Authors: Dante
while I, set free from all these things,
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was, high in heaven with Beatrice,
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thus gloriously received.
When each flame had returned to the same point
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on the circle where it had stood before,
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it stopped, like a candle on its sconce,
and now the light that had already spoken
from deep within began again to speak,
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smiling and shining still more bright:
‘Even as I reflect its radiant beams, so,
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gazing into the Eternal Light, I grasp
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your thoughts and the source of their beginnings.
‘You are in doubt and would have me restate
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my words, to make them clear and plain,
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matching the level of your understanding,
‘as when I said, “Where sheep are fattened,”
as well as, “Nor was there ever born another.”
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And here one needs to make a clear distinction.
‘The providence that rules the world
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with such deep wisdom that any God-created eye
30
must fail before it reaches to the very depth—
‘so that the bride of Him who, crying out
in a loud voice, espoused her with His sacred blood,
33
should go in joy to her belovèd
‘sure of herself and now to Him more faithful—
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ordained in her behalf two princes,
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one on this side, one on that, to serve as guides.
‘One was all seraphic in his ardor,
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the other, by his wisdom, was on earth
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resplendent with cherubic light.
‘I shall speak of one, since praising one,
whichever one we choose, is to speak of both,
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for they labored to a single end.
‘Between the Topino and the waters that descend
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down from the hilltop chosen by the blessèd Ubaldo
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there hangs a fertile slope from one high peak
‘that makes Perugia feel both heat and cold
at Porta Sole, while behind its other flank
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‘From this slope, where it interrupts
its steep descent, a sun rose on the world,
‘Therefore, let anyone who would speak of this place
not say
Ascesi
, which would convey too little,
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but call it
Orient
, to sound its proper worth.
‘Not much time as yet had passed
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when he first lent his comfort to the earth
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57
by the greatness of his virtuous power.
‘For, still a youth, he fought against his father’s wish
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for the favor of a lady to whom, as to death,
‘and before his spiritual court
et coram patre
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he joined himself to her and, from then on,
63
each passing day, he loved her more.
‘She, bereft of her first husband, scorned and unknown
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one thousand and one hundred years and more,
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remained without a suitor till he came.
‘Nor did it profit her when men heard that she stood
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unmoved, with Amyclas, despite the voice
69
of him who put the whole wide world in fear.
‘Nor did it profit her when, being fiercely loyal
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and undaunted, while Mary stayed below,
‘But, lest I make my meaning dark,
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let it be understood, in all that I have said,
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75
that these two lovers are Francis and Poverty.
‘Their happy countenances and their harmony,
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their love and wonder and sweet contemplation
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made them a cause for holy thoughts,
‘so that the venerable Bernard was the first
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to shed his shoes and run, pursuing such great peace,
81
and, running, thought himself too slow.
‘O unknown riches and prolific good! Barefoot goes Giles,
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barefoot goes Sylvester, following the groom,
‘Then that father and teacher went his way
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in company of his lady and that family,
‘Nor did an unworthy shame weigh on his brow
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for being Pietro Bernardone’s son,
90
nor for being an object of amazed contempt,
‘but he regally laid bare his stern resolve
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to Innocent and, from him, he received
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93
the first seal of his order.
‘was affirmed with a second crown
by the eternal Breath, through Honorius,
‘And when, in his thirst for martyrdom,
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he preached Christ and the apostles who came after
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in the proud presence of the Sultan,
‘finding the people unripe for conversion
and unwilling to remain to no good purpose,
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he returned to reap the harvest of Italian fields.
‘On the harsh rock between the Tiber and the Arno
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from Christ he had the final seal, then for two years
108
he bore His wounds upon his limbs.
‘When He who had chosen him for so much good
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was pleased to take him to the high reward
‘he recommended his most cherished lady
to his brothers, as to his rightful heirs,
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commanding them to love her faithfully.
‘From his lady’s bosom the illustrious soul
chose to set forth, returning to its kingdom,
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and for its corpse would have no other bier.
‘Now think what kind of man it took
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to be a fit companion to maintain
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the steadfast course of Peter’s bark upon the sea,
‘and just such was our patriarch. From this
you may perceive that he who follows him
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as he commands is freighted with good cargo.
‘But his flock has grown so greedy
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for new sustenance that it is forced
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to scatter through remote and distant pastures,
‘and the farther his sheep go wandering off
from him, the emptier of milk
129
do they at last come back into the fold.
‘There are some, indeed, who, fearing harm,
huddle near the shepherd, but these are so few
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that a tiny piece of cloth can furnish all their cowls.
‘And so, if my words are not too dark,
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and if your ears have been intent,
135
and if you can recall exactly what was said,
‘then shall your wish be in part fulfilled
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and you shall see the reason why the plant is cleft
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and what is meant by the rebuke
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THE SUN