Paradiso: Canto XIX

With outstretched wings appeared before me the fair image which those enwoven souls, rejoicing in their sweet fruition, made.

Each one appeared as a ruby whereon the sun's ray should burn, enkindled so as to re-cast it on mine eyes.

And that which I must now retrace, nor ever voice conveyed, nor ink did write, nor ere by fantasy was comprehended;

for I saw and eke I heard the beak discourse and utter in its voice both I and Mine, when in conception it was We and Our.

And it began: "In that I was just and duteous am I here exalted to this glory which suffereth not itself to be surpassed by longing;

and upon earth have I left a memory, so fashioned that there the evil folk commend it, though they follow not the tale."

So do we feel one glow from many coals as from those many loves there issued forth one only sound out of that image.

Whereon straightway I: "O perpetual flowers of the eternal gladness, ye who make all your odours seem to me but one,

solve, as ye breathe, the great fast which long hath held me hungering, because on earth I found no food for it.

Well do I know that if the divine justice maketh any other realm of heaven its mirror, yours apprehendeth it without a veil.

Ye know how eager I prepare me to hearken; ye know what is that question which hath been to me a fast of so long date."

As the falcon issuing from the hood shaketh head and clappeth wings, showing his will and making himself beauteous,

such did I see that ensign which was woven of the praises of divine grace, with songs such as be known to whoso up there rejoiceth.

Then it began: "He who rolled the compass round the limit of the universe, and within it marked out so much both hidden and revealed,

could not so stamp his worth on all the universe but that his word remained in infinite excess.

And this is certified by that first proud being, who was the summit of all creation, because he would not wait for light, falling unripe;

and hence it is apparent that each lesser nature is a receptacle too scant for that good which hath not end, and itself measureth with itself.

Wherefore our sight, which needs must be one of the rays of that mind whereby all things are filled,

cannot of its nature have so great power but that its principle should discern far beyond that which unto it appeareth.

Wherefore in the eternal justice such sight as your world doth receive, like the eye in the ocean, is absorbed;

for, albeit it can see the bottom by the shore, in the open sea it seeth it not, and none the less 'tis there, but the depth it hath concealeth it.

There is no light unless from that serene which never is disturbed, else is it darkness or shadow of the flesh or else its poison.

Enough is opened to thee now the labyrinth which hid from thee the living justice of which thou hast made question so incessantly;

for thou didst say: "A man is born upon the bank of Indus and there is none to tell of Christ, nor none to read, nor none to write;

and all his volitions and his deeds are good so far as human reason seeth, sinless in life or in discourse.

He dieth unbaptised and without faith; where is that justice which condemneth him? where is his fault, in that he not believes? '

Now who art thou who wouldst sit upon the seat to judge at a thousand miles away with the short sight that carries but a span?

Truly to him who goeth subtly to work with me, were not the Scripture over you, there were marvellous ground for questioning.

O animals of earth, minds gross! the primal Will, good in itself, never departed from its own self which is the highest good.

All is just which doth harmonise with it; no created good draweth it to itself, but it by raying forth giveth rise to it."

As right above her nest the stork sweepeth when she hath fed her brood, and as the one which she hath fed looketh up to her;

so did (and so did I uplift my brow) the blessed image, which plied its wings driven by so many counsels.

Wheeling it sang, and said: "As are my notes to thee who understandest them not, such is the eternal judgment to you mortals."

When those glowing flames of the Holy Spirit were stilled, yet in the ensign which gained the Romans reverence from all the world,

it began again: "To this realm ne'er rose one who believed not in Christ, neither before nor after he was nailed unto the tree.

But see, many cry Christ, Christ, who at the judgment shall be far less near to him than such as know not Christ;

and such Christians the Ethiop shall condemn when the two colleges shall dispart, the one for ever rich, the other stripped.

What may the Persians say unto your kings when they shall see that volume opened wherein are their dispraises all recorded?

There shall be seen amidst the deeds of Albert that one which soon shall move its wing to make the realm of Prague a desert.

There shall be seen the woe which he is bringing on the Seine by making false the coinage, who by the wild boar's stroke shall die.

There shall be seen the pride which maketh athirst and doth the Scot and Englishman so madden they may not abide within their proper bound.

The lechery shall be seen and life effeminate of him of Spain, and him of Bohemia, who knew not ever worthiness, nor willed it.

For the cripple of Jerusalem shall be seen marked with an I, his excellence, whereas an M shall mark the countercharge.

The avarice and baseness shall be seen of him who hath in ward the Isle of Fire where Anchises ended his long life;

and to give to understand how great his paltriness, his record shall be kept in stunted letters which shall note much in little space.

And plain to all shall be revealed the foul deeds of his uncle and his brother which have made so choice a family, and two crowns, cuckold.

And he of Portugal and he of Norway there shall be known, and he of Rascia, who in ill hour saw the coin of Venice.

O happy Hungary, if she suffereth herself to be mauled no more! And happy Navarre, were she to arm herself with the mount that fringeth her!

And all should hold that 'tis in pledge of this that Nicosia and Famagosta already wail and shriek by reason of their beast, who doth not part him from beside the others."