Purgatorio (7 page)
Authors: Dante
and what the first one does the others copy,
pressing up behind it if it stops,
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simple and quiet, not knowing why,
so, of that fortunate flock, I saw
the ones in front move shyly forward,
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with solemn bearing and with modest looks.
As soon as those in front could see the light
upon the ground was broken to my right, so that
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my shadow stretched up to the cliff,
they stopped, drew back a little,
and all the rest that came behind,
‘Without your asking I declare to you
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this is a human body that you see,
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which now divides the sun’s light on the ground.
‘Do not be amazed, but think
that not without a power sent from Heaven
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does he attempt to scale this rocky wall.’
Thus the master. And those worthy souls replied:
‘Turn, then, and go on before us,’
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showing the way with the backs of their hands.
And one of them began: ‘Whoever you are,
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as you continue walking, turn to look at me,
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and think if ever you have seen me in the world.’
I turned and fixed my gaze on him.
He was blond, handsome, and of noble aspect,
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but a blow had cleft one of his eyebrows.
When I had courteously disclaimed
ever to have seen him, ‘Look here!’ he said,
then, smiling: ‘I am Manfred,
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grandson of the Empress Constance.
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Therefore I beg of you, when you return,
‘make your way to my fair daughter,
mother of the pride of Sicily and Aragon,
‘Horrible were my sins,
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but Infinite Goodness with wide-open arms
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receives whoever turns to it.
‘If the pastor of Cosenza, sent by Clement
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on the hunt to take me down,
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had read that page in God with greater care,
‘my body’s bones would still be sheltered
at the head of the bridge near Benevento
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under the cairn of heavy stones.
‘Now the rain washes and the wind stirs them,
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beyond the Kingdom, near the Verde’s banks, there
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where he brought them with his torches quenched.
‘By such a curse as theirs none is so lost
that the eternal Love cannot return
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as long as hope maintains a thread of green.
‘It is true that one who dies in contumacy
of Holy Church, even though repentant at the end,
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must still endure outside this wall—
‘for every year he spent in his presumption—
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thirty, unless that sentence
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is reduced by holy prayers.
‘Now you know how you can make me happy:
reveal to my good Constance where you’ve seen me
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and how long I am excluded—
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for here much can be gained from those on earth.’
I. Introductory retrospection
II. The ascent
III.
Belacqua
IV. Coda: Virgil’s urgency
When one of our faculties is given over
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to pleasure or to pain,
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our soul will focus on that one alone
and seem to pay no mind to any of its other powers—
revealing the error in the doctrine that maintains
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among the souls within us one is more aflame.
And therefore when we see or hear a thing
that concentrates the soul,
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time passes and we’re not aware of it,
for the faculty that hears the passing time
is not the one that holds the soul intent:
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the one that hears is bound, the other free.
This I truly understood,
listening to that spirit in amazement,
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for the sun had already climbed fifty degrees
and I had failed to notice, when we came
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to where these souls cried out as one:
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‘Here is the place you asked for.’
Often, at the time the grapes are darkening,
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a peasant, with a pitchfork full of thorns,
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will plug a larger opening
than the gap through which my leader
and I behind him climbed alone,
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after the troop went on without us.
One may go up to San Leo or descend to Noli
or mount to the summits of Bismàntova or Cacùme
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on foot, but here one had to fly—
I mean with the swift wings and plumage
of great desire, following that guidance
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which gave me hope and showed me light.
We climbed into a fissure in the rock.
The stony walls pressed close on either side.
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We had to use our hands to keep our footing.
When we had reached the crag’s high upper ledge,
out on the open hillside, ‘Master,’ I said,
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‘which path shall we take?’
And he to me: ‘Do not fall back a single step.
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Just keep climbing up behind me
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until some guide who knows the way appears.’
The summit was so high that it was out of sight,
the slope far steeper than the line
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drawn from midquadrant to the center.
Exhausted, I complained:
‘Belovèd father, turn around and see
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how I’ll be left alone unless you pause.’
‘My son,’ he said, ‘drag yourself up there,’
pointing to a ledge a little higher,
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which from that place encircles all the hill.
There we settled down to rest, facing
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the east, where we had begun our climb,
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for often it pleases us to see how far we’ve come.
