Amazement overwhelming me, I—like
a child who always hurries back to find
that place he trusts the most—turned to my guide;
4 and like a mother quick to reassure
her pale and panting son with the same voice
that she has often used to comfort him,
7 she said: “Do you not know you are in Heaven,
not know how holy all of Heaven is,
how righteous zeal moves every action here?
10 Now, since this cry has agitated you
so much, you can conceive how—had you seen →
me smile and heard song here—you would have been
13 confounded; and if you had understood →
the prayer within that cry, by now you would
know the revenge you’ll see before your death.
16 The sword that strikes from Heaven’s height is neither
hasty nor slow, except as it appears
to him who waits for it—who longs or fears.
19 But turn now toward the other spirits here;
for if you set your sight as I suggest,
you will see many who are notable.”
22 As pleased my guide, I turned my eyes and saw
a hundred little suns; as these together
cast light, each made the other lovelier.
25 I stood as one who curbs within himself
the goad of longing and, in fear of being
too forward, does not dare to ask a question.
28 At this, the largest and most radiant
among those pearls moved forward that he might
appease my need to hear who he might be.
31 Then, in that light, I heard: “Were you to see,
even as I do see, the charity
that burns in us, your thoughts would have been uttered.
34 But lest, by waiting, you be slow to reach
the high goal of your seeking, I shall answer
what you were thinking when you curbed your speech.
37 That mountain on whose flank Cassino lies →
was once frequented on its summit by
those who were still deluded, still awry;
40 and I am he who was the first to carry →
up to that peak the name of Him who brought
to earth the truth that lifts us to the heights.
43 And such abundant grace had brought me light
that, from corrupted worship that seduced
the world, I won away the nearby sites.
46 These other flames were all contemplatives,
men who were kindled by that heat which brings →
to birth the blessed flowers and blessed fruits.
49 Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus, →
here are my brothers, those who stayed their steps
in cloistered walls, who kept their hearts steadfast.”
52 I answered: “The affection that you show
in speech to me, and kindness that I see
and note within the flaming of your lights,
55 have given me so much more confidence,
just like the sun that makes the rose expand
and reach the fullest flowering it can.
58 Therefore I pray you, father—and may you
assure me that I can receive such grace—
to let me see, unveiled, your human face.”
61 And he: “Brother, your high desire will be →
fulfilled within the final sphere, as all
the other souls’ and my own longing will.
64 There, each desire is perfect, ripe, intact; →
and only there, within that final sphere,
is every part where it has always been.
67 That sphere is not in space and has no poles; →
our ladder reaches up to it, and that
is why it now is hidden from your sight.
70 Up to that sphere, Jacob the patriarch →
could see that ladder’s topmost portion reach,
when it appeared to him so thronged with angels.
73 But no one now would lift his feet from earth →
to climb that ladder, and my Rule is left
to waste the paper it was written on.
76 What once were abbey walls are robbers’ dens; →
what once were cowls are sacks of rotten meal.
But even heavy usury does not →
79 offend the will of God as grievously
as the appropriation of that fruit
which makes the hearts of monks go mad with greed;
82 for all within the keeping of the Church
belongs to those who ask it in God’s name,
and not to relatives or concubines.
85 The flesh of mortals yields so easily—
on earth a good beginning does not run
from when the oak is born until the acorn.
88 Peter began with neither gold nor silver, →
and I with prayer and fasting, and when Francis →
began his fellowship, he did it humbly;
91 if you observe the starting point of each,
and look again to see where it has strayed,
then you will see how white has gone to gray.
94 And yet, the Jordan in retreat, the sea →
in flight when God had willed it so, were sights
more wonderful than His help here will be.”
97 So did he speak to me, and he drew back
to join his company, which closed, compact;
then, like a whirlwind, upward, all were swept.
100 The gentle lady—simply with a sign—
impelled me after them and up that ladder,
so did her power overcome my nature;
103 and never here below, where our ascent
and descent follow nature’s law, was there
motion as swift as mine when I took wing.
106 So, reader, may I once again return
to those triumphant ranks—an end for which
I often beat my breast, weep for my sins—
109 more quickly than your finger can withdraw
from flame and be thrust into it, I saw,
and was within, the sign that follows Taurus. →
112 O stars of glory, constellation steeped
in mighty force, all of my genius—
whatever be its worth—has you as source:
115 with you was born and under you was hidden →
he who is father of all mortal lives,
when I first felt the air of Tuscany;
118 and then, when grace was granted me to enter
the high wheel that impels your revolutions,
your region was my fated point of entry.
121 To you my soul now sighs devotedly,
that it may gain the force for this attempt,
hard trial that now demands its every strength.
124 “You are so near the final blessedness,”
so Beatrice began, “that you have need
of vision clear and keen; and thus, before
127 you enter farther, do look downward, see
what I have set beneath your feet already:
much of the world is there. If you see that,
130 your heart may then present itself with all
the joy it can to the triumphant throng
that comes in gladness through this ether’s rounds.”
133 My eyes returned through all the seven spheres
and saw this globe in such a way that I
smiled at its scrawny image: I approve
136 that judgment as the best, which holds this earth
to be the least; and he whose thoughts are set
elsewhere, can truly be called virtuous.
139 I saw Latona’s daughter radiant, →
without the shadow that had made me once
believe that she contained both rare and dense.
142 And there, Hyperion, I could sustain →
the vision of your son, and saw Diöne
and Maia as they circled nearby him.
145 The temperate Jupiter appeared to me →
between his father and his son; and I
saw clearly how they vary their positions.
148 And all the seven heavens showed to me
their magnitudes, their speeds, the distances
of each from each. The little threshing floor →
151 that so incites our savagery was all—
from hills to river mouths—revealed to me
while I wheeled with eternal Gemini.