Purgatorio: Canto XXIXSinging like unto an enamoured ladyShe, with the ending of her words, continued:“Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata.”And even as Nymphs, that wandered all aloneAmong the sylvan shadows, sedulousOne to avoid and one to see the sun,She then against the stream moved onward, goingAlong the bank, and I abreast of her,Her little steps with little steps attending.Between her steps and mine were not a hundred,When equally the margins gave a turn,In such a way, that to the East I faced.Nor even thus our way continued farBefore the lady wholly turned herselfUnto me, saying, “Brother, look and listen!”And lo! a sudden lustre ran acrossOn every side athwart the spacious forest,Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.But since the lightning ceases as it comes,And that continuing brightened more and more,Within my thought I said, “What thing is this?”And a delicious melody there ranAlong the luminous air, whence holy zealMade me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;For there where earth and heaven obedient were,The woman only, and but just created,Could not endure to stay ’neath any veil;Underneath which had she devoutly stayed,I sooner should have tasted those delightsIneffable, and for a longer time.While ’mid such manifold first-fruits I walkedOf the eternal pleasure all enrapt,And still solicitous of more delights,In front of us like an enkindled fireBecame the air beneath the verdant boughs,And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger,Vigils, or cold for you I have endured,The occasion spurs me their reward to claim!Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me,And with her choir Urania must assist me,To put in verse things difficult to think.A little farther on, seven trees of goldIn semblance the long space still interveningBetween ourselves and them did counterfeit;But when I had approached so near to themThe common object, which the sense deceives,Lost not by distance any of its marks,The faculty that lends discourse to reasonDid apprehend that they were candlesticks,And in the voices of the song “Hosanna!”Above them flamed the harness beautiful,Far brighter than the moon in the sereneOf midnight, at the middle of her month.I turned me round, with admiration filled,To good Virgilius, and he answered meWith visage no less full of wonderment.Then back I turned my face to those high things,Which moved themselves towards us so sedately,They had been distanced by new-wedded brides.The lady chid me: “Why dost thou burn onlySo with affection for the living lights,And dost not look at what comes after them?”Then saw I people, as behind their leaders,Coming behind them, garmented in white,And such a whiteness never was on earth.The water on my left flank was resplendent,And back to me reflected my left side,E’en as a mirror, if I looked therein.When I upon my margin had such postThat nothing but the stream divided us,Better to see I gave my steps repose;And I beheld the flamelets onward go,Leaving behind themselves the air depicted,And they of trailing pennons had the semblance,So that it overhead remained distinctWith sevenfold lists, all of them of the coloursWhence the sun’s bow is made, and Delia’s girdle.These standards to the rearward longer wereThan was my sight; and, as it seemed to me,Ten paces were the outermost apart.Under so fair a heaven as I describeThe four and twenty Elders, two by two,Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.They all of them were singing: “Blessed thouAmong the daughters of Adam art, and blessedFor evermore shall be thy loveliness.”After the flowers and other tender grassesIn front of me upon the other marginWere disencumbered of that race elect,Even as in heaven star followeth after star,There came close after them four animals,Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.Plumed with six wings was every one of them,The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of ArgusIf they were living would be such as these.Reader! to trace their forms no more I wasteMy rhymes; for other spendings press me so,That I in this cannot be prodigal.But read Ezekiel, who depicteth themAs he beheld them from the region coldComing with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire;And such as thou shalt find them in his pages,Such were they here; saving that in their plumageJohn is with me, and differeth from him.The interval between these four containedA chariot triumphal on two wheels,Which by a Griffin’s neck came drawn along;And upward he extended both his wingsBetween the middle list and three and three,So that he injured none by cleaving it.So high they rose that they were lost to sight;His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird,And white the others with vermilion mingled.Not only Rome with no such splendid carE’er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,But poor to it that of the Sun would be,—That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt upAt the importunate orison of Earth,When Jove was so mysteriously just.Three maidens at the right wheel in a circleCame onward dancing; one so very redThat in the fire she hardly had been noted.The second was as if her flesh and bonesHad all been fashioned out of emerald;The third appeared as snow but newly fallen.And now they seemed conducted by the white,Now by the red, and from the song of herThe others took their step, or slow or swift.Upon the left hand four made holidayVested in purple, following the measureOf one of them with three eyes m her head.In rear of all the group here treated ofTwo old men I beheld, unlike in habit,But like in gait, each dignified and grave.One showed himself as one of the disciplesOf that supreme Hippocrates, whom natureMade for the animals she holds most dear;Contrary care the other manifested,With sword so shining and so sharp, it causedTerror to me on this side of the river.Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect,And behind all an aged man aloneWalking in sleep with countenance acute.And like the foremost company these sevenWere habited; yet of the flower-de-luceNo garland round about the head they wore,But of the rose, and other flowers vermilion;At little distance would the sight have swornThat all were in a flame above their brows.And when the car was opposite to meThunder was heard; and all that folk augustSeemed to have further progress interdicted,There with the vanward ensigns standing still.
Singing like unto an enamoured ladyShe, with the ending of her words, continued:“Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata.”
