounds outgrown.

No homes undwelt in had she in that hour;
Not then had come a new Sardanapal,
To show a wanton chambering's evil power.

Not yet surpassed in fame was Montemal'
By your Uccellatoio, conquered now
In rising, as it shall be in its fall.

Bellincion Berti saw I girdled go
With bone and leather, and I saw his bride
Turn from her mirror with no painted show.

A Nerli and a Vecchio too I spied,"
Content with dress where plain buff met the eye,
Their wives with flax and spindle occupied.

O happy they! — and each might certain die
Of her own burial-place, and none was yet
For France left lonely in her bed to lie. '"

This o'er the cradle watchful care did set.
And hushed her infant with the babbling speech
Which doth in parent's hearts delight beget;

That from her distaff would the long thread reach,
And, as she conversed with her family,
Of Trojans, Fiesole, and Rome would teach.

Men then had seen with full as wondering eye
A Cianghella or a Salterell'
As now a Cincinnate or Cornelie.

To such fair life, where all sped calm and well,
True life of citizens, to such a share
In citizenship true, to such hostel.

Did Mary give me, called by many a prayer.
To that your old Baptistery, wherein
Christian's and Cacciaguida's name I bare."

Moronto, Eliseo, were my kin;
My wife came to me from the vale of Po,
And thence thy parents did their surname win.

The Emperor Conrad then I followed so
That he gave me the girdle of a knight,
So well my good deeds in his eyes did show.

With him I went against the evil might
Of that false law, whose followers occupy
Usurping, through the Shepherd's fault, your right:

There by that people base and vile did I"
From that deceitful world obtain release.
The love of which turns many a soul awry.

And passed from martyr's pain to this my peace."