Paradiso
Canto I
The poet invokes the aid of Apollo in attempting the hardest part of his theme, the description of Paradise.
On earth, in Italy, it is evening; but at the summit of the Mount of Purgatory it is near noon about the time of the vernal equinox; the sun being in Aries, a propitious conjunction. Dante and Beatrice are suddenly transported to the sphere of fire, between the earth and the moon. Dante is so “transhumanised” that he is now able to hear the music of the spheres; but at first he is bewildered, not understanding, till Beatrice explains that he has left the earth behind. He is still puzzled to know how it is that he has risen, more swiftly than air or fire, against the laws of gravitation. Beatrice tells him that the instinct implanted in the soul is to rise, as fire rises, towards heaven; this belongs to the order of the universe, in which each part has its own function. Dante has been liberated from the distractions which, through man’s possession of free will, sometimes cause the soul to be diverted from its aim.
THE glory of Him who moveth all that is
Pervades the universe, and glows more bright
In the one region, and in another less.
In that heaven which partakes most of His light
I have been, and have beheld such things as who
Comes down thence has no wit nor power to write;
Such depth our understanding deepens to
When it draws near unto its longing’s home
That memory cannot backward with it go.
Nevertheless what of the blest kingdom [10]
Could in my memory, for its treasure, stay
Shall now the matter of my song become.
For the last labour, good Apollo, I pray,
Make me so apt a vessel of thy power
As is required for gift of thy loved bay.[i]15. “Loved bay”: Daphne, loved and pursued by Apollo, was changed to a laurel.
One of Parnassus’ peaks hath heretofore
Sufficed me; both now shall I need forthwith
For entering on the last arena-floor.
Enter into my bosom, and in-breathe
Such force as filled thee to out-sing the strain [20]
Of Marsyas when thou didst his limbs unsheathe.[ii]21. “Marsyas”: a satyr, who was defeated and then flayed by Apollo.
O divine power, if thou so far sustain,
That I may show the image visibly
Of the holy realm imprinted on my brain,
Thou'lt see me come to thy beloved tree[iii]25. “Thy beloved tree”: the laurel.
And there the leaves upon my temples fit
Which I shall earn both through the theme and thee.
So few times, Father, is there plucked of it
For Caesar or for poet triumphing
(Fault and reproach of human will and wit), [30]
That in the joyous Delphic god must spring[iv]31-32. “The joyous Delphic god”: Apollo. “The Peneian frond”: the laurel.
A joy new-born, when the Peneian frond
With longing for itself doth any sting.
A small spark kindles a great flame beyond:
Haply after me with better voice than mine
Such prayer shall plead, that Cirrha may respond.[v]36. “Cirrha” stands for Delphi, Apollo’s abode.
The world’s lamp rises upon men to shine[vi]37-44. In these lines Dante describes the season. The sun, being almost in the sign of Aries, has the most benign influence on the earth.
By divers gates, but from that gate which makes
Four circles with three crosses to conjoin,
With happier star joined, happier course it takes, [40]
And more to its own example can persuade,
Moulding and stamping it, the mundane wax.
Almost this gate had morning yonder made
And evening here; and there that hemisphere[vii]44-45. Here Dante tells the hour: it was noon in Eden, midnight in Jerusalem.
Was all white, and the other part in shade,
When, turned on her left side, I was aware
Of Beatrice, fixing on the sun her eyes:
Never on it so fixed was eagle’s stare.
And as a second ray will always rise
Where the first struck, and backward seek ascent, [50]
Like pilgrim hastening when he homeward hies,
So into my imagination went
Through the eyes her gesture; and my own complied,
And on the sun, past wont, my eyes were bent.
Much is permitted there which is denied
Here to our faculties, thanks to the place[viii]56. “Thanks to the place”: Eden.
Made for mankind to own, and there abide.