And even as Nymphs, that wandered all aloneAmong the sylvan shadows, sedulousOne to avoid and one to see the sun,
She then against the stream moved onward, goingAlong the bank, and I abreast of her,Her little steps with little steps attending.
Between her steps and mine were not a hundred,When equally the margins gave a turn,In such a way, that to the East I faced.
Nor even thus our way continued farBefore the lady wholly turned herselfUnto me, saying, “Brother, look and listen!”
And lo! a sudden lustre ran acrossOn every side athwart the spacious forest,Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.
But since the lightning ceases as it comes,And that continuing brightened more and more,Within my thought I said, “What thing is this?”
And a delicious melody there ranAlong the luminous air, whence holy zealMade me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;
For there where earth and heaven obedient were,The woman only, and but just created,Could not endure to stay ’neath any veil;
Underneath which had she devoutly stayed,I sooner should have tasted those delightsIneffable, and for a longer time.
While ’mid such manifold first-fruits I walkedOf the eternal pleasure all enrapt,And still solicitous of more delights,
In front of us like an enkindled fireBecame the air beneath the verdant boughs,And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.
O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger,Vigils, or cold for you I have endured,The occasion spurs me their reward to claim!
Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me,And with her choir Urania must assist me,To put in verse things difficult to think.
A little farther on, seven trees of goldIn semblance the long space still interveningBetween ourselves and them did counterfeit;
But when I had approached so near to themThe common object, which the sense deceives,Lost not by distance any of its marks,
The faculty that lends discourse to reasonDid apprehend that they were candlesticks,And in the voices of the song “Hosanna!”
Above them flamed the harness beautiful,Far brighter than the moon in the sereneOf midnight, at the middle of her month.
I turned me round, with admiration filled,To good Virgilius, and he answered meWith visage no less full of wonderment.
Then back I turned my face to those high things,Which moved themselves towards us so sedately,They had been distanced by new-wedded brides.
The lady chid me: “Why dost thou burn onlySo with affection for the living lights,And dost not look at what comes after them?”
Then saw I people, as behind their leaders,Coming behind them, garmented in white,And such a whiteness never was on earth.
The water on my left flank was resplendent,And back to me reflected my left side,E’en as a mirror, if I looked therein.
When I upon my margin had such postThat nothing but the stream divided us,Better to see I gave my steps repose;
And I beheld the flamelets onward go,Leaving behind themselves the air depicted,And they of trailing pennons had the semblance,
So that it overhead remained distinctWith sevenfold lists, all of them of the coloursWhence the sun’s bow is made, and Delia’s girdle.
These standards to the rearward longer wereThan was my sight; and, as it seemed to me,Ten paces were the outermost apart.
Under so fair a heaven as I describeThe four and twenty Elders, two by two,Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.
They all of them were singing: “Blessed thouAmong the daughters of Adam art, and blessedFor evermore shall be thy loveliness.”
After the flowers and other tender grassesIn front of me upon the other marginWere disencumbered of that race elect,
Even as in heaven star followeth after star,There came close after them four animals,Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.
Plumed with six wings was every one of them,The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of ArgusIf they were living would be such as these.
Reader! to trace their forms no more I wasteMy rhymes; for other spendings press me so,That I in this cannot be prodigal.
But read Ezekiel, who depicteth themAs he beheld them from the region coldComing with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire;
And such as thou shalt find them in his pages,Such were they here; saving that in their plumageJohn is with me, and differeth from him.
The interval between these four containedA chariot triumphal on two wheels,Which by a Griffin’s neck came drawn along;
And upward he extended both his wingsBetween the middle list and three and three,So that he injured none by cleaving it.
So high they rose that they were lost to sight;His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird,And white the others with vermilion mingled.
Not only Rome with no such splendid carE’er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,But poor to it that of the Sun would be,—
That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt upAt the importunate orison of Earth,When Jove was so mysteriously just.
Three maidens at the right wheel in a circleCame onward dancing; one so very redThat in the fire she hardly had been noted.
The second was as if her flesh and bonesHad all been fashioned out of emerald;The third appeared as snow but newly fallen.
And now they seemed conducted by the white,Now by the red, and from the song of herThe others took their step, or slow or swift.
Upon the left hand four made holidayVested in purple, following the measureOf one of them with three eyes m her head.
In rear of all the group here treated ofTwo old men I beheld, unlike in habit,But like in gait, each dignified and grave.
One showed himself as one of the disciplesOf that supreme Hippocrates, whom natureMade for the animals she holds most dear;
Contrary care the other manifested,With sword so shining and so sharp, it causedTerror to me on this side of the river.
Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect,And behind all an aged man aloneWalking in sleep with countenance acute.
And like the foremost company these sevenWere habited; yet of the flower-de-luceNo garland round about the head they wore,
But of the rose, and other flowers vermilion;At little distance would the sight have swornThat all were in a flame above their brows.
And when the car was opposite to meThunder was heard; and all that folk augustSeemed to have further progress interdicted,
There with the vanward ensigns standing still.