Paradiso: Canto III

That sun which first warmed my bosom with love had thus unveiled for me, by proof and refutation, fair truth's sweet aspect;

and I, to confess me corrected and assured, in measure as was meet, sloped up my head to speak.

But there appeared to me a sight which so straitly held me to itself, to look upon it, that I bethought me not of my confession.

In such guise as, from glasses transparent and polished, or from waters clear and tranquil, not so deep that the bottom is darkened,

come back the notes of our faces, so faint that a pearl on a white brow cometh not slowlier upon our pupils;

so did I behold many a countenance, eager to speak; wherefore I fell into the counter error of that which kindled love between the man and fountain.

No sooner was I aware of them, than, thinking them reflected images, I turned round my eyes to see of whom they were;

and I saw naught, and turned them forward again straight on the light of my sweet guide, whose sacred eyes glowed as she smiled.

"Wonder not that I smile," she said, "in presence of thy child-like thought, since thy foot upon the truth,

but turneth thee after its wont, to vacancy. True substances are they which thou beholdest, relegated here for failure of their vows.

Wherefore speak with them, and listen and believe; for the true light which satisfieth them, suffereth them not to turn their feet aside from it."

And I to the shade who seemed most to long for converse turned me and began, as one whom too great longing doth confound:

"O well created spirit, who in the rays of eternal life dost feel the sweetness which, save tasted, may ne'er be understood;

it were acceptable to me, wouldst thou content me with thy name and with your lot." Whereat she, eager and with smiling eyes:

"Our love doth no more bar the gate to a just wish, than doth that love which would have all its court like to itself.

In the world I was a virgin sister; and if thy memory be rightly searched, my greater beauty will not hide me from thee,

but thou wilt know me again for Piccarda, who, placed here with these other blessed ones, am blessed in the sphere that moveth slowest.

Our affections, which are aflame only in the pleasure of the Holy Spirit, rejoice to be informed after his order.

And this lot, which seemeth so far down, therefore is given us because our vows were slighted, and on some certain side were not filled in."

Whereon I to her: In your wondrous aspects a divine somewhat regloweth that doth transmute you from conceits of former times.

Wherefore I lagged in calling thee to mind; now what thou tellest me giveth such help that more articulately I retrace thee.

But tell me, ye whose blessedness is here, do ye desire a more lofty place, to see more, or to make yourselves more dear?"

With those other shades first she smiled a little, then answered me so joyous that she seemed to burn in love's first flame:

"Brother, the quality of love stilleth our will, and maketh us long only for what we have, and giveth us no other thirst.

Did we desire to be more aloft, our longings were discordant from his will who here assorteth us,

and for that, thou wilt see, there is no room within these circles, if of necessity we have our being here in love, and if thou think again what is love's nature.

Nay, 'tis the essence of this blessed being to hold ourselves within the divine will, whereby our own wills are themselves made one.

So that our being thus, from threshold unto threshold throughout the realm, is a joy to all the realm as to the king, who draweth our wills to what he willeth;

and his will is our peace; it is that sea to which all moves that it createth and that nature maketh."

Clear was it then to me how every where in heaven is Paradise, e'en though the grace of the chief Good doth not rain there after one only fashion.

But even as it chanceth, should one food sate us while for another the appetite remaineth, that returning thanks for that, we ask for this;

so with gesture and with word did I, to learn from her what was that web through which she had not drawn the shuttle to the end.

Perfected life and high desert enheaveneth a lady more aloft," she said, "by whose rule down in your world there are who clothe and veil themselves,

that they, even till death, may wake and sleep with that Spouse who accepteth every vow that love hath made conform with his good pleasure.

From the world, to follow her, I fled while yet a girl, and in her habit I enclosed myself, and promised the way of her company.

Thereafter men more used to ill than good tore me away from the sweet cloister; and God doth know what my life then became.

And this other splendour who revealeth herself to thee on my right side, and who kindleth herself with all the light of our sphere,

doth understand of her that which I tell of me. She was a sister, and from her head was taken in like manner the shadow of the sacred veil.

Yet, turned back as she was into the world, against her pleasure and against good usage, from her heart's veil never was she loosened.

This is the light of the great Constance, who, from the second blast of Suabia, conceived the third and final might."

Thus did she speak to me, and then began to sing Ave Maria, and vanished as she sang, like to a heavy thing through the deep water.

My sight, which followed her far as it might, when it had lost her turned to the target of a greater longing,

and bent itself all upon Beatrice; but she so flashed upon my look, that at the first my sight endured it not; and this made me the slower with my questioning.