Purgatorio: Canto XXVII

As when he shoots forth his first beams there where his Creator shed his blood, while Ebro falls beneath the lofty Scales,

and Ganges’ waves by noonday heat are scorched, so stood the sun; wherefore the day was passing away when God’s glad angel appeared to us.

Outside the flames on the bank he was standing and singing “Beati mundo corde” in a voice more piercing far than ours.

Then: “No farther may ye go, O hallowed souls, if first the fire bite not; enter therein and to the singing beyond be not deaf,”

he said to us when we were nigh to him; wherefore I became when I heard him, such as one who is laid in the grave.

I bent forward over my clasped hands, gazing at the fire, and vividly imagining human bodies once seen burnt.

The kindly escorts turned them toward me, and Virgil said to me: “My son, here may be torment but not death.

Remember thee, remember thee,… and if on Geryon I guided thee safely, what shall I do now nearer to God?

Of a surety believe, that if within the womb of these flames thou didst abide full a thousand years, they could not make thee bald of one hair;

and if perchance thou thinkest that I beguile thee, get thee toward them, and get credence with thy hands on the hem of thy garments.

Put away now, put away all fear; turn thee hither, and onward come securely.” And I, yet rooted, and with accusing conscience.

When he saw me stand yet rooted and stubborn, troubled a little he said: “Now look my son, twixt Beatrice and thee is this wall.”

As at Thisbe’s name Pyramus opened his eyes at the point of death, and gazed at her, when the mulberry became red,

so, my stubbornness being softened, I turned me to my wise Leader on hearing the name which ever springs up in my mind.

Whereupon he shook his head, and said: “What? do we desire to stay this side?” then smiled as one does to a child that is won by an apple.

Then he entered into the fire in front of me, praying Statius that he would come behind, who for a long way before had separated us.

When I was within, I would have flung me into molten glass to cool me, so immeasurable there was the burning.

My sweet Father, to encourage me, went on discoursing ever of Beatrice, saying: “Already I seem to behold her eyes.”

A voice guided us, which was singing on the other side, and we, intent only on it, came forth, there where the ascent began.

“Venite benedicti patris mei,” rang forth from within a light which was there, so bright that it vanquished me, and look upon it I could not.

“The sun is sinking,” it added, “and the evening cometh; stay ye not but mend your pace while the west grows not dark.”

Straight the way mounted through the rock, toward such a quarter, that in front of me I stayed the rays of sun who already was low.

And of few steps made we assay, when I and my sages perceived that the sun had set behind us, because of the shadow which had vanished.

And ere the horizon in all its stupendous range had become of one hue, and night held all her dominion,

each of us made a bed of a step; for the law of the mount took from us the power, rather than the desire, to ascend.

As goats that have been agile and wanton upon the heights ere they are fed, grow tame while ruminating,

silent in the shade, when the sun is hot, guarded by the herd who has leaned upon his staff, and, leaning, minds them;

and like the shepherd who lodges in the open, holds silent vigil by night longside his flock, watching lest a wild beast scatter it;

such were we then all three, I as a goat and they as shepherds, bounded by the high rock on this side and on that.

Little of the outside could there be seen, but through that little I saw the stars brighter and bigger than their wont.

As I was thus ruminating, and thus gazing at them, sleep fell on me, sleep which oft doth know the news ere the fact come to pass.

In the hour, methinks, when Cytherea, who seemeth ever burning with fire of love, first beamed from the east on the mount,

meseemed to behold in a dream, a lady, young and fair, going along a plain gathering flowers; and singing she said:

“Know, whoso asketh my name, that I am Leah, and go moving my fair hands around to make me a garland.

To please me at the glass here I deck me; but Rachel my sister ne’er stirs from her mirror, and sitteth all day.

She is fain to behold her fair eyes, as I to deck me with my hands: her, contemplation; me, action, doth satisfy.”

And now, at the brightness ere dayspring born, which rises the gratefuller to wayfarers as on their return they lodge less far from home,

the shades of night were fleeing on every side, and my sleep with them; wherefore I arose, seeing the great Masters already risen.

“That sweet fruit whereof the care of mortals goeth in search on so many boughs, this day shall give thy hungerings peace.”

Words such as these did Virgil use to me, and never have there been gifts that were equal in sweetness to these.

So greatly did desire upon desire come over me to be above, that at every step after I felt my pinions grow for the flight.

When the stairway was all sped beneath us, and we were upon the topmost step, on me did Virgil fix his eyes,

and said: “Son, the temporal fire and the eternal, hast thou seen, and art come to a place where I, of myself, discern no further.

Here have I brought thee with wit and with art; now take thy pleasure for guide; forth art thou from the steep ways, forth art from the narrow.

Behold there the sun that shineth on thy brow, behold the tender grass, the flowers, and the shrubs, which the ground here of itself alone brings forth.

While the glad fair eyes are coming, which weeping made me come to thee, thou canst sit thee down and canst go among them.

No more expect my word, nor my sign. Free, upright, and whole, is thy will, and ’twere a fault not to act according to its prompting; wherefore I do crown and mitre thee over thyself.