Purgatorio (20 page)

               
‘Bagnacavallo does well to breed no more,   
→

               
Castrocaro poorly and Conio worse,   
→

117
         
obstinate in breeding such degenerate counts.

               
‘The Pagani will do better when their “Devil”   
→

               
shuffles off, yet not so well

120
         
that they will leave behind a stainless slate.

               
‘O Ugolin de’ Fantolin, your name is safe,   
→

               
since no more sons are looked for

123
         
who might blacken it with their depravity.

               
‘But now, Tuscan, be on your way,

               
for I would rather weep than speak,   
→

126
         
so has our discourse wrung my mind.’

               
We knew those kindly spirits heard us moving off.

               
Their silence, for that reason,

129
         
confirmed that we were keeping to our path.

               
As we moved on by ourselves, a voice,

               
like lightning when it cleaves the air,

132
         
came down upon us, saying:

               
‘Whoever finds me shall slay me,’   
→

               
and fled, as thunder fades away,

135
         
after the sudden rending of its cloud.

               
As soon as our ears had some relief

               
a new voice followed with such clamor that it seemed

138
         
a thunderclap, delayed but for an instant:

               
‘I am Aglauros who was turned to stone.’   
→

               
At that, to draw closer to the poet,   
→

141
         
I took a step to my right and not ahead.

               
Now that the air was quiet all around us,

               
he said to me: ‘That was the bit and bridle   
→

144
         
to keep a man within his bounds.

               
‘But you mortals take the bait, so that the hook

               
of your old adversary draws you to him,

147
         
and then of little use is curb or lure.   
→

               
‘The heavens call to you and wheel about you,

               
revealing their eternal splendors,

               
but your eyes are fixed upon the earth.

151
         
For that, He, seeing all, does smite you.’

               
As much as between the end of the third hour   
→

               
and the first of day is seen of the sphere

3
             
that like a child is always darting here and there,

               
so much appeared now to remain

               
of the sun’s course toward nightfall:

6
             
it was vespers there and midnight here on earth.

               
The rays were striking full upon our faces,   
→

               
for we had circled so much of the mountain

9
             
that we were heading straight into the west,

               
when such great splendor overwhelmed my sight,

               
greater than any I had seen before,

12
           
that I was dazed by its unfamiliar brightness.

               
I raised one hand above my brow   
→

               
and gave my eyes sufficient shade

15
           
to temper this excess of light.

               
As, when from water or a mirror, a reflected beam   
→

               
leaps back the other way, rising

18
           
at the angle it took in its descent,

               
and from the plumb line of a stone

               
will deviate an equal distance,

21
           
as shown by science and experiment,

               
it seemed to me that I was struck

               
by such bright light reflected there before me

24
           
that my eyes were quick to turn away.

               
‘What is that, gentle father,’ I asked,

               
‘from which I cannot even screen my eyes?

27
           
It seems to be moving toward us.’

               
‘Don’t be surprised,’ he answered me,   
→

               
‘if those who live in Heaven still can blind you:

30
           
this messenger invites us to ascend.

               
‘Soon the sight of beings such as these

               
will not be burdensome, will give as much delight

33
           
as nature made you fit to feel.’

               
When we had reached the blessèd angel

               
he called out in a joyful voice: ‘Now enter here

36
           
on a stairway far less steep than were the others.’   
→

               
As we ascended, moving on from there,

               
we heard
‘Beati misericordes’
sung behind us   
→

39
           
and ‘Rejoice, you who conquer.’

               
My master and I, alone again,   
→

               
were climbing, and as we went along,

42
           
hoping to take some profit from his words,

               
I turned to him and asked:

               
‘What did the spirit from Romagna mean

45
           
when he spoke of things that can’t be shared?’

               
He replied: ‘Of his worst fault he knows the cost.   
→

               
Thus it is no wonder he condemns it, in the hope

48
           
that fewer souls will have a reason to lament.

               
‘Because your appetites are fixed on things

               
that, divided, lessen each one’s share,

51
           
envy’s bellows pushes breath into your sighs.

               
‘But if love for the highest sphere

               
could turn your longings toward heavenly things,

54
           
then fear of sharing would pass from your hearts.

               
‘For there above, when more souls speak of
ours
,

               
the more of goodness each one owns,

57
           
the more of love is burning in that cloister.’

               
‘I am more starved for answers,’ I said,   
→

               
‘than if before I had kept silent,

60
           
since now my mind is filled with greater doubt.

               
‘How can it be that a good, distributed,

               
can enrich a greater number of possessors

63
           
than if it were possessed by few?’

               
And he to me: ‘Because you still

               
have your mind fixed on earthly things,

66
           
you harvest darkness from the light itself.

               
‘That infinite and ineffable Good,   
→

               
which dwells on high, speeds toward love

69
           
as a ray of sunlight to a shining body.   
→

               
‘It returns the love it finds in equal measure,   
→

               
so that, if more of ardor is extended,

72
           
eternal Goodness will augment Its own.

               
‘And the more souls there are who love on high,

               
the more there is to love, the more of loving,

75
           
for like a mirror each returns it to the other.