A CANTO XV. WILL benign, in which reveals itself As in the iniquitous, cupidity, Silence imposed upon that dulcet lyre, And quieted the consecrated chords, That Heaven's right hand doth tighten and relax. How unto just entreaties shall be deaf Those substances, which, to give me desire Of praying them, with one accord grew silent? 'T is well that without end he should lament, Who for the love of thing that doth not last As through the pure and tranquil evening air Unto that cross's foot there ran a star 10 15 Thus piteous did Anchises' shade reach forward, as If any faith our greatest Muse deserve, Bis unquam Cæli janua reclusa?" Thus that effulgence; whence I gave it heed; 30 [tom 36 That with mine own methought I touched the botBoth of my grace and of my Paradise! Then, pleasant to the hearing and the sight, The spirit joined to its beginning things I understood not, so profound it spake ; Nor did it hide itself from me by choice, But by necessity; for its conception Above the mark of mortals set itself. And when the bow of burning sympathy 40 45 Was so far slackened, that its speech descended Towards the mark of our intelligence, The first thing that was understood by me Was, "Benedight be Thou, O Trine and One, Who hast unto my seed so courteous been!" And it continued: "Hunger long and grateful, Drawn from the reading of the mighty volume so Wherein is never changed the white or dark, Thou hast appeased, my son, within this light In which I speak to thee, by grace of her Who to this lofty flight with plumage clothed thee. Thou thinkest that to me thy thought doth pass 55 60 And why I seem more joyous unto thee Than any other of this gladsome crowd. Thou think'st the truth; because the small and great Of this existence look into the mirror Wherein, before thou think'st, thy thought thou But that the sacred love, in which I watch [showest. With sight perpetual, and which makes me thirst 65 With sweet desire, may better be fulfilled, Now let thy voice secure and frank and glad Proclaim the wishes, the desire proclaim, To which my answer is decreed already.” To Beatrice I turned me, and she heard 70 Before I spake, and smiled to me a sign, That made the wings of my desire increase; Then in this wise began I: "Love and knowledge, When on you dawned the first Equality, became ; Of the same weight for each of you That all similitudes are insufficient. But among mortals will and argument, 75 80 85 Truly do I entreat thee, living topaz ! Well it behoves thee that the long fatigue 90 95 Thou shouldst for him make shorter with thy works. Florence, within the ancient boundary From which she taketh still her tierce and nones, Abode in quiet, temperate and chaste. No golden chain she had, nor coronal, Nor ladies shod with sandal shoon, nor girdle That caught the eye more than the person did. Not yet the daughter at her birth struck fear Into the father, for the time and dower No houses had she void of families, Not yet had thither come Sardanapalus To show what in a chamber can be done; 100 105 110 With leather and with bone, and from the mirror His dame depart without a painted face; And him of Nerli saw, and him of Vecchio, And in her lullaby the language used That first delights the fathers and the mothers; Another, drawing tresses from her distaff, Told o'er among her family the tales Of Trojans and of Fesole and Rome. As great a marvel then would have been held Life of the citizen, to such a safe From Val di Pado came to me my wife, And from that place thy surname was derived. I followed afterward the Emperor Conrad, And he begirt me of his chivalry, So much I pleased him with my noble deeds. I followed in his train against that law's Iniquity, whose people doth usurp 115 120 125 130 135 140 Your just possession, through your Pastor's fault. |