Purgatorio
Canto XXXI
Dante, accused by Beatrice, confesses his sin and is filled with penitence. Overwhelmed by the severity of Beatrice’s words, and by his own remorse, he falls senseless. When he recovers from his faint, he finds that Matilda is drawing him across Lethe stream, in which she immerses him. The four dancers (the four cardinal virtues) lead him up to the Gryphon, where Beatrice is standing; in her eyes the Gryphon is mirrored, now in one form now in the other. The other three (the Theological Virtues) then come forward, dancing, and implore Beatrice to smile upon her faithful servant.
“O THOU who art yon-side the sacred stream,”
Turning her speech to point at me the blade
Which even the edge had made so sharp to seem,
She spoke again, continuing undelayed.
“Say, say if this be true; for, thus accused,
Confession must thereto by thee be made”
Whereat my faculties were so confused
That the voice stirred and faltered and was dead
Ere it came free of the organs that it used.
Short time she endured; “What think’st thou?” then she said. [10]
“Answer, for in thee the sad memories
By the water are not yet discomfited.”[i]12. “The water’: of Lethe.
Fear and confusion’s mingled miseries
Constrained out of my mouth a “Yes” so low
That to understand it there was need of eyes.
As the arbalast that snaps both string and bow,
When to a too great tautness it is forced,
And shooting hits the mark with feebler blow,
So under this so heavy charge I burst,
Out of me letting gush the sighs and tears; [20]
And in its vent my voice failed as from thirst.
Wherefore she questioned: “Within those desires
I stirred in thee, to make thee love the Good
Beyond which nought is, whereto man aspires,
What moats or what strong chains athwart thy road
Didst thou encounter, that of hope to pass
Onward, thou needs must strip thee as of a load?
And what solace or profit in the face
Of the others was displayed unto thine eye
That thou before them up and down must pace?” [30]
After the drawing of a bitter sigh
Scarce had I voice an answer to essay,
And lips with difficulty shaped reply.
Weeping I said: “Things of the passing day,
Soon as your face no longer on me shone,
With their false pleasure turned my steps away.”
And she: “If thou wert silent, nor didst own
What thou avowest, not less were record
Of thy fault made: by such a judge ’tis known.
But when the sinner’s own mouth has outpoured [40]
The accusation, in our court the wheel[ii]41-42. The sword of justice is blunted, i.e., tempered with mercy.
Against the edge is turned back on the sword.
Howbeit, that now the shame thou carry still
For thine error, and at the Siren’s plea
Another time thou be of stronger will,
Lay aside the seed of weeping; hark to me.
Hear how my buried body should have spurred
And on the opposite path have furthered thee.
Nature or art never to thee assured
Such pleasure as the fair limbs that did house [50]
My spirit, and now are scattered and interred.
And if the highest pleasure failed thee thus
By my death, at such time what mortal thing
Ought to have drawn thee toward it amorous?
Truly oughtest thou at the first arrow’s sting
Of those lures, to rise after me on high,
Who was no more made in such fashioning.
Nay, nor should girl or other vanity[iii]58. Is the “girl” to be taken literally, or does she symbolise some intellectual pursuit inconsistent with the spiritual ideal? The question remains open.
Of such brief usage have thy wings es sea
To wait for other coming shafts to fly. [60]
The young bird waiteth two or three indeed;
But in the eyes of the full-fledged in vain
The net is spread and the arrows vainly speed.”
As boys that dumb with shamefastness remain,
Eyes to ground, listening to their faults rehearsed,
Knowing themselves in penitence and pain,
So stood I; and she said: “From what thou hear’st
If thou art grieving, lift thy beard and look,[iv]68. “Beard”: chin.
And thou shalt by a greater grief be pierced.”
With less resistance is a stubborn oak [70]
Torn up by wind (whether ’twas ours that blew
Or wind that from Iarbas’ land awoke)[v]72. “Iarba” was king of Libya.
Than at her bidding I my chin up-drew;
And when by “beard” she asked me for my face,
The venom in the meaning well I knew.[vi]75. The implication that the beard is inconsistent with Dante’s youthful vagaries.
And when to expose my features I could brace
My spirit, I saw those primal Essences[vii]77. “Primal Essences”: the angels.
Reposing from their strewings in their place.
And mine eyes, hardly as yet assured of these,
Were ’ware of Beatrice, turned toward that beast [80][viii]80. “That beast”: the Gryphon.
Which in two natures one sole person is.
Under her veil beyond the stream I wist
That she surpassed her ancient self yet more
Than when amongst us she surpassed the rest.
The nettle of penitence pricked me now so sore
That, of all things, that which did most pervert
To love of it, I had most hatred for.
The recognition gnawed so at my heart
That I fell conquered, and what then of me
Became, she knows who had devised the smart. [90]
Then when my heart restored the faculty
Of sense, the lady I had found alone[ix]92. “The lady”: Matilda.
I saw above me, and “Hold,” she said, “hold me.”
To the neck into the stream she had led me on
And, drawing me behind her, went as light
Over the water as a shuttle thrown.
When I was near the bank of blessed sight
Asperges me my ears so sweetly graced[x]98. “Purge me”: Ps. 52:7.
I cannot recollect it, far less write.
The fair lady opened her arms, embraced [100]
My head, and plunged me underneath the flow,
Where swallowing I must needs the water taste,
Then raised me and presented me, bathed so,
Within the dancing of the beauteous Four;[xi]104. “The beauteous Four”: the cardinal virtues.
And each an arm about me came to throw.
“Here we are nymphs, in the sky stars: before
Beatrice descended to the world, we were
Ordained to be her handmaids evermore.
We'll lead thee to her eyes; but the Three there,[xii]109. “The Three”: the theological virtues.
Whose gaze is deeper, in the blissful light [110]
That is within, shall make thine own more clear.”
Thus singing they began, and me then right
Up to the Gryphon’s breast with them they led
Where Beatrice was standing opposite.
“See that thou spare not of thy gaze,” they said.
“We have set thee afore the emeralds to stand[xiii]116. “The emeralds”: the eyes of Beatrice.
Wherefrom for thee Love once his armoury fed.”
Thousand desires, hotter than flame, constrained
The gaze of mine eyes to the shining eyes
Which on the Gryphon only fixed remained. [120]
As in the glass the sun, not otherwise
The two-fold creature had its mirroring
Within them, now in one, now the other guise.[xiv]123. Now with its human, now with its divine, bearing—the two component parts of the nature of Christ.
Think, Reader, if I marvelled at this thing,
When I beheld it unchanged as at first
Itself, and in its image altering.
While in a deep astonishment immersed
My happy soul was tasting of that food
Which, itself sating, of itself makes thirst,
Showing themselves as if of loftiest blood [130]
In their demeanour, the other three came then
Dancing to the angelic air they trod.
“Turn, Beatrice, turn thy sainted eyes again,”
So were they singing, “to thy servant leal
Who to see thee so many steps hath ta’en.
Of thy grace do us this grace, to unveil
To him thy mouth, so that he may discern
The second beauty which thou dost conceal.”[xv]138. “The second beauty” is the mouth, the first beauty being the eyes.
O splendour of the living light eterne,
Who is there that beneath Parnassus’ shade [140]
Has grown pale or has drunk of that cistern
That would not seem to have his mind o’er-weighed
Striving to paint thee as thou appeared’st where
To figure thee, heaven’s harmonies are made,
When thou didst unveil to the open air?