Authors: Dante

Paradiso (35 page)

‘Two other points regarding which you asked—
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not for your enlightenment, but for him to tell

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how much this virtue means to you—

‘I leave to him. For they will not be difficult,

nor offer grounds for boasting of himself.

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Now let him answer, and may God’s grace be his aid!’

Like the student answering his teacher,

ready and eager in the subject he prepared,

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intending to display his worth,

‘Hope,’ I said, ‘is the certain expectation
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of future glory, springing

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from heavenly grace and merit we have won.

‘This light comes down to me from many stars,
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but he who first instilled it in my heart

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was that exalted singer of our exalted Lord.

‘ “Let them have hope in you,” he declares
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in his god-song, “those who know your name.”

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Among those who share my faith, who does not know it?

‘After he had imbued me with his song,

you poured your epistle down on me so that I,

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overflowing, now rain your rain on others.’

While I spoke, within the living core
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of fire appeared a flare, quivering

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like lightning in sudden and repeated flashes.

Then it breathed forth: ‘The love with which I burn,
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for the Virtue that was my companion,

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even to the palm and my departing from the field,

‘bids me breathe words again to you who take delight

in Hope. And I would like to hear you say

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what promise Hope holds out to you.’

And I: ‘The new and the ancient Scriptures

set forth the goal for souls that God has made his friends
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and this directs me to that promise.

‘Isaiah says that each in his own land
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shall be vested in a double garment,

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and their own land is this sweet life.
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‘And then your brother, turning his attention
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to the shining robes, explains to us

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this revelation with still greater clarity.’

At once, as soon as these words ended,
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Sperent in te
was heard above us,
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to which all circles of the blessed responded.

Then one light, among them all, shone out so bright
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that, if the Crab held such a gem,

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102

to winter would belong a month of endless day.

As a happy maiden rises and comes forward,
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joining the dancers only to show honor

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to the bride, not prompted by desire for display,

so I saw that now brighter splendor gliding

toward the two already whirling to the notes

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most fitted to the ardent burning of their love.

He joined them there in singing and in dance,
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and my lady, her gaze fixed on them, stood

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as a bride stands, silent and motionless.

‘This is he who lay upon the breast
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of our Pelican, who from the cross

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elected him to bear the heavy charge.’

These were my lady’s words, nor did her gaze

waver after she had spoken, but stayed intent

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and fixed as it had been before.

As one who strains his eyes in his attempt to see
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the sun when it is partly in eclipse,

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and, his seeing overwhelmed, has lost his sight,

such did I become before that final flaming

until I heard these words: ‘Why do you blind your eyes
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trying to behold what is not here to see?

‘In earth, earth is my body and there shall it lie
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among the others until our number

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shall be equal to the eternal purpose.

‘With the two robes in the blessèd cloister
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are the two lights alone who have ascended,

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and let this be the news you bring back to your world.’

At these words, the fiery dance was ended,
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together with the sweetly mingled notes
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that issued from the blended threefold breath,

just as, to avoid fatigue or danger,

oars until that moment driven through the water

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stop all at once when the whistle sounds.

Ah, how troubled was my mind
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when I looked back for Beatrice

and could not see her, even though I was

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so near to her and in that happy world!

OUTLINE: PARADISO XXVI

STARRY SPHERE

1–6

Dante, blinded, hears the voice of John as a breath, posing his first question: “What is your soul’s goal?”

7–12

and then offering his reassurance: Beatrice his
Ananias
;

13–18

Dante answers (1): “the good that makes you happy”;

19–24

John’s second question: “Who made you aim at that target?”

25–27

Dante answers (2): “rational examination and authority”;

28–36

reason: the greater good draws the greater love:

37–39

[Aristotle]
: love as the cause of all celestial movement;

40–45

authority: John himself revealed God in the Bible;

46–48

John summarizes and accepts Dante’s answer

49–51

John’s third question: “But what are the cords that draw you? the teeth that bite you?”

52–54

John’s intention is clear (he wants Dante to tell of the role of love in leading him to understanding):

55–66

Dante answers (3): the “bites” are Creation, Redemption, and promise of eternal Glory—these have “drawn” him from the sea of perverse love to the shore of good love;

67–69

the blessed (the host, not only the apostles) and Beatrice sing the “Sanctus”—in Italian;

70–78

simile: a man, awakened from sleep by a light, who does not know what he is looking at until he can decipher it: just so were Dante’s eyes cleared by Beatrice’s;

79–81

Dante’s stupefaction at the presence of a fourth light;

82–84

Beatrice: “This is Adam”;

85–90

simile: as the tip of a tree bent down by wind snaps back on its own, so Dante, silenced by her words, now wants to speak:

91–96

Dante addresses Adam as God’s direct creation and as the father of humankind;

97–102

simile: cloth covering an animal reveals its feelings, as Adam’s inner gladness was visible within his glowing form

103–108

Adam: I read your thoughts in God, the mirror that reflects all things, while nothing can mirror it

109–142

Adam states and then answers Dante’s four questions:

109–114

(1) how long has it been since God put him in Eden? (2) how long did he stay there? (3) what was the reason for God’s anger? (4) what were the languages (a) that he used and (b) that he made?

the answers:

115–117

(3) not the eating itself, but the transgression;

118–123

(1) 930 years on earth, 4,302 years in Limbo;

124–138

(4) the language he spoke was extinct before Nimrod’s attempt to build Babel; language is mortal;

139–142

(2) he lived in Eden, sinless, then guilty, into the seventh hour after he was created.

PARADISO XXVI

While I was still bewildered at my loss of sight,
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from the resplendent flame that blinded me