Not long I endured him, yet not so brief space
But that I saw what sparkles round him shone
Like molten ore fresh from the fierce furnace; [60]
And, on a sudden, day seemed added on
To day, as if He, who such things can do,
Had glorified heaven with a second sun.
Beatrice was standing and held full in view
The eternal wheels, and I fixed on her keen[ix]65. “The eternal wheels”: the revolving heavens.
My eyes, that from above their gaze withdrew.
And at her aspect I became within
As Glaucus after the herb’s tasting, whence[x]68. The fisherman Glaucus, tasting of a certain herb, became a sea-god.
To the other sea-gods he was made akin.
The passing beyond bounds of human sense [70]
Words cannot tell; let then the example sate
Him for whom grace reserves the experience.
If I was only what thou didst create[xi]73. Dante is not sure whether he took his body with him to Heaven, or left it behind.
Last in me, O Love whose rule the heavens attest,
Thou know’st, who with thy light didst lift my state.
When that the wheel which thou eternisest
In longing, held me with the harmony[xii]77. The swift motion of the Primum Mobile, the outermost sphere of the material universe, is due to the eagerness of every one of its parts to come into contact with every part of God’s own Heaven, the Empyrean.
Which thou attunest and distinguishest,
So much of heaven was fired, it seemed to me,
With the sun’s blaze that never river or rain [80]
Widened the waters to so great a sea.
The new sound and the great light made me fain
With craving keener than had ever been
Before in me, their cause to ascertain.
She then, who saw me as I myself within,
My mind’s disturbance eager to remit,
Opened her lips before I could begin,
And spoke: “Thou makest thyself dense of wit
With false fancy, so that thou dost not see
What thou would’st see, wert thou but rid of it. [90]
Thou’rt not on earth, as thou supposest thee:
But lightning from its own place rushing out
Ne’er sped as thou, who to thy home dost flee.”[xiii]93. “Thy home”: the Empyrean.
If I was stript of my first teasing doubt
By the brief smiling little words, yet freed
I was not, but enmeshed in a new thought.
And I replied: “I am released indeed
From much amazement; yet am still amazed
That those light bodies I transcend in speed.”
She, sighing in pity, gave me as she gazed [100]
The look that by a mother is bestowed
Upon her child in its delirium crazed,
And said: “All things, whatever their abode,
Have order among themselves; this Form it is
That makes the universe like unto God.
Here the high beings see the imprint of His
Eternal power, which is the goal divine
Whereto the rule aforesaid testifies.
In the order I speak of, all natures incline
Either more near or less near to their source [110][xiv]110. “Their source”: God.
According as their diverse lots assign.
To diverse harbours thus they move perforce
O’er the great ocean of being, and each one
With instinct given it to maintain its course.
This bears the fiery element to the moon;
This makes the heart of mortal things to move;
This knits the earth together into one.
Not only creatures that are empty of
Intelligence this bow shoots towards the goal,
But those that have both intellect and love. [120]
The Providence, that rules this wondrous whole,
With its own light makes the heaven still to stay[xv]122-125. “The heaven”: the Empyrean, within which the swift Primum Mobile revolves. “That cord”: the bowstring of instinct.
Wherein whirls that which doth the swiftest roll.
And thither now upon the appointed way
We are borne on by virtue of that cord still
Which means a joyful mark, shoot what it may.
True it is that as the form oftentimes ill
Accordeth with the intention of the art,
The matter being slow to serve the will,
So aside sometimes may the creature start; [130]
For it has power, though on this course impelled,[xvi]131. “For it has power”: the free will.
To swerve in purpose toward some other part
(And so the fire from cloud may be beheld
To fall), if the first impulse of its flight
To earth be wrested, by false pleasure held.
Thou should’st not marvel, if I esteem aright,
More at thy rising than at streams we see
Fall to the base down from a mountain’s height;
Marvel it were if thou, from hindrance free,
Had’st sat below, resolved there to remain, [140]
As stillness in live flame on earth would be.”
Thereon toward heaven she turned her gaze again.