70 Therefore I pass to what time I awoke, And say a splendour rent from me the veil Of slumber, and a calling: "Rise, what dost thou ?" As to behold the apple-tree in blossom Which makes the Angels greedy for its fruit, And keeps perpetual bridals in the Heaven, Peter and John and James conducted were, And, overcome, recovered at the word By which still greater slumbers have been broken, And the apparel of their Master changed; So I revived, and saw that piteous one Above me standing, who had been conductress Behold the company that circles her ; The rest behind the Griffin are ascending With more melodious song, and more profound." 90 And if her speech were more diffuse I know not, Who from the hearing of aught else had shut me. Alone she sat upon the very earth, Left there as guardian of the chariot 95 Which I had seen the biform monster fasten. Encircling her, a cloister made themselves The seven Nymphs, with those lights in their hands "Short while shalt thou be here a forester, And thou shalt be with me for evermore A citizen of that Rome where Christ is Roman. 'Therefore, for that world's good which liveth ill, Fix on the car thine eyes, and what thou seest, Of her commandments all devoted was, Fire from a heavy cloud, when it is raining As I beheld the bird of Jove descend Down through the tree, rending away the bark, And he with all his might the chariot smote, Whereat it reeled, like vessel in a tempest Tossed by the waves, now starboard and now larboard. Thereafter saw I leap into the body Of the triumphal vehicle a Fox, That seemed unfed with any wholesome food. My Lady put him to as swift a flight Into the chariot's chest I saw the Eagle And such as issues from a heart that mourns, A voice from Heaven there issued, and it said : My little bark, how badly art thou freighted!" Methought, then, that the earth did yawn between Both wheels, and I saw rise from it a Dragon, Drawing unto himself his tail malign, Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it, 113 120 125 139 1.5 740 145 Firm as a rock upon a mountain high, Seated upon it, there appeared to me A shameless whore, with eyes swift glancing round, 150 And, as if not to have her taken from him, Upright beside her I beheld a giant ; Turned upon me, her angry paramour He loosed the monster, and across the forest 155 160 CANTO XXXIII. DEUS, venerunt gentes," alternating Now three, now four, melodious psalmody And Beatrice, compassionate and sighing, Listened to them with such a countenance, That scarce more changed was Mary at the cross. But when the other virgins place had given Et iterum, my sisters predilect, Then all the seven in front of her she placed; That her tenth step was placed upon the ground, To me she said, "that, if I speak with thee, She said to me: "Why, brother, dost thou not As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: Of fear and bashfulness 66 Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, Within which a Five-hundred, Ten, and Five, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, But soon the facts shall be the Naiades Who shall this difficult enigma solve, Without destruction of the flocks and harvests. Note thou; and even as by me are uttered These words, so teach them unto those who live And bear in mind, whene'er thou writest them, Whoever pillages or shatters it, With blasphemy of deed offendeth God, For biting that, in pain and in desire 40 45 50 -5 Five thousand years and more the first-born soul 65 Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not For special reason so pre-eminent In height, and so inverted in its summit. And if thy vain imaginings had not been And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure, Morally in the tree wouldst recognize. But since I see thee in thine intellect Converted into stone and stained with sin, So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee, I will too, if not written, at least painted, Thou bear it back within thee, for the reason And I: "As by a signet is the wax Which does not change the figure stamped upon it, But wherefore so beyond my power of sight The more I strive, so much the more I lose it ?" "That thou mayst recognize," she said, "the school And mayst behold your path from the divine From earth the heaven that highest hastens on." That ever I estranged myself from you, Nor have I conscience of it that reproves me." "And if thou art not able to remember," Smiling she answered, "recollect thee now That thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe ; And if from smoke a fire may be inferred, Such an oblivion clearly demonstrates Some error in thy will elsewhere intent. Truly from this time forward shall my words Be naked, so far as it is befitting To lay them open unto thy rude gaze." And more coruscant and with slower steps The sun was holding the meridian circle, Which, with the point of view, shifts here and there When halted (as he cometh to a halt, If something new he find upon his way) Who goes before a squadron as its escort, The ladies seven at a dark shadow's edge, Such as, beneath green leaves and branches black, In front of them the Tigris and Euphrates Methought I saw forth issue from one fountain, "O light, O glory of the human race! What stream is this which here unfolds itself For such a prayer, 'twas said unto me, “Pray Matilda that she tell thee;" and here answered, 120 The beautiful lady: "This and other things Were told to him by me; and sure I am The water of Lethe has not hid them from him." And Beatrice: "Perhaps a greater care, Which oftentimes our memory takes away, But Eunoë behold, that yonder rises; Lead him to it. and, as thou art accustomed, 195 |