Paradiso
Canto III
Dante becomes aware of faces appearing eager to speak to him. At first he supposes them to be reflections (unlike Narcissus, who supposed his reflection to be real). One of these spirits is Piccarda, about whom Dante had asked her brother Forese in Purgatory (Canto XXIV). She is with those placed in the sphere of the Moon because of vows Fakes or imperfectly performed. Dante asks if those who are in this lowest sphere ever crave for a more exalted place in Paradise. She tells him that this is impossible; it is of the essence of their bliss merely to fulfil the divine will: “In His will is our peace.” And she goes on to tell how she took the veil in the Order of Saint Clare, but was forcibly taken from her convent (to be married to a noble). Among these spirits is the Empress Constance, who also was torn from her convent and married to Henry VI, the second of the three “whirlwinds” from Suabia (line 119); the first being Frederick Barbarossa, and the third Frederick II; all these emperors were men of tempestuous energy.
THAT Sun which fired my bosom of old with love[i]1. “That Sun”: Beatrice.
Had thus bared for me in beauty the aspect sweet
Of truth, expert to prove as to disprove;
And I, to avow me of all error quit,
Confident and assured, lifted my head
More upright, in such measure as was fit.
But now appeared a sight that riveted
Me to itself with such compulsion keen
That my confession from my memory fled.
As from transparent glasses polished clean, [10]
Or water shining smooth up to its rim,
Yet not so that the bottom is unseen,
Our faces’ lineaments return so dim
That pearl upon white forehead not more slow
Would on our pupils its pale image limn;
So I beheld faces that seemed aglow
To speak, and fell into the counter-snare
From what made love ’twixt man and pool to grow.[ii]18. “Man”: Narcissus (see the Argument).
No sooner had I marked those faces there,
Than, thinking them reflections, with swift eyes [20]
I turned about to see of whom they were,
And saw nothing: again, in my surprise,
I turned straight to the light of my sweet Guide,
Who smiling, burned within her sainted eyes.
“Marvel not at my smiling,” she replied,
“To contemplate thy childlike thought revealed
Which cannot yet its foot to truth confide,
But moves thee, as ever, on emptiness to build.
True substances are these thine eyes perceive,
Remitted here for vows not all fulfilled. [30]
Speak with them therefore, hearken and believe,
For the true light which is their happiness
Lets them not swerve, but to it they must cleave.”
And I to the shade that seemed most near to press
For converse, turned me and began, as one
Who is overwrought through longing in excess:
“O spirit made for bliss, who from the sun
Of life eternal feelest the sweet ray
Which, save ’tis tasted, is conceived by none,
It will be gracious to me, if I may [40]
Be gladdened with thy name and all your fate.”
And she, with laughing eyes and no delay:
“Our charity no more locks up the gate
Against a just wish than that Charity[iii]44. “That Charity”: of God.
Which would have all its court in like estate.
On earth I was a Virgin Sister: see
What memory yields thee, and my being now
More beautiful will hide me not from thee,
But that I am Piccarda thou wilt know,
Who with these other blessed ones placed here [50]
Am blessed in the sphere that moves most slow;
For our desires, which kindle and flame clear
Only in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost,
To what he appointeth joyfully adhere;
And this which seems to thee so lowly a post
Is given to us because the vows we made
Were broken, or complete observance lost.”
Then I to her: “Something divinely glad
Shines in your marvellous aspect, to replace
In you the old conceptions that I had; [60]
I was slow therefore to recall thy face:
But what thou tell’st me helpeth now to clear
My sight, and thee more easily to retrace.
But tell me: you that are made happy here,
Do ye to a more exalted place aspire,
To see more, or to make yourselves more dear?”
She smiled a little, and with her smiled that choir
Of spirits; then so joyous she replied
That she appeared to burn in love’s first fire:
“Brother, the virtue of love hath pacified [70]
Our will; we long for what we have alone,
Nor any craving stirs in us beside.
If we desired to reach a loftier zone,
Our longings would be all out of accord
With His will who disposeth here His own.
For that, these circles, thou wilt see, afford
No room, if love be our whole being’s root
And thou ponder the meaning of that word.
Nay, ’tis of the essence of our blessed lot
In the divine will to be cloistered still [80]
Through which our own wills into one are wrought,
As we from step to step our stations fill
Throughout this realm, to all the realm ’tis bliss
As to its King, who wills us into His will;
And in His will is perfected our peace.
It is the sea whereunto moveth all
That it creates and nature makes increase.”
Then saw I how each heaven for every soul
Is paradise, though from the Supreme Good
The dews of grace not in one measure fall. [90]
But as may hap, when sated with one food
Still for another we have appetite,
We ask for this, and that with thanks elude,
Such words and gesture used I that I might
Learn from her what that web was where she plied
The shuttle and yet drew not the head outright.
“Perfect life and high merit have enskied
A Lady above,” she said, “whose rule they take[iv]98. “A Lady above”: St. Clare, the friend of St. Francis; she founded the order that bears her name.
In your world who in robe and veil abide,
That they till death may, sleeping and awake, [100]
Be with that Spouse who giveth welcome free
To all vows love may for His pleasure make.
To follow her, a young girl, did I flee
The world and, closed within her habit, vowed
Myself to the pathway of her company.
Afterwards men, used to evil more than good,[v]106. “Men”: her brother Corso Donati and his followers.
Tore me away, out of the sweet cloister;
And God knows then what way of life I trod.
This other splendour whom thou see’st appear
To thee on my right side, who, glowing pale, [110]
Kindles with all the radiance of our sphere,
Can of herself tell also the same tale.
She was a Sister; from her head they tore
Likewise the shadow of the sacred veil.
She was turned back into the world once more
Against her will, against good usage too;
Yet still upon her heart the veil she wore.
This is the light of the great Constance, who[vi]118. “The great Constance”: see the Argument.
From Suabia’s second whirlwind was to bring
To birth the third Power, and the last ye knew.” [120]
Thus spoke she to me, and then began to sing
Ave Maria, and singing disappeared,
As through deep water sinks a heavy thing.
My sight, which followed far as it was powered,
When it had lost her, turned and straightway shot
To the other mark, more ardently desired,
And Beatrice, only Beatrice, it sought.
But she upon my look was flaming so
That at the first my sight endured it. not;
And this made me for questioning more slow. [130]