Paradiso
Canto XX
The Eagle names six spirits pre-eminent for their justice. They form the Eagle’s eye and eyebrow. David is in the pupil of the eye, and in the eyebrow are Trajan, Hezekiah, Constantine, William II of Sicily, and Ripheus the Trojan. Dante is puzzled, because Trajan and Ripheus whom he conceived of as pagans, are found in Paradise: and the Eagle explains to him how it is that they are there; ending with an admonition against hasty judgment.
WHEN he who illumines all the world descends[i]1. “He who . . .”: the sun.
So far, departing from our hemisphere,
That day on all sides vanishes and ends,
The heaven, which he alone before lit clear,
With myriad lights all kindled at one flame
Immediately begins to reappear.
Into my mind this act of heaven came
When the Ensign that the world’s great chiefs obeyed[ii]8. “The Ensign”: the Eagle.
Silent within the blessed beak became;
Because from all those living lights, arrayed [10]
In growing brilliance, songs began to float
Which from my memory lapse and falling fade.
O Love, whose sweet smile hath thy raiment wrought,
How ardent wast thou in those fluted tones
Breathed only by the breath of holy thought!
Soon as the precious and resplendent stones
Which I beheld the sixth lamp to begem
Had hushed the angelic chiming antiphons,
I seemed to hear the murmur of a stream
When clear from ledge to ledge the waters drop [20]
Showing how its springs within the mountain teem.
And as from sound the music taketh shape
At the lute’s neck, or in the pipes the air
That, penetrating, enters at the stop,
So with no pause to baulk the waiting ear
Rose the Eagle’s murmur with resounding tone
Up through its neck, as if it hollow were.
There it became voice as a way it won
Out from the beak in words articulate
Such as the heart craved that I wrote them on. [30]
“That part in me which looks unflinching at
The sun in mortal eagles,” thus it spoke:
“This must thou now fixedly contemplate.
For of the fires from which my form I make
Those wherewith the eye sparkles in my head
In all their ranks the loftiest station take.
He from whose light the pupil’s fire is fed
Was the singer of the Holy Spirit, who bare[iii]38. “The singer”: David.
The Ark, from city unto city led.[iv]39. “The Ark”: of the Covenant.
He knoweth now his song’s desert, so far [40]
As in his own conception ’twas begun,
By its being matched with recompense so rare..
Of five, who make the eyebrow’s arch, the one
Who of all closest to the beak is set[v]44-48. Trajan (see Purg. X, 56) was allowed to resume his body long enough to embrace the true faith.
Brought comfort to the widow for her son.
He knoweth now how dearly costeth it
Not to be Christ’s liege, by experience
Of this sweet life and of its opposite.
He who comes next in the circumference[vi]49-51. The effect of a petition in one’s own behalf is illustrated by a Biblical character, King Hezekiah.
Of which I speak, on the ascending curve, [50]
Postponed death by his earnest penitence.
He knoweth now that nothing maketh swerve
The eternal judgment when a prayer’s just plea
Below, makes for to-day to-morrow serve.
The next became Greek, with the laws and me,[vii]55-57. Constantine, ceding Rome to the Pope and transferring the capital to Byzantium, made himself, the Eagle, and the laws Greek.
In good intention which had evil fruit,
Ceding the Pastor such a realm in fee.
He knoweth now that Heaven doth not impute
To him what ills from his good deeds derive,
Even though the world be stricken to the root. [60]
On the arc’s down-slope, that one of the five
Thou seèst was William, whom that land bewails[viii]62-63. William II of Sicily, Charles II of Naples and Frederick of Aragon (see Purg. XIX, 127-131).
Which weeps that Charles and Frederick are alive.
He knoweth now with what love Heaven hails
The just king, and in measure as he glows
Still proveth how that love on him prevails.
Down in the erring world who would suppose
Ripheus the Trojan should the fifth be found[ix]68. “Ripheus”: an inconspicuous character in the Aeneid.
Within the orb the sacred lights compose?
He knoweth now enough, and far beyond [70]
What the world sees, of the divine grace there,
Although its depth his vision cannot sound.”
Like the small lark who wantons free in air,
First singing and then silent, as possessed
By the last sweetness that contenteth her,
So seemed to me the image, deep-impressed
With the Eternal Pleasure, by whose will
Each thing in its own nature is expressed.
Though the doubt in me was discernible,
As coloured things through glass are, yet its thirst [80]
Endured not to wait silent and be still,
But from my mouth “What things are these?” it forced
By the mere pressure of its vehemence:
A festive sparkling then I saw outburst.
And with its eye yet more enkindled thence
The blessed Ensign answered without pause
Lest he might keep me wondering in suspense:
“I see that thou believ’st these things because
I tell them; but the ‘how’ thou seèst not,
And, though believed, they keep their secret close. [90]
Thou art as he who apprehends by rote
The thing he names, but cannot thereby come
To the essence, save another solve the knot.
Regnum coelorum suffereth violence from[x]94. “Regnum coelorum”: the kingdom of heaven.
Warm love and hope, living in stedfastness,
Which even the divine will overcome,
Not in the way that man doth man oppress,
But conquers it because it wills that same,
And, conquered, conquers with its own kindness.
On the eyebrow’s arch the first and the fifth flame [100][xi]100. “The first and the fifth”: Trajan and Ripheus.
Cause thee to marvel, seeing above thy head
The region of the angels bright with them.
Not Gentiles, as thou thinkest, did they shed
The flesh, but Christians, having faith for prop
In feet which were to bleed or which had bled.[xii]105. They had faith in the feet of Christ, one before and one after the crucifixion.
For the one from Hell, whence none returneth up[xiii]106. “The one from Hell”: the soul of Trajan.
Ever to right will, back to his bones repaired;
And this was the reward of living hope;
Of living hope, whose potency inspired
Prayers made to God to raise him from the dead, [110][xiv]110. “Prayers made to God”: by St. Gregory.
That his will thus might waken and be stirred.
The glorious soul I speak of, having stayed
Once more a brief while in the body on earth,
Believed in Him who had the power to aid,
And, in believing, such a flame sent forth
Of very love, that at death’s second sting
It became worthy to enter into this mirth.
The other, by the grace which, issuing
From so profound wells that no creature yet
Pierced with his eye down to the primal spring, [120]
On righteousness below his whole heart set,
So that God’s grace, unveiling more and more,
Showed him the sure redemption of man’s debt.
Believing in it, he no longer bore
The pagan superstition’s filthy blight
And chided the corrupted folk therefore.
And those three ladies, who rejoiced thy sight[xv]127. “Those three ladies”: the three Christian Virtues.
At the right wheel, made baptism for him
A thousand years ere the baptismal rite.
Predestination! how remote and dim [130]
Thy root lies hidden from the intellect
Which only glimpses the First Cause Supreme!
And you, ye mortals, keep your judgment checked,
Since we, who see God, have not therefore skill
To know yet all the number of the elect.
To us such wanting is delectable
Because our good in this good is refined,
That, what God willeth, that we also will.”
With such sweet medicine was I medicined
By the celestial image, to make clear [140]
The short sight of my unillumined mind.
As the strings touched by the good lute-player
Attend upon the singer’s voice, whereby
The song with added pleasure takes the ear,
So, while it spoke, comes back to memory
That the two blessed spirits to the words
Made their flames tremble in one harmony
Even as the winking of the eyes concords.