Purgatorio
Canto XXI
The poets, hastening along, are overtaken by a spirit, who greets and questions them. Virgil explains their errand, and asks the cause of the trembling of the mountain. The shade explains that this happens when a soul, feeling itself purged of its sin, is free to rise from Purgatory. This has just happened to himself. Virgil asks the shade who he is, and he tells them that he is Statius the poet, and speaks warmly of his debt to Virgil’s poetry. Dante smiles, and on further question it is revealed that he is in Virgil's presence, and Statius does obeisance to the Master.
THE natural thirst which is unquenchable
Save by the water the Samaritan[i]2. “The water’: the water of truth. “The Samaritan’: see Luke 24:23-15.
Poor woman asked the boon of at the well
Wrought on me; and now, my Leader in the van,
Haste urged me up the encumbered path to press,
And grief for the just vengeance through me ran;
And lo! as Luke for our sake witnesses
How Christ appeared to those two on the way,
Already risen out of the tomb’s recess,
To us, intent on those who prostrate lay, [10]
Appeared a shade and close behind us drew;
Nor were we aware till first we heard it say
To us: “My brothers, God give peace to you!”
Immediately we turned; and Virgil gave
Back unto him the sign that fits thereto,
And then began: “Into the blest conclave
May the just court bring thee in peace up there
Which me into eternal exile drave.”
Said the other, while we strode on, “If ye are
Shades not on high acceptable to God, [20]
Who hath led you up so far along his stair?”
My Teacher then: “If the signs traced in blood
On this man by the angel thou hast read,
Thou'lt see ’tis fit that he reign with the good.
But since she, who spins night and day the thread,[ii]25. Lachesis, the second of the three Fates, spins the thread of life, which Clotho prepares and Atropos cuts off.
Had not yet wholly drawn for him the skein
For each on Clotho’s distaff firmly laid,
His spirit, which is thy sister as it is mine,
Because it sees not in our mode, could not
Alone ascend and up the mountain win. [30]
Wherefore was I fetched out of Hell’s wide throat
To attend and guide him, and I guide him still
Beyond, as far as my lore serve his lot.
But tell us, if thou knowest, why the hill
Shuddered but now, and why all seemed to cry
Down to its oozy base as with one will.”
Thus asking, did he thread the needle’s eye
Of my desire, and merely with the hope
The fasting of my thirst became less dry.
That spirit began: “Naught on this sacred slope [40]
Can happen which its order overrides,
Nor is aught suffered outside custom’s scope.
Free from all variation it abides.[iii]43. Purgatory is exempt from physical change, and only spiritual causes operate there.
What of itself to itself Heaven taketh here
May operate as cause, and naught besides,
Since neither rain nor hail falls anywhere
Nor snow nor any dew nor rime herein
Higher than the three steps of the short stair.
No cloud appeareth, whether dense or thin,
Nor lightning flash, nor Thaumas’ daughter, she [50][iv]50. “Thaumas’ daughter”: Iris, the rainbow.
Who yonder oft is wont to change her scene.
Nor higher than the topmost of the three[v]52-54. “Three steps’: before the gate of Purgatory. “Peter’s vicar”: the angel at the gate.
Steps that I spoke of, where are set the feet
Of Peter’s vicar, can dry vapour be.
Down lower the quaking may be little or great
By reason of the winds in the earth that hide,
I know not how; here quaked it never yet.
It quakes here when some soul feels purified
So that it may stand up or upward move,
And by such cry is it accompanied. [60]
Its will alone gives of the cleansing proof,[vi]61-66. A soul in Purgatory is held there only by its own conditioned will. As soon as this conditioned will, or desire, coincides with the absolute will, i.e., the eternal inclination to seek blessedness, the penitent knows that his expiation is over.
Which, all free now to change its company,
Seizes the soul and makes it glad thereof.
It wills indeed before, but is not free
From that desire God’s justice against will
Sets, as toward sin once, now to its penalty.
And I who have lain under these pains until
Five hundred years and more passed, have but known
Now, for the better threshold a free will.
Hence didst thou feel the earthquake, and thereon [70]
The pious spirits hear around us praise
The Lord, and may be speed them upward soon.”
Thus to us spoke he; and since the draught repays
With more pleasure, the more the thirst was great,
I could not tell how much he helped my case.
And the sage Leader: “Now I see the net
That holds you here, and how ’tis broken, too;
Why it quakes here, and why ye all shout elate.
May it please thee now that I be acquainted who
Thou wast, and let thy words to me unfold [80]
Why here thou hast lain so many ages through.”
“What time brave Titus, in the cause enrolled[vii]82-84. The capture of Jerusalem by the Emperor Titus was regarded as a vengeance for the crucifixion of Christ.
Of the highest King, avenged the wounds whence came
Flowing the blood which was by Judas sold,
With the most lasting, most exalting name
Yonder I had,” replied that other one,
“If not with faith yet, amplitude of fame.
So sweet a soul my song had, that anon
Rome drew me from my own Toulouse away;
And there the myrtle for my brows I won. [90]
Statius the folk there name me still today.[viii]91-93. Statius was a Latin poet of the first century of our era. Of his two great epics, the Thebaid and the Achilleid, the second is unfinished.
Of Thebes, then of Achilles’ might, I sung,
But fell with the second burden on the way
Seed to my ardour were the sparks that sprung
To fire me from the flame divine that more
Than a thousand hath with inspiration stung.
Of the Aeneid I speak, mother which bore,
Nurse which in art trained me up; lacking it,
To balance a drachm’s weight I had not power.
To have lived when Virgil lived, I would submit [100]
Willingly in this bondage still to be
A sun’s course more than will my debt acquit.”
These words turned Virgil with a look toward me,
A look that silently “Be silent” said:
But all is not done by the will’s decree;
For on the passion wherefrom each is bred
Laughter and tears follow so close that least
In the most truthful is the will obeyed.
I barely smiled, like one whose lips attest;
Whereat the shade was mute and in the eyes [110]
Looked at me, where the mind is most exprest,
And: “So be accomplished thy great enterprise,”
Said he, “Why did thy face a moment gone
From me a gleam of laughter not disguise?”
Now am I caught on both sides; by the one
Made to be mute, by the other thus conjured
To speak: wherefore I sigh, and am all known
Unto my master, and: “Be reassured,
Fear not to speak,” he said, “but speak and ease
The great desire he hath to hear thy word.” [120]
Wherefore I: “May be that thy wonder is,
O ancient spirit, at my smiling then.
But thee I’ll have a greater marvel seize.
This one who guides mine eyes the heights to ken
Is that same Virgil from whose fountain stream
Thou drankest force to sing of gods and men.
If for my smile thou suppose other theme,
Leave it for untruth and thyself persuade,
It was those words which thou didst speak of him.”
About my Teacher's feet he would have laid [130]
His arms, and bent; but he said: “Do it not,
Brother; thou art a shade, and see’st a shade.”
And he, uprising: “Now thou knowest what I
Profound love toward thee warmeth my heart-strings
When I our nothingness have so forgot,
Handling the shadows as substantial things.”