Paradiso
Canto XXXIII
The prayer of St. Bernard to the Virgin Mary. The prayer is granted; and then Dante prays to God that some trace of the dazzling glimpse of the divine mystery of Trinity in Unity may be communicated to men through his verse.
“MAIDEN and Mother, daughter of thine own Son,[i]1. A great part of this beautiful prayer was copied by Chaucer in the Second Nun’s Tale, 29-84.
Beyond all creatures lowly and lifted high,
Of the Eternal Design the corner-stone!
Thou art she who did man’s substance glorify
So that its own Maker did not eschew
Even to be made of its mortality.
Within thy womb the Love was kindled new
By generation of whose warmth supreme
This flower to bloom in peace eternal grew.[ii]9. “This flower”; the Rose of the Blessed.
Here thou to us art the full noonday beam [10]
Of love revealed: below, to mortal sight,
Hope, that forever springs in living stream.
Lady, thou art so great and hast such might
That whoso crave grace, nor to thee repair,
Their longing even without wing seeketh flight.
Thy charity doth not only him up-bear
Who prays, but in thy bounty’s large excess
Thou oftentimes dost even forerun the prayer.
In thee is pity, in thee is tenderness,
In thee magnificence, in thee the sum [20]
Of all that in creation most can bless.
Now he that from the deepest pit hath come[iii]22. “He that . . .”: Dante.
Of the universe, and seen, each after each,
The spirits as they live and have their home,
He of thy grace so much power doth beseech
That he be enabled to uplift even higher
His eyes, and to the Final Goodness reach.
And I who never burned with more desire
For my own vision than for his, persist
In prayer to thee—my prayers go forth in choir, [30]
May they not fail!—that thou disperse all mist
Of his mortality with prayers of thine,
Till joy be his of that supreme acquist.
Also I implore thee, Queen who canst incline
All to thy will, let his affections stand
Whole and pure after vision so divine.
The throbbings of the heart do thou command!
See, Beatrice with how many of the blest,
To second this my prayer, lays hand to hand.”
Those eyes, of God loved and revered, confest, [40]
Still fixt upon him speaking, the delight
She hath in prayer from a devoted breast.
Then were they lifted to the eternal light,
Whereinto it may not be believed that eye
So clear in any creature sendeth sight.
And I, who to the goal was drawing nigh
Of all my longings, now, as it behoved,
Felt the ardour of them in contentment die.
Bernard signed, smiling, as a hand he moved,
That I should lift my gaze up; but I knew [50]
Myself already such as he approved,
Because my sight, becoming purged anew,
Deeper and deeper entered through the beam
Of sublime light, which in itself is true.
Thenceforth my vision was too great for theme
Of our speech, that such glory overbears,
And memory faints at such assault extreme.
As he who dreams sees, and when disappears
The dream, the passion of its print remains,
And naught else to the memory adheres, [60]
Even such am I; for almost wholly wanes
My vision now, yet still the drops I feel
Of sweetness it distilled into my veins.
Even so the sunbeam doth the snow unseal;
So was the Sibyl’s saying lost inert[iv]65. The Cumaean “Sibyl” was accustomed to write her prophecies on loose tree-leaves.
Upon the thin leaves for the wind to steal.
O supreme Light, who dost thy glory assert
High over our imagining, lend again
Memory a little of what to me thou wert.
Vouchsafe unto my tongue such power to attain [70]
That but one sparkle it may leave behind
Of thy magnificence to future men.
For by returning somewhat to my mind
And by a little sounding in this verse
More of thy triumph shall be thence divined.
So keenly did the living radiance pierce
Into me, that I think I had been undone
Had mine eyes faltered, from the light averse.
And I recall that with the more passion
I clove to it, till my gaze, thereat illumed, [80]
With the Infinite Good tasted communion.
O Grace abounding, whereby I presumed
To fix upon the eternal light my gaze
So deep, that in it I my sight consumed![v]84. I became blind to all else.
I beheld leaves within the unfathomed blaze
Into one volume bound by love, the same[vi]86. God is the Book of the Universe.
That the universe holds scattered through its maze.
Substance and accidents, and their modes, became
As if together fused, all in such wise[vii]89. God, containing all things, is a perfect unit.
That what I speak of is one simple flame. [90]
Verily I think I saw with mine own eyes
The form that knits the whole world, since I taste,
In telling of it, more abounding bliss.
One moment more oblivion has amassed[viii]94-96. In the first moment after my awakening I forgot more of my vision than mankind has forgotten, in 2500 years, of the story of the Argonauts.
Than five-and-twenty centuries have wrought
Since Argo’s shadow o’er wondering Neptune passed.
Thus did my mind in the suspense of thought
Gaze fixedly, all immovable and intent,
And ever fresh fire from its gazing caught.
Man at that light becometh so content [100]
That to choose other sight and this reject,
It is impossible that he consent,
Because the good which is the will’s object
Dwells wholly in it, and that within its pale
Is perfect, which, without, hath some defect.
Even for my remembrance now must fail
My words, and less than could an infant’s store
Of speech, who at the pap yet sucks, avail;
Not that within the living light was more
Than one sole aspect of divine essence, [110]
Being still forever as it was before,
But the one semblance, seen with more intense
A faculty, even as over me there stole
Change, was itself transfigured to my sense.
Within the clear profound Light’s aureole[ix]115. The threefold oneness is disclosed by the symbol of three mysterious rings occupying exactly the same place.
Three circles from its substance now appeared,
Of three colours, and each an equal whole.
One its reflection on the. next conferred
As rainbow upon rainbow, and the two
Breathed equally the fire that was the third. [120][x]120. “The third”: the Holy Ghost, who emanates equally from Father and Son.
To my conception O how frail and few
My words! and that, to what I looked upon,
Is such that “little” is more than is its due.
O Light Eternal, who in thyself alone
Dwell’st and thyself know’st, and self-understood,
Self-understanding, smilest on thine own!
That circle which, as I conceived it, glowed
Within thee like reflection of a flame,
Being by mine eyes a little longer wooed,
Deep in itself, with colour still the same, [130]
Seemed with our human effigy to fill,
Wherefore absorbed in it my sight became.
As the geometer who bends all his will
To measure the circle, and howsoe’er he try[xi]134. The problem is the squaring of the circle.
Fails, for the principle escapes him still,
Such at this mystery new-disclosed was I,
Fain to understand how the image doth alight
Upon the circle, and with its form comply.
But these my wings were fledged not for that flight,
Save that my mind a sudden glory assailed [140]
And its wish came revealed to it in that light.
To the high imagination force now failed;
But like to a wheel whose circling nothing jars[xii]143-145. Circular motion symbolises faultless activity. Dante’s individual will is merged in the World-Will of the Creator.
Already on my desire and will prevailed
The Love that moves the sun and the other stars.