Purgatory: Canto XXXIII. The Earthly Paradise
The Earthly Paradise.--Prophecy of Beatrice
concerning one who shall restore the Empire.--Her discourse with
Dante.--The river Eunoe.--Dante drinks of it, and is fit to
ascend to Heaven.
"Deus, venerunt gentes,"[1] the ladies began, alternating, now
three now four, a sweet psalmody, and weeping. And Beatrice,
sighing and compassionate, was listening to them so moved that
scarce more changed was Mary at the cross. But when the other
virgins gave place to her to speak, risen upright upon her feet,
she answered, colored like fire: "Modicum, et non videbitis me,
et iterum, my beloved Sisters, Modicum, et vos videbitis me."[2]
Then she set all the seven in front of her; and behind her, by a
sign only, she placed me, and the Lady, and the Sage who had
stayed.[3] So she moved on; and I do not think her tenth step had
been set upon the ground, when with her eyes my eyes she smote,
and with tranquil aspect said to me, "Come more quickly, so that
if I speak with thee, to listen to me thou mayst be well placed."
So soon as I was with her as I should be, she said to me,
"Brother, why dost thou not venture to ask of me, now thou art
coming with me?"
[1] Thus first words of the seventy-ninth Psalm: "O God, the
heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have
they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps." The whole
Psalm, picturing the actual desolation of the Church, but closing
with confident prayer to the Lord to restore his people, is sung
by the holy ladies.
[2] "A little while and ye shall not see me: and again, A little
while and ye shall see me."--John, xvi. 16. An answer and promise
corresponding to the complaint and petition of the Psalm.
[3] The lady, Matilda, and the sage, Statius.
Even as befalls those who with excess of reverence are speaking
in presence of their superiors, and drag not their voice living
to the teeth,[1] it befell me that without perfect sound I began,
"My Lady, you know my need, and that which is good for it." And
site to me, "From fear and from shame I wish that thou henceforth
divest thyself, so that thou speak no more like a man who dreams.
Know thou, that the vessel which the serpent[2] broke was, and
is not;[3] but let him who is to blame therefor believe that the
vengeance of God fears not sops.[4] Not for all time shall be
without an heir the eagle that left its feathers on the car,
whereby it became a monster, and then a prey.[5] For I see
surely, and therefore I tell it, stars already close at hand,
secure from every obstacle and from every hindrance, to give to
us a time in which a Five hundred, Ten, and Five sent by God[6]
shall slay the thievish woman[7] and that giant who with her is
delinquent. And perchance my narration, dark as Themis and the
Sphinx,[8] less persuades thee, because after their fashion it
clouds the understanding. But soon the facts will be the
Naiades[9] that shall solve this difficult enigma, without harm
of flocks or of harvest. Do thou note; and even as they are borne
from me, do thou so report these words to those alive with that
life which is a running unto death; and have in mind when thou
writest them, not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant, which
now has been twice plundered here. Whoso robs that, or breaks
it,[10] with blasphemy in act offends God, who only for His own
use created it holy. For biting that, the first soul, in pain and
in desire, five thousand years and more, longed for Him who
punished on Himself the bite. Thy wit sleeps, if it deem not that
for a special reason it is so high and so inverted at its top.
And if thy vain thoughts had not been as water of Elsa[11] round
about thy mind, and their pleasantness as Pyramus to the
mulberry,[12] by so many circumstances only thou hadst recognized
morally the justice of God in the interdict upon the tree. But
since I see thee in thy understanding made of stone, and thus
stony, dark, so that the light of my speech dazzles thee, I would
yet that thou bear it hence within thee,--and if not written, at
least depicted,--for the reason that the pilgrim's staff is
carried wreathed with palm."[13] And I, "Even as by a seal wax
which alters not the imprinted figure, is my brain now stamped by
you. But why does your desired word fly so far above my sight,
that the more it strives the more it loses it?" "In order that
thou mayst know," she said, "that school which thou hast
followed, and mayst see how its doctrine can follow my word [14]
and mayst see your path distant so far from the divine, as the
heaven which highest hastens is remote from earth." Whereon I
replied to her, "I do not remember that I ever estranged myself
from you, nor have I conscience of it that may sting me." "And if
thou canst not remember it," smiling she replied, "now bethink
thee how this day thou hast drunk of Lethe. And if from smoke
fire be inferred, such oblivion clearly proves fault in thy will
elsewhere intent.[15] Truly my words shall henceforth be naked so
far as it shall be befitting to uncover them to thy rude sight."
