Purgatorio (5 page)

               
my master gently spread   
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his hands upon the grass.

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And I, who understood what he intended,

               
raised my tear-stained cheeks

               
and he restored the color

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hell had obscured in me.

               
Now we came to the empty shore.   
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Upon those waters no man ever sailed

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who then experienced his return.

               
There he girded me as pleased Another.   
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What a wonder it was that the humble plant

               
he chose to pick sprang up at once

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in the very place where he had plucked it.

               
The sun was nearly joined to that horizon   
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where the meridian circle at its zenith

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stands straight above Jerusalem,

               
and night, circling on the other side,

               
was rising from the Ganges with the Scales

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she drops when she is longer than the day,

               
so that, where I was,

               
the white and rosy cheeks of fair Aurora

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were turning golden with time’s ripening.

               
As yet we tarried by the seashore, like those   
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who think about the way and in their hearts go on—

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while still their bodies linger.

               
And now, as in the haze of morning,   
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Mars, low on the western stretch of ocean,

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sheds reddish light through those thick vapors,

               
there appeared to me—may I see it again!—

               
a light advancing swiftly on the sea:

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no flight can match its rapid motion.

               
And in the moment I had turned away   
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to ask a question of my leader,

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I saw it now enlarged and brighter.

               
Then on either side of it appeared

               
a whiteness—I knew not what—and just below,

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little by little, another showed there too.

               
Still my master did not say a word

               
while the first whiteness took the shape of wings.

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Then, once he saw the nature of the steersman,

               
he cried: ‘Bend, bend your knees! Behold

               
the angel of the Lord and fold your hands in prayer.

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From now on you shall see such ministers as these.

               
‘Look how he scorns all human instruments   
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and wants no oar, nor other sail

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beside his wings, between such distant shores.

               
‘Look how those wings are raised into the sky,

               
fanning the air with his eternal pinions

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which do not change like mortal plumage.’

               
Then, as the heavenly bird approached,

               
closer and closer, he appeared more radiant,   
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so that my eyes could not sustain his splendor,   
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and I looked down as he came shoreward

               
with a boat so swift and light

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the water did not part to take it in.   
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At the stern stood the heavenly pilot—

               
his mere description would bring to bliss.   
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And more than a hundred souls were with him.   
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‘In exitu Isräel de Aegypto’
   
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they sang together with one voice,

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and went on, singing the entire psalm.

               
Then he blessed them with the sign of Holy Cross.   
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They flung themselves upon the beach,

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and he went off as swiftly as he came.

               
The crowd that stayed there had the look   
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of strangers to the place, gazing about

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as though encountering new things.

               
Having driven Capricorn down from mid-heaven,   
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the sun, darting his rays in all directions,

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brought on the day with his unfailing arrows

               
and the new people raised their faces

               
toward us, saying: ‘If you know,

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show us the road that leads up to the mountain.’   
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Then Virgil answered: ‘Perhaps you think

               
we are familiar with this place,

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but we are strangers like yourselves.   
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‘We came but now, a little while before you,

               
by another road so rough and harsh   
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that now the climb to us will seem a pastime.’   
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The souls, who at my taking breath

               
could see that I was still alive,

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turned pale with wonder,   
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and as people crowd to hear the news   
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around a messenger who bears an olive-branch,

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and no one minds the crush,

               
so all these fortunate souls

               
kept their eyes fastened on my face,

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as though forgetful of the road to beauty.

               
I saw one of them come forward   
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with such affection to embrace me

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that I was moved to do the same.

               
Oh empty shades, except in seeming!   
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Three times I clasped my hands behind him

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only to find them clasped to my own chest.

               
Surprise must have been painted on my face,

               
at which the shade smiled and drew back   
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and I, pursuing him, moved forward.

               
Gently he requested that I stop.   
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Then I knew him. And I asked him

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to stay a while and speak with me.

               
‘Even as I loved you in my mortal flesh,’ he said,

               
‘so do I love you freed from it—yes, I will stay.

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And you, what takes you on this journey?’

               
‘O Casella, I make this voyage to return   
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another time,’ I said, ‘here where I’ve come.

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But why did it take you so much time to get here?’   
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To which he answered: ‘No wrong is done me   
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if he, who takes up whom it pleases him and when,

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has many times denied me passage,

               
‘for righteous is the will that fashioned his.

               
It is three months now that he has taken,

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acquiescent, all who would embark.

               
‘And I, finally moving toward the shore

               
where Tiber’s waters take on salt,

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was kindly gathered in by him.