“While I was in the company of Virgil
High on the mountain that heals many souls,
And while I climbed down through the world of death,
“Foreboding words were said to me concerning
My future life, although I feel myself
So squarely set to face the blows of chance
“That I willingly would be content to hear
What fortune now draws near for me, because
An arrow seen beforehand has less shock.”
I spoke this answer to that same bright light
That previously had spoken to me, and so,
As Beatrice wished, my own wish was confessed.
Not in dark sayings, with which foolish people
Of old were once ensnared, before the Lamb
Of God who takes away our sins was slain,
But in clear words and with exact discourse
That fatherly love made his reply to me,
Contained in and shown out of his own smile:
“Contingency, which does not stretch beyond
The meagre volume of your world of matter,
“Yet thence it takes on no necessity,
No more than would a ship which sails downstream
Depend upon the eyes which mirror it;
“And thence, as to the ear sweet harmony
Comes from an organ, to my sight the time
Comes that already waits in store for you.
“As Hippolytus was driven out of Athens
Through the treachery and spite of his stepmother,
So you are destined to depart from Florence.
“Thus it was willed and thus already plotted,
And soon it shall be done by him who plans it
There where Christ every day is bought and sold.
“The common cry, as is the wont, will blame
The injured party, but the vengeance which
The truth demands will witness to the truth.
“You shall leave everything most dearly loved:
This is the first one of the arrows which
The bow of exile is prepared to shoot.
“You shall discover how salty is the savour
Of someone else’s bread, and how hard the way
“And what will weigh down on your shoulders most
Will be the bad and brainless company
With whom you shall fall down into this ditch.
“For all shall turn ungrateful, all insane
And impious against you, but soon after
Their brows, and not your own, shall blush for it.
“Their own behaviour will prove their brutishness,
So that it shall enhance your reputation
To have become a party to yourself.
“First refuge and first place of rest for you
Shall be in the great Lombard’s courtesy,
Who bears the sacred bird perched on the ladder
“And who shall hold you in such kind regard
That between you, in contrast with the others,
The granting will be first and asking last.
“With him you shall see one who at his birth
Was so imprinted by this star of strength
That men will take note of his noble deeds.
“Not yet have folk observed his worthiness
By reason of his age: these wheeling spheres
Have only for nine years revolved around him.
“But ere the Gascon cons high-riding Henry,
Some sparks of virtue shall show forth in him
“His bounty shall be so widespread hereafter
That the tongues, even of his enemies,
Will not be able to keep still about him.
“Look you to him and his beneficence.
Through him shall many folk find change of fortune,
Rich men and beggars shifting their positions.
“And you shall bear this written in your mind
Of him, but tell it not…” — and he told things
Beyond belief of those who witness them.
Then added, “Son, these are the glossaries
On what was told to you: behold the snares
Concealed by a few circlings of the sun!
“Yet be not envious against your neighbours,
For your life shall extend much longer than
The punishment of their perniciousness.”
When this saintly soul showed by his silence
That he had set the woof across the warp
Which I had held in readiness for him,
I ventured, like someone who seeks advice,
In his confusion, from another person
Who sees and wills straightforwardly and loves:
“I clearly see, my father, how time spurs
Towards me to strike me such a blow as falls
“So it is well I arm myself with foresight,
That if the dearest place be taken from me,
I’ll not lose all the others, through my verse.”
Translated from Italian by James Finn Cotter