Paradiso: Canto XXVIWhile I was doubting for my vision quenched,Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched itIssued a breathing, that attentive made me,Saying: “While thou recoverest the senseOf seeing which in me thou hast consumed,’Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate it.Begin then, and declare to what thy soulIs aimed, and count it for a certainty,Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead;Because the Lady, who through this divineRegion conducteth thee, has in her lookThe power the hand of Ananias had.”I said: “As pleaseth her, or soon or lateLet the cure come to eyes that portals wereWhen she with fire I ever burn with entered.The Good, that gives contentment to this Court,The Alpha and Omega is of allThe writing that love reads me low or loud.”The selfsame voice, that taken had from meThe terror of the sudden dazzlement,To speak still farther put it in my thought;And said: “In verity with finer sieveBehoveth thee to sift; thee it behovethTo say who aimed thy bow at such a target.”And I: “By philosophic arguments,And by authority that hence descends,Such love must needs imprint itself in me;For Good, so far as good, when comprehendedDoth straight enkindle love, and so much greaterAs more of goodness in itself it holds;Then to that Essence (whose is such advantageThat every good which out of it is foundIs nothing but a ray of its own light)More than elsewhither must the mind be movedOf every one, in loving, who discernsThe truth in which this evidence is founded.Such truth he to my intellect revealsWho demonstrates to me the primal loveOf all the sempiternal substances.The voice reveals it of the truthful Author,Who says to Moses, speaking of Himself,‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee.’Thou too revealest it to me, beginningThe loud Evangel, that proclaims the secretOf heaven to earth above all other edict.”And I heard say: “By human intellectAnd by authority concordant with it,Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest.But say again if other cords thou feelest,Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst proclaimWith how many teeth this love is biting thee.”The holy purpose of the Eagle of ChristNot latent was, nay, rather I perceivedWhither he fain would my profession lead.Therefore I recommenced: “All of those bitesWhich have the power to turn the heart to GodUnto my charity have been concurrent.The being of the world, and my own being,The death which He endured that I may live,And that which all the faithful hope, as I do,With the forementioned vivid consciousnessHave drawn me from the sea of love perverse,And of the right have placed me on the shore.The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the gardenOf the Eternal Gardener, do I loveAs much as he has granted them of good.”As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweetThroughout the heaven resounded, and my LadySaid with the others, “Holy, holy, holy!”And as at some keen light one wakes from sleepBy reason of the visual spirit that runsUnto the splendour passed from coat to coat,And he who wakes abhorreth what he sees,So all unconscious is his sudden waking,Until the judgment cometh to his aid,So from before mine eyes did BeatriceChase every mote with radiance of her own,That cast its light a thousand miles and more.Whence better after than before I saw,And in a kind of wonderment I askedAbout a fourth light that I saw with us.And said my Lady: “There within those raysGazes upon its Maker the first soulThat ever the first virtue did create.”Even as the bough that downward bends its topAt transit of the wind, and then is liftedBy its own virtue, which inclines it upward,Likewise did I, the while that she was speaking,Being amazed, and then I was made boldBy a desire to speak wherewith I burned.And I began: “O apple, that matureAlone hast been produced, O ancient father,To whom each wife is daughter and daughter-in-law,Devoutly as I can I supplicate theeThat thou wouldst speak to me; thou seest my wish;And I, to hear thee quickly, speak it not.”Sometimes an animal, when covered, strugglesSo that his impulse needs must be apparent,By reason of the wrappage following it;And in like manner the primeval soulMade clear to me athwart its coveringHow jubilant it was to give me pleasure.Then breathed: “Without thy uttering it to me,Thine inclination better I discernThan thou whatever thing is surest to thee;For I behold it in the truthful mirror,That of Himself all things parhelion makes,And none makes Him parhelion of itself.Thou fain wouldst hear how long ago God placed meWithin the lofty garden, where this LadyUnto so long a stairway thee disposed.And how long to mine eyes it was a pleasure,And of the great disdain the proper cause,And the language that I used and that I made.Now, son of mine, the tasting of the treeNot in itself was cause of so great exile,But solely the o’erstepping of the bounds.There, whence thy Lady moved Virgilius,Four thousand and three hundred and two circuitsMade by the sun, this Council I desired;And him I saw return to all the lightsOf his highway nine hundred times and thirty,Whilst I upon the earth was tarrying.The language that I spake was quite extinctBefore that in the work interminableThe people under Nimrod were employed;For nevermore result of reasoning(Because of human pleasure that doth change,Obedient to the heavens) was durable.A natural action is it that man speaks;But whether thus or thus, doth nature leaveTo your own art, as seemeth best to you.Ere I descended to the infernal anguish,‘El’ was on earth the name of the Chief Good,From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round‘Eli’ he then was called, and that is proper,Because the use of men is like a leafOn bough, which goeth and another cometh.Upon the mount that highest o’er the waveRises was I, in life or pure or sinful,From the first hour to that which is the second,As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth.”
