Paradiso: Canto XXVII

All Paradise took up the strain, "To the Father, to the Son, to the Holy Spirit, glory! "so that the sweet song intoxicated me.

Meseemed I was beholding a smile of the universe; wherefore my intoxication entered both by hearing and by sight.

O joy! O gladness unspeakable! O life compact of love and peace! O wealth secure that hath no longing!

Before mine eyes the four torches stood enkindled, and the one which had first approached me began to grow more living;

and such became in semblance as would Jupiter if he and Mars were birds and should exchange their plumage.

The providence which there assigneth function and office had imposed silence on the blessed choir on every side,

when I heard: "If I transform my hue, marvel thou not; for, as I speak, thou shalt see all of these transform it too.

He who usurpeth upon earth my place, my place, my place, which in the presence of the Son of God is vacant,

hath made my burial-ground a conduit for that blood and filth, whereby the apostate one who fell from here above, is soothed down there below."

With that colour which painteth a cloud at even or at morn by the opposing sun, did I then see all heaven o'erfused;

and as a modest dame who remaineth sure of herself, yet at another's fault, though only hearing it, feeleth all timid,

so Beatrice changed her semblance; and such, I take it, was the eclipse in heaven when the supreme Might suffered.

Then his discourse proceeded, with voice so far transmuted from itself, that his semblance had not altered more:

"The spouse of Christ was not reared upon my blood, and that of Linus and of Cletus, that she might then be used for gain of gold;

but 'twas for gain of this glad life that Sixtus and Pius, Calixtus and Urban shed their blood after many a tear.

It was not our purpose that on the right hand of our successors one part of the Christian folk should sit, and one part on the other;

nor that the keys given in grant to me should become the ensign on a standard waging war on the baptised;

nor that I should become the head upon the seal to sold and lying privileges, whereat I often blush and shoot forth flames.

In garb of pastors ravening wolves are seen from here above in all the pastures. Succour of God! oh wherefore liest thou prone?

Cahorsines and Gascons make ready to drink our blood. Oh fair beginning, to what vile ending must thou fall!

But the lofty Providence, which with Scipio defended the glory of the world for Rome, will soon bring succour, as I deem.

And thou, my son, who, for thy mortal weight, shalt return below once more, open thy mouth and hide thou not the thing which I not hide."

As our atmosphere raineth down in flakes the frozen vapours when the horn of the heavenly Goat is touched by the sun;

so did I see the ether adorn itself and rain upward the flakes of the triumphant flashes, which had made sojourn there with us.

My sight was following their semblance, and followed till the medium, by excess, deprived it of the power to pierce more far.

Whereat the Lady, who saw me now absolved from straining upward, said to me: "Down plunge thy sight and see how thou hast rolled."

From the hour at which I had before looked down, I saw that I had moved through the whole arc which the first Climate makes from middle unto end;

so that I saw beyond Cadiz the mad way which Ulysses took, and on this side, hard by, the shore whereon Europa made herself a sweet burden.

And further had the site of this thrashing-floor been unfolded to me, save that the sun was in advance beneath my feet, severed by a Sign and more from me.

My enamoured mind, which held amorous converse ever with my Lady, burned more than ever to bring back my eyes to her;

and whatsoever food nature or art e'er made, to catch the eyes and so possess the mind, be it in human flesh, be it in pictures,

if all united, would seem nought towards the divine delight which glowed upon me when that I turned me to her smiling face.

And the power of which that look made largess to me, from the fair nest of Leda plucked me forth, and into the swiftest heaven thrust me.

Its parts most living and exalted are so uniform that I know not to tell which Beatrice chose for my position.

But she, who saw my longing, smiling began — so glad that God seemed joying in her countenance —

"The nature of the universe which stilleth the centre and moveth all the rest around, hence doth begin as from its starting point.

And this heaven hath no other where than the divine mind wherein is kindled the love which rolleth it and the power which it sheddeth.

Light and love grasp it in one circle, as doth it the others, and this engirdment he only who doth gird it understandeth.

Its movement by no other is marked out; but by it all the rest are measured, as ten by half and fifth.

And how Time in this same vessel hath its roots, and in the rest its leaves, may now be manifest to thee,

O greed, who so dost abase mortals below thee, that not one hath power to draw his eyes forth from thy waves!

'Tis true the will in men hath vigour yet; but the continuous drench turneth true plum fruits into cankered tubers.

Faith and innocence are found only in little children; then each of them fleeth away before the cheeks are covered.

Many a still lisping child observeth fast, who after, when his tongue is free, devoureth every food in every month;

and many a lisping child loveth and hearkeneth to his mother, who after, when his speech is full, longeth to see her buried.

So blackeneth at the first aspect the white skin of his fair daughter who bringeth morn and leaveth evening.

And thou, lest thou make marvel at it, reflect that there is none to govern upon earth, wherefore the human household so strayeth from the path.

But, ere that January be all unwintered by that hundredth part neglected upon earth, so shall these upper circles roar

that the fated season so long awaited shall turn round the poops where are the prows, so that the fleet shall have straight course; and true fruit shall follow on the flower."