Paradiso: Canto I

The All-mover's glory penetrates through the universe, and regloweth in one region more, and less in another.

In that heaven which most receiveth of his light, have I been; and have seen things which whoso descendeth from up there hath nor knowledge nor power to re-tell;

because, as it draweth nigh to its desire, our intellect sinketh so deep, that memory cannot go back upon the track.

Nathless, whatever of the holy realm I had the power to treasure in my memory, shall now be matter of my song.

O good Apollo, for the crowning task, make me a so-fashioned vessel of thy worth, as thou demandest for the grant of thy beloved laurel.

Up till here one peak of Parnassus hath sufficed me; but now, with both the two, needs must I enter this last wrestling-ground.

Into my bosom enter thou, and so breathe as when thou drewest Marsyas from out what sheathed his limbs.

O divine Virtue, if thou dost so far lend thyself to me, that I make manifest the shadow of the blessed realm imprinted on my brain,

thou shalt see me come to thy chosen tree and crown me, then, with the leaves of which the matter and thou shalt make me worthy.

So few times, Father, is there gathered of it, for triumph or of Caesar or of poet, — fault and shame of human wills, —

that the Peneian frond should bring forth gladness in the joyous Delphic deity, when it sets any athirst for itself.

A mighty flame followeth a tiny spark; perchance, after me, shall prayer with better voices be so offered that Cirrha may respond.

The lantern of the universe riseth unto mortal through divers straits; but from that which joineth four circles in three crosses

he issueth with more propitious course, and united with a more propitious star, and doth temper and stamp the mundane wax more after his own mood.

Almost this strait had made morning on that side and evening on this; and there that hemisphere all was aglow, and the other region darkling;

when I beheld Beatrice turned on her left side and gazing on the sun. Never did eagle so fix himself thereon.

And even as the second ray doth ever issue from the first, and rise back upward, (like as a pilgrim whose will is to return);

so from her gesture, poured through the eyes into my imagination, did mine own take shape; and I fixed mine eyes upon the sun, transcending our wont.

Much is granted there which is not granted here to our powers, in virtue of the place made as proper to the human race.

I not long endured him, nor yet so little but that I saw him sparkle all around, like iron issuing molten from the furnace.

And, of a sudden, meseemed that day was added unto day, as though he who hath the power, had adorned heaven with a second sun.

Beatrice was standing with her eyes all fixed upon the eternal wheels, and I fixed my sight, removed from there above, on her.

Gazing on her such I became within, as was Glaucus, tasting of the grass that made him the sea-fellow of the other gods.

.To pass beyond humanity may not be told in words, wherefore let the example satisfy him for whom grace reserveth the experience.

If I was only that of me which thou didst new-create, O Love who rulest heaven, thou knowest, who with thy light didst lift me up.

When the wheel which thou, by being longed for, makest eternal, drew unto itself my mind with the harmony which thou dost temper and distinguish,

so much of heaven then seemed to me enkindled with the sun's flame, that rain nor river ever made a lake so wide distended.

The newness of the sound and the great light kindled in me a longing for their cause, ne'er felt before so keenly.

Whence she who saw me even as I saw myself, to still my agitated mind, opened her lips, e'er I mine to ask;

and she began: "Thou thyself makest thyself dense with false imagining, and so thou seest not what thou wouldst see, if thou hadst cast it off.

Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest; but lightning, fleeing its proper site, ne'er darted as dost thou who art returning thither."

If I was stripped of my first perplexity by the brief smile-enwrapped discourse, I was the more enmeshed within another;

and I said: "Content already and at rest from a great marvelling, now am I in amaze how I transcend these lightsome bodies."

Whereon she, after a sigh of pity, turned her eyes toward me with that look a mother casts on her delirious child;

and began: "All things whatsoever observe a mutual order; and this the form that maketh the universe like unto God.

Herein the exalted creatures trace the impress of the Eternal Worth, which is the goal whereto was made the norm now spoken of.

In the order of which I speak all things incline, by diverse lots, more near and less unto their principle;

wherefore they move to diverse ports o'er the great sea of being, and each one with instinct given it to bear it on.

This beareth the fire toward the moon; this is the mover in the hearts of things that die; this doth draw the earth together and unite it.

Nor only the creatures that lack intelligence doth this bow shoot, but those that have both intellect and love.

The Providence that doth assort all this, doth with its light make ever still the heaven wherein whirleth that one that hath the greatest speed;

and thither now, as to the appointed site, the power of that bowstring beareth us which directeth to a joyful mark whatso it doth discharge.

True is it, that as the form often accordeth not with the intention of the art, because that the material is dull to answer;

so from this course sometimes departeth the creature that hath power, thus thrust, to swerve to-ward some other part,

(even as fire may be seen to dart down from the cloud) if its first rush be wrenched aside to earth by false seeming pleasure.

Thou shouldst no more wonder, if I deem aright, at thine uprising, than at a river dropping down from a lofty mountain to the base.

Marvel were it in thee if, bereft of all impediment, thou hadst settled down below; even as were stillness on the earth in a living flame." Thereon toward Heaven she turned back her gaze.