Nor swelled his breast with uncouth pride therefore,
That Heaven on him above this charge had laid,
But, for his great Creator would the same,
His will increased: so fire augmenteth flame.
XVIII
But when he had recovered and discerned
Who came, who sent him, and what had been said,
If erst he wished, he now intensely burned
To end the war which he was named to head.
Not that to see himself in heaven preferred
Did with ambition his pure breast inspire,
But his own will was by God’s will more stirred,
And warmer waxed, as sparkles in a fire.
XIX.
Dunque gli Eroi compagni, i quai non lunge
Erano sparsi, a ragunarsi invita.
Lettere a lettre, e messi a messi aggiunge:
148 Sempre al consiglio è la preghiera unita.
Ciò ch’alma generosa alletta e punge,
Ciò che può risvegliar virtù sopita,
Tutto par che ritrovi; e in efficace
152 Modo l’adorna sì, che sforza e piace.
XIX
The captains called forthwith from every tent,
Unto the rendezvous he them invites;
Letter on letter, post on post he sent,
Entreatance fair with counsel he unites,
All, what a noble courage could augment,
The sleeping spark of valor what incites,
He used, that all their thoughts to honor raised,
Some praised, some paid, some counselled, all pleased.
XIX
Then his associate heroes and brave friends,
Near him encamped, to council he invites;
Message on message, word on word, he sends,
And with his summons always prayers unites.
All that might valour wake in them that dozed,
Or in the generous greater warmth instil,
He seemed to have found, and with such charm disposed,
That while he pleased the heart he forced the will.
XX.
Vennero i Duci, e gli altri anco seguiro;
E Boemondo sol quì non convenne.
Parte fuor s’attendò, parte nel giro,
156 E tra gli alberghi suoi Tortosa tenne.
I grandi dell’esercito s’uniro
(Glorioso senato!) in dì solenne.
Quì il pio Goffredo incominciò tra loro,
160 Augusto in volto, ed in sermon sonoro:
XX
The captains, soldiers, all, save Boemond, came,
And pitched their tents, some in the fields without,
Some of green boughs their slender cabins frame,
Some lodged were Tortosa’s streets about,
Of all the host the chief of worth and name
Assembled been, a senate grave and stout;
Then Godfrey, after silence kept a space,
Lift up his voice, and spake with princely grace:
XX
The leaders came, and all the rest complied,
Except Boëmondo, with Prince Godfrey’s call.
Part camped without, part bivouacked inside
The rampired circuit of Tortosa’s wall.
The army’s magnates now assembled were —
A glorious council on a solemn day —
When pious Godfrey with majestic air
And voice sonorous thus began to say:
XXI.
Guerrier di Dio, ch’a ristorare i danni
Della sua fede il Re del Cielo elesse:
E securi fra l’arme, e fra gl’inganni
164 Della terra e del mar, vi scorse e resse;
Sicch’abbiam tante e tante in sì pochi anni
Ribellanti provincie a lui sommesse:
E fra le genti debellate e dome,
168 Stese l’insegne sue vittrici, e ‘l nome;
XXI
“Warriors, whom God himself elected hath
His worship true in Sion to restore,
And still preserved from danger, harm and scath,
By many a sea and many an unknown shore,
You have subjected lately to his faith
Some provinces rebellious long before:
And after conquests great, have in the same
Erected trophies to his cross and name.
XXI
‘Warriors of God, whom heaven’s great King elects,
Of His true faith the losses to restore;
You whom He has protected and protects
From storms at sea and hostile arms on shore,
So that within a few brief years our swords
Many rebellious kingdoms overcame,
And ‘mong the conquered and subjected hordes
Have spread His victor ensigns and His name;
XXII.
Già non lasciammo i dolci pegni, e ‘l nido
Nativo noi (se ‘l creder mio non erra)
Nè la vita esponemmo al mare infido,
172 Ed a’ periglj di lontana guerra,
Per acquistar di breve suono un grido
Volgare, e posseder barbara terra;
Chè proposto ci avremmo angusto e scarso
176 Premio, e in danno dell’alme il sangue sparso.
XXII
“But not for this our homes we first forsook,
And from our native soil have marched so far:
Nor us to dangerous seas have we betook,
Exposed to hazard of so far sought war,
Of glory vain to gain an idle smook,
And lands possess that wild and barbarous are:
That for our conquests were too mean a prey,
To shed our bloods, to work our souls’ decay.
XXII
‘We did not leave our cherished homes and wives,
And tender pledges (if I judge aright),
Nor to the faithless sea expose our lives,
Nor seek the perils of a distant fight,
To gain a vulgar shout of short-lived sound
And hold possession of a barbarous coast:
In this what poor return should we have found,
And to our soul’s perdition, what blood lost!
XXIII.
