Paradiso (14 page)

               
‘Always, if nature meets a fate   
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unsuited to it, like any kind of seed

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out of its native soil, it comes to a bad end,

               
‘and if the world below paid more attention   
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to the foundation nature lays

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and built on that, it would be peopled well.

               
‘But no, you force into religion one born   
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to wear the sword, and make a king

               
of one more fit for sermons,

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so that your path departs from the true way.’

               
After your Charles had enlightened me,   
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fair Clemence, he told of the deceptions

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his seed was destined still to bear,

               
but said: ‘Be silent, and let the years roll by.’

               
And so I can reveal no more than this: fitting grief

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shall find the ones who do your family wrong.

               
By now the spirit in its holy light   
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had turned back to the Sun that fills its being,   
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as to the goodness that suffices in all things.

               
Ah, souls beguiled, creatures without reverence,   
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who wrench your hearts away from so much good

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and set your minds on emptiness!   
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Now another of those splendors moved   
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in my direction, while its brightened glow   
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proclaimed its wish to bring me joy.

               
The eyes of Beatrice, fixed on me,

               
as they had been before, held loving reassurance

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of her glad consent to my desire.   
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‘Please let my wish receive its quick reward,   
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blessèd spirit,’ I asked, ‘and give me proof

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that what I think reflects itself in you.’   
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At that the radiance, as yet unknown to me,

               
out of the very depth from which it sang before,   
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responded as does someone who delights in doing good:

               
‘In that part of degenerate Italy   
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that extends from the Rialto

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to the sources of the Brenta and the Piave

               
‘there rises a hill of no great height

               
from which a firebrand came hurtling down   
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to scourge the region with its fierce assault.

               
‘This torch and I were born from a single root.   
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Cunizza was my name and, overcome

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by this star’s splendor, I shine here.

               
‘I gladly pardon in myself the reason for my lot,   
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nor does it grieve me—a fact that may

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seem strange, perhaps, to those unschooled among you.

               
‘Of this scintillating, precious jewel beside me   
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in this heaven, great fame was left on earth.   
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And, before it dies away completely,

               
‘this centennial year will come again five times.   
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Consider, then, should a man not strive to excel   
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so that his first life leave behind a better?

               
‘Of this the present rabble there enclosed   
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by the Tagliamento and the Àdige have no thought,

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nor, for all their scourgings, do they yet repent.

               
‘But soon the time will come when Padua shall stain   
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the color of the water of Vicenza’s marshes,

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because the people there resist their duty.

               
‘Where the rivers Sile and Cagnano converge,   
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one man lords it, with his head held high—

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but even now the web is spun to catch him.

               
‘Feltre must still bewail the perfidy   
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of her godless shepherd. This shall be so foul

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that, for its like, none yet has gone to prison.   
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‘Large indeed the vat would have to be

               
to hold so much of Ferrarese blood,

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and weary he who had to weigh it ounce by ounce,

               
‘the blood this generous priest will offer as a gift

               
to show his party just how staunch he is—

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such gifts will suit that city’s way of life.

               
‘Above us are the mirrors you call Thrones.   
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From them the judging God shines down on us,

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so that we think it good to say such things.’   
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Here she was silent and it seemed to me   
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her thoughts had turned to other cares

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as she rejoined the ring where she had been before.

               
The other joy, already known to me   
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as precious, before my eyes became a splendid ruby,

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sparkling in the bright rays of the sun.   
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There above, brightness is gained by joy,   
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as is laughter here, but down below

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a shade shows dark when sadness clouds its mind.

               
‘God sees all, and your sight is so in-Himmed,   
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blessèd spirit,’ I said, ‘that no wish of any kind

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is able to conceal itself from you.

               
‘Why then does your voice, which ever pleases Heaven,

               
together with the singing of those loving flames   
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that form their cowls from their six wings,

               
‘not offer my desires their satisfaction?

               
I would not await your question

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if I in-you’d me as you in-me’d you.’

               
‘The widest expanse of water inside shores,’   
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were the initial words of his response,

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‘drawn from the sea encircling all the world,

               
‘between its opposing shores extends so far   
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against the wheeling sun, it places the meridian

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where at first lay only the horizon.

               
‘I was a dweller on that water’s shore

               
between the Ebro and the brief run of the Magra

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that separates the Tuscan from the Genovese.