Paradiso: Canto XXII

Oppressed with this amazement, to my Guide
I turned me, like a little child who goes
For refuge there where most he doth confide;

And she, like mother who, to give repose,
Turns quickly to her pale and breathless boy,'
With voice that's wont to sooth him and compose.

Said, Know'st thou not thou dost Heaven's bliss enjoy.
And know'st thou not all Heaven is holiness.
And this is wrought by zeal without alloy?

How their song would have changed thee thou may'st guess,
And how my smile, far better than before,
Since e'en that cry thy sense did so oppress.

In which, if thou had'st read its prayerful lore.
Thou should'st e'en now the avenger's sentence know.
Which thou shalt see ere yet thy life be o'er.

The sword on high nor deals its stroke too slow
Nor yet too swift, save only in his thought
Who, or with wish or fear, expects the blow.

But turn thee now, for then, before thee brought.
Thou shalt see other spirits high in praise,
If, as I bid, the vision thou hast sought."

And as it pleased her, so I turned my gaze.
And saw a hundred spherules that combined
To gain fresh beauty with their mutual rays.

I stood as one who keeps within his mind
Desire's keen goad, nor doth to question care.
Such dread of o'er-bold speech each thought doth bind;

And then the greatest, bright beyond compare,
Of all those shining pearls to us drew nigh,
Unto my will supreme content to bear.

Then from within it came, "If thou, as I,
Could'st see the love that here doth live and glow.
Thy thoughts would then to fullest utterance fly;

But that thou, waiting, be not all too slow
For the high goal, I too will make reply,
E'en to the thought o'er which thou watchest so.

That mountain on whose slope Cassino high
Standeth, was peopled in the days of yore
By men of evil life and drawn awry;

And I am he who there first tidings bore
Of His great Name who to our earth did bring
The truth that doth exalt us more and more,

And o'er me such great grace its light did fling,
I drew the neighbouring towns from impious rite.
Which led the world in error wandering.

These other fires were men whose eager sight,
Contemplative, was kindled with the glow
Which brings all holy flowers and fruits to light.

Here Romoald', here Macarius, thou may'st know;
Here too my brethren, who in cloistered shade
With steady feet and steadfast heart did go."

And I to him: 'The love which thou hast made
So clear in speaking, and the semblance kind
I see and note in all your fires displayed,

Have so enlarged the faith that fills my mind,
As the sun doth the rose when, wide outspread,
Its flowers the fulness of their beauty find:

Wherefore I pray thee. Father," so I said,
Tell me if I such grace can e'er obtain
As to see thee with form uncovered."

Then he: ' My brother, thou at last shalt gain
Thy highest wish in that supremest sphere
Where all desires, e'en mine, to rest are fain.

Perfect, mature, at last complete is there
Each yearning of the heart; in that alone
All parts are ever as at first they were.

For not in space it stands, and pole hath none,
And this our stairway riseth to its height,
And so beyond thy vision stretches on.

The loftiest summit met of old the sight
Of patriarch Jacob, soaring to the skies.
What time he saw the angels on it light.

But to ascend it now no foot doth rise
From off the earth, and that great Rule of mine
But lives to waste the paper where it lies.

The walls which once were as an abbey's shrine
Are made as dens of robbers, and the hoods
Are sacks filled full with flour of thoughts malign.

But even usury not so far intrudes
Against God's pleasure as those fruits unjust
Which fill the monks' hearts with such wanton moods.

For what the Church doth hold, she holds in trust
For those who in God's name ask charity,
Nor for a kinsman, or some baser lust.

So soft and frail our fleshly natures be,
That a good start holds not on earth its own
From the oak's birth till acorns fill the tree.

Silver and gold, we know, had Peter none,
And I began with fasting and with prayer.
And meekly Francis all his Convent won.

And if of each beginning thou art 'ware.
And then of each the downward pathway track,
Thou'lt see that white has passed to brown in wear.

But Jordan, when of old 'twas driven back.
And the sea fled at bidding of God's will,
Were greater marvel than to meet this lack."

So speaking, turned he to his company.
Whereat that company together drew;
Then like a whirlwind soared once more on high.

With just one nod, my Lady, sweet and true,
Urged me behind them up that self-same stair.
So much her might my nature did subdue.

Nor e'er, when bodies rise or fall in air.
Was motion natural so exceeding fast
That with my winged flight it could compare.

So, Reader, to that triumph high at last
May I return, for which, with many a tear,
I smite my breast and mourn my sinful past!

Not for so short a moment could'st thou bear
Thy finger in the fire as that in which"
I saw the sign next Taurus, and was there.

O glorious stars, O light supremely rich
In every virtue, which I recognise
As source of all my powers, whate'er their pitch.

With you he had his birth, with you did rise,"
He, the great father of each mortal race,
When first I breathed the air of Tuscan skies;

And now when unto me was granted grace
To enter that high sphere wherein ye roll,
?Twas given to me with you to take my place.

To you devoutly now I lift my soul,
With fervent sigh, that it fresh power may gain
For the hard task that draws it to its goal.

Thou art so near to where thou shalt attain
Supreme salvation," Beatrice said,
That with clear eyes thou should'st see all things plain;

And therefore, ere thou farther in dost tread,
Look down once more, and see the world, how wide
Beneath thy feet it lieth, far outspread;

So that thy heart, with joy beatified,
May join these hosts with triumph now elate,
That here in this ethereal sphere abide."

Then I retraced my way through small and great
Of those seven spheres, and then, this globe did seem
Such that I smiled to see its low estate;

And that resolve as noblest I esteem
Which holds it cheap; whose heart is set else- where
As truly just and good we well may deem.

I saw the daughter of Latona there
All glowing bright, without that shadowy veil,
Which once I deemed was caused by dense and rare;

I saw, with open glance that did not fail,
The glories, Hyperion, of thy son.
And Maia and Dione how they sail

Around and near him, and Jove's temperate zone
'Twixt sire and son, and then to me were clear
Their varying phases as they circle on;

And all the seven did then to me appear
In their true size and true velocity.
Each moving as distinct and separate sphere.

The little plot that stirs our enmity.
As with the eternal Twins I turned me round,
Lay all before me, from the hills to sea:

Then mine eyes looked where brightest eyes were found.