Purgatorio (12 page)
Authors: Dante
‘See the king who led a simple life
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sitting there alone, Henry of England.
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His branches bloom with better issue.
‘Lowest among them, sitting on the ground
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and looking up, is William the marquis,
because of whom Alessandria and its warfare
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make Monferrato and Canavese weep.’
I. Songs and the advent of the angels
“Te lucis ante”
Purgatorio
Interlude: descent into the valley (Nino)
Nino Visconti
among the saved
Currado Malaspina
II. The drama of the serpent
Interlude: Currado’s turn to speak
It was now the hour that melts a sailor’s heart
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and saddens him with longing on the day
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he’s said farewell to his belovèd friends,
and when a traveler, starting out,
is pierced with love if far away he hears
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a bell that seems to mourn the dying light,
and I began to listen less and fix my gaze,
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intent upon a soul who suddenly stood up
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and signaled for attention with his hand.
He lifted his clasped palms and fixed his eyes
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upon the east as if he said to God:
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‘For nothing else do I have any care.’
‘Te lucis ante’
came forth from his lips
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with such devotion and with notes so sweet
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it drew me out from all thoughts of myself.
The others joined him then and sang
the whole hymn through with sweet devotion,
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keeping their eyes upon the heavenly wheels.
Here, reader, set your gaze upon the truth,
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for now the veil is drawn so thin
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that piercing it is surely easy.
I watched that noble gathering
grow silent as they raised their eyes,
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humble and pale with expectation.
And I saw issue from above and then descend
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two angels holding flaming swords,
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their pointed blade-tips broken off.
Green as newly opened leaves, their garments,
stirred and fanned by their green wings,
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swirled and billowed out behind them.
One came and took his stand there just above us
and one alighted on the other bank,
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so that the company was set between them.
I could discern the angels’ flaxen hair,
but looking at their faces dazzled me,
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my power of sight undone by so much brightness.
‘Both come from Mary’s bosom,’
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said Sordello, ‘to guard the valley
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from the serpent that will soon appear.’
Not knowing by what path,
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I turned around, all chilled with fear,
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and huddled closer to the trusted shoulders.
Sordello continued: ‘Let us now go down
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into the valley and speak with those great shades.
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They will be pleased to have you join them.’
It seemed I had taken only three steps down
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when I saw one who stared at me alone,
It was now the hour when the air grows dark,
yet had not turned so dark it failed to show
Between us no fair greeting went unsaid.
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Then he asked: ‘How long is it since you came
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over far waters to this mountain?’
‘Oh,’ I said to him, ‘I came this morning
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from the doleful regions. I am in my first life,
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though by coming here I gain the other.’
One turned to Virgil, and the other called
to someone seated there: ‘Rise, Currado,
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come and see what God by His good grace has willed.’
Then, turning to me: ‘By that special gratitude
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you owe to Him who hides His primal purpose
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so deep we cannot fathom it,
‘when you are far from these wide waters,
ask my Giovanna to direct her prayers for me
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to where the innocent are heard.
‘I think her mother has not loved me
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since she stopped wearing her white wimple,
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which, in her coming misery, she may long for.
‘There is an easy lesson in her conduct:
how short a time the fire of love endures in woman
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if frequent sight and touch do not rekindle it.
‘The viper that leads the Milanese afield
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will hardly ornament her tomb as handsomely
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as the cock of Gallura would have done.’
He spoke these words, his face stamped
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with a look of righteous indignation
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that burns with proper measure in the heart.
My hungry eyes were lifted toward the sky,
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to that zone where the stars move slowest,
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as does the spoke of a wheel close to the axle.
And my leader: ‘Son, what are you staring at?’
And I replied: ‘At those three torches
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with which this pole is all aflame.’
‘The four bright stars you saw this morning,’
he said, ‘are low upon the unseen sky
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and these have risen where those others were.’
As he spoke, Sordello drew him closer,
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saying: ‘Behold our adversary,’
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and pointed his finger where to look.
In that place where the little valley
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has no rampart, a snake appeared,
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perhaps the one that gave to Eve the bitter fruit.
Through grass and flowers slid the evil streak,
turning its head from time to time to lick its back
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like a beast that sleeks itself.
