Purgatorio (37 page)

               
‘So that the turbulence below,

               
created by the vapors rising both from land and sea

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toward the sun’s heat as far as they can rise,

               
‘should do no harm to man,

               
this mountain rose just high enough toward heaven

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to tower free of it above the bolted gate.

               
‘Now, since all the air revolves in a circle   
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with the first circling, unless

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its revolution is at some point blocked,

               
‘that movement strikes upon this summit,

               
standing free in the living air, and makes

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the forest, because it is so dense, resound.

               
‘The wind-lashed plants have such fecundity

               
that with their power they pollinate the air,

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which after, in its circling, scatters seed abroad.

               
‘Your earth below, according to its qualities

               
and climate, conceives and then brings forth

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from various properties its various plants.

               
‘If this were understood, it would not seem

               
so marvelous on earth each time a plant

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takes root without its seedling being known.

               
‘And you should know the holy ground

               
on which you stand is filled with every kind of seed

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and gives forth fruit that is not plucked on earth.

               
‘The water you see here does not spring from a vein   
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that is restored by vapor when condensed by cold,

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like a river that gains and loses flow,

               
‘but issues from a sure, unchanging source,

               
which by God’s will regains as much

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as it pours forth to either side.

               
‘On this side it descends and has the power   
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to take from men the memory of sin.

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On the other it restores that of good deeds.

               
‘Here it is called Lethe and on the other side

               
Eünoè, but its water has no effect

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until they both are tasted.

               
‘The second surpasses every sweetness.   
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And even though your thirst might have been slaked

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were I to reveal no more to you,

               
‘I will offer a corollary as a further gift,   
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nor do I think my words will be less welcome

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if they extend beyond the promise that I made.

               
‘Those who in ancient times called up in verse   
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the age of gold and sang its happy state

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dreamed on Parnassus of perhaps this very place.

               
‘Here the root of humankind was innocent,   
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here it is always spring, with every fruit in season.

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This is the nectar of which the ancients tell.’

               
I turned around then to my poets

               
and saw that they had listened   
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to her final utterance with a smile.

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Then I turned back to the fair lady.

               
After she had finished speaking   
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like a lady touched by love she sang:

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‘Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata!’

               
And like the nymphs that wandered all alone   
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through shaded forests, one seeking to find,

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another to escape, the sun,

               
she moved against the current’s flow,   
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walking along the bank, while I on my side

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tried to match her shorter steps with mine.

               
We had not taken a hundred steps between us

               
when the two banks curved as one around a bend

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so that once more I was headed toward the east.

               
And we had not gone far in that direction

               
when the lady turned and faced me,

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saying: ‘My brother, look and listen.’   
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Suddenly a shining brightness   
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flared through all the forest

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so that I thought it must be lightning.

               
But since lightning is gone even as it flashes

               
and that light, shining on, became more lustrous,

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I asked myself: ‘Now what is this?’

               
Through the luminous air there came a melody   
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so sweet that I was mastered by a worthy zeal

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to reprimand the impudence of Eve:

               
there when earth and heaven were still obedient,

               
how she, a woman, alone and just then given shape,

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could not resist, not stay beneath the veil.

               
Had she remained submissive there beneath it,

               
I should have tasted these ineffable delights

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much sooner and a longer time.

               
While I walked on among so many first fruits,   
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this foretaste of eternal bliss, enchanted

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though desiring joys still greater,

               
beneath the green boughs the air before us

               
seemed to become a blazing fire

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and that sweet sound could now be heard as song.   
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O sacred Virgins, if fasting, cold, or sleepless nights   
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I’ve ever suffered for your sake,

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necessity drives me to call for my reward.

               
Now let the springs of Helicon pour forth

               
and let Urania help me with her choir

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to put in verse things hard for thought.   
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A short way on, seven golden trees   
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seemed to appear, an illusion caused

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by the space that separated them from us.

               
But when I had come close enough,

               
distance no longer could deceive the senses   
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nor distort the common object’s proper shape,

               
and the faculty that readies reason for its matter

               
knew them as candelabra, which indeed they were,

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and in the voices of the chant I heard ‘Hosanna.’

               
From above flared the glorious array,   
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far brighter than the moon, bright

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at mid-month in a midnight sky.

               
Full of wonder, I turned to my good Virgil   
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and he answered with a look

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no less charged with amazement.