by Dante
“[Trajan] and [Ripheus] both died believers in Christ:
106–117
“tale of Trajan: the prayer of Gregory and his rebirth,
118–129
“tale of Ripheus: vision of salvation in Christ to come;
130–138
“even we, elect, know not the identities of all the elect.”
139–141
Thus were the poet’s weak eyes made strong by Justice;
142–148
final simile: as a lutenist accompanies a singer, so did the flames of Trajan and of Ripheus move in accord with the Eagle’s words.
PARADISO XX
When he who floods the whole world with his light →
sinks steadily from sight within our hemisphere
3
until the day is spent on every side,
the sky, lit up before by him alone,
suddenly sparkles with a multitude of lights
6
which all reflect a single one. →
I was reminded of this alteration in the sky
when the emblem of the world and of its lords →
9
ceased speaking from within its blessèd beak,
and all those living lights, shining
still more bright, began their songs
12
that slip, and fade, and fall from memory.
O sweet love, mantled in a smile, →
how ardent did you sound within those pipes,
15
filled with the breath of holy thoughts alone!
Once the bright and precious stones of the sixth light, →
which scintillated in their setting there,
18
had silenced their angelic tones, →
it seemed to me I heard the murmur of a stream, →
its waters falling crystal clear from rock to rock,
21
revealing the abundance of its source above.
And as a sound is given shape →
at the neck of the lute or by the wind
24
forced through the vent-holes of a bagpipe,
so, holding me no longer in suspense,
the murmur of the eagle issued through its neck
27
as though it had been hollowed out.
There it became a voice and, coming from the beak,
it formed the words my heart was waiting for,
30
and on my heart I wrote them down. →
‘The part of me that, in mortal eagles, → →
sees and endures the sun, you now must watch
33
with fixed attention,’ were its words to me,
‘for, from the flames from which I take my form, →
those that make my eye shine so brightly in my head,
36
those are the very highest spirits in their ranks.
‘He that blazes as the pupil with a central spark → →
was the one who sang the praises of the Holy Ghost
39
and brought the ark from town to town.
‘Now he knows the merit of his song, →
insofar as it derived from his own thought,
42
by the fit reward he now enjoys.
‘Of the five who arc to form my eyebrow, →
the one who is closest to my beak
45
consoled the widow when she lost her son.
‘Now he knows how dear the cost, should one fail
to follow Christ, since he has lived
48
both this sweet life and, long ago, that other. →
‘And he that follows on the arc of which I speak, →
there on its upward curve, delayed his death
51
by offering up his true repentance.
‘Now he knows God’s irrevocable decree →
remains unaltered even when a worthy prayer postpones
54
what might occur on earth today until tomorrow.
‘The next one there, with good intent that bore bad fruit, →
turned Greek, along with both the laws and me,
57
thus yielding his position to the shepherd.
‘Now he knows that the evil which derived
from his good act does him no harm,
60
even if it brought the world to ruin.
‘And the one you see on the downward arc was William, →
for whom those lands lament which weep in woe
63
because of living Charles and living Frederick.
‘Now he knows how Heaven is moved by love
for a righteous king, as the effulgence
66
of his aspect still makes plain.
‘Who in the erring world below would think →
that Trojan Ripheus should be the fifth
69
among the holy lights along this arc? →
‘Now he knows much the world cannot discern
of heavenly grace, although his sight
72
cannot make out the bottom of this sea.’
Like the lark that soars in air, → →
first singing, then silent, content and rejoicing
75
in the final joyous sweetness of its song,
such did that image seem to me, the very imprint
of the eternal Beauty, by whose will
78
all things become that which they truly are.
And even though I was as clear in my perplexity → →
as color shows through glass that covers it,
81
my question could not bear to wait its turn in silence,
but, by the pressure of its weight,
forced from my lips: ‘What are these things I see?’
84
For there I saw a glittering revelry of lights.
