127-129. The “Two Lights” are Christ and the Virgin Mary, who were the only ones allowed to rise to Heaven in the body.
While I stood there confounded by my blindness, from out the effulgent flame that took my sight, there came a breath of voice that made me heed
3
its words: “Until you have regained the sense of sight which your eyes have consumed in me, let discourse be a means of recompense.
6
Begin then, tell what is it that your soul is set upon—and you may rest assured your sight is only dazzled not destroyed:
9
the lady who guides you through the Divine spheres has that power in a single glance that rested in the hand of Ananias. ”
12
I said: “At her own pleasure, soon or late, let her restore my eyes that were the gates she entered with the fire that burns me still.
15
The Good, that full contentment of this Court, is Alpha and Omega of all texts Love reads to me in soft or louder tones. ”
18
The same voice that had just now calmed the fear I felt in sudden blind bewilderment once more encouraged me to speak. It said:
21
“But certainly, you need a finer sieve to sift this matter through: you must explain who made you aim your bow at such a mark?”
24
I said: “Through philosophic arguments and through authority which comes from here such love as this has stamped me with its seal;
27
for good perceived as good enkindles love, and makes that love more bright the more that we can comprehend the good which it contains.
30
So, toward that Essence where such goodness rests that any goodness found outside of It is only a reflection of its ray,
33
the mind of man, in love, is bound to move more than toward any other, once it sees the truth on which this loving proof is based.
36
Such truth is made plain to my mind by him who demonstrates to me the primal love of each and every endless entity.
39
Plain it was made by the True Author’s voice when He said, speaking of Himself, to Moses: “I shall show you all of my goodness now. ”
42
Made plain it also is from the first words of your great Gospel which cries out to men, loudest of all, the mysteries of Heaven. ”
45
And then I heard: “As human reason proves and revelation which concurs with it, of all your loves the highest looks to God.
48
But tell me, are there other ties you feel that draw you to Him? Let your words explain the many teeth with which your love can bite. ”
51
The sacred purpose in the questioning of Christ’s own eagle here was clear to me— I knew which way my answer had to go.
54
I spoke again: “All of those teeth with strength to move the heart of any man to God have bitten my heart into loving Him.
57
The being of the world and my own being, the death He died so that my soul might live, the hope of all the faithful, and mine too,
60
joined with the living truth mentioned before, from that deep sea of false love rescued me and set me on the right shore of true Love.
63
I love each leaf with which enleaved is all the garden of the Eternal Gardener in measure of the light he sheds on each. ”
66
The instant I stopped speaking all of Heaven filled with sweet singing, as my lady joined the others chanting: “Holy! Holy! Holy!”
69
As sleep is broken by a flash of light, the visual spirit rushing to the gleam which penetrates the eyes from lid to lid,
72
and the roused sleeper shrinks from what he sees, confounded by his sudden wakening, until his judgment comes to aid his sight,
75
so Beatrice drove out every speck clouding my vision with her splendid eyes whose radiance spread a thousand miles and more;
78
so I could see much better than before, and then, surprised with my new sight, I asked about a fourth light that was with us now.
81
My lady said: “Within that blaze of rays, in loving contemplation of his maker, is the first soul the First Power first made. ”
84
As tops of trees will bow to sweeping gusts of wind, only to straighten up again by force of their own natural resilience,
87
so I, amazed, was bent the while she spoke; but then I found my confidence restored, and burning with the wish to speak again,
90
I spoke these words: “O one and only fruit who was created ripe, first, oldest sire, father and father-in-law of every bride,
93
I beg of you devoutly, I implore you, speak to me. You see right through my wish; to hear you speak the sooner, I speak less. ”
96
Sometimes an animal will tremble in its skin and thus reveal its feelings from within as he moves his own cover from inside;
99
so, that first soul of souls revealed to me, stirring transparently in his own glow, how joyously it moved to bring me joy.
102
And then it breathed: “Without your telling me, I know your wish much better than you know whatever seems most evident to you;
105
I see it in that Mirror of the Truth, Itself perfect reflector of all things, yet no thing can reflect It perfectly.
108
You wish to know how long ago it was God placed me in the Earthly Paradise where she prepared you for this long ascent,
111
and how long did my eyes delight in it; and the true reason for the wrath of God; the language which I spoke and formed myself.
114
Know now, my son, the tasting of the tree was not itself the cause of such long exile, but only the transgression of God’s bounds.
117
Four thousand three hundred and two full suns I longed for this assembly from that place your lady summoned Virgil to your aid;
120
I saw the sun return to run the course of all its stars nine hundred thirty times while I was living as a man on earth.
123
118-119. Adam spent 4, 302 solar years in Limbo, the place whence Virgil came to the Pilgrim’s aid, before Christ rescued him.
