Those two that sit above there most enrapture Are as it were the two roots of this Rose. The father is, by whose audacious taste Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ And he who all the evil days beheld, Before his death, of her the beauteous bride Beside him sits, and by the other rests That leader under whom on manna lived Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated, So well content to look upon her daughter, And opposite the eldest household father Lucia sits, she who thy Lady moved Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna. 135 When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows. But since the moments of thy vision fly, Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor 140 And unto the first Love will turn our eyes, That looking upon Him thou penetrate As far as possible through his effulgence. Truly, lest peradventure thou recede, Moving thy wings believing to advance, By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained; And thou shalt follow me with thy affection And he began this holy orison. 145 150 CANTO XXXIII. "THOU Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, To human nature gave, that its Creator By heat of which in the eternal peace Of charity, and below there among mortals That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee, Not only thy benignity gives succour To him who asketh it, but oftentimes In thee compassion is, in thee is pity, Supplicate thee through grace for so much power That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed. Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst 15 23 Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve 35 Let thy protection conquer human movements; My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee !" The eyes beloved and revered of God, Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us How grateful unto her are prayers devout; Then unto the Eternal Light they turned, On which it is not credible could be By any creature bent an eye so clear. And I, who to the end of all desires Was now approaching, even as I ought The ardour of desire within me ended. Bernard was beckoning unto me, and smiling, That I should upward look; but I already Was entering more and more into the ray Even as he is who seeth in a dream, And after dreaming the imprinted passion Even such am I, for almost utterly Ceases my vision, and distilleth yet Even thus upon the wind in the light leaves From the conceits of mortals, to my mind That but a single sparkle of thy glory And by a little sounding in these verses, Which I endured would have bewildered me, On this account to bear, so that I joined 40 55 65 70 75 I saw that in its depth far down is lying Bound up with love together in one volume, All interfused together in such wise The universal fashion of this knot Methinks I saw, since more abundantly One moment is more lethargy to me, Than five and twenty centuries to the emprise Steadfast, immovable, attentive gazed, Of what I yet remember, than an infant's But through the sight, that fortified itself In me by looking, one appearance only To me was ever changing as I changed. Within the deep and luminous subsistence Of the High Light appeared to me three circles, And by the second seemed the first reflected As Iris is by Iris, and the third Seemed fire that equally from both is breathed. Of my conceit, and this to what I saw Appeared in thee as a reflected light, When somewhat contemplated by mine eyes, Within itself, of its own very colour Seemed to me painted with our effigy, As the geometrician, who endeavours To square the circle, and discovers not. By taking thought, the principle he wants, Even such was I at that new apparition; I wished to see how the image to the circle Had it not been that then my mind there smote Here vigour failed the lofty fantasy : But now was turning my desire and will, The Love which moves the sun and the other stars. |