Paradiso
Canto XVII
Dante now tells of the warnings he had received (from Farinata and Brunetto Latini in Hell, and from other souls in Purgatory), about his future; and he now asks his ancestor to tell him plainly what are the calamities he is to undergo. He thus learns of his banishment from Florence; of his refuge with the Della Scala family at Verona, where Can Grande della Scala (here warmly eulogised) was to be his chief patron and protector; and of the annoyance to be caused him by his fellow-exiles. Cacciaguida encourages the poet to complete his poem and publish it, in spite of the offence it will give to many persons opprobriously named in it and branded with Dante’s scorn.
AS CAME to Clymene, intent upon[i]1-3. Phaëthon, having been told that Apollo was not really his father, went to his mother Clymene to find out the truth. Apollo’s indulgence had tragic results, when he allowed Phaëthon to drive the chariot of the sun.
The truth of what against him had been said,
Who still makes father chary toward his son,
Such was my need, and so my thought was read
By Beatrice and by the sacred lamp
Which for my sake had from its station sped.
Wherefore my Lady: “Let no scruple damp
Thy desire’s flame, but let it issue free,
Bearing clear impress of the inward stamp;
Not that our knowledge by thy words may be [10]
Increased, but that thy tongue inure to tell
Thy thirst, that we may mix the cup for thee.”
“Dear root of mine, who art lifted up to dwell
So high, that, as to earthly mind ’tis clear
Two obtuse fit not in one triangle,
So dost thou see contingent things, or e’er[ii]16. “Contingent”: casual things, whether they be past, present, or future.
Themselves are, gazing on the point beyond
To which all times are present, now and here.
While I by Virgil was companioned
Over the mountain where the souls are healed, [20]
And journeyed down the dead world underground,
Words, grave in import, of what lies concealed
In time to come were said to me, although
Four-square I feel me against all hazard steeled.
My wish, then, were content if thou would’st show
What fortune nears me and makes of me its quest:
Foreseen, the arrow strikes a duller blow.”
To that same light by which I had been addressed
I spoke thus; and in promptness to obey
The will of Beatrice was my will confessed. [30]
By no such oracle, saying Yea and Nay,[iii]31. In no ambiguous terms, such as heathen prophets used.
As the fond folk were limed with, ere was slain
The Lamb of God who taketh sins away,
But in transparent speech, precise and plain,
Answered me that paternal love, in light
Hidden, and revealed by its own smile again.
“Contingency, concerned only to write[iv]37. “Contingency”: the whole sequence of casual events.
In the volume of your matter, and nothing higher,
Is all portrayed in the eternal sight,
Yet cannot thence Necessity acquire [40]
More than the eye that is reflecting her
Can the ship’s motion down the tide inspire.
From thence into my sight, as into the ear
Harmonies of an organ softly start,
Comes what for thee the approaching times prepare.
As by his stepmother’s perfidious art[v]46. “His stepmother”: Phaedra.
Cruelly was Hippolytus driven out
From Athens, so must thou from Florence part.
This they have willed; this they already plot;
And soon shall it be done by him who brews [50][vi]50. “By him who . . .”: Pope Boniface VIII.
That plot, where daily Christ is sold and bought.
The common cry shall, after its wont, accuse
The wronged party; but justice shall be near
To testify how Truth exacts her dues.
Thou shalt leave all that thou hast loved most dear;
This is the arrow, shooting from the bow
Of banishment, which thou hast first to fear.
How bitter another’s bread is, thou shalt know
By tasting it; and how hard to the feet
Another’s stairs are, up and down to go. [60]
And what shall on thy shoulders heaviest sit
Shall be the crew, stupid and venomous,[vii]62. “The crew”: the Whites, Dante’s fellow exiles.
With whom thou shalt have fallen into that pit;
For, ingrates all, frenzied and impious,
They'll turn against thee; but thereafter soon
They and not thou shall have blood-reddened brows.
Their brutishness shall by their works be known,
So that thou shalt be honoured and preferred
To have made a party of thyself alone.
Thy first hostel and refuge from that herd [70]
In the great Lombard’s favour shalt thou find[viii]71. “The great Lombard”: Bartolommeo della Scala, whose shield bore a ladder and an eagle.
Who on the Ladder bears the sacred Bird.
For he shall hold thee in regard so kind,
That of the giving and asking ’twixt you two,
That shall come first which oftenest lags behind.
And one there is thou shalt see with him, who[ix]76. “One there is’: Can Grande (see the Argument).
Was at his birth so stamped with this strong star[x]77. “This strong star”: Mars.
That he is destined deeds of note to do.
Hardly of him yet is the world aware
Because of his young age, for years have rolled [80]
But nine around him in their course; but ere
The Gascon’s guile great Harry have cajoled,[xi]82. “The Gascon”: Pope Clement V. “Harry”: the Emperor Henry VII.
Some sparkles of his virtue shall be shown
In grudging not laborious days nor gold
Later, shall his magnificence be known,
So that his enemies will not repress
Their tongues from telling what things he hath done.
Look to him; wait his gracious offices!
Through him shall many taste an altered lot,
The beggar and the rich exchanging place. [90]
And of him thou shalt bear, but tell it not,
A record in thy mind.” And he told things
Which those who see with their own eyes shall doubt.
Then he added: “Son, these are the commentings
On what thou hast been told; the snares now see
Ambushed behind few years’ revolving rings.
But I would have thee of envy of neighbours free,
Since thy life shall be futured to outrun
By far, the avenging of their perfidy!”
When, by his saying no more, that sainted one [100]
Showed he had finished setting of the woof
Across the warp I proffered, I began,
Like one who, in uncertainty of proof,
Longs with great longing for a counsellor
Who sees, and wills uprightly, and who has love.
“I see, my father, Time against me spur
To deal me a blow, such as falls heaviest
On him who goes unwary and self-secure.
Twas well with foresight, then, to arm me, lest,
If the most dear place I am forced to lose, [110][xii]110. “The most dear place”: Florence.
I may not, through my song, lose all the rest.
Down in the world of never-ending throes
And up the mountain from whose radiant height,
My Lady’s eyes uplifting me, I rose,
And, after, through the heaven from light to light,
I have learnt that, which, if it all be penned,
In many will a bitter taste excite;
And if to truth I am a flinching friend,
I fear to lose life among those to whom
This world will be an old world, come to its end.” [120]
The enclosing radiance it was smiling from—
My treasure I had there discovered—flashed
Like beams that from a golden mirror come,
Then answered me: “Conscience, that is abashed
By shame, its own or others’, will in each,
'Tis true, who reads thee, feel some frailty lashed;
Yet none the less, cast falsehood from thy speech
Quite out; make thy whole vision manifest;
And let them scratch wherever is the itch.
For if thy voice be pungent at first taste [130]
Yet shall it leave a vital sustenance
After the mind has leisure to digest.
Thy cry shall come with the wind’s vehemence
That strikes full on the loftiest peaks alone;
Honour not small shall be thy recompense.
Therefore to thee have on these spheres been shown,
And on the Mount, and in the Vale of Dread,
Only such souls as have acquired renown,
Since the hearer’s spirit is not comforted
Nor knits its faith by an example mean [140]
Which hath its roots obscure and darkly hid,
Nor by what proof else is not plainly seen.”