Silent once more, my teacher closely watched 1
my face for understanding of his words.
Though thirsting to hear more I held my tongue
lest further questioning would pester him. 4
That good instructor guessed what I suppressed.
With smile and nod he told me to ask more.
“Master,” said I, “you clarify my brain, 7
so say again how love induces both
virtuous actions and their opposite.”
“Give me your full attention now,” said he, 10
“and concentrate your analytic mind
on truth that Plato gave humanity
before Epictetus made scholars blind. 13
All souls are born with appetite for love,
so bound to look at what most seems to please
whenever pleasure beckons them, and thus 16
attractive visions from outside ourselves
enter our souls. Love is what draws them in,
makes soul and vision a new entity. 19
Thus nature’s objects take a hold of soul,
and as the flames leap upward to the sun
22 (the source of every fire) no soul can rest
before she blends with objects that she loves.
But they are wrong who say all love is good.
25 Substantial minds possess material shapes
and yet are different, though only seen
in what they do and show, like grass when green.
28 None know how virtue starts. It moves our hearts
as bees are moved to building honeycomb.
No praise for such instinctive skill is due,
31 because such instincts should not be obeyed
till brought in tune with other wills as right
and communal, as are the busy bees.
34 We have to choose between bad love and good
by freely reasoning, as all folk can
when love submits to reason as it should.
37 Indeed, necessity creates our love,
but free-will only gives it right control.
Reason and free-willed souls are gifts from God
40 to everyone: Greek, Roman, Pagan, Jew
and those like you born since that hero died
who conquered death. My words sound cut and dried.
43 They point to Heaven’s Grace but they stop short
at gate of Paradise, where that pure soul
Beatrice will become your only guide.”
46 Now it was midnight and the rising moon
upon the wane had reached its height, and hung
among the stars like tilted golden bowl.
The poet who had brought his birthplace fame 49
now dropped the burden of instructing me.
As we reclined I pondered drowsily
on all the noble thought he had made mine, 52
till noises at my back awakened me,
for round the mountain track there came a mob
who seemed at first a wildly charging herd 55
of peasants drunk on half-fermented wine,
but as they neared I saw most were well dressed.
Not revelry but pain was driving them, 58
a frantic pain allowing them no rest.
I and my guide, our energy renewed,
sprang to our feet and sprinted at the side 61
of two in front who alternately cried,
“Hail Mary, pregnant with our Saviour,
rushing uphill to greet her cousin Beth!” 64
and, “Caesar, in haste to conquer Lerida,
routed Marseilles and then swooped into Spain.”
Meanwhile the horde behind were shouting out, 67
“Go faster! Faster still! Slowness in love
prevents the Grace that blesses from above!”
My master cried, “Your mighty urgency, 70
O souls, will one day purge the laziness
delaying your salvation when alive,
but this man lives. Heaven has ordered him 73
to climb above you when the sun appears.
Please teach us how to reach the nearest stair.”
76 Someone among these racers answered him,
“Follow us. You will see a staircase soon.
Forgive me if I have to run away
79 and seem discourteous. I lived in great
Emperor Barbarossa’s day, he who
plundered Milan. I was then abbot of
82 San Zeno in Verona, and can say
who rules it now has one foot in the grave,
and soon in Hell will curse what he has done.
85 He has made certain that his bastard son,
crippled in legs and mind, will take his place,
keeping a good priest from that benefice . . .”
88 He raced so far ahead I heard no more,
but I was glad to recollect his words
before my master said, “Now look behind.
91 Here come the two who goad the slothful on
by telling them some things to keep in mind.”
At once I heard a strong voice loudly say,
94 “Of those to whom the Red Sea opened wide,
three only lived to see The Promised Land
because of slothfulness upon the way.”
97 Another cried, “When Aeneas led forth
his Trojan band to the grand enterprise
of founding Rome, many abandoned him
100 in Sicily, and died there without fame.”
I paused then till that multitude had passed
quite out of sight. My head was in a whirl.
Each thought that came inspired another one 103
or two, or three that contradicted it
with hectic fancies, frivolous or deep,
until I sank beside the road, asleep. 106