And then, its eye lit up with greater brilliance, →
the blessèd emblem, to set me free
87
from suspense and wonder, gave its answer:
‘I see that you believe these things because I say them
but fail to see, how, though you believe them,
90
they came to pass, because their cause is hidden.
‘You are like the man who knows a thing by name →
but does not understand its quiddity →
93
unless another makes that plain to him. →
‘Regnum celorum suffers violence →
from fervent love and living hope.
96
These conquer the very will of God,
‘not as man may master man, but conquer it →
because it would be conquered, and, →
99
once conquered, itself conquers by its goodness.
‘The first living soul in the eyebrow and the fifth
make you wonder to find them adorning
102
the dwelling-place of angels.
‘They left their bodies not as gentiles →
but as Christians, firm in their beliefs, the one
105
before, the other after, the piercing of His feet.
‘For from Hell, where no one may return →
to righteous will, the one came back into his bones—
108
this his reward for living hope, →
‘the living hope that furnished power to the prayers
addressed to God to raise him from the dead
111
so that his will might find its moving force.
‘The blessèd soul of whom I speak,
back in his flesh for but a while,
114
believed in Him who had the power to help,
‘and, believing, was kindled to such fire
of the one true love that, on his second death,
117
/>
he was deemed worthy to enjoy our happiness.
‘The other soul, through grace, which wells up →
from a source so deep there never was a creature
120
who could thrust his vision to its primal spring,
‘set all his love below on righteousness. →
And for that reason, from grace to grace,
123
God opened his eyes to our redemption yet to come,
‘so that he believed and, from that time on,
endured no longer paganism’s stench
126
but rebuked the wayward peoples for it. →
‘The three ladies you saw near the right-hand wheel →
served to baptize him one thousand years and more
129
before the sacrament existed.
‘O predestination, how distant is your root →
from the gaze of those who cannot grasp
132
the Primal Cause in its entirety!
‘And you mortals, find some restraint
in making judgments, for we, who gaze on God, →
135
have yet to know all those who are elect.
‘And to us this very lack is sweet,
because in this good is our good perfected,
138
for that which God wills we will too.’
Thus did that holy image, →
to cure the shortness of my vision,
141
apply sweet medication to my eyes. →
And, as a practiced lute player will follow →
a practiced singer with his quivering chords,
144
giving the song a sweeter sound,
so, all the while the eagle spoke, as I recall,
I kept my eyes on those two blessèd lights and saw,
just as blinking eyes keep time as one,
148
they timed their flames’ pulsations to the words.
OUTLINE: PARADISO XXI
SATURN
1–24
The ascent to the sphere of Saturn
1–3
Dante gazes on Beatrice as they rise;
4–6
were she to smile, Dante, like Semele, would burn to ash
7–12
because, as she rises, she has become more beautiful
13–15
Saturn in Leo in March–April 1300
16–18
Beatrice: “Pay attention to the shape [the ladder] that will be visible to you in the mirror of this planet”;
19–24
one who knew his joy in beholding her would understand his greater joy in obeying her, even if it meant denying his eyes their pleasure in her;
25–42
the golden ladder in the sky
25–30
Jacob’s Ladder
31–33
the numerous saints shining in their descent on it
34–42
simile: different movements of three groups of jackdaws
43–102
Dante’s two questions of [Peter Damian] and his answers:
43–51
the protagonist does not ask his question aloud until Beatrice reads his mind and tells him to do so:
52–60
(1) “Why do you approach me?”; (2) “why the quiet here?”
61–63
(2) “No singing here for the same reason she did not smile;
64–72
(1) “I’ve come to do God’s bidding by greeting you, not from personal affection, but in accord with God’s will”;
73–78
(1) [Dante again]: “But why were you destined to do this?”
