The Portable Dante (64 page)

And could my brother have foreseen the facts, he would shun all the greedy poverty of Catalans before he is disgraced;

for clearly some provision must be made by him or someone else, lest on his ship, already weighted down, more weight be laid.

His stingy nature, that derived from one more generous, would have required men who cared for more than filling chests with gold. ”

“Oh Sire, I know that the deep joy your words have given me is clear to you, as clear as to myself, there where all good begins

and ends—so this deep joy is dearer still, and still more precious to me is the fact that you discern it as you look in God.

You made me happy, now make me as wise; your words have raised a question in my mind: how can sweet seed produce such sour fruit?”

I said. And then he said, “If I can make just one truth plain to you, then you will see what is behind your back in front of you.

The Good that moves and satisfies the realm that you now climb, endows these mighty orbs with all the power of His own providence;

and in that One Mind perfect in Itself there is foreseen not only every type of nature but the proper goal for each,

and thus, when this bow bends, the arrow shot speeds ready to a predetermined end: a shaft expertly aimed to strike its mark.

Were it not so, the heavens you climb through would fashion their effects in such a way that chaos would result, not works of art;

this cannot be, unless the Intellects that move these stars are flawed, and also flawed the First One Who created them with flaws.

Would you like me to make this truth more clear?” And I: “Oh no, there is no need—I see that Nature cannot fail in what must be. ”

And he, once more: “Tell me, would it be worse for man on earth were there no social order?” “Of course, ” I said, “and here I seek no proof. ”

“And can this be, unless men had on earth different natures, serving different ends? Not so, if what your master writes is true. ”

By reasoning step by step he reached this point and then concluded: “So, the very roots of man’s activities must be diverse:

one man is born a Solon, one a Xerxes, one a Melchizedek, another he whose flight cost him the life of his own son.

For Nature in its circling stamps its seal on mortal wax, perfecting her fine art, with no concern about man’s lineage.

So Esau, once conceived, differed from Jacob; and Romulus sprang from so base a sire, that men imagined him the son of Mars.

The procreated being would always walk the procreator’s path, if it were not for Holy Providence that overrules.

Now, you can see what was behind your back. The great joy you give me urges me now to wrap you in this corollary-gift:

Should natural disposition find itself not in accord with Fortune, then it must fail as a seed in alien soil must die.

If men on earth were to pay greater heed to the foundation Nature has laid down, and build on that, they would build better men.

But those men bent to wear the sword you twist into the priesthood, and you make a king out of a man whose calling was to preach:

you find yourselves on roads not meant for you. ”

Fair Clemence, once your Charles had said these words for my enlightenment, he then informed me of future plots against his progeny,

but said, “Say nothing, let the years go by, ” and for this reason I can only say that those who do you wrong will pay with tears.

By now the life within that holy light was turned to face once more the sun that fills it, as to the Good sufficient for all things.

Ah, souls deceived, devoid of piety, who turn your hearts away from the True Good, raising your haughty heads toward empty things!

And then! Another of those radiant lights drew near to me; its eagerness to please was shining through the splendor of its glow.

The eyes of Beatrice fixed on me now gave me full assurance, as before, that my desire met with her consent.

“O blessèd soul, ” I said, “grant me at once fulfillment of my wish, and prove to me that you can be a mirror for my thoughts. ”

Whereat the light of that still unknown soul, out of its depths from which it sang, now answered, like one whose joy is giving joyously:

“There in that part of sinful Italy which lies between Rialto’s shores and where the Piave and the Brenta rivers spring,

rises a hill of no great height from which, some years ago, there plunged a flaming torch, who laid waste all the countryside around.

Both he and I were born from the same root: Cunizza was my name, and I shine here for I was overcome by this star’s light;

but gladly I myself forgive in me what caused my fate, it grieves me not at all— which might seem strange, indeed, to earthly minds.

This precious and resplendent jewel that shines here, closest to me, in our heaven has left behind great fame, fame that will live as long

as this centennial year shall be five-timed— you see how man should strive for excellence so that a second life survive the first!

And this means nothing to that crowd that lives between the Tagliamento and the Adige, nor does the scourge of war make them repent.

But it will come to pass that Paduan blood, and soon, will stain the waters of Vincenza because the people shunned their duty there;

and where Cagnano and the Sile join a man lords over it with lofty head for whom the nets already have been spread;

Feltre shall mourn her godless shepherd’s crime, and no man yet was ever sent to Malta for treachery as foul as his shall be.

Immense, indeed, would have to be the vat to hold Ferrara’s blood, and weary the man who would weigh ounce by ounce that bloody flood,

blood that this generous priest will sacrifice, to prove his party loyalty—but then, such gifts become that country’s way of life!

Above us there are mirrors you call ‘Thrones’ through which God shines his judgments down on us— this justifies the harshness of our words. ”

Then she was silent, and it seemed her thoughts were drawn to something else, for she had joined the dancing wheel where she had been before.

That other joy which she had just described as something precious, now appeared to me like an exquisite ruby struck by sun.

Up there joy gives those souls a brighter light, as here it makes us smile, while down below souls darken to reveal their sullen minds.

“God can sec all, and your sight sees in Him, ” I said, “O holy spirit, so no thought of mine can hide itself from your true sight.

Your voice, then, which eternally charms Heaven, in harmony with those adoring flames that make themselves a cowl of their six wings,

why does it leave my longing unfulfilled? I would not wait for you to ask of me were I to inyou as you now inme. ”

“The greatest valley into which there flows, ” with these words he began to answer me, “the water of that world-encircling sea

runs on so far between opposing shores against the sun, that finally it makes meridian where it first made horizon.

I dwelt upon that valley’s shores between the Ebro and the Magra whose short course divides the Tuscans from the Genoese.

Almost the same sunset and dawn are shared by Bougie and the city I came from, which with its own blood warmed its harbor once.