Paradiso (19 page)
Authors: Dante
‘Nathan the prophet, Chrysostom
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the Metropolitan, Anselm, and that Donatus
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138
who, to the first art, deigned to set his hand.
‘Rabanus is here and, shining at my side,
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abbot Joachim of Calabria,
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141
who was endowed with prophetic spirit.
‘To sing the praises of so great a champion
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the ardent courtesy and fitting discourse
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of Brother Thomas has inspired me
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145
and did the same to my companions.’
THE SUN
Great Bear
, and two from the
Little Bear
, that whirls around Dante in the shape of
Ariadne
’s crown
Bacchus
nor
Apollo,
but of the
Trinity
resumes his role as narrator, turning to Dante’s second question:
Adam
(
Eve
was his rib) and to
Jesus
Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson; Sabellius, Arius,
Bertha
and
Martin
.
Let him, who would fully understand
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what I now saw, imagine—and let him, while I speak,
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3
hold that image, steady as a rock—
fifteen stars that light up various regions
of the sky, and with such brightness
6
as to overcome the intervening haze.
Let him imagine the Wain, nestling
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in the bosom of our sky both night and day
9
so that its wheeling shaft is never out of sight.
Let him imagine the mouth of that horn
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descending from the axle’s endpoint
12
around which the first wheel revolves,
and all these seen together to have formed, up in the sky,
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a double constellation, like the ring once formed
15
of Minos’ daughter when she felt the chill of death,
the rays of one reflected in the other,
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with both revolving in such manner
18
that one went first and then the other followed.
Then he will have, as it were, the shadow
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of the true constellation and the double dance
21
that wheeled around the point where I now was,
for it is as far beyond our understanding
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as the speed of the heaven that exceeds all others
24
outstrips the muddy stirrings of the Chiana.
There they sang the praises not of Bacchus nor of Paean
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but praised the divine nature in three Persons,
27
and in one Person sang that nature joined with man.
Having done the measure of their song and circling dance,
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these holy lights turned toward us,
30
rejoicing as they passed from task to task.
The silence among those holy souls in harmony
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was broken by the light that had told me
33
the wondrous life of the poor man of God.
He said: ‘Now that one sheaf is threshed
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and its grain now gathered,
36
sweet charity bids me thresh the other.
‘You believe that, into the side from which
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the rib was drawn to form the lovely features
39
of her whose palate costs the world so dear,
‘and into His, pierced by the spear, which gave
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such satisfaction for sins, both done or yet to be,
42
as outweighs any fault found in the balance,
‘all the light that is allowed to human nature
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was infused by the very Power
45
which made the one and made the other.
‘And thus you marvel at what I said before,
when I told you that the goodness
48
contained in the fifth light never had an equal.
‘Open your eyes to the answer I shall give
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and you shall find your thoughts and what I say
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51
meet at the truth as in the center of a circle.
‘That which does not die and that which must
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are nothing but a bright reflection of that Idea
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54
which our Lord, in loving, brings to birth.
‘For that living Light, which so streams forth
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from its shining Source that it neither parts from it
‘of its own goodness gathers its own shining,
as though it were a mirror, in nine subsistences,
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‘From that height light descends to the lowest elements,
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passing down from act to act, becoming such
63
that it produces nothing more than brief contingencies.
‘By these contingent things I mean
things generated, with seed or without,
66
produced by the movements of the heavens.
‘Their wax and that which molds it vary so
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that, beneath the Idea’s imprint,
69
light shines in varying degrees.
‘And so it happens that trees of the very same kind
bear fruit, some of it better and some of it worse,
72
and that you are born with differing talents.
‘If the wax were perfectly prepared
and the heaven at the height of its power,
75
in all its brightness would the seal be seen.
‘But nature always fashions it defective,
working like the craftsman who, to the practice
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78
of his craft, brings an unsteady hand.
‘However, if the clear vision of the primal Power
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is moved by burning Love and makes of that its seal,
81
then all perfection is attained in it.
‘In that way was the dust made ready to receive—
once—perfection in a living creature,
84
in that way was the Virgin made to be with child.
‘Thus do I agree with your opinion
that human nature never was—nor shall it be—
87
what it was in these two creatures.
‘Now, if I went no farther,
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“How, then, was that other without equal?”
90
would be the first words from your mouth.
‘But, to make quite clear what still remains obscure,
think who he was and what it was that moved him
93
to his request when he was bidden “Ask.”
‘I did not speak so darkly that you cannot see
he was a king and asked for wisdom
96
that he might become a worthy king.
‘He did not ask to know the number of the angels
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here above, nor if
necesse
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99
with a contingent ever made
necesse
,
‘nor
si est dare primum motum esse,
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nor if in a semicircle a triangle can be formed
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102
without its having one right angle.
‘Therefore, if you reflect on this and what I said,
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kingly prudence is that peerless vision
105
on which the arrow of my purpose strikes.
