Paradiso: Canto XVII

As came to Clymene, to have assurance as to that which he had heard uttered against himself, he who still maketh fathers grudging to their sons;

such was I; and such was I felt both by Beatrice and by the sacred lamp which had already, for my sake, changed its position.

Wherefore my Lady: "Let forth the heat of thy desire," she said, "that it may issue, struck aright with the internal stamp;

not that our knowledge may increase by thy discourse, but that thou mayst learn to tell thy thirst, that men may mingle for thee."

"Dear turf, wherein I root me, who art so high uplifted that even as earthly minds perceive that two obtuse angles may not find room in one triangle,

so thou dost see contingent things, or ere themselves exist, gazing upon the point whereto all times are present;

whilst I was companioned by Virgil along the mount which cureth souls, and down-going through the world defunct,

heavy words were said to me anent my future life; albeit I feel me squarely set against the blows of fortune;

wherefore my will were well content to hear what the disaster drawing nigh to me; for the arrow seen before cometh less rudely."

So spake I unto that same light which had before addressed me, and, as Beatrice willed, was my wish confessed.

In no dark sayings, such as limed the foolish folk of old, before the Lamb of God who taketh sins away, was slain,

but in clear words, and with precise discourse, answered that love paternal, hidden and revealed by his own smile:

"Contingency, which beyond the sheet of your material stretcheth not, is all limned in the eternal aspect;

albeit it deriveth not necessity from this, no more than doth the ship that droppeth down the stream from the sight wherein she doth reflect herself.

Thence, as cometh to the ear sweet harmony from an organ, cometh to my sight the time that is in store for thee.

As Hippolytus was severed from Athens by machination of his cruel and perfidious stepmother, so must thou needs sever thee from Florence.

So it is willed, so already plotted, and so shall be accomplished soon, by him who pondereth upon it in the place where Christ, day in day out, is put to sale.

The blame shall cleave unto the injured side in fame, as is the wont; but vengeance shall bear witness to the truth which doth dispense it.

Thou shalt abandon everything beloved most dearly; this is the arrow which the bow of exile shall first shoot.

Thou shalt make trial of how salt doth taste another's bread, and how hard the path to descend and mount upon another's stair.

And that which most shall weigh thy shoulders down, shall be the vicious and ill company with which thou shalt fall down into this vale,

for all ungrateful, all mad and impious shall they become against thee; but, soon after, their temples and not thine shall redden for it.

Of their brutishness their progress shall make proof, so that it shall be for thy fair fame to have made a party for thyself.

Thy first refuge and first hostelry shall be the courtesy of the great Lombard, who on the ladder beareth the sacred bird,

for who shall cast so benign regard on thee that of doing and demanding, that shall be first betwixt you two, which betwixt others most doth lag.

With him shalt thou see the one who so at his birth was stamped by this strong star, that notable shall be his deeds.

Not yet have folk taken due note of him, because of his young age, for only nine years have these wheels rolled round him.

But ere the Gascon have deceived the lofty Henry, sparkles of his virtue shall appear in carelessness of silver and of toils.

His deeds munificent shall yet be known so that concerning them his very foes shall not be able to keep silent tongues.

Look to him and to his benefits; by him shall many folk be changed, altering state, the wealthy and the beggars;

and thou shalt bear it written in thy mind of him, but shalt not tell it"; — and he told me things past the belief even of who shall see them.

Then he added: "Son, these are the notes on what hath been said to thee; behold the snares that behind but few circlings are hidden.

Yet would I not have thee envious of thy neighbours, since thy life shall be prolonged far beyond falling of the penalty upon their perfidies."

When by his silence the sacred soul showed he had finished setting of the woof across the warp I had held out in readiness to him,

I began, as he who longeth in doubt for counsel from one who seeth and willeth straight, and loveth:

"Well do I see, my father, how time cometh spurring toward me to give me such a buffet as is heaviest to whoso most abandoneth himself;

wherefore with foresight it were well to arm me, that if the dearest place be reft from me, I lose not all the rest by reason of my songs.

Down in the world endlessly bitter, and along the mount from whose fair summit my Lady's eyes uplifted me,

and after, through the heaven from light to light, I have learnt that which if I tell again, will have strong-bitter flavour unto many;

and if to truth I am a shrinking friend, I fear to lose life amongst those who shall call this time ancient."

The light wherein was smiling my treasure which I there had found, first coruscated as at the sun's rays doth a golden mirror;

then answered: "Conscience darkened, or by its own or by another's shame, will in truth feel thy utterance grating.

But none the less, every lie set aside, make thy entire vision manifest, and let them scratch wherever is the scab;

for if thy voice be grievous at first taste, yet vital nutriment shall it leave thereafter when digested.

This cry of thine shall do as doth the wind, which smiteth most upon the loftiest summits; and this shall be no little argument of honour.

Therefore have been displayed to thee, in these wheels, upon the mount, and in the dolorous vale, only souls known to fame;

for the soul of him who heareth resteth not nor fixeth faith by an example which hath its root unknown and hidden, nor other unconspicuous argument."