[1] Are unable to speak with distinct words.
[2] The dragon.
[3] "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not."--Revelation,
xvii. 8.
[4] According to a belief, which the old commentators report as
commonly held by the Florentines, if a murderer could contrive
within nine days of the murder to eat a sop of bread dipped in
wine, above the grave of his victim, he would escape from the
vengeance of the family of the murdered man.
[5] The meaning is that an Emperor shall come, who shall restore
the Church from its captivity, and reestablish the Divine order
upon earth, in rise mutually dependent and severally independent
authority of Church and Empire.
[6] This prophecy is too obscure to admit of a sure
interpretation. Five hundred, ten, and five, in Roman numerals,
give the letters D X V; which by transposition form the word Dux,
a leader.
[7] The harlot, who had no right in the car, but had stolen her
place there, or, in plain words, the Popes who by corruption had
secured this papal throne.
[8] Obscure as the oracles of Thiemis or the enigmas of the
Sphinx.
[9] According to a misreading of a verse in Ovid's Metam., vii.
759, the Naiades solved the riddles of the oracles, at which
Themis, offended, sent forth a wild beast to ravage the flocks
and fields.
[10] Robs it as Adam did, splinters it as the Emperors did.
[11] A river of Tuscany, whose waters have a petrifying quality.
[12] Darkening thy mind as the blood of Pyramus dyed the
mulberry.
[13] If not clearly inscribed, at least so imprinted on the mind,
that, like the palm on the pilgrim's staff, it may be a sign of
where thou hast been and of what thou hast seen.
[14] How far its doctrine is from my teaching.
[15] The having been obliged to drink of Lethe is the proof that
thou hadst sin to he forgotten, and that thy will had turned thee
to other things than me.
And more coruscant, and with slower steps, the sun was holding
the circle of the meridian, which is set here or there according
to the aspect,[1] when even as he, who goes before a troop as
guide, stops if he find some strange thing on his track, the
seven ladies stopped at the edge of a pale shade, such as beneath
green leaves and black boughs the Alp casts over its cold
streams. In front of them, it seemed to me I saw Euphrates and
Tigris issue from one fountain, and, like friends, part slow from
one another.
[1] Which shifts as seen from one place or another.
"O light, O glory of the human race, what water is this which
here spreads from one source, and from itself withdraws itself?"
To this prayer it was said to me, "Pray Matilda[1] that she tell
it to thee;" and here the beautiful Lady answered, as one does
who frees himself from blame, "This and other things have been
told him by me; and I am sure that the water of Lethe has not
hidden them from him." And Beatrice, "Perhaps a greater care
which oftentimes deprives the memory has darkened the eyes of his
mind. But see Eunoe,[2] which flows forth yonder, lead him to it,
and, as thou art accustomed, revive his extinct power." As a
gentle soul which makes not excuse, but makes its own will of
another's will, soon as by a sign it is outwardly disclosed, even
so, when I was taken by her, the beautiful Lady moved on, and to
Statius said, with manner of a lady, "Come with him."
[1] Here for the first and only time is the beautiful Lady called
by name.
[2] Eunoe, "the memory of good," which its waters restore to the
purified soul. The poetic conception of this fair stream is
exclusively Dante's own.
If I had, Reader, longer space for writing I would yet partly
sing the sweet draught which never would have sated me. But,
because all the leaves destined for this second canticle are
full, the curb of my art lets me go no further. I returned from
the most holy wave, renovated as new plants renewed with new
foliage, pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.
concerning one who shall restore the Empire.--Her discourse with
Dante.--The river Eunoe.--Dante drinks of it, and is fit to
ascend to Heaven.
