Paradise: Canto XXIII The Triumph Of Christ.
The Triumph of Christ.
As the bird, among the beloved leaves, reposing on the nest of
her sweet brood through the night which hides things from us,
who, in order to see their longed-for looks and to find the food
wherewith she may feed them, in which heavy toils are pleasing to
her, anticipates the time upon the open twig, and with ardent
affection awaits the sun, fixedly looking till the dawn may
break; thus my Lady was standing erect and attentive, turned
toward the region beneath which the sun shows least haste;[1] so
that I, seeing her rapt and eager, became such as he who in
desire should wish for something, and in hope is satisfied. But
short while was there between one and the other WHEN: that of my
awaiting, I mean, and of my seeing the heavens become brighter
and brighter. And Beatrice said, "Behold the hosts of the triumph
of Christ, and all the fruit harvested by the revolution of these
spheres."[2] It seemed to me her face was all aflame, and her
eyes were so full of joy that I must needs pass it over without
description.
[1] The meridian.
[2] By the beneficent influences of the planets.
As in the clear skies at the full moon Trivia[1] smiles among
the eternal nymphs who paint the heaven through all its depths, I
saw, above myriads of lights, a Sun that was enkindling each and
all of them, as ours kindles the supernal shows;[2] and through
its living light the lucent Substance[3] shone so bright upon my
face that I sustained it not.
[1] An appellation of Diana, and hence of the moon.
[2] According to the belief, referred to at the opening of the
twentieth Canto, that the sun was the source of the light of the
stars.
[3] Christ in his glorified body.
O Beatrice, sweet guide and dear!
She said to me, "That which overcomes thee is a power from
which naught defends itself. Here is the Wisdom and the Power
that opened the roads between heaven and earth, for which there
had already been such long desire."
As fire from a cloud unlocks itself by dilating, so that it is
not contained therein, and against its own nature falls down to
earth, so my mind, becoming greater amid those feasts, issued
from itself; and what it became cannot remember.
"Open thine eyes and look at what I am; thou hast seen things
such that thou art become able to sustain my smile." I was as one
who awakes from a forgotten dream and endeavors in vain to bring
it back again to memory, when I heard this invitation, worthy of
such gratitude that it is never effaced from the book which
records the past. If now all those tongues which Polyhymnia and
her sisters made most fat with their sweetest milk should sound
to aid me, one would not come to a thousandth of the truth in
singing the holy smile and how it made the holy face resplendent.
And thus in depicting Paradise the consecrated poem needs must
make a leap, even as one who finds his way cut off. But whoso
should consider the ponderous theme and the mortal shoulder which
therewith is laden would not blame it if under this it tremble.
It is no coasting voyage for a little barque, this which the
intrepid prow goes cleaving, nor for a pilot who would spare
himself.
"Why doth my face so enamour thee that thou turnest not to the
fair garden which beneath the rays of Christ is blossoming? Here
is the rose,[1] in which the Divine Word became flesh: here are
the lilies[2] by whose odor the good way was taken." Thus
Beatrice, and I, who to her counsel was wholly prompt, again
betook me unto the battle of the feeble brows.
[1] The Virgin.
[2] The Apostles and Saints. The image is derived from St. Paul
(2 Corinthians, ii. 14): "Now thanks be unto God, which always
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour
of his knowledge by us in every place." In the Vulgate the words
are, "odorem notitiae suae manifestat per nos."
As my eyes, covered with a shadow, have ere now seen a meadow of
flowers in a sunbeam which streamed bright through a rifted
cloud, so saw I many throngs of splendors flashed-upon from
above with burning rays, without seeing the source of the gleams.
O benignant Power which so dost impress them, upwards didst thou
exalt thyself to bestow space there for my eyes, which were
powerless.[1]
[1] The eyes of Dante, powerless to endure the sight of the
glorified body of Christ, when that is withdrawn on high, are
able to look upon those whom the light of Christ illumines.
