Paradiso (24 page)

               
‘But it was destined that, to the shattered stone   
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that guards the bridge, Florence should offer

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a sacrificial victim in her final days of peace.

               
‘With these noble families, and with others still,   
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I saw Florence in such tranquility

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that there was nothing that might cause her grief.

               
‘With these noble families I saw her people

               
so glorious and just, that the lily   
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had not yet been reversed upon the lance   
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nor by dissension changed to red.’   
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Like him who came to Clymene to cast out doubt   
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upon the rumor he had heard against himself,

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who still makes fathers cautious with their sons,

               
such was I and such was I perceived to be

               
both by Beatrice and by the holy light

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that earlier for me had changed its place.

               
And so my lady said to me: ‘Send forth   
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the flame of your desire, and let it issue

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with the clear imprint of its inner stamp,

               
‘not that our knowledge be increased by what you say

               
but that you rehearse the telling of your thirst

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so that the drink be poured for you.’

               
‘O my precious root, you are raised so high   
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that, even as earthly minds discern no triangle

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can contain two angles, both of them obtuse,   
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‘so you, gazing on the point that holds all time

               
are able to discern contingencies

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before they are apparent in themselves.

               
‘While I was still in Virgil’s company,   
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both on the mountain that restores our souls

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and during our descent into the region of the dead,

               
‘grave words were said to me about my future life—

               
however much I feel myself prepared

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foursquare against the blows of chance—   
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‘so that my will would be content

               
if I could know what fate draws near,

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for the arrow one expects comes slower.’   
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I said these words to the very light

               
that had just spoken and, as Beatrice wished,

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my wish was now declared.

               
Not with cloudy sayings, by which the foolish folk   
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were once ensnared, before the Lamb of God,   
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who takes away our sins, was slain,

               
but in plain words and with clear speech   
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that paternal love replied,

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hidden and yet revealed in his own smile:

               
‘Contingent things, which do not extend   
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beyond the pages of your material world,

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are all depicted in the Eternal Sight,

               
‘yet are by that no more enjoined

               
than is a ship, moved downstream on a river’s flow,

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by the eyes that mirror it.

               
‘And thus, as harmony’s sweet sound may rise   
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from mingled voices to the ear, so rises to my sight

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a vision of the time that lies in store for you.

               
‘As Hippolytus was forced to flee from Athens,   
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because of his stepmother, treacherous and fierce,

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so shall you be forced to flee from Florence.

               
‘This is the plan, already set in motion,   
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that soon will bring success to him who plots it

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where Christ is bought and sold all day.   
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‘The populace shall blame the injured party,   
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as it always does, but vengeance

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shall bear witness to the Truth that metes it out.

               
‘You shall leave behind all you most dearly love,   
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and that shall be the arrow

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first loosed from exile’s bow.

               
‘You shall learn how salt is the taste   
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of another man’s bread and how hard is the way,

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going down and then up another man’s stairs.

               
‘But the heaviest burden your shoulders must bear   
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shall be the companions, wicked and witless,

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among whom you shall fall in your descent.

               
‘They, utterly ungrateful, mad, and faithless,

               
shall turn against you. But soon enough they, not you,   
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shall feel their faces blushing past their brows.

               
‘Of their brutish state the results   
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shall offer proof. And it shall bring you honor

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to have made a single party of yourself alone.

               
‘You shall find welcome and a first refuge   
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in the courtesy of the noble Lombard,

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the one who bears the sacred bird above the ladder.   
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‘It is he who will hold you in such gracious favor   
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that, as for granting and asking, between you two,

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that shall be first which, between all others, happens after.

               
‘In his company you shall find one who, at birth,   
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so took the imprint of this mighty star

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that his deeds will truly be renowned.   
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‘As yet the people, because of his youth,   
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take small note of him, since these wheels

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have revolved above him only for nine years.

               
‘But, before the Gascon can deceive the noble Henry,   
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sparks of his virtue shall at first shine forth

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in his indifference to wealth or toil,

               
‘and his munificence shall one day be so widely known   
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even his enemies will not contrive

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to keep their tongues from praising it.

               
‘Look to him and trust his gracious deeds.

               
On his account many will find alteration,   
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rich men changing states with beggars.

               
‘And you shall bear this written in your memory,   
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but shall not tell of it’—and he foretold events

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that even those who witness them shall not believe.