Paradiso: Canto XX

When he who doth illumine all the world descendeth so from our hemisphere that day on every side is done away,

the heaven which before is kindled by him only, now straightway maketh itself reappear by many lights wherein the one regloweth.

And this act of heaven came to my mind when the ensign of the world and of its leaders within its blessed beak was silent;

because all those living lights, far brightlier shining, began songs which from my memory must slip and fall.

O sweet love, smile-bemantled, how glowing didst thou seem in those flute holes breathed on only by sacred ponderings!

When the dear and shining stones, whereby I saw the sixth heaven gemmed, had imposed silence on the angelic chimes,

meseemed to hear the murmuring of a river which droppeth clear from rock to rock and showeth the abundance of its source.

And as the sound taketh its form in the lyre-neck, or at the opening of the pipes the wind that entereth,

so, delay of expectation done away, that murmuring of the eagle rose up through its neck as it were hollow;

there it became a voice and issued thence, out from its beak, in form of words, such as the heart awaited, whereon I wrote them.

"That part in me which seeth and which doth endure the sun in mortal eagles," it began to me, "must now fixedly be gazed upon,

for of the fires wherefromout I make my figure, those with which the eye sparkleth in my head, of all their ranks are chief.

He who shineth midmost, as the pupil, was the singer of the Holy Spirit who bore the ark from city unto city;

now knoweth he the merit of his song, in so far as 'twas the effect of his own counsel, by the remuneration like unto it.

Of the five who make the eyebrow's arch, he who doth neighbour closest on the beak consoled the widow for her son;

now knoweth he how dear it costs Christ not to follow, by his experience of this sweet life and of the opposite.

And he who followeth on the circumference whereof I tell, upon the upper arch, death did delay by his true penitence;

now knoweth he that the eternal judgment is not transmuted when a worthy prayer giveth unto to-morrow upon earth what was to-day's.

The next who followeth, with the laws and me, with good intention that bore evil fruit, to give place to the pastor, made himself a Greek;

now knoweth he that the ill deduced from his good deed hurteth not him though the world be destroyed thereby.

And him thou seest on the down-sloping arch was William, whom that land deploreth which weepeth for that Charles and Frederick live;

now knoweth he how heaven is enamoured of the righteous king, and by the semblance of his glow he maketh it yet seen.

Who would believe, down in the erring world, the Trojan Ripheus in this circle to be the fifth of the holy lights?

now knoweth he right much of the divine grace that the world hath no power to see, albeit his sight discerneth not the bottom."

Like to the lark who soareth in the air, first singing and then silent, content with the last sweetness that doth sate her,

so seemed to me the image of the imprint of the eternal pleasure, by longing for whom each thing becometh what it is.

And albeit there I was to my questioning like glass unto the colour which it clothes, yet would it not endure to bide its time in silence;

but from my mouth: "What things are these? "it thrust by force of its own weight, whereat I saw great glee of coruscation.

Then straightway, with its eye more kindled, the blessed ensign answered me, that it might not hold me in suspense of wonder: I see that thou believest these things because I tell them thee, but the how thou seest not; so that, although believed, yet are they hidden.

Thou art as he who doth apprehend the thing by name, but may not see its quidity unless another bring it forth to light.

The kingdom of heaven suffereth violence from warm love and living hope which conquereth the divine will;

not in fashion wherein man subdueth man, but conquereth it because it willeth to be conquered, and, conquered, with its own benignity doth conquer.

The first life of the eyebrow and the fifth set thee a-marvelling, because thou seest the region of the angels painted with them.

From their bodies they issued not, as thou believest, Gentiles, but Christians in established faith, this one and that, in the feet that — to the one — should suffer, and — to the other — had already suffered.

For the one from hell, — where none returneth ever to right will, — came back unto its bones, and this was the reward of living hope;

the living hope which put might into the prayers made unto God to raise him up, that his will might have power to be moved.

The glorious soul, whereof is the discourse, returning to the flesh where it abode short space, believed in him who had the power to aid it;

and believing kindled into so great flame of very love, that at the second death it was worthy to come unto this mirth.

The other, by that grace which welleth from so deep a fountain that never creature thrust eye down to its first wave,

set all his love below on righteousness, wherefore from grace to grace God opened his eye to our redemption yet to come;

whereat he believed therein, and thenceforth endured not the mire of paganism, and reproved the folk perverse concerning it.

Those three dames stood as baptism for him, whom thou didst see at the right wheel, more than a thousand years before baptising.

O predestination, how far withdrawn is thy root from such vision as sees not the first cause entire!

And ye mortals, hold yourselves straitly back from judging; for we who see God, know not as yet all the elect;

and sweet to us is such defect because our good in this good is refined, that what God willeth we too will."

So by this divine image to clear my curtailed vision was given me sweet medicine.

And as on a good singer a good harpist maketh the quivering of the chord attend, wherein the song gaineth more pleasantness,

so whilst he spake I mind me that I saw the two blessed lights, just as the beating of the eyes concordeth, making their flames to quiver to the words.