The name of the fair flower which I ever invoke both morning and
evening, wholly constrained my mind to gaze upon the greater
fire.[1] And when the form and the glory of the living star,
which up. there surpasses as here below it surpassed, were
depicted in both my eyes, through the mid heavens a torch, formed
in a circle in fashion of a crown, descended, and engirt it, and
revolved around it. Whatever melody sounds sweetest here below,
and to itself most draws the soul, would seem a cloud which, rent
apart, thunders, compared with the sound of that lyre wherewith
was crowned the beauteous sapphire by which the brightest Heaven
is ensapphired. "I am angelic Love, and I circle round the lofty
joy which breathes from the bosom which was the hostelry of our
desire; and I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while thou shalt
follow thy Son and make the supreme sphere more divine because
thou enterest it." Thus the circling melody sealed itself up, and
all the other lights made resound the name of Mary.
[1] The Virgin,--Rosa mistica,--the brightest of all the host
that remained.
The royal mantle[1] of all the volumes[2] of the world, which is
most fervid and most quickened in the breath of God and in His
ways, had its inner shore so distant above us that sight of it,
there where I was, did not yet appear to me. Therefore my eyes
had not the power to follow the incoronate flame, which mounted
upward following her own seed. And as a little child which, when
it has taken the milk, stretches its arms toward its mother,
through the spirit that flames up outwardly, each of these white
splendors stretched upward with its summit, so that the deep
aflection which they had for Mary was manifest to me. Then they
remained there in ray sight, singing "Regina coeli " so sweetly
that never has the delight departed from me. Oh how great is the
plenty that is heaped up in those most rich chests which were
good laborers in sowing here below! Here they live and enjoy the
treasure that was acquired while weeping in the exile of Babylon,
where the gold was left aside.[3] Here triumphs, under the high
Son of God and of Mary, in his victory, both with the ancient and
with the new council, he who holds the keys of such glory.[4]
[l] The Primum Mobile, the ninth Heaven, which revolves around
all the others.
[2] The revolving spheres.
[3] Despising the treasures of the world, in the Babylonish exile
of this life, they laid up for themselves treasures in Heaven.
[4] St. Peter.
As the bird, among the beloved leaves, reposing on the nest of
her sweet brood through the night which hides things from us,
who, in order to see their longed-for looks and to find the food
wherewith she may feed them, in which heavy toils are pleasing to
her, anticipates the time upon the open twig, and with ardent
affection awaits the sun, fixedly looking till the dawn may
break; thus my Lady was standing erect and attentive, turned
toward the region beneath which the sun shows least haste;[1] so
that I, seeing her rapt and eager, became such as he who in
desire should wish for something, and in hope is satisfied. But
short while was there between one and the other WHEN: that of my
awaiting, I mean, and of my seeing the heavens become brighter
and brighter. And Beatrice said, "Behold the hosts of the triumph
of Christ, and all the fruit harvested by the revolution of these
spheres."[2] It seemed to me her face was all aflame, and her
eyes were so full of joy that I must needs pass it over without
description.
[1] The meridian.
[2] By the beneficent influences of the planets.
As in the clear skies at the full moon Trivia[1] smiles among
the eternal nymphs who paint the heaven through all its depths, I
saw, above myriads of lights, a Sun that was enkindling each and
all of them, as ours kindles the supernal shows;[2] and through
its living light the lucent Substance[3] shone so bright upon my
face that I sustained it not.
[1] An appellation of Diana, and hence of the moon.
[2] According to the belief, referred to at the opening of the
twentieth Canto, that the sun was the source of the light of the
stars.
[3] Christ in his glorified body.
O Beatrice, sweet guide and dear!
She said to me, "That which overcomes thee is a power from
which naught defends itself. Here is the Wisdom and the Power
that opened the roads between heaven and earth, for which there
had already been such long desire."
As fire from a cloud unlocks itself by dilating, so that it is
not contained therein, and against its own nature falls down to
earth, so my mind, becoming greater amid those feasts, issued
from itself; and what it became cannot remember.
