Paradiso
Canto XXX
At daybreak Dante and Beatrice find themselves taken up from “the greatest body” (the Primum Mobile) into the Empyrean, beyond the spheres. This heaven is revealed symbolically as a river of light, streaming between banks of flowers. Dante’s eyes are strengthened by “drinking” of this light; whereupon the image is transformed, and appears as a round sea of light, above which Paradise is discovered as a vast white rose, within which are assembled the “two courts” of Heaven, the Angels and the Redeemed. Beatrice points out to Dante the seat awaiting Henry VII of Luxembourg, who was to become Emperor in 1308 and to die in 1318. The Canto ends with a reference to Pope Clement's deceitful conduct towards Henry, already mentioned in Canto XVII (line 82).
PERHAPS six thousand miles away is spread[i]1-7. Dante is about to describe the aspect of the sky, with the stars gradually fading, a little before dawn. “This low floor”: the earth’s surface. “Handmaid”: Aurora, the dawn.
The blaze of noon, and this world more and more
Inclines its shadow almost to a level bed,
When over us the heavens’ unfathomed core
Begins to alter, so that one by one
Stars lose their faint path down to this low floor,
And as the brightest handmaid of the Sun
Comes onward, so the closing heavens efface
Light after light, till the most fair is gone;
Even so the Triumph that forever plays [10]
About the Point which overwhelmed me quite,
Seeming embraced by what it doth embrace,
By little and little stole out of my sight;
So that, by vacancy of vision led,
And love, I turned to Beatrice for light.
If all of her that heretofore is said
Could in a single perfect praise be quit,
‘Twere still too narrow to suffice my need,
The beauty I saw not only exceeds our wit
To measure, past all reach, but I aver [20]
He only who made it fully enjoyeth it.
And I avow me more defeated here
Than by his theme’s height and the exacted cost
Comic or tragic poet ever were.
As the sun doth to the eyes that tremble most,
So doth to me the thought of the sweet smile,
Whereby, shorn of itself, my mind is lost.
From the first day when I beheld her, while
She was in this life, till this vision blest,
Never from her did aught my song beguile; [30]
Yet needs must be relinquished further quest
To follow in verse her beauty; it now forgoes,
As must each artist to his last power prest.
For mightier notes than this my trumpet blows
So lofty I leave her, to assay the height
Of the arduous theme, which draws now toward its close.
With the gesture of a guide, whose goal’s in sight,
She spoke: “We from the greatest body move,[ii]38. “The greatest body”: the Primum Mobile.
Emerging in the heaven that is pure light;
Light of the understanding, full of love, [40]
Love of the true good, full of joy within,
Joy that transcends all the heart conceiveth of.
Thou shalt see either soldiery therein[iii]43. “Either soldiery”: the army of the souls that resisted temptation and the host of good angels that triumphed over the bad.
Of Paradise; the one in the aspect they
Shall at the Judgment by thine eyes be seen.”
As sudden lightning throws in disarray
The visual spirits, so that the eye is reft
Of power to grasp even things that strongest stay,
The living light in such a radiant weft
Enwound me and with such glory overcame, [50]
That in it all was burnt and nothing left.
“Ever doth the Love which stills this heaven acclaim
Its own with salutation like to this,
Preparing so the candle for its flame.”
No sooner did these brief words on me seize,
Than I became aware that I had aid
To overpass my proper faculties.
And such new vision of the sense it made
That there is no intensity, my sight
Could not have borne to endure it unafraid. [60]
And I beheld, shaped like a river, light
Streaming a splendour between banks whereon
The miracle of the spring was pictured bright.[iv]63-64. The spring flowers are the souls of the just. The “living sparkles” are the angels.
Out of this river living sparkles thrown
Shot everywhere a fire amid the bloom
And there like rubies gold-encrusted shone;
Then as if dizzy with the spiced perfume
They plunged into the enchanted eddy again:
As one sank, rose another fiery plume.
“The high desire that burns thee now to attain [70]
To the true knowledge of the things thou see’st
Pleaseth me more, the stronger it doth strain.
But thou must needs even of this water taste
Ere thou the parch of so great thirst appease.”
So spoke mine eyes’ Sun to me, and scarce had ceased
When she added: “The river and the topazes
That enter and issue, and the smiling flowers,
Are of their truth foreshadowing prefaces.
Not that in these things are unripened powers,
But in thyself is that which doth impede, [80]
Since not yet to such height thy vision towers.”
No child is there that flings him at such speed
With face turned to the milk, if he awake
Far later than his wont, as at my need
I did, more perfect mirrors still to make
Of mine eyes, bending to the wave profound
That floweth for our full salvation’s sake.
Soon as mine eyes within the eyelids’ bound
Had drunk of it, immediately shone
The length of it translated into round. [90]
And then, as maskers in their masks are shown
Different of feature, if they cast aside
The assumed appearance that was not their own,
So into festal aspect glorified
Sparkles and flowers changed: both Heaven’s courts I saw
Revealed before me opening far and wide.
O Splendour of God, by whose largess I saw
With these mine eyes truth realmed in triumph, fill
My lips with power to re-tell how I saw.
There is light yonder which makes visible [100]
Creator to creation, that alone
In seeing Him can in its own peace dwell.
In the figure of a circle it stretcheth on
And out, so far that its circumference
Would be too wide a girdle for the sun.
All of it is one radiant effluence,
Reflected downward from the First Moved Sphere,
Whose virtue and energy proceedeth thence;
And as a hill looks down upon a mere
As if its own adornments to enjoy, [110]
When grass and flowers are richest, mirrored there,
So over the light and round and round did I
See mirrored on a thousand tiers all those
Of us permitted to return on high.
And if the least degree so greatly glows,
What measure shall suffice for the amplitude
Of the extremest petals of this Rose?[v]117. The vast, cuplike theater is called a “Rose,” and its sections “petals.”
The breadth, the height, my vision could include
Undazzled, and that joy which blooms for aye,
Its quality and its sum, I understood. [120]
Near and far adds not there nor takes away,
For where God governeth immediate
The natural law runs not, and hath no sway.
To the yellow of the Rose whose leaves dilate,[vi]124. The sea of light that forms the bottom of the arena.
Tier over tier, perfumed with praises quired
To the Sun that doth eternal spring create,
Me, like to one made mute, who yet desired
To speak, Beatrice onward drew and cried:
“Look on the assemblage of the white-attired!
Behold our City, and how it circleth wide! [130]
Behold our seats, so filled full that but few,
Yet to be numbered there, their place abide.
On that great seat thine eyes are drawn unto
By the crown hung already over it
Ere at this wedding-feast thyself art due,
The soul, on earth imperial, shall sit
Of the high Henry, coming to enforce[vii]137. Henry VII attempted to restore the balance of power and the Imperial authority in Italy (see the Argument).
Right ways on Italy, though she is yet unfit.
A blind greed hath bewitched you with its curse
And made you like the child who perishes [140]
Of hunger, and peevish drives away his nurse.
The prefect of the court of Heaven’s decrees[viii]142-144. “The prefect”: Pope Clement V (see the Argument).—“His”: Henry's.
Shall then be one who in open and secret ways
Shall not be such as with his course agrees;
But in the holy office but short space
Shall God endure him: soon shall he be thrown[ix]146-148. Clement V shall fall into the eighth circle of Hell, where simonists are punished.—He “of Anagna” is Boniface VIII.
Where Simon Magus hath his own just place,
And thrust him of Anagna deeper down.”