While I was doubting for my vision quenched,Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched itIssued a breathing, that attentive made me,
Saying: “While thou recoverest the senseOf seeing which in me thou hast consumed,’Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate it.
Begin then, and declare to what thy soulIs aimed, and count it for a certainty,Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead;
Because the Lady, who through this divineRegion conducteth thee, has in her lookThe power the hand of Ananias had.”
I said: “As pleaseth her, or soon or lateLet the cure come to eyes that portals wereWhen she with fire I ever burn with entered.
The Good, that gives contentment to this Court,The Alpha and Omega is of allThe writing that love reads me low or loud.”
The selfsame voice, that taken had from meThe terror of the sudden dazzlement,To speak still farther put it in my thought;
And said: “In verity with finer sieveBehoveth thee to sift; thee it behovethTo say who aimed thy bow at such a target.”
And I: “By philosophic arguments,And by authority that hence descends,Such love must needs imprint itself in me;
For Good, so far as good, when comprehendedDoth straight enkindle love, and so much greaterAs more of goodness in itself it holds;
Then to that Essence (whose is such advantageThat every good which out of it is foundIs nothing but a ray of its own light)
More than elsewhither must the mind be movedOf every one, in loving, who discernsThe truth in which this evidence is founded.
Such truth he to my intellect revealsWho demonstrates to me the primal loveOf all the sempiternal substances.
The voice reveals it of the truthful Author,Who says to Moses, speaking of Himself,‘I will make all my goodness pass before thee.’
Thou too revealest it to me, beginningThe loud Evangel, that proclaims the secretOf heaven to earth above all other edict.”
And I heard say: “By human intellectAnd by authority concordant with it,Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest.
But say again if other cords thou feelest,Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst proclaimWith how many teeth this love is biting thee.”
The holy purpose of the Eagle of ChristNot latent was, nay, rather I perceivedWhither he fain would my profession lead.
Therefore I recommenced: “All of those bitesWhich have the power to turn the heart to GodUnto my charity have been concurrent.
The being of the world, and my own being,The death which He endured that I may live,And that which all the faithful hope, as I do,
With the forementioned vivid consciousnessHave drawn me from the sea of love perverse,And of the right have placed me on the shore.
The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the gardenOf the Eternal Gardener, do I loveAs much as he has granted them of good.”
As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweetThroughout the heaven resounded, and my LadySaid with the others, “Holy, holy, holy!”
And as at some keen light one wakes from sleepBy reason of the visual spirit that runsUnto the splendour passed from coat to coat,
And he who wakes abhorreth what he sees,So all unconscious is his sudden waking,Until the judgment cometh to his aid,
So from before mine eyes did BeatriceChase every mote with radiance of her own,That cast its light a thousand miles and more.
Whence better after than before I saw,And in a kind of wonderment I askedAbout a fourth light that I saw with us.
And said my Lady: “There within those raysGazes upon its Maker the first soulThat ever the first virtue did create.”
Even as the bough that downward bends its topAt transit of the wind, and then is liftedBy its own virtue, which inclines it upward,
Likewise did I, the while that she was speaking,Being amazed, and then I was made boldBy a desire to speak wherewith I burned.
And I began: “O apple, that matureAlone hast been produced, O ancient father,To whom each wife is daughter and daughter-in-law,
Devoutly as I can I supplicate theeThat thou wouldst speak to me; thou seest my wish;And I, to hear thee quickly, speak it not.”
Sometimes an animal, when covered, strugglesSo that his impulse needs must be apparent,By reason of the wrappage following it;
And in like manner the primeval soulMade clear to me athwart its coveringHow jubilant it was to give me pleasure.
Then breathed: “Without thy uttering it to me,Thine inclination better I discernThan thou whatever thing is surest to thee;
For I behold it in the truthful mirror,That of Himself all things parhelion makes,And none makes Him parhelion of itself.
Thou fain wouldst hear how long ago God placed meWithin the lofty garden, where this LadyUnto so long a stairway thee disposed.
And how long to mine eyes it was a pleasure,And of the great disdain the proper cause,And the language that I used and that I made.
Now, son of mine, the tasting of the treeNot in itself was cause of so great exile,But solely the o’erstepping of the bounds.
There, whence thy Lady moved Virgilius,Four thousand and three hundred and two circuitsMade by the sun, this Council I desired;
And him I saw return to all the lightsOf his highway nine hundred times and thirty,Whilst I upon the earth was tarrying.
The language that I spake was quite extinctBefore that in the work interminableThe people under Nimrod were employed;
For nevermore result of reasoning(Because of human pleasure that doth change,Obedient to the heavens) was durable.
A natural action is it that man speaks;But whether thus or thus, doth nature leaveTo your own art, as seemeth best to you.
Ere I descended to the infernal anguish,‘El’ was on earth the name of the Chief Good,From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round
‘Eli’ he then was called, and that is proper,Because the use of men is like a leafOn bough, which goeth and another cometh.
Upon the mount that highest o’er the waveRises was I, in life or pure or sinful,From the first hour to that which is the second,
As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth.”