And him I saw return to all the lights Of his highway nine hundred times and thirty, The language that I spake was quite extinct (Because of human pleasure that doth change, A natural action is it that man speaks; But whether thus or thus, doth nature leave 125 130 Ere I descended to the infernal anguish, El was on earth the name of the Chief Good, From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round 135 Eli he then was called, and that is proper, From the first hour to that which is the second, As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth." CANTO XXVII. "GLORY be to the Father, to the Son, And Holy Ghost!" all Paradise began, What I beheld seemed unto me a smile Of the universe; for my inebriation Found entrance through the hearing and the sight. O joy! O gladness inexpressible ! O perfect life of love and peacefulness! O riches without hankering secure! Before mine eyes were standing the four torches And even such in semblance it became As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers. 15 That Providence, which here distributeth Season and service, in the blessed choir Had silence upon every side imposed. When I heard say: "If I my colour change, Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking My place, my place, which vacant has become Has of my cemetery made a sewer Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One, Sure of herself, and at another's failing, And I believe in heaven was such eclipse, When suffered the supreme Omnipotence; Thereafterward proceeded forth his words With voice so much transmuted from itself, The very countenance was not more changed. "The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus, Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus, Of our successors should in part be seated Should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner, Nor I be made the figure of a seal To privileges venal and mendacious, Are seen from here above o'er all the pastures! At Rome the glory of the world defended, And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapours, From gazing upward, said to me: "Cast down I saw that I had moved through the whole arc So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding My mind enamoured, which is dallying At all times with my Lady, to bring back And if or Art or Nature has made bait To catch the eyes and so possess the mind, All joined together would appear as nought To the divine delight which shone upon me From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth, Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty Are all so uniform, I cannot say But she, who was aware of my desire, Began, the while she smiled so joyously That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice: "The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet The centre, and all the rest about it moves, From hence begins as from its starting point. And in this heaven there is no other Where Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled Even as this doth the others, and that precinct Its motion is not by another meted, But all the others measured are by this, May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves, O Covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will; But the uninterrupted rain converts Fidelity and innocence are found Only in children; afterwards they both Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered. Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours Another, while he prattles, loves and listens Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night. Think that on earth there is no one who governs ; Ere January be unwintered wholly By the centesimal on earth neglected, Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows; CANTO XXVIII. AFTER the truth against the present life He sees who from behind is lighted by it, Tell him the truth, and sees that it accords Therewith as doth a music with its metre, In similar wise my memory recollecteth That I did, looking into those fair eyes, Of which Love made the springes to ensnare me. And as I turned me round, and mine were touched By that which is apparent in that volume, Whenever on its gyre we gaze intent, A point beheld I, that was raying out Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles And whatsoever star seems smallest here A halo cincturing the light that paints it, And this was by another circumcinct, That by a third, the third then by a fourth, So ample now, that Juno's messenger From which less distant was the stainless spark, |