"Deus, venerunt gentes,"[1] the ladies began, alternating, now
three now four, a sweet psalmody, and weeping. And Beatrice,
sighing and compassionate, was listening to them so moved that
scarce more changed was Mary at the cross. But when the other
virgins gave place to her to speak, risen upright upon her feet,
she answered, colored like fire: "Modicum, et non videbitis me,
et iterum, my beloved Sisters, Modicum, et vos videbitis me."[2]
Then she set all the seven in front of her; and behind her, by a
sign only, she placed me, and the Lady, and the Sage who had
stayed.[3] So she moved on; and I do not think her tenth step had
been set upon the ground, when with her eyes my eyes she smote,
and with tranquil aspect said to me, "Come more quickly, so that
if I speak with thee, to listen to me thou mayst be well placed."
So soon as I was with her as I should be, she said to me,
"Brother, why dost thou not venture to ask of me, now thou art
coming with me?"
[1] Thus first words of the seventy-ninth Psalm: "O God, the
heathen are come into thine inheritance; thy holy temple have
they defiled; they have laid Jerusalem on heaps." The whole
Psalm, picturing the actual desolation of the Church, but closing
with confident prayer to the Lord to restore his people, is sung
by the holy ladies.
[2] "A little while and ye shall not see me: and again, A little
while and ye shall see me."--John, xvi. 16. An answer and promise
corresponding to the complaint and petition of the Psalm.
[3] The lady, Matilda, and the sage, Statius.
Even as befalls those who with excess of reverence are speaking
in presence of their superiors, and drag not their voice living
to the teeth,[1] it befell me that without perfect sound I began,
"My Lady, you know my need, and that which is good for it." And
site to me, "From fear and from shame I wish that thou henceforth
divest thyself, so that thou speak no more like a man who dreams.
Know thou, that the vessel which the serpent[2] broke was, and
is not;[3] but let him who is to blame therefor believe that the
vengeance of God fears not sops.[4] Not for all time shall be
without an heir the eagle that left its feathers on the car,
whereby it became a monster, and then a prey.[5] For I see
surely, and therefore I tell it, stars already close at hand,
secure from every obstacle and from every hindrance, to give to
us a time in which a Five hundred, Ten, and Five sent by God[6]
shall slay the thievish woman[7] and that giant who with her is
delinquent. And perchance my narration, dark as Themis and the
Sphinx,[8] less persuades thee, because after their fashion it
clouds the understanding. But soon the facts will be the
Naiades[9] that shall solve this difficult enigma, without harm
of flocks or of harvest. Do thou note; and even as they are borne
from me, do thou so report these words to those alive with that
life which is a running unto death; and have in mind when thou
writest them, not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant, which
now has been twice plundered here. Whoso robs that, or breaks
it,[10] with blasphemy in act offends God, who only for His own
use created it holy. For biting that, the first soul, in pain and
in desire, five thousand years and more, longed for Him who
punished on Himself the bite. Thy wit sleeps, if it deem not that
for a special reason it is so high and so inverted at its top.
And if thy vain thoughts had not been as water of Elsa[11] round
about thy mind, and their pleasantness as Pyramus to the
mulberry,[12] by so many circumstances only thou hadst recognized
morally the justice of God in the interdict upon the tree. But
since I see thee in thy understanding made of stone, and thus
stony, dark, so that the light of my speech dazzles thee, I would
yet that thou bear it hence within thee,--and if not written, at
least depicted,--for the reason that the pilgrim's staff is
carried wreathed with palm."[13] And I, "Even as by a seal wax
which alters not the imprinted figure, is my brain now stamped by
you. But why does your desired word fly so far above my sight,
that the more it strives the more it loses it?" "In order that
thou mayst know," she said, "that school which thou hast
followed, and mayst see how its doctrine can follow my word [14]
and mayst see your path distant so far from the divine, as the
heaven which highest hastens is remote from earth." Whereon I
replied to her, "I do not remember that I ever estranged myself
from you, nor have I conscience of it that may sting me." "And if
thou canst not remember it," smiling she replied, "now bethink
thee how this day thou hast drunk of Lethe. And if from smoke
fire be inferred, such oblivion clearly proves fault in thy will
elsewhere intent.[15] Truly my words shall henceforth be naked so
far as it shall be befitting to uncover them to thy rude sight."