121-123. Adam lived 930 years on earth before he died (see Genesis 5:5). Added to the number of years he spent in Limbo (4, 302), this gives a total of 5, 232 years between the creation of Adam and the Crucifixion.
The language that I spoke was long extinct before that unaccomplishable task entered the minds of Nimrod’s followers;
126
no product of the human mind can last eternally for, as all things in Nature, man’s inclination varies with the stars.
129
That man should speak is only natural, but how he speaks, in this way or in that, Nature allows you to do as you please.
132
Till I descended to the pains of Hell, I was He called on earth That Highest Good Who swathes me in this brilliance of His bliss;
135
and then He was called El : for naturally man’s habits, like the leaves upon the branch, change as they fall and others take their place.
138
Atop that mountain highest from the sea my time of innocence until disgrace was from my first day’s hour until the hour,
141
as sun shifts quadrant, following the sixth. ”
CANTO XXVII
ALL THE SOULS of the Blest sing “Gloria” to the Trinity with such sweetness that the Pilgrim thinks of his experience in terms of the universe smiling. Suddenly the light of St. Peter begins to take on a reddish glow; the moment the souls have stopped their singing, he begins a bitter invective against his successors and the corruption of the Church. Now all the souls, including Beatrice, h
ave turned red, and Dante compares the change to the eclipse that took place at the death of Christ. St. Peter closes his invective with a vague prediction of a coming reform and invites Dante to reveal all he has heard once he has returned to earth. All the souls in the sphere of the fixed stars now ascend to the Empy-
rean; the Pilgrim watches them until they are out of sight. Beatrice instructs her ward to look down and through all the space he has traveled. Then, once again, he looks back to Beatrice whose miraculous eyes transport him to the ninth sphere of the Primum Mobile. Beatrice explains the function of this sphere, which is moved directly by God and which gives all the other spheres their movement. She then proceeds to lament the greed of mankind and blames the general disorder of things on earth on the fact that there is no one to govern below, concluding with an announcement that it will not be long before mankind changes its course.
“To Father and to Son and Holy Spirit, ” all Heaven with one voice cried, “Glory be!” inebriating me with such sweet sound.
3
I seemed to see all of the universe turn to a smile; thus, through my eyes and ears I drank into divine inebriation.
6
O joy! O ecstasy ineffable! O life complete, perfect in love and peace! O wealth unfailing, that can never want!
9
Before my eyes those four torches kept blazing; and then the first light who had come to me started to grow more brilliant than the rest,
12
and he took on the glow which Jupiter would take, if he and Mars were like two birds that could exchange their feathers with each other.
15
That Providence assigning Heaven’s souls each to his turn and function now imposed silence on all the choirs of the blessèd,
18
and I heard: “Do not marvel at my change of color, for you are about to see all of these souls change color as I speak.
21
He who on earth usurps that place of mine, that place of mine, that place of mine which now stands vacant in the eyes of Christ, God’s Son,
24
has turned my sepulchre into a sewer of blood and filth, at which the Evil One who fell from here takes great delight down there. ”
27
The color which paints clouds at break of day, or in the evening when they face the sun— that same tint I saw spread throughout that Heaven.
30
And as a modest lady, self-secure in her own virtue, will at the mere mention of someone else’s failings blush with shame,
33
so did the face of Beatrice change— the heavens saw the same eclipse, I think, when the Almighty suffered for our sins.
36
Then he continued speaking, but the tone his voice now had was no more different than was the difference in the way he looked:
39
“The bride of Christ was not nourished on blood that came from me, from Linus and from Cletus, only that she be wooed for love of gold;
42
it was for love of this delightful life that Sixtus, Pius, Calixtus, and Urban, after the tears of torment, spilled their blood.
45
Never did we intend for Christendom to be divided, some to take their stand on this side or on that of our successors,
48
not that the keys which were consigned to me become the emblem for a battleflag warring against the baptized of the land,
51
42. St. Linus succeeded Peter as pope in either A.D. 64 or 67. Then St. Cletus succeeded St. Linus as pope from ca. 79 to ca. 90. He suffered martyrdom under Domitian.
44. Sixtus I was pope under Hadrian (ca. 115-125). Pius I was bishop of Rome under Emperor Antonius Pius from ca. 140 to ca. 155. Calixtus I was pope from 217 to 222, followed by Urban I (222-230). All were known as early martyrs.
nor that my head become the seal to stamp those lying privileges bought and sold. I burn with rage and shame to think of it!
54
From here we see down there in all your fields rapacious wolves who dress in shepherd’s clothes. O power of God, why do You still hold back?
57
Sons of Cahors and Gascony prepare to drink our blood: O sanctified beginning, to what foul ending are you doomed to sink!
60
But that high Providence which saved for Rome the glory of the world through Scipio’s hand, will once again, and soon, lend aid, I know;
63
and you, my son, whose mortal weight must bring you back to earth again, open your mouth down there and do not hide what I hide not from you!”
