Purgatorio
Canto VIII
At sunset these souls join in the evening hymn; but they appear apprehensive, and two angels in green, with drawn swords, descend to take post on either side of the little valley and guard them from the visit of the serpent (of temptation). Sordello brings Dante and Virgil among the spirits, and Dante recognises Nino de’ Visconti, and they talk together. Dante now notes that the four stars of the morning have disappeared and three stars (symbols of the Theological Virtues) are shining in their place. The snake appears, but is driven off by the angels who swoop down like hawks. Conrad Malaspina asks Dante for news of his country, the Val di Magra. Dante replies that he has never been in those lands, but praises the Malaspini for their uprightness. Conrad predicts that before long Dante will know of the hospitality of his house by experience and not only by report.
NOW was the hour which longing backward bends
In those that sail, and melts their heart in sighs,
The day they have said farewell to their sweet friends,
And pricks with love the outsetting pilgrim’s eyes
If the far bell he hears across the land
Which seems to mourn over the day that dies,
When I let hearing from my ears be banned,
Absorbed in gaze on one of the souls there,
Uprisen, who craved an audience with its hand.
It joined and lifted both its palms in prayer, [10]
Fixing its eyes upon the East, as though
’Twere saying-to God: “For naught else have I care.”
Te lucis ante I heard devoutly flow
Out of its mouth and with a note so sweet
It caused me quite out of myself to go.
And the others then devoutly followed it,
Sweetly, with eyes fixed on the spheres that spin
On high, until the hymn was all complete.
Sharpen thy sight well, reader; for so thin
Assuredly the veil of truth is now [20]
That ’tis an easy task to pass within.
I saw that noble army from below
Upward their silent gaze thereafter send
As if expectant, pale and humble of brow.
And I saw, issuing from on high, descend
Two angels, each with flaming sword in hand
Broken short off and blunted at the end.
Green as the just-born leaves ere they expand,
Their raiment was, which they behind them trailed,
By the green wings ever disturbed and fanned. [30]
One lighting a little above us I beheld,
And the other descended on the opposite bank,
So that the people all in the midst were held.
Clearly their blond heads I discerned, but blank
The eyes were in their faces, like a power
That, dazzled by excess of splendour, shrank.
“Both are from Mary’s bosom come, this bower,”
Sordello said, “to have in ward, because
Of that snake which shall visit us at this hour.”
Whereat I, knowing not by what way it was, [40]
Turned me around then and all frozen pale
Up to the trusted shoulders pressed me close.
Sordello again: “Now down into the dell
’Mid the great shades, to speak with them, go we:
To see you in their midst will please them well.”
I think that I descended steps but three
And was below, when I saw one to stare,
As if for recognition, only at me.
’Twas now the time when dusk blackens the air,
Yet not so but that what before was lost [50]
By distance twixt his eyes and mine was clear.
Toward me he moved, and I to his accost.
Noble Judge Nino, how my heart had ease[i]53. “Nino” Visconti, a grandson of the Ugolino of Inf. XXXIII, was judge, or governor, of a Sardinian province.
To see that not among the damned thou wast!
We left unsaid no greeting that could please.
Then he asked: “How long since didst thou attain
The foot of the mountain over the far seas?”
“O,” said I, “from within the dens of pain
I came this morn: in my first life I am,
Though by this journey the other life I gain.” [60]
And when this answer of mine was heard by them,
Sordello and he backward recoiled a pace,[ii]62. Sordello, up to this time, has not noticed that Dante is alive.
Like folk on whom a sudden amazement came.
The one turned round to Virgil, the other to face
One sitting there, crying: “Conrad, up now get![iii]65. Conrad Malaspina was the lord of Villafranca of the Magra. For a century his house had been famous for its liberality to troubadours.
Come, see what God hath purposed in His grace.”
Then, turned to me: “By this especial debt
Thou owest to Him who so hides from our view
His first Wherefore, that none may fathom it,
When thou hast passed the wide waters anew, [70]
Tell my Joan that she make for me a prayer[iv]71-80. Joan was Nino’s only child. Nino’s wife, Beatrice d’Este, had married Galeazzo Visconti, who was driven from Milan. The arms of the Visconti (the viper) will not adorn her tomb so well as Nino’s (the cock).
There where the innocent are hearkened to.
Her mother, I think, for me hath no more care
Since that day when she changed her wimples white,
Which she, poor soul, must long again to wear.
Through her, full easy it is to judge aright
How soon love’s fire can in a woman fade
If eye and touch keep not the flame alight.
The viper by the Milanese displayed
Will for her tomb make not so fair a crest [80]
As would Gallura’s blazoned cock have made.”
Thus spoke he, in all his countenance imprest
With the clear stamp of that most righteous zeal
Which within due bound burneth in the breast.
My eyes went only upon the heavens to dwell,
There where the motion of the stars is slow
As the more near to the axle in the wheel.
My leader then: “Son, at what gazest thou
Aloft?” And I: “At those three torches there[v]89-93. The “three torches,” representing the three theological virtues, appear at night. The day is ushered in by the constellation of the four cardinal virtues.
Which make the whole pole on this side to glow.” [90]
And he to me: “The four stars beaming clear
Thou sawest this morning, now upon that side
Are sunk, and these are risen where they were.”
Sordello, as he spoke, drew him aside
To himself, saying: “Our adversary, see!”
Pointing his finger, Virgil’s eye to guide.
There, where the dell’s foot is from barrier free,
Was a snake, such perhaps as in his guile
Gave unto Eve food from the bitter tree.
Through grass and flowers on came the fell reptile, [100]
And now and again its head to its back it drove,
As a beast sleeks itself, and licked the while.
I did not see, and cannot speak thereof,
How moved the heavenly hawks; but sure am I
That I beheld both one and the other move.
Hearing the green wings cleave the air to fly,
The serpent fled, and the angels wheeled about
Abreast up to their posts again on high.
The shade that to the judge when he called out
Had drawn close, all through that assault and swoop [110]
From me had not once loosed its gaze devout.
“So may that lantern which doth lead thee up
Find in thy will as much wax as needs yet
To reach on high the enamelled mountain-top,”
It said, “if thou hast sure news to relate
Of Val di Magra’s and its neighbours’ lot,
Tell it to me, for once there I was great.
I was called Conrad Malaspina; not
The ancient one, but truly of his descent.[vi]119. The older and more famous Conrad Malaspina was the grandfather of the present speaker.
I loved my own, with love cleansed here from spot.” [120]
“O,” said I, “through your land I never went;
But where throughout all Europe do men dwell
That its renown is not among them sent?
The fame that honoureth your house so well
Crieth out the country, crieth out its lord,
So that who ne’er was there can of it tell.
I swear to you, so grace my steps reward,
Your honoured race hath ceased not forth to show
The glory of the purse and of the sword.
Custom and nature privilege it so [130]
That though the guilty head the world misguides,[vii]131. “The guilty head”: Rome.
Sole it goes straight, nor the evil way will know.”
And he: “Depart now, for the sun abides[viii]133-135. The sun will not return seven times to the sign of Aries, the Ram: seven years will not pass.
Not seven times in the bed the Ram with all
Four feet in season covers and bestrides
Before this courteous opinion shall
Right in the middle of thy head be nailed—
Nail stronger than report of men withal—
If that the course of judgment have prevailed.”