Authors: Dante
Then he added: ‘Son, these are the glosses
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on what was told you, these are the snares
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that lurk behind a few revolving years.
‘Yet I would not have you feel envious disdain
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for your fellow-townsmen, since your life shall far outlast
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the punishment of their treachery.’
After the holy soul, by falling silent,
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showed that he had done with putting the woof
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into the web for which I had set the warp,
I began, like a man in doubt,
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but one filled with great desire for advice
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from someone of clear sight, right will, and love:
‘I can see, father, that time is spurring toward me
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to deal me such a blow as falls most heavily
‘Thus it is good I arm myself with forethought
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so that, if my belovèd town is torn from me,
‘Down through the world of endless bitterness,
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and upward on the mountain from whose lovely peak
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my lady raised me with her eyes,
‘and after, rising through the heavens, light to light,
I have learned things that, should I retell them,
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would discomfort many with their bitter taste.
‘Yet, should I be a timid friend to truth,
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I fear that I shall not live on for those
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to whom our times will be the ancient days.’
The light, in which the treasure that I found there
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had been smiling, now became resplendent
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as a mirror, golden in the sun,
and then made this reply: ‘A conscience dark,
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whether with its own or with a kinsman’s shame,
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is sure to feel your words are harsh.
‘Nonetheless, forswear all falsehood,
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revealing all that you have seen,
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and then let him who itches scratch.
‘For, if your voice is bitter at first taste,
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it will later furnish vital nourishment
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once it has been swallowed and digested.
‘This cry of yours shall do as does the wind
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that strikes the highest peaks with greater force—
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this loftiness itself no little sign of honor.
‘That is why you have been shown, within these wheels,
upon the mountain, and in the woeful valley,
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those souls alone that are well known to fame,
‘since the mind of one who listens will not heed
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nor fix its faith on an example
that has its roots in things unknown or hidden
MARS; JUPITER
That blessèd mirror continued to rejoice
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in his own thoughts and I was tasting mine,
when that lady, who was leading me to God,
said: ‘Change your thoughts. Consider that I dwell
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with Him who lifts the weight of every wrong.’
At the loving sound of my comfort’s voice
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I turned, and the great love I saw then,
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in her holy eyes, I have to leave untold,
not just because I cannot trust my speech,
but because memory cannot retrace its path
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that far unless Another guide it.
This much only of that moment can I tell again,
that, when I fixed my gaze on her,
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my affections were released from any other longing
as long as the eternal Beauty,
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shining its light on Beatrice, made me content
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with its reflected glow in her fair eyes.
Conquering me with her radiant smile,
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she said: ‘Turn now and listen:
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not in my eyes alone is Paradise.’
As, on occasion, here on earth, affection
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may be read in someone’s face
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if it is strong enough to capture all the soul,
so, in the flaming of that holy radiance
to which I turned, I recognized his wish
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to share some further thoughts with me.
And he began: ‘On this fifth tier of the branches
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of the tree that draws its sustenance from above
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and always is in fruit and never sheds its leaves
‘are blessèd spirits who below, on earth,
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before they rose to Heaven, were of such renown
‘Look, therefore, at the two arms of the cross,
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and each one whom I name will, flashing, dart
And, at the name of valorous Maccabaeus,
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I saw shoot by another whirling light—
My watchful gaze was fastened
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on Charlemagne and Roland there, as well,
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just as the eye pursues the falcon in its flight.
Then, leaving me to mingle with the other lights,
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the soul who’d spoken last with me displayed