Purgatorio
Canto IX
Dante falls into a deep sleep and dreams that he is carried up by an eagle into the sphere of fire. Waking suddenly, he finds himself with Virgil at a spot higher up the mountain and just below the gate of Purgatory proper. Virgil tells him that, while he slept, Lucy carried him up from the valley below. The gate of Purgatory is guarded by an angel sitting on the topmost of three steps, each differently coloured. Dante goes up to the gate and humbly craves admission. The angel inscribes the letter P (symbol of the seven deadly sins, Peccata) seven times on his forehead; then opens the gate with a golden and a silver key.
ANCIENT Tithonus’ concubine by now[i]1-6. “Ancient Tithonus’ concubine” is the Lunar Aurora, ie. the moon’s dawn.—The cold creature” is the constellation of Scorpio.
At the eastern balcony was growing white
Forth from the arms of her sweet bed-fellow.
With jewels was her forehead tiar'd bright
Clustered in likeness of the cold creature
That woundeth with his tail as with a bite.
And Night had made in that place where we were[ii]7-9. Nearly three hours have passed ‘since nightfall.
Two of her climbing steps, and now the third
Hovered upon its wings inclining near,
When I, in whom something of Adam stirred, [10]
Sank down with body overcome by sleep,
Where all we five were seated, on the sward.[iii]12. Sordello, Virgil, Dante, Nino, Conrad.
At that time when the swallow wakes to cheep
Her sad notes close upon the morning hour,
Perhaps the record of old plaints to keep,
And when our mind, being a truant more
From flesh, and with its thoughts less tangled up,
In vision wins almost prophetic power,
I seemed in a dream to see above me stoop
An eagle of golden plumage in the sky [20]
With wings stretcht wide out and intent to swoop.
He seemed above the very place to fly
Where Ganymede was forced his mates to lose[iv]23. Ganymede was caught up by an eagle, to be cup-bearer to the gods.
When he was snatcht up to the assembly on high.
Within me I thought: Perhaps only because
Of habit he strikes here, and from elsewhere
Scorneth to carry up aught in his claws.
Then, having seemed to wheel a little, sheer
Down he came, terrible as the lightning’s lash,
And snatcht me up far as the fiery sphere. [30]
Then he and I, it seemed, burnt in the flash,
And I so scorched at the imagined blaze
That needs must sleep be broken as with a crash.
Not otherwise Achilles in amaze,[v]34-39. To prevent Achilles from going to the Trojan war, Thetis took him in his sleep from his teacher, the centaur Chiron, to the island of Scyros.
Not knowing whither he was come, did start
And all around him turn his wakened gaze
When Scyros-wards from Chiron, next her heart,
His mother bore him sleeping, to alight
There where the Greeks compelled him to depart,
Than I now started as sleep fled me quite [40]
And my face turned to death-pale suddenly,
Even as a man who freezes from affright.
Beside me was my Comfort, only he:
And lo, the sun was more than two hours high
Already, and mine eyes were turned to sea.
“Have no fear,” said my Lord, “but fortify
Thyself; to a good point we have won through.
Hold thee not back, but all thy strength apply.
Thou art arrived at Purgatory now.
See there the rampart closing it around, [50]
See the entrance there where it seems cleft in two.
Ere this when in thee the soul slumbered sound
Amid the dawning that precedes the day,
Laid on the flowers that prank the lower ground,
A lady came, saying ‘I am Lucy; I pray[vi]55. Lucy is the symbol of Illuminating Grace.
Let me lift up this sleeping man, to aid
And speed him the more surely upon his way,’
Sordello and the other noble natures stayed.
She took thee, and as the brightening day grew near
She mounted, and I followed in her tread. [60]
Here did she set thee; her beautiful eyes made clear
First, where the entrance in yon opening lies;
Then she departed, and sleep went with her.”
Like one who is delivered from surmise
And changes fear to comfort in his mind
When truth reveals itself before his eyes,
I changed me; and when from doubting disentwined
My leader saw me, up where the rampart rose
He moved on toward the height, and I behind.
Reader, thou see’st well how my matter grows [70]
In loftiness, and therefore marvel not
That my art also more exalted shows.
We approached and were arriving at a spot
Whence, there where first to me a gap appeared
Like in a wall some crack that it hath got,
I saw a gate, and three steps mounting toward
The gate above, coloured of divers stain,
And a guardian who as yet spoke not a word.
And as my eyes were opened to see plain,
I saw him seated on the topmost tread [80]
In countenance such as I could not sustain.
A naked sword within his hand he had
Which toward us turned the rays so from the steel
That I to face it often in vain essayed.
“There where you stand, halt, and declare your will,”
He began saying; “who is it escorteth you?
Beware lest coming up be to your ill.”
My master spoke and answered him: “But now
A lady of heaven who hath these things in care,
Said to us: ‘There the gate is; thither go.’” [90]
“And may she for your steps all good prepare,”
Resumed the warden in his courtesy,
“Come ye then forward to ascend our stair.”
There came we; and the first step of the three[vii]94. Apparently these steps stand for the three stages of original innocence, sin, and atonement.
Was white marble, and polished with such art
That just as I appear it mirrored me.
The second was black-purple or yet more swart,
Of rugged stone and burnt into the grain;
And it was cracked both lengthwise and athwart.
The third whose mass the other two sustain [100]
Seemed porphyry, from which a blazing broke
Bright as the blood that spurts out of a vein.
The angel of God rested upon this block
Both his feet, sitting on the threshold stone,
Which seemed to me of adamantine rock.
Up the three steps my Leader took me on
With my own right good will, saying: “Now entreat
In all humility that the bolt be drawn.”
Devout I flung me at the sacred feet:
I prayed him to open to me of his grace; [110]
But first upon my bosom thrice I beat.
Seven P’s upon my forehead did he trace
With his sword’s point, and: “See that thou,” he said,
“When that thou art within, these wounds efface.”
Ashes or earth that comes dry on the spade
Would be one colour with his raiment’s fold;
And from beneath it two keys he displayed.
One was of silver and the other of gold.[viii]118. The golden key of power and the silver key of discernment.
First with the white, then with the yellow he wrought
So to the gate that I was well consoled. [120]
“Whenever one of these fails in the slot
So that the lock it turneth not aright,”
Said he to us, “this passage opens not.
More precious the one is, but great art and wit
The other needs before the lock will stir,
Because by this one is the knot unknit.
From Peter I hold them, and he bade me err
Rather in opening than in keeping fast,
If but the people cast them prostrate here.”
He pushed the sacred portal’s door at last, [130]
Saying: “Enter, but be warned that he who is found
Looking behind him is again out-cast.”[ix]132. “Looking behind”: upon his former life.
And when within their sockets turned full round
The pivots of the sacred portal-door,
Made of strong metal and clanging in their sound,
Tarpeia rasped not nor gave such a roar[x]136-138. When Caesar took possession of the Tarpeian rock from the tribune Metellus, the gates of the temple were opened and the rock resounded.
When good Metellus from its charge was rent,
Whereby it was to stay despoiled and poor.
I turned me aside, on that first thunder intent;
And Te Deum laudamus seemed I then [140]
To hear in voices with the sweet sound blent.
Just such an image did my senses gain
From what I heard, as from a choir is caught
When they to instruments accord their strain,
And now the words are clear and now are not.