Purgatorio
Canto XXX
Like the stars of Ursa Minor which guide sailors to port, the Seven Candlesticks, stars of the empyrean, control the movements of those in the procession; and the elders who preceded the car now turn toward it, and one (who represents the Song of Solomon) calls on Beatrice to appear. Angels are seen scattering flowers, and in the midst of them a veiled lady clad in the colours of Faith, Hope, and Charity. It is Beatrice; and Dante experiences the same agitation in her presence, though her face is not revealed, as when he first saw her. Overcome, he turns for comfort to Virgil; but Virgil has now disappeared; and Beatrice addresses Dante by name, severe in look and in speech. Frozen by her reproaches, he is melted by the compassion of the angels to whom Beatrice tells of Dante’s life and disloyalty to her.
NOW when those Seven of the First Heaven stood still[i]1-4. “The First Heaven”: the Empyrean.—“The evil will”: man’s sinfulness.—“There”: in the procession of the Church.
Which rising and declension never knew
Nor veil of other mist than the evil will,
And which apprized each there what he should do,
Even as the starry Seven in lower air[ii]5-6. As the Ursa Minor guides the helmsman.
Guide him to port who steereth by them true,
The people in whom truth doth itself declare,
Who first between it and the Gryphon came,
Turned to the car, as if their peace were there.
And one, as if Heaven prompted that acclaim, [10]
Veni, sponsa, de Libano chanted thrice,[iii]11. “Come with me from Lebanon, my spouse.”
And after him all the others cried the same.
As at the last trump shall the saints arise,
Crying alleluias to be re-attired
In flesh, up from the cavern where each lies,
Upon the heavenly chariot so inspired
A hundred sprang ad vocem tanti senis,[iv]17. “At the voice of so great an elder.”
Messengers of eternal life, who quired
Singing together Benedictus qui venis,[v]19. “Blessed is he that cometh” (in the name of the Lord).
While from their hands flowers up and down were thrown, [20]
And Manibus O date lilia plenis.[vi]21. “Oh, give lilies with full hands!”
I have seen ere now at the beginning dawn
The region of the East all coloured rose,
(The pure sky else in beauty of peace withdrawn)
When shadowed the sun’s face uprising shows,
So that the mists, attempering his powers,
Let the eye linger upon him in repose;
So now for me amid a cloud of flowers
That from the angels’ hands up-floated light
And fell, withinside and without, in showers, [30]
A lady, olive-crowned o’er veil of white,
Clothed in the colour of a living flame,
Under a mantle green, stole on my sight.
My spirit that a time too long to name
Had passed, since, at her presence coming nigh,
A trembling thing and broken it became,
Now by no recognition of the eye
But virtue invisible that went out from her
Felt old love seize me in all its mastery.
When smote my sight the high virtue that, ere [40]
The years of boyhood were behind me laid,
Already had pierced me through, as with a spear,
With such trust as a child that is afraid
Or hurt, runs to his mother with his pains,
I turned me to the left, to seek me aid
And say to Virgil: “Scarce one drop remains
Of blood in me that trembles not: by this
I recognise the old flame within my veins.”
But Virgil had from us his company’s
Sweet solace taken, Virgil, father kind, [50]
Virgil, who for my soul’s weal made me his.
Nor all that our first mother had resigned[vii]52. Not all Eden.
Availed to keep my cheeks, washed with the dew,
From tears that once more stained them, welling blind.
“Dante, that Virgil leaves thee, and from thy view
Is vanished, O not yet weep; weep not yet,
For thou must weep, another stab to rue.”
Like the admiral who on poop or prow is set,
To eye his men, in the other ships dispersed,
And comes, each heart to embolden and abet, [60]
So on the left side of the car, when first
I turned, hearing my own name in my ear
(Which of necessity is here rehearsed)
I found the gaze of her I had seen appear
Erewhile, veiled, in the angelic festival,
Toward me, this side the stream, directed clear;
Howbeit the veil she had from her head let fall,
With grey leaf of Minerva chapleted,
Disclosing her, did not disclose her all.
Still severe, standing in her queenlihead, [70]
She spoke on, as one speaks whose purpose is
To keep the hottest word awhile unsaid.
“Look on me well: I am, I am Beatrice.
How, then, didst thou deign to ascend the Mount?
Knewest thou not that, here, man is in bliss?”
I dropt mine eyes down to the lucent fount,
But seeing myself there, drew them back in haste
To the grass, heavy upon my shame’s account.
As to a child a mother looks stern-faced,
So to me seemed she: pity austere in thought [80]
Hath in its savour a so bitter taste.
She ceased then, and from every angel throat
Straightway In te, Domine, speravi rose[viii]83-84. Ps. 31: “In thee, O Lord, do I put my trust.” Verse 8 ends with: “Thou hast set my feet in a large room.”
But beyond pedes meos they passed not.
As on the chine of Italy the snows[ix]85. “The chine of Italy” is the Apennine range.
Lodged in the living rafters harden oft
To freezing, when the North-East on them blows,
Then, inly melted, trickle from aloft,
If from the shadeless countries a breath stirs,[x]89. “The shadeless countries”: the African desert.
Like in the flame a candle melting soft, [90]
So was I, without sighs and without tears,
In presence of their singing who accord
Their notes to music of the eternal spheres;
But when I was aware of the sweet chord
Of their compassion, more than if they spoke
Saying, “Lady, why this shame upon him poured?”
The ice that round my heart had hardened woke
Warm into breath and water, and from my breast
In anguish, through mouth and through eyes, outbroke.
She, standing ever in her still’d arrest [100]
Upon the car’s same side, to the array
Of those compassionate beings these words addrest:
“Ye so keep watch in the everlasting day
That neither night stealeth from you, nor sleep,
One step that the world takes upon its way;
Therefore my answer shall the more care keep
That he, there, understand me amid those tears,
So that transgression equal sorrow reap.
Not only by operation of great spheres[xi]109-112. The great spheres” are the revolving heavens, which determine the disposition of every human being. God also bestows upon every individual a special degree of grace.
Which to some certain end each seed uptrain [110]
According as the starry voice it hears,,
But bounty of heavenly graces, which for rain
Have exhalations born in place so high
That our eyes may not near to them attain,
This man was such in natural potency,
In his new life, that all the ingrained good[xii]116. “New life”: young life.
Looked in him to have fruited wondrously.
But so much groweth the more rank and rude
The soil with bad seed and unhusbanded,
The more it hath from earth of hardihood. [120]
His spirit some time my countenance comforted
With look of my young eyes for its support,
Drawing him, the right path with me to tread.
Soon as the threshold I had passed, athwart
The second period, and life changed its home,[xiii]125. “The second period”: begins at 25. Her “life changed” the temporal home for the eternal.
Me he forsook, with others to consort.
When from the flesh to spirit I had clomb
And beauty and virtue greater in me grew,
Less dear to him, more strange did I become;
And with perverted steps on ways untrue [130]
He sought false images of good, that ne’er
Perform entire the promise that was due.
Nor helped me the inspiration won by prayer
Whereby through dream or other hidden accost
I called him back; so little had he care.
So low he sank, all means must I exhaust,
Till naught for his salvation profited
Save to be shown the people that are lost.
For this I broached the gateway of the dead,
For this with tears was my entreaty brought [140]
To him, by whom his feet were hither led.
The ordinance of high God were set at naught
If Lethe were passed over into peace,
And such viand enjoyed, without some scot
Of penitence that may the tears release.”