Paradiso
Canto XIV
Beatrice begins to speak to Dante; and since she speaks from the centre of the circle of spirits and St. Thomas from the circle, the image is suggested to Dante of the movement of water in a bowl, moving outward or inward according as the bowl is struck from outside or inside. What is in Dante’s thought is apparent to Beatrice before he has formulated it: he wants to know if the glorified body, after the resurrection, will retain its lustre eternally; and, if it does, will the eyes endure to look on its brilliance. She asks the spirits to satisfy him on these points; and Solomon answers both questions in the affirmative. Other spirits now appear, at first faintly descried like stars at evening, and they form themselves into a third circle round the other two.
Dante and Beatrice now mount to the fifth heaven. It is the heaven of Mars; and here the spirits of warriors and martyrs appear in the form of a dazzling cross.
FROM centre up to rim, and so from rim
To centre, water moves within a bowl
As struck from outside or inside the brim.
Into my mind what thus I speak of stole
Upon a sudden, as to an end was brought
The speech of Thomas's illustrious soul,
Because of the similitude I caught
From his discourse and that of Beatrice,
Whom it pleased, after him, to speak her thought:
“This man needs (though to tell what need is his [10]
Neither with voice, nor in thought yet, hath power)
To pierce to another truth’s deep mysteries.
Tell him, then, if the light, whence comes to flower
Your being, is destined to remain with you
Eternally, as in the present hour;
And if it still remaineth, tell him how
When you in body are visible again
It may no injury to your vision do.”
As, all at once, the dancers in a chain,
By a gust of gladness urged and drawn along, [20]
More blithely step and lift a louder strain,
So at entreaty so devout and strong
The sacred circles yet more joyous grew
In their revolving and their wondrous song.
Whoso laments that, to live there anew,
We here must die, has known not what regale
Is in the freshness of the eternal dew.
That One and Two and Three who ever shall[i]28-30. The mystery of the Trinity.
Live and reign ever as Three and Two and One,
Not circumscribed but circumscribing all, [30]
Thrice by those spirits, by each and every one,
Was hymned with such melodious acclaim,
‘Twere full reward for all good ever done.
And I heard breathe from the divinest flame[ii]34. “From the . . . flame”: of Solomon.
Of the inmost, smaller circle a voice, modest
As haply on Mary from the angel came,[iii]36. “The angel”: Gabriel.
Answering thus: “As long as lasts the feast
Of Paradise, so long, by our love lit,
Shall we in such a radiancy be drest.
Its brightness answereth our ardour’s heat, [40][iv]40-43. “Answereth”: is proportionate. “The vision”: of God. “When . . .”: on the Judgment Day.
Ardour the vision; and that shall be as great
As, beyond worth, it has grace given to it.
When flesh in glorified and sainted state
Shall be re-clothed, our persons in esteem
Shall be more pleasing, being then complete;
Whence shall increase whate’er the Good Supreme
On us of undeserved light shall bestow,
Light which conditions us to look on Him.
The vision then must needs intenser grow,
Intenser the ardour which from vision came, [50]
And thence the light’s intenser overflow.
But like the coal that giveth out the flame[v]52. The coal glows through the fame that envelops it.
Which by its living glow is overcome,
So that it keeps its aspect still the same,
So this effulgence wherein now we bloom
Shall by outshining flesh be conquered quite,
Which all this while lies in an earthly tomb.
Nor shall such light have power to daze our sight;
For the organs of the body shall acquire
Strength to support all that may most delight.” [60]
So quick and eager seemed then either choir
To cry Amen, that thus they seemed to announce
Plainly for their dead bodies their desire;
Not only for their own sake, but perchance
For mother and father and others who were dear
Ere they became flames in the eternal dance.
And lo! around, surpassing what was there,
A lustre, all of equal brilliance, grew
Like brightness on the horizon growing clear.
As in the sky, when evening still is new, [70]
Comes the apparition of faint-shining things[vi]71. “Things”: stars, faint in the twilight.
So that the sight seems and yet not seems true,
Methought that I perceived there new beings
Making themselves a circle like a wreath
Outside the other two resplendent rings.
O very sparkle of the Holy Breath!
How swiftly furnace-bright it grew to be,
Such as my daunted eyelids fell beneath!
But Beatrice disclosed herself to me
Smiling in beauty such that I leave this [80]
Among those sights barred to my memory.
Therefrom mine eyes regained their faculties;
And, raising them, I saw me now transferred
Sole with my lady to a loftier bliss.
That I was lifted higher was averred
By the star’s fiery smile, whose kindled face
Redder to me than is his wont appeared.
With my whole heart and that unvoiced address
Which all men own, burnt sacrifice I made
To God, such as befitted this new grace. [90]
Nor did the sacrificial ardour fade
Out of my bosom, ere I knew my vows
Accepted, and my offering perfected;
For with such redness, and so luminous,
Splendour appeared within two beams; whereat
I cried: “O Sun that dost adorn them thus!”
As “twixt the poles, with lesser lights and great
Patterned, the Galaxy so whitely glows[vii]98. “The Galaxy”: the Milky Way.
That thereof sages question and debate,
So in the depth of Mars were clustered those [100]
Full beams to make the venerated sign[viii]101-102. “The . . . sign’: the Cross. “Quadrants”: two diameters of a circle.
Which quadrants, joined within a round, compose.
Here memory overcomes all wit of mine;
For that cross in such glory beaconed Christ
That I must all comparison resign:
But whoso takes his cross and follows Christ
Shall one day pardon this my helpless case
When he shall see that flashing forth of Christ.
From horn to horn, and between top and base,
Moved lights that sparkled in a livelier sort [110]
When each the other came to meet and pass.
So here on earth we see, level and thwart,
Rapid and slow, with varying aspect freaked,
The particles of bodies long and short[ix]114. “The particles”: the bits of dust dancing in a ray of sunshine in a dark room.
Dance through the ray wherewith is often streaked
The shadow, which against the glare of noon
Men’s art contrives, their comfort to protect.
As viol and harp in harmony commune
With many strings that chime sweet on the ear
Of one who apprehendeth not the tune,
So from the lights I there beheld appear [120]
Was harmonised a music on the Rood
That ravished me, though the import was not clear.
I knew the hymn to be of lofty mood
For ‘Rise’ and ‘Conquer’ came into my ken
As to whoso hears but hath not understood.
There was I so enamoured, that till then
I had not been by anything possessed
That with such sweetness did my soul enchain.
It may be I seem too boldly to protest, [130]
Slighting those eyes of beauty and delight[x]131-134. “Those eyes’’ and “the quick seals of beauty” are Beatrice’s eyes, which become more potent from sphere to sphere.
Gazing on which my longing is at rest;
But he who minds him that the more the height
The more power the quick seals of beauty use,
And that I had not turned yet to their light,
May excuse that which for my own excuse
I accuse me of, and know I tell truth here;
For naught I say the holy joy eschews,
Since, as it mounteth, so it glows more clear.