When I perceived my forehead overpowered I raised my hands, and made myself the visor The sunbeam leaps unto the opposite side, Refracted there before me I was smitten; On which account my sight was swift to flee. "What is it, Father sweet, from which I cannot So fully screen my sight that it avail me," Said I, "and seems towards us to be moving?" "Marvel thou not, if dazzle thee as yet The family of heaven," he answered me; ΤΟ 15 20 25 "An angel 't is, who comes to invite us upward. Soon will it be, that to behold these things Shall not be grievous, but delightful to thee As much as nature fashioned thee to feel." When we had reached the Angel benedight, With joyful voice he said: "Here enter in To stairway far less steep than are the others.' We mounting were, already thence departed, And "Beati misericordes" was 31 35 Behind us sung, "Rejoice, thou that o'ercomest!" My master and myself, we two alone 40 45 Were going upward, and I thought, in going, Some profit to acquire from words of his ; And I to him directed me, thus asking: “What did the spirit of Romagna mean, Mentioning interdict and partnership?" Whence he to me: "Of his own greatest failing He knows the harm; and therefore wonder not If he reprove us, that we less may rue it. Because are thither pointed your desires Where by companionship each share is lessened, Envy doth ply the bellows to your sighs. But if the love of the supernal sphere Should upwardly direct your aspiration, 51 There would not be that fear within your breast; For there, as much the more as one says Our, So much the more of good each one possesseth, And more of charity in that cloister burns." "I am more hungering to be satisfied," I said, “than if I had before been silent, The more possessors can more wealthy make Thy mind entirely upon earthly things, Which is above there, runneth unto love, 55 60 65 So much it gives itself as it finds ardor, O'er it increases the eternal valor. And the more people thitherward aspire, More are there to love well, and more they love And, as a mirror, one reflects the other. And if my reasoning appease thee not, Thou shalt see Beatrice; and she will fully Take from thee this and every other longing. Endeavor, then, that soon may be extinct, 75 80 As are the two already, the five wounds That close themselves again by being painful." Even as I wished to say, "Thou dost appease me," I saw that I had reached another circle, So that my eager eyes made me keep silence. There it appeared to me that in a vision Ecstatic on a sudden I was rapt, And in a temple many persons saw ; And at the door a woman, with the sweet Behavior of a mother, saying: "Son, Why in this manner hast thou dealt with us? Lo, sorrowing, thy father and myself 85 90 Were seeking for thee";-and as here she ceased, That which appeared at first had disappeared. Then I beheld another with those waters Adown her cheeks which grief distils whenever 95 And saying: "If of that city thou art lord, Avenge thyself on those audacious arms That clasped our daughter, O Pisistratus"; And the lord seemed to me benign and mild To answer her with aspect temperate : "What shall we do to those who wish us ill, If he who loves us be by us condemned?" Then saw I people hot in fire of wrath, 100 105 With stones a young man slaying, clamorously Still crying to each other, "Kill him! kill him!" And him I saw bow down, because of death That weighed already on him, to the earth, But of his eyes made ever gates to heaven, Imploring the high Lord, in so great strife, That he would pardon those his persecutors, With such an aspect as unlocks compassion. Soon as my soul had outwardly returned 115 To things external to it which are true, Did I my not false errors recognize. My Leader, who could see me bear myself Like to a man that rouses him from sleep, [stand? Exclaimed: "What ails thee, that thou canst not But hast been coming more than half a league 121 Veiling thine eyes, and with thy legs entangled, In guise of one whom wine or sleep subdueth?" "O my sweet Father, if thou listen to me, I'll tell thee," said I, "what appeared to me, 125 When thus from me my legs were ta'en away." And he: "If thou shouldst have a hundred masks Upon thy face, from me would not be shut Thy cogitations, howsoever small. What thou hast seen was that thou mayst not fail 130 135 Thus must we needs urge on the sluggards, slow To use their wakefulness when it returns." We passed along, athwart the twilight peering Forward as far as ever eye could stretch Against the sunbeams serotine and lucent ; And lo! by slow degrees a smoke approached In our direction, sombre as the night, 140 Nor was there place to hide one's self therefrom. This of our eyes and the pure air bereft us. 145 Dof CANTO XVI. ARKNESS of hell, and of a night deprived As much as may be tenebrous with cloud, As did that smoke which there enveloped us, Nor to the feeling of so rough a texture; For not an eye it suffered to stay open; Whereat mine escort, faithful and sagacious, Drew near to me and offered me his shoulder. 5 |