| |
| SO she, who doth imparadise my soul, | |
| Had drawn the veil from off our present life, | |
| And bared the truth of poor mortality: | |
| When lo! as one who, in a mirror, spies | |
| The shining of a flambeau at his back, | 5 |
| Lit sudden ere he deem of its approach, | |
| And turneth to resolve him, if the glass | |
| Have told him true, and sees the record faithful | |
| As note is to its metre; even thus, | |
| I well remember, did befal to me, | 10 |
| Looking upon the beauteous eyes, whence love | |
| Had made the leash to take me. As I turn’d: | |
| And that which none, who in that volume looks, | |
| Can miss of, in itself apparent, struck | |
| My view; a point I saw, that darted light | 15 |
| So sharp, no lid, unclosing, may bear up | |
| Against its keenness. The least star we ken | |
| From hence, had seem’d a moon; set by its side, | |
| As star by side of star. And so far off, | |
| Perchance, as is the halo from the light | 20 |
| Which paints it, when most dense the vapour spreads; | |
| There wheel’d about the point a circle of fire, | |
| More rapid than the motion which surrounds, | |
| Speediest, the world. Another this enring’d; | |
| And that a third; the third a fourth, and that | 25 |
| A fifth encompass’d; which a sixth next bound; | |
| And over this, a seventh, following, reach’d | |
| Circumference so ample, that its bow, | |
| Within the span of Juno’s messenger, | |
| Had scarce been held entire. Beyond a seventh, | 30 |
| Ensued yet other two. And every one, | |
| As more in number distant from the first, | |
| Was tardier in motion: and that glow’d | |
| With flame most pure, that to the sparkle of truth, | |
| Was nearest; as partaking most, methinks, | 35 |
| Of its reality. The guide beloved | |
| Saw me in anxious thought suspense, and spake: | |
| “Heaven, and all nature, hangs upon that point. | |
| The circle thereto most conjoin’d observe; | |
| And know, that by intenser love its course | 40 |
| Is, to this swiftness, wing’d.” To whom I thus: | |
| “It were enough; nor should I further seek, | |
| Had I but witness’d order, in the world | |
| Appointed, such as in these wheels is seen. | |
| But in the sensible world such difference is, | 45 |
| That in each round shows more divinity, | |
| As each is wider from the centre. Hence, | |
| If in this wondrous and angelic temple, | |
| That hath, for confine, only light and love, | |
| My wish may have completion, I must know, | 50 |
| Wherefore such disagreement is between | |
| The exemplar and its copy: for myself, | |
| Contemplating, I fail to pierce the cause.” | |
| “It is no marvel, if thy fingers foil’d | |
| Do leave the knot untied: so hard ’tis grown | 55 |
| For want of tenting.” Thus she said: “But take,” | |
| She added, “if thou wish thy cure, my words, | |
| And entertain them subtly. Every orb, | |
| Corporeal, doth proportion its extent | |
| Unto the virtue through its parts diffused. | 60 |
| The greater blessedness preserves the more, | |
| The greater is the body (if all parts | |
| Share equally) the more is to preserve. | |
| Therefore the circle, whose swift course enwheels | |
| The universal frame, answers to that | 65 |
| Which is supreme in knowledge and in love. | |
| Thus by the virtue, not the seeming breadth | |
| Of substance, measuring, thou shalt see the Heavens, | |
| Each to the intelligence that ruleth it, | |
| Greater to more, and smaller unto less, | 70 |
| Suited in strict and wondrous harmony.” | |
| As when the north blows from his milder cheek | |
| A blast, that scours the sky, forthwith our air, | |
| Clear’d of the rack that hung on it before, | |
| Glitters; and, with his beauties all unveil’d, | 75 |
| The firmament looks forth serene, and smiles: | |
| Such was my cheer, when Beatrice drove | |
| With clear reply the shadows back, and truth | |
| Was manifested, as a star in Heaven. | |
| And when the words were ended, not unlike | 80 |
| To iron in the furnace, every cirque, | |
| Ebullient, shot forth scintillating fires: | |
| And every sparkle shivering to new blaze, | |
| In number 1 did outmillion the account | |
| Reduplicate upon the chequer’d board. | 85 |
| Then heard I echoing on, from choir to choir, | |
| “Hosanna,” to the fixed point, that holds, | |
| And shall for ever hold them to their place, | |
| From everlasting, irremovable. | |
| Musing awhile I stood: and she, who saw | 90 |
| My inward meditations, thus began: | |
| “In the first circles, they, whom thou beheld’st | |
| Are Seraphim and Cherubim. Thus swift | |
| Follow their hoops, in likeness to the point, | |
| Near as they can, approaching; and they can | 95 |
| The more, the loftier their vision. Those | |
| That round them fleet, gazing the Godhead next, | |
| Are Thrones; in whom the first trine ends. And all | |
| Are blessed, even as their sight descends | |
| Deeper into the Truth, wherein rest is | 100 |
| For every mind. Thus happiness hath root | |
| In seeing, not in loving, which of sight | |
| Is aftergrowth. And of the seeing such | |
| The meed, as unto each, in due degree, | |
| Grace and good-will their measure have assign’d. | 105 |
| The other trine, that with still opening buds | |
| In this eternal springtide blossom fair, | |
| Fearless of bruising from the nightly ram, 2 | |
| Breathe up in warbled melodies threefold | |
| Hosannas, blending ever; from the three, | 110 |
| Transmitted, hierarchy of gods, for aye | |
| Rejoicing; dominations first; next them, | |
| Virtues; and powers the third; the next to whom | |
| Are princedoms and archangels, with glad round | |
| To tread their festal ring; and last, the band | 115 |
| Angelical, disporting in their sphere. | |
| All, as they circle in their orders, look | |
| Aloft; and, downward, with such sway prevail, | |
| That all with mutual impulse tend to God. | |
| These once a mortal view beheld. Desire | 120 |
| In Dionysius, 3 so intensely wrought, | |
| That he, as I have done, ranged them; and named, | |
| Their orders, marshal’d in his thought. From him, | |
| Dissentient, one refused his sacred read. | |
| But soon as in this Heaven his doubting eyes | 125 |
| Were open’d, Gregory 4 at his error smiled. | |
| Nor marvel, that a denizen of earth | |
| Should scan such secret truth; for he had learnt 5 | |
| Both this and much beside of these our orbs, | |
| From an eye-witness to Heaven’s mysteries.” | 130 |