Ma fu de’ pensier nostri ultimo segno
Espugnar di Sion le nobil mura;
E sottrarre i Cristiani al giogo indegno
180 Di servitù così spiacente e dura:
Fondando in Palestina un novo regno,
Ov’abbia la pietà sede sicura:
Nè sia chi neghi al peregrin devoto
184 D’adorar la gran tomba, e sciorre il voto.
XXIII
“But this the scope was of our former thought, —
Of Sion’s fort to scale the noble wall,
The Christian folk from bondage to have brought,
Wherein, alas, they long have lived thrall,
In Palestine an empire to have wrought,
Where godliness might reign perpetual,
And none be left, that pilgrims might denay
To see Christ’s tomb, and promised vows to pay.
XXIII
‘But the great end our inmost wishes spoke
Was to storm Sion’s noble walls, and free
Our fellow Christians from the unworthy yoke
Of hard and such revolting slavery;
Founding in Palestine a new realm, where
The faithful safely could to Jesus bow,
And whither pious pilgrim might repair
The Tomb to worship, and perform his vow.
XXIV.
Dunque il fatto sin ora al rischio è molto,
Più che molto al travaglio, all’onor poco,
Nulla al disegno; ove o si fermi, o volto
188 Sia l’impeto dell’arme in altro loco.
Che gioverà l’aver d’Europa accolto
Sì grande sforzo, e posto in Asia il foco,
Qua
ndo sia poi di sì gran moti il fine,
192 Non fabbriche di regni, ma ruine?
XXIV
“What to this hour successively is done
Was full of peril, to our honor small,
Naught to our first designment, if we shun
The purposed end, or here lie fixed all.
What boots it us there wares to have begun,
Or Europe raised to make proud Asia thrall,
If our beginnings have this ending known,
Not kingdoms raised, but armies overthrown?
XXIV
‘Thus then till now our deeds in risk are great —
Greater in labour, small in honour’s cause,
But to our purpose nought, if we translate
Our conquering arms to other lands, or pause.
What good to have led from Europe to the war
Such hosts, and ravaged Asiatic ground?
When the results of our great movement are,
Not kingdoms raised, but ruins scattered round.
XXV.
Non edifica quei che vuol gl’imperi
Su fondamenti fabricar mondani:
Ove ha pochi di patria e fè stranieri,
196 Fra gl’infiniti popoli Pagani:
Ove ne’ Greci non convien che speri,
E i favor d’Occidente ha sì lontani;
Ma ben move ruine, ond’egli oppresso,
200 Sol construtto un sepolcro abbia a se stesso.
XXV
“Not as we list erect we empires new
On frail foundations laid in earthly mould,
Where of our faith and country be but few
Among the thousands stout of Pagans bold,
Where naught behoves us trust to Greece untrue,
And Western aid we far removed behold:
Who buildeth thus, methinks, so buildeth he,
As if his work should his sepulchre be.
XXV
‘He who would found an empire must not seek
To raise its structure on terrestrial base,
Where few his faith confess or language speak,
‘Mid faithless myriads of an alien race;
Where it is idle from the Greeks to hope,
And Western succour is removed so far,
But he makes ruins that around him ope,
And form beneath their weight his sepulchre.
XXVI.
Turchi, Persi, Antiochia (illustre suono,
E di nome magnifico e di cose!)
Opre nostre non già; ma del Ciel dono
204 Furo, e vittorie in ver maravigliose.
Or, se da noi rivolte, e torte sono
Contra quel fin che ‘l donator dispose;
Temo cen privi; e favola alle genti
208 Quel sì chiaro rimbombo alfin diventi.
XXVI
“Turks, Persians conquered, Antiochia won,
Be glorious acts, and full of glorious praise,
By Heaven’s mere grace, not by our prowess done:
Those conquests were achieved by wondrous ways,
If now from that directed course we run
The God of Battles thus before us lays,
His loving kindness shall we lose, I doubt,
And be a byword to the lands about.
XXVI
‘Turks, Persians, Antioch (an illustrious sound,
No less magnificent in fact than name),
Were not our own works, but from God redound,
Nor can we such miraculous victories claim;
But if we now distort and turn our strength
Against that end the Giver purposed, we
May lose, I fear, His favour, and at length
Become a byword and a mockery.
XXVII.
Ah non sia alcun, per Dio, che sì graditi
Doni in uso sì reo perda, e diffonda.
A quei che sono alti principj orditi,
212 Di tutta l’opra il filo, e ‘l fin risponda.
Ora che i passi liberi e spediti,
Ora che la stagione abbiam seconda,
Chè non corriamo alla città ch’è meta
216 D’ogni nostra vittoria? e chè più ‘l vieta?
XXVII
“Let not these blessings then sent from above
Abused be, or split in profane wise,
But let the issue correspondent prove
To good beginnings of each enterprise;
The gentle season might our courage move,
Now every passage plain and open lies:
What lets us then the great Jerusalem
With valiant squadrons round about to hem?