66
As frozen vapors flake and start to snow down through our air during the time of year the horn of heaven’s goat touches the sun,
69
so I saw all of Heaven’s ether glow with rising snowflakes of triumphant souls of all those who had sojourned with us there.
72
My eyes followed their shapes up into space and I kept watching them until the height was too much for my eyes to penetrate.
75
My lady then, who saw that I was freed from gazing upward, said, “Lower your sight, look down and see how far you have revolved. ”
78
Since the last time that I had looked below I saw that I had moved through the whole arc which the first climate makes from mid to end:
81
58. John XXII, pope from 1316 to 1334, was from Cahors, capital of the province of Quercy in southern France. It was reputed to harbor usurers. John’s successor, Clement V, was a native of Gascony, whose inhabitants were reputed to be greedy. During his pontificate the papacy was transferred to Avignon.
I saw beyond Cadiz to the mad route Ulysses took, and nearly to the shore Europa left as a sweet godly burden.
84
More of this puny threshing-ground of ours I would have seen, had not the sun moved on beneath my feet a sign and more away.
87
My mind in love, yearning eternally to court its lady, now was burning more than ever to behold the sight of her.
90
And all that art and nature can contrive to lure the eye and thus possess the mind, be it in living flesh or portraiture
93
combined, would seem like nothing when compared to the Divine delight with which I glowed when once more I beheld her smiling face.
96
The power which her gaze bestowed on me snatched me from Leda’s lovely nest, and up it thrust me into Heaven’s swiftest sphere.
99
The parts of this, the quickest, highest heaven, are all so equal that I cannot tell where Beatrice chose for me to stay,
102
but she, who knew my wish, began to speak, such happiness reflecting in her smile, the joy of God, it seemed, was on her face:
105
“The nature of the universe, which stills its center while it makes all else revolve, moves from this heaven as from its starting-point;
108
no other ‘Where’ than in the Mind of God contains this heaven, because in that Mind burns the love that turns it and the power it rains.
111
By circling light and love it is contained as it contains the rest; and only He Who bound them comprehends how they were bound.
114
98. “Leda’s lovely nest” is the constellation of Gemini.
It takes its motion from no other sphere, and all the others measure theirs by this, as ten is product of the two and five.
117
How time can hide its roots in this sphere’s vase and show its leaves stemming through all the rest, should now be clear to your intelligence.
120
O Greed, so quick to plunge the human race into your depths that no man has the strength to keep his head above your raging waters!
123
The blossom of man’s will is always good, but then the drenchings of incessant rain turn sound plums into weak and rotten ones.
126
<
br /> Only in little children can we find true innocence and faith, and both are gone before their cheeks show the first signs of hair.
129
While still a lisper, one observes fast-days, but once he’s free to speak, he stuffs his mouth with all he can at any time of year;
132
one still in lisping childhood loves and heeds his mother’s words, but soon in grown-up language, he’d rather like to see her dead and buried;
135
thus, the white skin of innocence turns black at first exposure to the tempting daughter of him who brings the morn and leaves the night.
138
My words should not surprise you when you think there is no one on earth to govern you and so the human family goes astray.
141
Before all January is unwintered— because of every hundred years’ odd day which men neglect—these lofty spheres shall shine
144
a light that brings the long-awaited storm to whirl the fleet about from prow to stern, and set it sailing a straight course again.
147
Then from the blossom shall good fruit come forth. ”
CANTO XXVIII
WHEN BEATRICE FINISHES speaking, the Pilgrim notices an unusually bright light reflected in her eyes. He turns around and sees a brilliant point around which are nine glowing circles, all spinning at a rate of speed lesser in proportion to their distance from the central point. Beatrice explains that this point is the source of all the heavens and all of Nature. Puzzled, the Pilgrim wishes to know why the visible order of the universe (the physical picture) does not conform to the order he is presently observing in the model before him (the ideal picture). Beatrice tells him he must not judge by the size of the sphere he sees but rather by the power of the angelic order governing that sphere; since the Seraphic order of the angels who govern the Primum Mobile —the sphere closest to God —is the most powerful order, and since there is perfect correspondence between the heavenly spheres and the angelic orders governing them, the correspondence only seems to be in inverse order. (What the Pilgrim is seeing now is the physical universe from the spiritual point of view —from God’s eye, as it were —with God at the center.) As the Pilgrim expresses his delight at having understood Beatrice’s explanation, the nine fiery circles begin to emit countless singing sparks: the nine orders of angels that govern the nine spheres. Beatrice names the orders of angels, explains their functions, and tells him that Dionysius was right and St. Gregory wrong in his ordering of the angelic hierarchies, and that he should not marvel at the fact that Dionysius was privileged to such secret information since, after all, it was St. Paul in person who told him!