Purgatorio: Canto XXVIII

Now eager to search within and around the divine forest dense and verdant, which to mine eyes was tempering the new day,

without waiting more I left the mountain-side, crossing the plain with lingering step, over the ground which gives forth fragrance on every side.

A sweet breeze, itself invariable, was striking on my brow with no greater force than a gentle wind,

before which the branches, responsively trembling, were all bending toward that quarter, where the holy mount casts its first shadow;

yet not so far bent aside from their erect state, that the little birds in the tops ceased to practise their every art;

but, singing, with full gladness they welcomed the first breezes within the leaves, which were murmuring the burden to their songs;

even such as from bough to bough is gathered through the pine wood on Chiassi’s shore, when Aeolus looses Sirocco forth.

Already my slow steps had carried me on so far within the ancient wood, that I could not see whence I had entered;

and lo, a stream took from me further passage which, toward the left with its little waves, bent the grass which sprang forth on its bank.

All the waters which here are purest, would seem to have some mixture in them, compared with that, which hideth nought;

albeit full darkly it flows beneath the everlasting shade, which never lets sun, nor moon, beam there.

With feet I halted and with mine eyes did pass beyond the rivulet, to gaze upon the great diversity of the tender blossoms;

and there to me appeared, even as on a sudden something appears which, through amazement, sets all other thought astray,

a lady solitary, who went along singing, and culling flower after flower, wherewith all her path was painted.

“Pray, fair lady, who at love’s beams dost warm thee, if I may believe outward looks, which are wont to be a witness of the heart,

may it please thee to draw forward,” said I to her, “towards this stream, so far that I may understand what thou singest.

Thou makest me to remember, where and what Proserpine was in the time her mother lost her, and she lost the spring.”

As a lady who is dancing turns her round with feet close to the ground and to each other, and hardly putteth foot before foot,

she turned toward me upon the red and upon the yellow flowerets, not otherwise than a virgin that droppeth her modest eyes;

and made my prayers satisfied, drawing so near that the sweet sound reached me with its meaning

Soon as she was there, where the grass is already bathed by the waves of the fair river, she vouchsafed to raise her eyes to me.

I do not believe that so bright a light shone forth under the eyelids of Venus, pierced by her son, against all his wont.

She smiled from the right bank opposite, gathering more flowers with her hands, which the high land bears without seed.

Three paces the river kept us distant; but Hellespont, where Xerxes crossed, to this day a curb to all human pride,

endured not more hatred from Leander for its turbulent waves ’twixt Sestos and Abydos, than that did from me, because it opened not then.

“New-comers are ye,” she began, “and perchance, because I am smiling in this place, chosen for nest of the human race,

some doubt doth hold you marvelling; but the psalm Delectasti giveth light which may clear the mist from your understanding.

And thou, who art in front, and didst entreat me, say if aught else thou wouldst hear: for I came ready to all thy questioning till thou be satisfied.”

“The water,” said I, “and the music of the forest, are combatting within me a new belief in a thing which I have heard contrary to this.”

Wherefore she: “I will tell from what cause that arises which makes thee marvel, and I will purge away the mist that offends thee.

The highest Good, who himself alone doth please, made man good and for goodness, and gave this place to him as an earnest of eternal peace.

Through his default, small time he sojourned here; through his default, for tears and sweat he exchanged honest laughter and sweet play.

In order that the storms, which the exhalations of the water and of the earth cause below it, and which follow so far as they can after the heat,

should do no hurt to man, this mount rose thus far towards heaven, and stands clear of them from where it is locked.

Now since the whole of the air revolves in a circle with the primal motion, unless its circuit is broken in some direction,

such motion strikes on this eminence, which is all free in the pure air, and makes the wood to sound because it is dense;

and the smitten plant has such power that with its virtue it impregnates the air, and that in its revolution then scatters it abroad:

and the other land, according as it is worthy of itself and of its climate, conceives and brings forth divers trees of divers virtues.

Were this understood, it would not then seem a marvel yonder when some plant takes root there without manifest seed.

And thou must know that the holy plain where thou art, is full of every seed, and bears fruit in it which yonder is not plucked.

The water which thou seest wells not from a spring that is fed by moisture which cold condenses, like a river that gains and loses volume,

but issues from a fount, constant and sure, which regains by God’s will, so much as it pours forth freely on either side.

On this side it descends with a virtue which takes from men the memory of sin; on the other it restores the memory of every good deed.

On this side Lethe, as on the other Eunoe ’tis called, and works not except first it is tasted on this side and on that.

This exceedeth all other savours; and albeit thy thirst may be full sated, even tho’ I reveal no more to thee,

I will give thee yet a corollary as a grace; nor do I think that my words will be less precious to thee if they extend beyond my promise to thee.

They who in olden times sang of the golden age and its happy state, perchance dreamed in Parnassus of this place.

Here the root of man’s race was innocent; here spring is everlasting, and every kind of fruit; this is the nectar whereof each one tells.”

Then did I turn me right back to my poets, and saw that with smiles they had heard the last interpretation; then to the fair Lady I turned my face.