Paradiso (42 page)
Authors: Dante
In form, then, of a luminous white rose
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I saw the saintly soldiery that Christ,
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with His own blood, took as His bride.
But the others—who, even as they fly, behold
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and sing the glory of Him who stirs their love,
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and sing His goodness that raised them up so high,
these descended to the splendid flower,
adorned with many petals, and then flew up
Their faces were of living flame,
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their wings were gold, the rest
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was of a whiteness never matched by snow.
When they descended to the flower, they bestowed
the peace and love acquired with their beating wings
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upon the petals, row on row.
Nor did so vast a flying throng,
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coming between the flower and the light above,
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obstruct the looking up or shining down,
for the light of God so penetrates the universe,
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according to the fitness of its parts to take it in,
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that there is nothing can withstand its beam.
This sure and joyful kingdom,
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thronged with souls from both the old times and the new,
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aimed sight and love upon a single goal.
O threefold Light, which, in a single star
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sparkling in their sight, contents them so!
If the barbarians, coming from that region
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which Helice covers every day,
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wheeling with her son, in whom she takes delight,
were dumbstruck at the sight of Rome
and her majestic monuments,
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when the Lateran surpassed all other works of man,
I, who had come to things divine from man’s estate,
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to eternity from time,
with what amazement must I have been filled!
Indeed, between the wonder and my joy, I was content
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neither to hear nor speak a word.
And, as a pilgrim, in the temple of his vow,
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content within himself, looks lovingly about
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and expects to tell his tale when he gets home,
so, through the living light I let my eyes
range freely through the ranks, now up, now down,
I saw visages informed by heavenly love, resplendent
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with Another’s light and their own smiles,
My gaze by now had taken in
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the general form of Paradise
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but not yet fixed on any single part of it,
and I turned, with newly kindled eagerness
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to ask my lady many things
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that kept my mind yet in suspense.
I expected one thing but found another:
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instead of Beatrice, an old man, adorned
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as were the rest of those in glory, met my eyes.
His eyes and cheeks were quite suffused
with kindly joy, and from his whole appearance shone
Then ‘Where is she?’ I asked at once
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and he replied: ‘To lead your longing to its goal
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Beatrice called me from my place.
‘If you raise your eyes to the third circle
below the highest tier, you shall see her again,
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now on the throne her merits have assigned.’
Without a word, I lifted up my eyes
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and saw that she, reflecting the eternal rays,
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appeared to be encircled by a crown.
From the highest region where the thunder breaks
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down to the bottom of the deepest sea,
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no mortal eye is ever quite so far
as was my sight removed from Beatrice.
Yet to me that mattered not, because her image
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came down undimmed by anything between.
‘O lady who give strength to all my hope
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and who allowed yourself, for my salvation,
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to leave your footprints there in Hell,
‘of all the many things that I have seen,
I know the grace and virtue I’ve been shown
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come from your goodness and your power.
‘It is you who, on no matter what the path,
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have drawn me forth from servitude to freedom
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by every means that you had in your power.
‘Keep your munificence alive in me, so that
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my soul, which you have healed,
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may please you when it leaves its mortal frame.’
This was my prayer. And she, however far away
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she seemed, smiled and looked down at me,
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then turned again to the eternal fountain.
‘Let your sight fly through this garden,
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for seeing it will help prepare your eyes
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to rise, along the beam of holy light.
‘And Heaven’s queen, for whom I burn
with love, will grant us every grace,
As the man who, perhaps from Croatia, has come
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to set his gaze on our Veronica,
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his ancient craving still not satisfied,
and who thinks to himself while it is shown:
‘My Lord Jesus Christ, God Himself,
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was this then how you really looked?’,
just so was I, gazing on the living love
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of him who, still within the confines of this world,
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in contemplation tasted of that peace.
‘Child of grace,’ he said, ‘you will not know
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this joyful state if you maintain your gaze,
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instead of upward, fixed down here.
‘Rather to the highest circles raise your eyes
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so that you may behold the queen enthroned,
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her to whom this realm is subject and devout.’
I raised my eyes. As, at break of day,
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the eastern part of the horizon shines
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with a brighter glow than where the sun goes down,
so, as though my eyes were moving from a valley
up a mountain, I saw that one far crest
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surpassed in brightness all the others.
Where we await the shaft of Phaeton’s
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poorly guided car, there, where it is most aflame,
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while on this side and on that the light shades off,
just so that peaceful oriflamme showed brightest
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in the middle, while on either side
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the flame was dimmed in equal measure.
Around that point I saw more than a thousand angels,
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their wings outspread, in joyful festival,
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each distinct in brightness and in motion.
I saw there, smiling at their games and songs,
beauty that brought pleasure to the gaze
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of all the other gathered saints.