79–81
The soul spins like a millstone around itself in joy
82–96
and tells Dante that, although he knows all that he can know of God’s plan, not the most enlightened soul in Heaven, not even one of the Seraphim, has that answer;
97–102
when Dante returns to earth, he should try to dissuade people from wanting answers to such questions.
103–126
Peter Damian answers Dante’s third question:
103–105
Dante asks this spirit who he is
106–120
and he identifies himself in a familiar geographical way:
121–126
he was called both Peter Damian and “Peter the sinner” and was made cardinal and Bishop of Ostia.
127–142
Peter denounces the excesses of prelates:
127–129
Peter and Paul, though thin, ate only what they could;
130–135
now it takes four men to prop up, guide, and carry the train of one of these double beasts;
136–142
the rest of the souls thunder their approval as they surround Peter in their brightening flames.
PARADISO XXI
Now my eyes were fixed again →
upon my lady’s face. And with my eyes,
3
my mind drew back from any other thought.
She was not smiling. ‘If I smiled,’
she said, ‘you would become what Semele became →
6
when she was turned to ashes,
‘for my beauty, which you have seen
flame up more brilliantly the higher we ascend →
9
the stairs of this eternal palace,
‘is so resplendent that, were it not tempered
in its blazing, your mortal powers would be
12
like tree limbs rent and scorched by lightning.
‘We have risen to the seventh splendor, →
which, beneath the burning Lion’s breast,
15
sends down its rays, now mingled with his power.
‘Set your mind behind your eyes →
so that they may become the mirrors for the shape
18
that in this heaven’s mirror will appear to you.’
When I was told to set my mind on other things, → →
only one who knew how much my eyes could feast
21
upon that blessèd countenance
would understand what joy it was to me
but to obey my heavenly guide,
24
weighing one side of the scale against the other. →
Within the crystal, circling our earth, →
that bears the name of the world’s belovèd king,
27
under whose rule all wickedness lay dead,
The color of gold in a ray of sunlight, →
I saw a ladder, rising to so great a height →
30
my eyesight could not rise along with it.
I also saw, descending on its rungs, →
so many splendors that I thought that every light
33
shining in the heavens was pouring down.
And as, following their normal instinct, → →
rooks rise up together at the break of day,
36
warming their feathers, stiffened by the cold,
and some of them fly off, not to return, →
while some turn back to where they had set out,
39
and some keep wheeling overhead,
just such varied motions did I observe
within that sparkling throng, which came as one
42
as soon as it had reached a certain rung. →
And the one that stayed the closest there to us →
grew so shining bright I said, but not aloud,
45
‘This sign makes clear your love for me.
‘But she, upon whose word I wait to know →
when and how to speak or to be silent, she keeps still
48
and I do well, against my will, to ask no question.’
She, therefore, who could see my silence plain →
in the sight of Him whose sight beholds all things,
51
then said: ‘Satisfy the ardent wish that burns within you.’ →
And I: ‘My merit does not make me worthy →
of your answer, but for the sake of her
54
who gives me leave to ask,
‘blessèd living soul, still hidden
in the radiance of your joy, make known to me
57
the cause that made you draw so near
‘and tell me why, within this wheel, →
the sweet symphony of Paradise falls silent, →
60
which lower down resounds with such devotion.’
‘Your hearing is as mortal as your sight,’ →
he answered. ‘Thus here there is no song
63
for the very reason Beatrice has not smiled.
‘I have come down the sacred ladder’s rungs this far →
only to bid you welcome with my words
66
and with the light that wraps me in its glow.
‘It was not greater love that made me come more swiftly,
for as much and more love burns above,
69
as that flaming luminescence shows,
‘but the profound affection prompting us
to serve the Wisdom governing the world
72
has brought about the outcome you perceive.’
‘I see indeed, O sacred light,’ I said, →
‘how acts of love, unbidden, serve this court
75
in concord with that knowledge which foresees,
‘but it is hard for me to understand
why you alone among your peers →
78
were foreordained to act upon this charge.’
