Paradiso: Canto XIX

Then met my gaze, with outspread open wing,
That image fair which to fruition sweet
The joyous souls en wreathed in it doth bring.

And each a ruby seemed, in which did meet
A ray of sunshine, burning with such glow
That in mine eyes there shone reflected heat.

And that which now behoves that men should know.
No voice e'er uttered and no ink e'er wrote,
Nor e'er did phantasy such wonder show;

I saw, yea, heard, the bird's beak speak in note
That sounded, as it spake, of I and Mine,
While We and Our were meant in inner thought.

And it began: " Here I in glory shine,
Raised high, as just and holy in my ways, —
Glory, beyond the soul's desire, divine;

And I on earth have record left of praise.
So gained that e'en the evil troop of foes
Commends, though from the example still it strays."

As the same heat in many embers glows,
So there, though many loves those souls did hold,
One only utterance from that form arose.

Then I began: " O flowers that wax not old,
Of joy eternal, who in very deed
Blend into one all odours manifold.

By your words let me from that fast be freed
Which long hath held me with its hungry pain.
Finding on earth no food that met my need.

Well know I, if in Heaven God's righteous reign
Another realm makes mirror of its own.
Yours sees, without a veil, all clear and plain.

How eager I to hear to you is known.
Is known the form and fashion of the doubt
Through which my soul so long hath fasting gone."

As falcon from his hood just issuing out.
Moving his head and fluttering either wing,
In eager will and beauty flits about.

So I saw that sign act whose fashioning
Was framed of many praises of God's grace.
In songs which joy on high best knows to sing.

Then it began: " He who the extent of space
Marked with His compass, and within the bound
Set secret things and open face to face.

Could not His power so print on all around.
Through the whole world, as that the Word Eterne
Should not in infinite excess abound.

And this from that first proud one we may learn,
Who was the sum of all created good.
And fell half-ripe, not waiting light to earn.

And thus it seems all life of lower mood
Is but a vessel all too small to hold
The good, self-measured, in Infinitude.

Whence this our vision, wherein we behold,
Perforce, a ray of that Supremest Mind
Which all things in its fulness doth enfold.

Cannot of its own nature such power find
But that it sees its origin confest,
Leave all that is apparent far behind.

Wherefore into the Justice ever blest
The vision which your world receives, no more
Can enter than the eye in ocean's breast,

Which, though it see the bottom near the shore,
Far out at sea beholds not; yet 'tis there.
But the deep waters hide it evermore.

Light there is none, unless from out the clear
And cloudless fount, nay, 'tis but darkness all,
Mist from the flesh, or bane that brings death near.

So now more open to thee is the pall
That kept the living Justice from thy view,
For which so often questioning thou didst call:

For thou didst -say, 'A man his first breath drew
On Indus' banks, and there were none to tell
Of Christ, or write or read the doctrine true;

And he in every wish and deed lives well,
As far as human reason may descry,
And sinless doth in life and speech excel.

He without baptism, without faith, doth die;
Where is the justice then that damns for it?
Where is his guilt if he the faith deny?'

Nay, who art thou who on the bench dost sit
To judge, with thy short vision of a span,
The thousand miles that stretch indefinite?

For one who thus to subtilise began
With me, if Scripture were not o'er you set,
A wondrous range of doubt were given the man.

O earthly souls, O minds so carnal yet!
That primal Will which is the Good Supreme
Ne'er from Itself endured or change or let.

What with It doth accord we just may deem:
No good created draws It down, but still,
As causing that. It pours its radiant beam."

As round her nest the stork doth whirl at will.
When she hath fed her young, and as the gaze
Of nestling that of food hath had its fill.

So acted, e'en as I mine eyes did raise.
That blessed image, moving either wing,
By many thoughts impelled in wondrous ways.

And, so revolving, it ceased not to sing:
"As these notes are to thee, thus dull of ear,
So ways eterne to man's imagining."

Then resting, those bright lights that vessels were
Of God the Holy Spirit, formed again
The sign which made the world great Rome revere,

And recommenced: "None rose to this domain
Save him alone who did believe in Christ,
Before or since He bore the cross and pain.

But look how many cry 'O Christ, O Christ!
Who at the judgment shall much farther be
From Him than some who have not known the Christ.

Such Christians judged by Æthiops we shall see.
Then, when the two bands take their separate way,""
One rich, one poor, for all eternity.

What to your kings might not yon Persians say.
When they shall see that volume open wide
In which their vile deeds stand in full array?

Shall there be seen, 'mong Albert's deeds descried,
That which ere long shall move the pen to write.
For which shall lie waste Prague's dominion wide.

Shall there be seen the trouble and despite
The false coin-maker brings upon the Seine,
Whom wild boar's tusk ere long to death shall smite.

Shall there be seen the pride that thirsts for gain,
Which drives the Scot and Englishman so mad
That neither can within his bounds remain.

Seen shall be there the life, vile, soft, and bad,
Of him of Spain and of Bohemia's son,
Who virtue never sought and never had.

Seen shall be there the ' I ' that stands for one
Good deed o' the Cripple of Jerusalem,
While 'M ' shall mark what otherwise was done.

Seen shall be there the baseness and the greed
Of him who tamely keeps the fiery isle,
Where from long toil was old Anchises freed:

And to show well how mean he is and vile,
The writing shall in letters maimed be shown,
Which, noting much, are read in little while.

And there to each the foul deeds shall be known
Of uncle and of brother, who on race
So noble and two crowns such shame have thrown.

And Norway's king and Portugal's their space
Shall fill, and he Ragusa owns as king,
Who on the coin of Venice brought disgrace.

O blessed Hungary, if to her men bring
No further mischief; and O blest Navarre,
Were she well armed with that her mountain ring!

And as an earnest of my truth there are"
Nicosia, Famagosta, to attest,
Whose cry of grief and anger sounds afar,

Through that vile beast who follows with the rest.