Purgatorio
Canto X
The poets, now admitted to Purgatory, mount by a zigzag passage through the rock, till they reach a terrace, which runs round the entire mountain. On the outer rim is the precipitous slope; on the inner side the cliff is adorned with reliefs in white marble, representing types of Humility and taken both from sacred and pagan history. Dante marvels at their life-likeness. There now approaches a crowd of spirits, hardly appearing human at first because bowed down in agonised postures by the huge rocks which they bear. These are the Proud, expiating their sin.
WHEN we were past the threshold of the gate
From which the spirits’ perverse desires abstain
Because they make the crooked path seem straight,
By the loud sound I knew it shut again;
And had mine eyes been toward it backward drawn
What plea to excuse the fault could I maintain?
We mounted through a cloven mass of stone
Which shifted upon one and the other side
Like a wave fleeing and then coming on.
“Here must we use a little art,” my Guide [10]
Began, “and take heed to continue close,
This way or that, to the receding side.”
This caused us so much of our steps to lose
That the diminished moon’s disk had anew
Attained its bed, to sink into repose,
Ere from that needle’s eye we had come through;[i]16. “That needle’s eye”: the narrow passage.
But when we now were free of the open air
Above, where into itself the Mount withdrew,
I weary, and both uncertain where we were,
We stood at halt upon a level place [20]
Lonelier than roads crossing a desert bare.
From its edge, bordering on the emptiness,
To the foot of the high bank which mounts upright
Three times a human body had spanned the space.
And so far as my eye could wing its flight
Now on the left, now on the right, I found
This terrace so appear unto my sight.
Our feet had not yet moved upon this ground
When I discerned that bank (which, rising straight,
Lacked means to ascend it as it circled round) [30]
To be of shining marble and all ornate
With chiselling, so that Polycletus, yea,[ii]32. “Polycletus”: the Greek sculptor.
Nature herself would have been shamed thereat.
The Angel that came down with the decree[iii]34. “The Angel” is Gabriel. This example of humility represents the Virgin at the Annunciation.
Of peace for ages prayed and wept for, whence
From so long interdict Heaven was made free,
Appeared before us with such live presence,
Graven there, gentle of gesture and of eye,
That it seemed not an image without sense.
One would swear he said Ave! for there-by [40]
Was she imagined and made manifest
Who turned the key to admit love from on high.
And in her gesture these words were expressed:
Ecce ancilla Dei, clear as can[iv]44. “Behold the handmaid of the Lord,” Mary's reply to Gabriel.
A figure be that is on wax impressed.
“Fix not thy mind on the one place,” began
The gracious Poet, who had me, where he was,
On that side where the heart is in a man.
Wherefore I moved mine eyes, turning my face,
And saw, past Mary and beyond the head [50]
Of him who now bestirred me from my place,
Another story on the rock portrayed;[v]52-57. “Another story”: King David dancing before the ark of the covenant. Uzzah, one of the drivers of the cart, seeing the ark shaken, “put forth his hand . . . and took hold of it’; whereupon “God smote him” for his “unchartered office’: 2 Samuel 6:6.
Wherefore I crossed by Virgil and drew near
That I might have it to my eyes displayed.
There on the very marble graven were
The cart and the oxen drawing the holy Ark,
Whereby the unchartered office prompts to fear.
In front were people, all, as I could mark,
In seven choirs banded; of my senses two
Said, one “They are mute,” and one “They are singing, hark!” [60]
In like manner the incense-smoke also
Which there appeared, by its imagining
Made eyes and nose at odds of Yes and No.
Before the blessed vessel went dancing
The humble Psalmist, with his dress up-girt;
In that hour was he more and less than King.
Opposite at a palace-window apart[vi]67. His wife, Michal, “looked through a window, and saw King David leaping and dancing before the Lord; and she despised him in her heart”: 2 Samuel 6:16.
Was the effigy of Michal looking on,
Like to a woman full of scorn and hurt.
I moved my feet from where I stood, to con [70]
Another story with a closer eye
Which beyond Michal white upon me shone.[vii]72-74. The third example of humility is furnished by Trajan, who acknowledged the justice of a poor widow’s claim; whereupon St. Gregory interceded with God for his salvation.
There was enacted the nobility
Of the high prince whose worth made intervene
Gregory and win him his great victory;
Trajan the Roman emperor I mean:
And a poor widow to his bridle clung
Whose tears and grief were in her gesture seen.
Round him appeared a trampling and a throng
Of horsemen, and the eagles on gold brede [80]
Visibly in the wind above him swung.
’Mid them all that forlorn one seemed to plead:
“Avenge me for my son, I supplicate,
Who is dead, and whose death makes my heart to bleed.”
And he appeared to answer her: “Now, wait
Till I return.” And she; “My Lord” (like one
In whom grief presses forth importunate)
“If thou return not?” He: “It shall be done
By one in my place.” She: “And what to thee
Is another’s goodness if thou lose thine own?” [90]
Wherefore he: “Comfort now, for needs must be
That I fulfil my duty, ere I stir.
Justice wills it, and pity holdeth me.”
He, to whose sight no new thing can appear,[viii]94. “He, to whose sight . . .”: God.
Fashioned this visible language, to us new,
Since such a thing never was fashioned here.
While I regarded, as I joyed to do,
Images of humility so rare
And for the Artist’s sake precious to view,
The poet murmured, “Lo, much people there [100]
Approaching, but their steps are slow and spent.
These will direct us to the upper stair.”
Mine eyes that in their gazing were content,
Seeing new things to their desire displayed,
Turned, and on him immediately were bent.
Reader, I would not that thou be dismayed[ix]106. Dante fears that the horror of the penance may divert the reader from his “good resolution” to make amends.
From good resolve, through being brought to know
How God designeth that the debt be paid.
Consider not the nature of the woe;
Think of the sequel, think that, at the extreme, [110]
Beyond the high sentence it cannot go.[x]111. The suffering will stop at the day of judgment.
I began: “Master, what I see doth seem
Not persons, moving toward us with such gait,
But what I know not, so my sight doth swim.”
And he to me: “Their miserable state
Of torment bows them to this crouching plight.
So that my eyes at first were in debate.
Look hard; then disentangle with thy sight
What comes beneath those stones: already thou
Mayest discern how each his breast doth smite.” [120]
O ye proud Christians, weary and sad of brow,
Who, tainted in the vision of the mind,
In backward steps your confidence avow,
Perceive ye not that we are worms, designed
To form the angelic butterfly, that goes[xi]125. Cf. Matt. 22:30: “For in the resurrection they . . . are as the angels of God in heaven.”
To judgment, leaving all defence behind?
Why doth your mind take such exalted pose,
Since ye. disabled, are as insects, mean
As worm which never transformation knows?
Just as a figure sometimes may be seen [130]
For corbel, roof or ceiling to sustain,
Uniting knees to breast with nought between,
Which form unreal causeth real pain
In him who sees it, so beheld I these
When closely I regarded them again.
True it is they were contracted more or less
As more or less upon their backs they bore;
And he who seemed the most to acquiesce
Weeping appeared to say: “I can no more.”