[1] Are unable to speak with distinct words.
[2] The dragon.
[3] "The beast that thou sawest was, and is not."--Revelation,
xvii. 8.
[4] According to a belief, which the old commentators report as
commonly held by the Florentines, if a murderer could contrive
within nine days of the murder to eat a sop of bread dipped in
wine, above the grave of his victim, he would escape from the
vengeance of the family of the murdered man.
[5] The meaning is that an Emperor shall come, who shall restore
the Church from its captivity, and reestablish the Divine order
upon earth, in rise mutually dependent and severally independent
authority of Church and Empire.
[6] This prophecy is too obscure to admit of a sure
interpretation. Five hundred, ten, and five, in Roman numerals,
give the letters D X V; which by transposition form the word Dux,
a leader.
[7] The harlot, who had no right in the car, but had stolen her
place there, or, in plain words, the Popes who by corruption had
secured this papal throne.
[8] Obscure as the oracles of Thiemis or the enigmas of the
Sphinx.
[9] According to a misreading of a verse in Ovid's Metam., vii.
759, the Naiades solved the riddles of the oracles, at which
Themis, offended, sent forth a wild beast to ravage the flocks
and fields.
[10] Robs it as Adam did, splinters it as the Emperors did.
[11] A river of Tuscany, whose waters have a petrifying quality.
[12] Darkening thy mind as the blood of Pyramus dyed the
mulberry.
[13] If not clearly inscribed, at least so imprinted on the mind,
that, like the palm on the pilgrim's staff, it may be a sign of
where thou hast been and of what thou hast seen.
[14] How far its doctrine is from my teaching.
[15] The having been obliged to drink of Lethe is the proof that
thou hadst sin to he forgotten, and that thy will had turned thee
to other things than me.
And more coruscant, and with slower steps, the sun was holding
the circle of the meridian, which is set here or there according
to the aspect,[1] when even as he, who goes before a troop as
guide, stops if he find some strange thing on his track, the
seven ladies stopped at the edge of a pale shade, such as beneath
green leaves and black boughs the Alp casts over its cold
streams. In front of them, it seemed to me I saw Euphrates and
Tigris issue from one fountain, and, like friends, part slow from
one another.
[1] Which shifts as seen from one place or another.
"O light, O glory of the human race, what water is this which
here spreads from one source, and from itself withdraws itself?"
To this prayer it was said to me, "Pray Matilda[1] that she tell
it to thee;" and here the beautiful Lady answered, as one does
who frees himself from blame, "This and other things have been
told him by me; and I am sure that the water of Lethe has not
hidden them from him." And Beatrice, "Perhaps a greater care
which oftentimes deprives the memory has darkened the eyes of his
mind. But see Eunoe,[2] which flows forth yonder, lead him to it,
and, as thou art accustomed, revive his extinct power." As a
gentle soul which makes not excuse, but makes its own will of
another's will, soon as by a sign it is outwardly disclosed, even
so, when I was taken by her, the beautiful Lady moved on, and to
Statius said, with manner of a lady, "Come with him."
[1] Here for the first and only time is the beautiful Lady called
by name.
[2] Eunoe, "the memory of good," which its waters restore to the
purified soul. The poetic conception of this fair stream is
exclusively Dante's own.
If I had, Reader, longer space for writing I would yet partly
sing the sweet draught which never would have sated me. But,
because all the leaves destined for this second canticle are
full, the curb of my art lets me go no further. I returned from
the most holy wave, renovated as new plants renewed with new
foliage, pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.
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