XXVII
‘Ah, God forbid! there were a single one
That would so meanly to his grace respond.
No — With beginnings brilliantly begun,
Let the work’s woof and finish correspond;
Now that the season favours our design,
Now that the passes of the land are free,
What hinders us to reach at Salem’s shrine,
The goal and crowning-point of victory?
XXVIII.
Principi, io vi protesto (i miei protesti
Udrà il mondo presente, udrà il futuro:
L’odono or su nel Ciel anco i celesti)
220 Il tempo dell’impresa è già maturo.
Men divien opportun, più che si resti:
Incertissimo fia quel che è sicuro.
Presago son, s’è lento il nostro corso,
224 Ch’avrà d’Egitto il Palestin soccorso.
XXVIII
“Lords, I protest, and hearken all to it,
Ye times and ages, future, present, past,
Hear all ye blessed in the heavens that sit,
The time for this achievement hasteneth fast:
The longer rest worse will the season fit,
Our sureties shall with doubt be overcast.
If we forslow the siege I well foresee
From Egypt will the Pagans succored be.”
XXVIII
‘Princes, to you I solemnly protest,
And this will ever upon record stand,
Its truth ev’n now the saints in heaven attest
The time for our great emprise is at hand;
That may be doubtful which is certain now,
Less opportune for us the more delayed,
And I forebode, if our advance be slow.
That Egypt will the hostile Paynim aid.’
XXIX.
Disse: e ai detti seguì breve bisbiglio;
Ma sorse poscia il solitario Piero,
Che, privato, fra’ Principi a consiglio
228 Sedea, del gran passaggio autor primiero.
Ciò ch’esorta Goffredo, ed io consiglio:
Nè loco a dubbio v’ha, sì certo è il vero,
E per se noto; ei dimostrollo a lungo,
232 Voi l’approvate: io questo sol v’aggiungo:
XXIX
This said, the hermit Peter rose and spake,
Who sate in counsel those great Lords among:
“At my request this war was undertake,
In private cell, who erst lived closed long,
What Godfrey wills, of that no question make,
There cast no doubts where truth is plain and strong,
Your acts, I trust, will correspond his speech,
Yet one thing more I would you gladly teach.
XXIX
He ceased: brief whispering followed on his words,
When the famed hermit Peter rose. He made
One of the council with the mightiest lords,
And was prime author of the great Crusade.
‘I second what has been by Godfrey moved,
No room for doubt there is, the truth’s so plain,
By him established, and by you approved:
One word I add his reasoning to sustain.
XXX.
Se ben raccolgo le discordie e l’onte
&
nbsp; Quasi a prova da voi fatte e patite,
I ritrosi pareri, e le non pronte,
236 E in mezzo all’esequire opre impedite;
Reco ad un’alta originaria fonte
La cagion d’ogni indugio e d’ogni lite:
A quella autorità, che in molti e varj
240 D’opinion, quasi librata, è pari.
XXX
“These strifes, unless I far mistake the thing,
And discords raised oft in disordered sort,
Your disobedience and ill managing
Of actions lost, for want of due support,
Refer I justly to a further spring,
Spring of sedition, strife, oppression, tort,
I mean commanding power to sundry given,
In thought, opinion, worth, estate, uneven.
XXX
‘When I the wrongs and injuries call to mind,
Which, as if rivals, ye have borne and done,
When cross opinions, and your plans I find
Obstructed in their course, though scarce begun.
To one profound original cause do I
Attribute every quarrel and delay —
To that authority, which, balanced by
‘Conflicting voice of numbers, none obey.
XXXI.
Ove un sol non impera, onde i giudícj
Pendano poi de’ premj, e delle pene,
Onde sian compartite opre, ed uficj;
244 Ivi errante il governo esser conviene.
Deh fate un corpo sol di membri amici:
Fate un capo che gli altri indrizzi e frene:
Date ad un sol lo scettro, e la possanza,
248 E sostenga di Re vece, e sembianza.
XXXI
“Where divers Lords divided empire hold,
Where causes be by gifts, not justice tried,
Where offices be falsely bought and sold,
Needs must the lordship there from virtue slide.
Of friendly parts one body then uphold,
Create one head, the rest to rule and guide:
To one the regal power and sceptre give,
That henceforth may your King and Sovereign live.”
XXXI
‘Where one alone commands not — upon whom
The choice of his subordinates depends,
The worthy’s honour and the culprit’s doom —
Confusion with authority contends.
Of friendly members, then, one body make,
And let one head the others guide and rein,
Let one alone the crown and sceptre take,
Jerusalem Delivered Page 156
