Binyon's Dante

Laurence Binyon's translation of Dante's Divine Comedy.

Hover over the green Roman numerals for Charles Hall Grandgent's annotations.

The PDF version, with more assured formatting, can be found here.

Paradiso

Canto XXVI

Dante is examined by St. John on the subject of Love. When he has given his answers, there is a sound of sweet singing; and Dante's sight is restored to him. A fourth spirit has now appeared and joined the three Apostles. Beatrice tells Dante that this is the spirit of Adam. Though Dante has not expressed his desire for enlightenment, Adam perceives it and answers his unspoken questions. He tells how long it is since he was placed in the Garden of Eden, how long he remained there, what was the true cause of the Fall, and what language he spoke.


WHILE my extinguished sight perplext me yet,

A breath came forth that held me, hearkening tense,

Out of the effulgence that extinguished it,

Saying: “Until thou hast again the sense

Of sight which on me was discomfited,

'Tis well that converse be thy recompense.

Begin then; say whereto thy soul is wed.

Consider, and be assured that sight suppressed

In thee is but confounded and not dead;

Because the lady, who through this region blest [10]

Leads thee, hath in her look compassionate

The virtue Ananias’ hand possessed.”[i]12. Ananias cured St. Paul of his blindness.

I said: “At her good pleasure, soon or late,

Let cure come to the eyes which, when she brought

The fire I burn with always, were the gate.

The Good which utterly contents this Court

Is Alpha and Omega of all lessons Love[ii]17. Rev. 1:8: “I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the ending, saith the Lord.”

Reads me, of lighter or more deep import.”

And that same voice which I had felt remove

Fear at the dazzling I was daunted by [20]

Put me in mind further to speak thereof,

And said: “A finer sieve thou needs must try

To explain this matter; thou must say who bent

Thy bow, aimed at a target set so high!”

And I “By philosophic argument

And with authority from thence imbrued[iii]26. By revealed Truth.

Such love must needs stamp on me its imprint;

For the good, soon as ’tis perceived as good,

Enkindles love and makes it more to live,

The more of good it can itself include. [30]

Therefore to the Essence, whose prerogative[iv]31. Since love is attracted by goodness, and all goodness is in God, he must be the primal object of love.

Is, that what good outside of it is known

Is naught else but a light its own beams give,

More than elsewhither must in love be drawn

The mind of him whose vision can attain

The verity the proof is founded on.

This verity to my intellect is made plain

By Him who to that prime love testifies[v]38-40. “Him who . . .”: Aristotle. “The Author’: God.

Which all the eternal substances maintain.

Made plain it is by word of the Author wise, [40]

Who, speaking of Himself, to Moses said:

‘I will make all good pass before thine eyes’;

Made plain by thee too, when thy prelude led[vi]43. “Thy prelude”: probably the Gospel of John.

All other voices like a herald’s cry,

And over earth Heaven's secret trumpeted.”

I heard: “Through human intellect and by

Authorities in sure accord with it

Thy sovereign love of loves seeks God on high.

But tell me further if other cords have knit

Thee unto Him, so that thou may’st declare [50]

With what close teeth this love on you has bit.”

Not hidden was the sacred purpose here

Of the Eagle of Christ; nay, well could I divine[vii]53. “The Eagle of Christ” is John.

Whither he intended me to persevere.

Hence I resumed: “Those bitings, that incline

The heart to God by the power that they bring,

All with the yearning of my love, combine.

For the being of the world, and my being,

The death which He, that I might live, endured,

And hope, whereto the faithful, as I, cling, [60]

Joined with that living knowledge, have secured

That from the sea of the erring love retrieved

On the shore of the right love I stand assured.

I love the leaves wherewith is all enleaved

The Eternal Gardener’s garden, great and least,

In the measure of the good from Him received.”

A marvellous sweet singing, when I ceased,

Through heaven resounded; and my Lady too

Cried “Holy, Holy, Holy,” with the rest;

And as a sharp light breaketh sleep in two, [70]

The ‘visual spirit running forth to meet

Splendour that thrills the membranes through and through,

And he who has been awaked recoils from it,

Dazed by that suddenness, which makes him quail

Till reasoning come to succour his defeat,

So from mine eyes did Beatrice every scale

Remove with her own ray, so luminous

That over a thousand miles it might prevail;

Whence clearer than before my vision was;

And now I asked, like one well-nigh dismayed, [80]

Concerning a fourth light I saw with us.

My Lady then: “In those bright beams arrayed

Gazes on his creator, rapt in joy,

The first soul that the prime power ever made.”[viii]84. “The first soul”: Adam.

And as the bough, when the wind rushes by,

Bendeth its topmost leaves and then is raised

By its own virtue, and once more springeth high,

So all the while that she was speaking, mazed

I was, and then again was fortified

By wish to speak, which burned me as I gazed. [90]

Forthwith: “O fruit alone born ripe,” I cried,

“O thou who hast, our far progenitor,

Both daughter and daughter-in-law in every bride,

Devoutly as I may, do I implore

That thou speak to me; my desire thou see’st;

And, to hear thee the sooner, I say no more.”

Sometimes an animal, covered up at rest,

Quivers till, through whatever wraps him, all

The motions of his impulse are exprest;

And in like manner that first human soul [100]

Disclosed to me through its own covering

How for my pleasure it gladdened at my call;

And from it breathed: “Without thy uttering

I can discern thy wish better than thou

See’st what to thee is the most certain thing,

Because I see it in the mirror true[ix]106. “In the mirror true”: in God.

Which can the likeness of all things present

Though none of these its likeness ever drew.

Thou would’st be told how long a time was spent

Since in the garden high I was enclosed [110]

Where she there led thee to the long ascent;[x]111. “She there . . .”: Beatrice.

And how long on its joys my eyes reposed;

And why by the great wrath I was out-cast;

And what language I used and had composed.

Know now, my son, that not the tree’s mere taste

Was in itself cause of so hard exile,

But only the ordered limit overpast.[xi]115-116. Adam’s sin was not gluttony, but disobedience caused by pride. “From that place . . .”: the Limbus.

From that place whence thy lady impelled Virgil,

While for this choir I pined, four thousand, three

Hundred and two gyres did the sun fulfil. [120]

Nine hundred times and thirty, wheeling, he[xii]121-122. “He”: the sun. “The lights”: the signs of the Zodiac.

Through all the lights in turn his pathway took

While upon earth it was my lot to be.

Wholly extinguished was the tongue I spoke

Long ere the unachievable monument[xiii]125. “The unachievable monument”: the Tower of Babel.

Was looked to be achieved by Nimrod’s folk.

For never a thing that reason can invent

Forever endures, because man’s will is weak

And, following the heaven, on change is bent.

It is a natural act that man should speak; [130]

But this or that way Nature leaves to you,

As pleases most, whatever end you seek.

Ere I descended to the eternal rue

YAH was the name on earth of Him Supreme

Wherefrom the gladness clothing me I drew.

EL was He named thereafter, as doth beseem;[xiv]136. “EL” is the Hebrew name.

For mortal use is as the leaves upon

The bough, which drop, and others follow them.

On the highest mount that the wave beateth on[xv]139-142. Adam lived in the Garden of Eden only about six hours.

Was I, with life first pure and then impure, [140]

From the first hour to that which, when the sun

Changes his quadrant, follows the sixth hour.”


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