"Open thine eyes and look at what I am; thou hast seen things
such that thou art become able to sustain my smile." I was as one
who awakes from a forgotten dream and endeavors in vain to bring
it back again to memory, when I heard this invitation, worthy of
such gratitude that it is never effaced from the book which
records the past. If now all those tongues which Polyhymnia and
her sisters made most fat with their sweetest milk should sound
to aid me, one would not come to a thousandth of the truth in
singing the holy smile and how it made the holy face resplendent.
And thus in depicting Paradise the consecrated poem needs must
make a leap, even as one who finds his way cut off. But whoso
should consider the ponderous theme and the mortal shoulder which
therewith is laden would not blame it if under this it tremble.
It is no coasting voyage for a little barque, this which the
intrepid prow goes cleaving, nor for a pilot who would spare
himself.
"Why doth my face so enamour thee that thou turnest not to the
fair garden which beneath the rays of Christ is blossoming? Here
is the rose,[1] in which the Divine Word became flesh: here are
the lilies[2] by whose odor the good way was taken." Thus
Beatrice, and I, who to her counsel was wholly prompt, again
betook me unto the battle of the feeble brows.
[1] The Virgin.
[2] The Apostles and Saints. The image is derived from St. Paul
(2 Corinthians, ii. 14): "Now thanks be unto God, which always
causeth us to triumph in Christ, and maketh manifest the savour
of his knowledge by us in every place." In the Vulgate the words
are, "odorem notitiae suae manifestat per nos."
As my eyes, covered with a shadow, have ere now seen a meadow of
flowers in a sunbeam which streamed bright through a rifted
cloud, so saw I many throngs of splendors flashed-upon from
above with burning rays, without seeing the source of the gleams.
O benignant Power which so dost impress them, upwards didst thou
exalt thyself to bestow space there for my eyes, which were
powerless.[1]
[1] The eyes of Dante, powerless to endure the sight of the
glorified body of Christ, when that is withdrawn on high, are
able to look upon those whom the light of Christ illumines.
The name of the fair flower which I ever invoke both morning and
evening, wholly constrained my mind to gaze upon the greater
fire.[1] And when the form and the glory of the living star,
which up. there surpasses as here below it surpassed, were
depicted in both my eyes, through the mid heavens a torch, formed
in a circle in fashion of a crown, descended, and engirt it, and
revolved around it. Whatever melody sounds sweetest here below,
and to itself most draws the soul, would seem a cloud which, rent
apart, thunders, compared with the sound of that lyre wherewith
was crowned the beauteous sapphire by which the brightest Heaven
is ensapphired. "I am angelic Love, and I circle round the lofty
joy which breathes from the bosom which was the hostelry of our
desire; and I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while thou shalt
follow thy Son and make the supreme sphere more divine because
thou enterest it." Thus the circling melody sealed itself up, and
all the other lights made resound the name of Mary.
[1] The Virgin,--Rosa mistica,--the brightest of all the host
that remained.
The royal mantle[1] of all the volumes[2] of the world, which is
most fervid and most quickened in the breath of God and in His
ways, had its inner shore so distant above us that sight of it,
there where I was, did not yet appear to me. Therefore my eyes
had not the power to follow the incoronate flame, which mounted
upward following her own seed. And as a little child which, when
it has taken the milk, stretches its arms toward its mother,
through the spirit that flames up outwardly, each of these white
splendors stretched upward with its summit, so that the deep
aflection which they had for Mary was manifest to me. Then they
remained there in ray sight, singing "Regina coeli " so sweetly
that never has the delight departed from me. Oh how great is the
plenty that is heaped up in those most rich chests which were
good laborers in sowing here below! Here they live and enjoy the
treasure that was acquired while weeping in the exile of Babylon,
where the gold was left aside.[3] Here triumphs, under the high
Son of God and of Mary, in his victory, both with the ancient and
with the new council, he who holds the keys of such glory.[4]
[l] The Primum Mobile, the ninth Heaven, which revolves around
all the others.
[2] The revolving spheres.
[3] Despising the treasures of the world, in the Babylonish exile
of this life, they laid up for themselves treasures in Heaven.
[4] St. Peter.
Translation:
Language:
Reviews
No reviews yet.