Authors: Dante
Bernard, who saw my eyes were fixed, intent
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upon the very fire that made him warm,
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turned his own on her with such affection
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that he made mine more ardent in their gaze.
THE EMPYREAN
Absorbed in his delight, that man of contemplation
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took upon himself the teacher’s role
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and spoke these holy words:
‘The wound that Mary closed up and anointed
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was opened and inflicted
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by the lovely woman now at Mary’s feet.
‘Below her, in the order
formed by the third tier of the seats,
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‘Sarah and Rebecca, Judith and she—
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great-grandmother of that singer who,
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grieving for his sin, cried:
“Miserere mei”
—
‘may be seen there, one beneath the other,
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in their ordered ranks, while I, pausing for each name,
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move petal by petal down through the rose.
‘And downward from the seventh tier, or up,
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parting all the petals of this flower,
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are the appointed seats of Hebrew women.
‘For, according to whether in their faith
they looked forward to Christ or back,
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this is the wall that separates the sacred tiers.
‘On this side, where the flower is in fullest bloom
with all its petals, those are seated
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who believed in Christ as yet to come.
‘On the other side, where the semicircles
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are interspersed with vacant spaces, are seated
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those who kept their eyes on Christ already come.
‘And just as here the glorious seat
of heaven’s lady and the other seats beneath it
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form that long dividing line,
‘so, opposite, does that of the exalted soul of John,
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who, holy since his birth, endured the wilderness
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and martyrdom, and then two years of Hell.
‘Now behold the depth of God’s foreseeing,
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for both the ways of showing faith
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shall fill this garden equally.
‘And know that downward from the row
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that midway cuts the two dividing lines
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the seats are held by those who had no merit of their own,
‘but through deserving others, under fixed conditions,
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were freed from sin, for all of these are spirits
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released before they exercised free choice.
‘This, indeed, you may discover for yourself
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from their faces and their childish voices,
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if you look at them with care and if you listen.
‘Now you are perplexed and silent in perplexity.
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Let me untie the complicated knot
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in which your oversubtle thoughts have bound you.
‘In all the ample range of this domain
no trace of chance can find a place—
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no more than sorrow, thirst, or hunger,
‘for all you see here is ordained by law eternal,
so that the circling ring here fits
‘Thus, the company of those who prematurely
came to this true life are not
sine causa
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placed more and less exalted here among themselves.
‘The King, through whom this kingdom rests
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in love so great and in so great delight
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their will would never dare to ask for more,
‘creating every mind in His own bliss,
variously bestows His grace and as He pleases—
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and, in this case, let the fact suffice.
‘This is clearly and expressly noted for you
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by Holy Scripture in the account of twins
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who, still in their mother’s womb, were moved to wrath.
‘Therefore, according to the color of the hair
bestowed with so much grace, the Sovereign Light
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will crown them with their fitting aureoles.
‘Not for what they’ve done or have not done
they thus are placed in separate ranks, separated
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only by the keenness of the vision they were born to.
‘In early times their parents’ faith alone,
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coupled with the innocence that they possessed,
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gave sufficient proof of their salvation.
‘Once the first age had run its course,
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male children had to find the strength
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for innocent wings in circumcision.
‘But once the time of grace had come,
then, without perfect baptism in Christ,
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such innocents were cast below.
‘Look now on the face that most resembles Christ,
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for nothing but its brightness
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can make you fit to look on Christ.’
I saw such joy rain down on her,
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conveyed within the minds and borne
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by holy spirits framed to soar those heights,
that, however much I had seen before,
nothing had held me in such wonder and suspense,
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nor shown me so close a likeness to God,