Paradiso: Canto XV

The benign will — wherein distilleth ever the love that hath the right perfume, as doth, in the grudging will, cupidity —

imposed silence on that sweet lyre and stilled the sacred strings, which the right hand of heaven looseneth and stretcheth.

How shall those beings unto righteous prayers be deaf, who, to excite in me the will to make my prayer to them, agreed in silence?

Right is it he should grieve without a limit, who, for the love of what endureth not, eternally doth strip him of this love.

As through the tranquil and pure skies darteth, from time to time, a sudden flame setting a-moving eyes that erst were steady,

seeming a star that changeth place, save that from where it kindleth no star is lost, and that itself endureth but a little;

such from the horn that stretcheth to the right unto that cross's foot, darted a star of the constellation that is there a-glow;

nor did the gem depart from off its riband, but coursed along the radial line, like fire burning behind alabaster.

With suchlike tenderness Anchises' shade proffered itself, if our greatest Muse deserveth credit, when in Elysium he perceived his son.

"Oh blood of mine! oh grace of God poured o'er thee! to whom, was ever twice, as unto thee, heaven's gate thrown open?"

So spake that light; wherefore I gave my heed to him. Then I turned back my sight unto my Lady, and on this side and that I was bemazed;

for in her eyes was blazing such a smile, I thought with mine I had touched the bottom both of my grace and of my Paradise.

Then — joyous both to hearing and to sight — the spirit added things to his beginning I understood not, so profound his speech;

neither of choice hid he himself from me, but of necessity, for above the target of mortals his thought took its place.

And when the bow of ardent love was so tempered that his discourse descended to-wards the target of our intellect;

the first I understood was, "Blessed be thou, thou Three and One, who art so greatly courteous in my seed."

And followed on: "A dear long-cherished hunger, drawn from the reading of the mighty volume wherein not changeth ever white nor black,

thou hast assuaged, my son, within this light, wherein I speak to thee; thanks unto her who for the lofty flight clad thee with wings.

Thou deemest that to me thy thought hath way e'en from the primal Thought, as ray forth from the monad, rightly known, the pentad and the hexad;

and therefore, who I be, or why I seem to thee more gladsome than another in this festive throng thou makest not demand.

Rightly thou deemest; for less and great in this life gaze on the mirror whereon, or ere thou thinkest, thou dost outspread thy thought.

But that the sacred love, wherein I watch with sight unintermitted, and which setteth me athirst with a sweet longing, may be fulfilled the better,

secure and bold and joyous let thy voice sound forth the will, sound forth the longing, whereto my answer already is decreed."

I turned to Beatrice, and she heard ere that I spoke, and granted me a signal that made the wings of my desire increase.

Then I thus began: "Love and intelligence, soon as the prime equality appeared to you, became of equal poise to each of you,

because the sun which lightened you and warmed with heat and brightness hath such equality that illustrations all fall short of it.

But unto mortals, will and instrument, for reason manifest to you, unequally are feathered in their wings.

Wherefore I, a mortal, feel the stress of this unequalness, and therefore only with my heart give thanks for the paternal greeting.

But I may and do entreat thee, living topaz, who dost be-gem this precious jewel, that thou assuage me with thy name."

"Oh leaf of mine, in whom I took delight, only expecting thee, I was thy taproot," such opening in his answer made he me.

Then said: "He from whom thy kindred hath its name, and who a hundred years and more hath circled round the Mount on the first terrace,

was son to me, and thy grandfather's father; meet it is, that with thy works thou shouldst abate his long-stretched toil for him.

Florence, within the ancient circling wherefrom she still receiveth tierce and nones, abode in peace, sober and chaste.

There was no chain or coronet, nor dames decked out, nor girdle that should set folk more a-gaze than she who wore it.

As yet the daughter's birth struck not the father with dismay; for wedding day and dowry evaded not the measure on this side and on that.

There were no mansions empty of the household; Sardanapalus had not yet arrived to show what may be done within the chamber.

Not yet was Montemalo overpassed by your Uccellatoio, which, as it hath been passed in the uprising, shall be in the fall.

Bellincion Berti have I seen go girt with bone and leather, and his dame come from her mirror with unpainted face;

I have seen him of the Nerlo, and him of the Vecchio, content with the skin jerkin and nought over it, and their dames at the spindle and the flax.

Oh happy they, each one of them secure of her burial-place, and none yet deserted in her couch because of France.

The' one kept watch in minding of the cradle, and soothing spake that speech which first delighteth fathers and mothers;

another, as she drew its locks from the distaff, would tell her household about the Trojans, and Fiesole, and Rome.

Then a Cianghella, or a Lapo Salterello, would have been as great a marvel as now would Cincinnatus or Cornelia.

To so reposeful and so fair a life among the citizens, to so faithful cityhood, to so sweet abode,

Mary — with deep wailings summoned — gave me; and, in your ancient Baptistery, at once a Christian I became and Cacciaguida.

Moronto was my brother and Eliseo; my wife came to me from Po valley, and from her was thy surname derived.

Then followed I the Emperor Conrad, who girt me with his knighthood, so much by valiant work did I advance me in his grace.

In his train I marched against the infamy of that Law whose people doth usurp, shame to the pastors, what is yours by right.

There by that foul folk was I unswathed of the deceitful world, whose love befouleth many a soul, and came from martyrdom unto this peace.