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from DIVINE COMEDY


The glory of the One who moves all things permeates the universe and glows in one part more and in another less.

I was within the heaven that receives more of His light; and I saw things that he who from that height descends, forgets or can

not speak; for nearing its desired end, our intellect sinks into an abyss so deep that memory fails to follow it.

Nevertheless, as much as I, within my mind, could treasure of the holy kingdom shall now become the matter of my song.

O good Apollo, for this final task make me the vessel of your excellence, what you, to merit your loved laurel, ask.

Until this point, one of Parnassus' peaks sufficed for me; but now I face the test the agon that is left; I need both crests.

Enter into my breast; within me breathe the very power you made manifest when you drew Marsyas out from his limbs' sheath.

O godly force, if you so lend yourself to me, that I might show the shadow of the blessed realm inscribed within my mind,

then you would see me underneath the tree you love; there I shall take as crown the leaves of which my theme and you shall make me worthy.

So seldom, father, are those garlands gathered for triumph of a ruler or a poet a sign of fault or shame in human wills

that when Peneian branches can incite someone to long and thirst for them, delight must fill the happy Delphic deity.

Great fire can follow a small spark: there may be better voices after me to pray to Cyrrha's god for aid that he may answer.

The lantern of the world approaches mortals by varied paths; but on that way which links four circles with three crosses, it emerges

joined to a better constellation and along a better course, and it can temper and stamp the world's wax more in its own manner.

Its entry from that point of the horizon brought morning there and evening here; almost all of that hemisphere was white while ours

was dark when I saw Beatrice turn round and left, that she might see the sun; no eagle has ever stared so steadily at it.

And as a second ray will issue from the first and reascend, much like a pilgrim who seeks his home again, so on her action,

fed by my eyes to my imagination, my action drew, and on the sun I set my sight more than we usually do.

More is permitted to our powers there than is permitted here, by virtue of that place, made for mankind as its true home.

I did not bear it long, but not so briefly as not to see it sparkling round about, like molten iron emerging from the fire;

and suddenly it seemed that day had been added to day, as if the One who can had graced the heavens with a second sun.

The eyes of Beatrice were all intent on the eternal circles; from the sun, I turned aside; I set my eyes on her.

In watching her, within me I was changed as Glaucus changed, tasting the herb that made him a companion of the other sea gods.

Passing beyond the human cannot be worded; let Glaucus serve as simile until grace grant you the experience.

Whether I only was the part of me that You created last, You governing the heavens know: it was Your light that raised me.

When that wheel which You make eternal through the heavens' longing for You drew me with the harmony You temper and distinguish,

the fire of the sun then seemed to me to kindle so much of the sky, that rain or river never formed so broad a lake.

The newness of the sound and the great light incited me to learn their cause I was more keen than I had ever been before.

And she who read me as I read myself, to quiet the commotion in my mind, opened her lips before I opened mine

to ask, and she began: You make yourself obtuse with false imagining; you can not see what you would see if you dispelled it.

You are not on the earth as you believe; but lightning, flying from its own abode, is less swift than you are, returning home.

While I was freed from my first doubt by these brief words she smiled to me, I was yet caught in new perplexity. I said: I was

content already; after such great wonder, I rested. But again I wonder how my body rises past these lighter bodies.

At which, after a sigh of pity, she settled her eyes on me with the same look a mother casts upon a raving child,

and she began: All things, among themselves, possess an order; and this order is the form that makes the universe like God.

Here do the higher beings see the imprint of the Eternal Worth, which is the end to which the pattern I have mentioned tends.

Within that order, every nature has its bent, according to a different station, nearer or less near to its origin.

Therefore, these natures move to different ports across the mighty sea of being, each given the impulse that will bear it on.

This impulse carries fire to the moon; this is the motive force in mortal creatures; this binds the earth together, makes it one.

Not only does the shaft shot from this bow strike creatures lacking intellect, but those who have intelligence, and who can love.

The Providence that has arrayed all this forever quiets with Its light that heaven in which the swiftest of the spheres revolves;

to there, as toward a destined place, we now are carried by the power of the bow that always aims its shaft at a glad mark.

Yet it is true that, even as a shape may, often, not accord with art's intent, since matter may be unresponsive, deaf,

so, from this course, the creature strays at times because he has the power, once impelled, to swerve elsewhere; as lightning from a cloud

is seen to fall, so does the first impulse, when man has been diverted by false pleasure, turn him toward earth. You should if I am right

not feel more marvel at your climbing than you would were you considering a stream that from a mountain's height falls to its base.

It would be cause for wonder in you if, no longer hindered, you remained below, as if, on earth, a living flame stood still.

Then she again turned her gaze heavenward.


by Dante Alighieri