Purgatorio
Canto XXVII
Night is coming on, when the Angel of Chastity appears and tells Dante that he cannot go further without passing through the fire. He is terrified, remembering deaths by burning that he had witnessed on earth; and even Virgil's encouragement cannot overcome his fears till he is reminded that Beatrice awaits him beyond. The three pass through the fire and emerge at the place of ascent. Another angel warns them to hasten, as the sun is setting. Each now makes a bed for himself on a step of the stair. Dante sleeps, and dreams of Leah and Rachel, types of the active and contemplative life; foreshadowing the meeting with Matilda and Beatrice which is to come. He wakes with morning, and at the summit Virgil tells him that his mission is ended and that Dante now needs no guide or instructor.
AS WHEN his first beams tremble in the sky[i]1-5. The time described is the approach of sunset.
There, where his own Creator shed his blood,
While Ebro is beneath the Scales on high,
And noon scorches the wave on Ganges’ flood,
Such was the sun’s height; day was soon to pass;
When the angel of God joyful before us stood.
Outside the flames, above the bank, he was.
Beati mundo corde we heard him sing[ii]8. Matt. 5:8: “Blessed are the pure in heart.”
In a voice more living far than comes from us.
Then “None goes further, if first the fire not sting. [10]
O hallowed spirits, enter unafraid
And to the chant beyond let your ears cling.”
When we were near him, this to us he said.
Wherefore I, when I knew what his words meant,
Became as one who in the grave is laid.
Over my clasping hands forward I leant,
Eyeing the fire, and vivid to my mind
Men’s bodies burning, once beheld, it sent.
Then toward me turned them both my escorts kind;
And Virgil said to me: “O my son, here [20]
Torment, may-be, but death thou shalt not find.
Remember, O remember . . . and if thy fear
On Geryon into safety I recalled,
What shall I do now, being to God more near?
If thou within this womb of flames wert walled
Full thousand years, for certainty believe
That not of one hair could they make thee bald.
And if perchance thou think’st that I deceive,
Go forward into them, and thy faith prove,
With hands put in the edges of thy sleeve. [30]
Out of thy heart all fear remove, remove!
Turn hither and come confidently on!”
And I stood fixed and with my conscience strove.
When he beheld me still and hard as stone,
Troubled a little, he said: “Look now, this same
Wall is ’twixt Beatrice and thee, my son.”
As Pyramus at the sound of Thisbe’s name
Opened his dying eyes and gazed at her
Then, when the crimson on the mulberry came,[iii]39. The mulberry turned red on being spattered with the blood of Pyramus, who stabbed himself when he thought Thisbe slain by a lion (Ovid, Met., IV, 55-166).
So did I turn unto my wise Leader, [40]
My hardness melted, hearing the name told
Which like a well-spring in my mind I bear.
Whereon he shook his head, saying: “Do we hold
Our wish to stay on this side?” He smiled then
As on a child by an apple’s bribe cajoled.
Before me then the fire he entered in,
Praying Statius that he follow at his heel
Who for a long stretch now had walked between.
When I was in, I had been glad to reel
Therefrom to cool me, into boiling glass, [50]
Such burning beyond measure did I feel.
My sweet Father, to give me heart of grace,
Continued only on Beatrice to descant,
Saying: “Already I seem to see her face.”
On the other side, to guide us, rose a chant,
And we, intent on that alone to dwell,
Came forth there, where the ascent began to slant.
And there we heard a voice Venite hail[iv]58-59. Matt. 25:34: “Come, ye blessed of my Father . . .”
Benedicti patris mei out of light
So strong, it mastered me and made me quail. [60]
“The sun departs,” it added; “comes the night.
Tarry not; study at good pace to go
Before the west has darkened on your sight.”
Straight rose the path within the rock, and so
Directed onward, that I robbed the ray
Before me from the sun, already low.
I and my sages few steps did assay
When by the extinguished shadow we perceived
That now behind us had sunk down the day.
And ere the horizon had one hue received [70]
In all the unmeasured regions of the air,
And night her whole expansion had achieved,
Each of us made his bed upon a stair,
Seeing that the nature of the mount o’ercame
Alike the power to ascend and the desire.
As goats, now ruminating, though the same
That, before feeding, brisk and wanton played
On the high places of the hills, grow tame,
Silent, while the sun scorches, in the shade,
Watched by the herd that props him hour by hour [80]
Upon his staff and, propt so, tends his trade;
And as the shepherd, lodging out-of-door,
Watches night-long in quiet by his flock,
Wary lest wild beast scatter it or devour;
Such were we then, all three, within that nook,
I as a goat, they as a shepherd, there,
On this and that side hemmed by the high rock.
Little could there of the outside things appear;
But through that little I saw the stars to glow
Bigger than ordinary and shine more clear. [90]
Ruminating and gazing on them so
Sleep took me; sleep which often will apprise
Of things to come, and ere the event foreknow.
In the hour, I think, when first from Eastern skies
Upon the mountain Cytherea beamed[v]95. “Cytherea” is Venus, whose star shines before sunrise.
Whom fire of love forever glorifies,
A lady young and beautiful I seemed
To see move through a plain and flower on flower
To gather; singing, she was saying (I dreamed),
“Let them know, whoso of my name inquire, [100][vi]100. Dante is about to visit the Garden of Eden, the abode of innocence and harmless activity. Consequently the active and the contemplative life are revealed to him in the form of Laban’s daughters, Leah and Rachel.
That I am Leah, and move my fingers fair
Around, to make me a garland for a tire.
To glad me at the glass I deck me here;
But never to her mirror is untrue
My sister Rachel, and sits all day there.
She is fain to hold her beauteous eyes in view
As me with these hands I am fain to adorn:
To see contenteth her, and me to do.”
Already, through the splendour ere the morn,
Which to wayfarers the more grateful shows, [110]
Lodging less far from home, where they return,
The shadows on all sides were fleeing, and close
On them my sleep fled; wherefore, having seen
The great masters risen already, I rose.
“That apple whose sweetness in their craving keen[vii]115. “That apple . . .”: earthly happiness.
Mortals go seeking on so many boughs
This day shall peace to all thy hungers mean.”
Words such as these to me did Virgil use;
And no propitious gifts did man acquire
For pleasure matching these, to have or choose. [120]
So came on me desire upon desire
To be above, that now with every tread
I felt wings on me growing to waft me higher.
When under us the whole high stair was sped
And we unto the topmost step had won,
Virgil, fixing his eyes upon me, said:
“The temporal and the eternal fire, my son,
Thou hast beheld: thou art come now to a part
Where of myself I see no farther on.
I have brought thee hither both by wit and art. [130]
Take for thy guide thine own heart’s pleasure now.
Forth from the narrows, from the steeps, thou art.
See there the sun that shines upon thy brow;
See the young grass, the flowers and coppices
Which this soil, of itself alone, makes grow.
While the fair eyes are coming, full of bliss,
Which weeping made me come to thee before,
Amongst them thou canst go or sit at ease.
Expect from me no word or signal more.
Thy will is upright, sound of tissue, free: [140]
To disobey it were a fault; wherefore
Over thyself I crown thee and mitre thee.”[viii]142. I make thee thine own Emperor and Pope.