Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them, Became a thing transplendent in my sight, As here a smile; but down below, the shade Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning If I in thee were as thou art in me." "The greatest of the valleys where the water Expands itself," forthwith its words began, Between discordant shores against the sun Extends so far, that it meridian makes Where it was wont before to make the horizon. I was a dweller on that valley's shore "Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short That with its blood once made the harbour hot.. My name was known; and now with me this heaven For more the daughter of Belus never burned, Nor yet that Rodophean, who deluded Was by Demophoön, nor yet Alcides, Yet here is no repenting, but we smile, Not at the fault, which comes not back to mind, Here we behold the art that doth adorn With such affection, and the good discover Thy wishes hence which in this sphere are born, Rahab, and being to our order joined, Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven, Which he acquired with one palm and the other, Because she favoured the first glorious deed 110 115 120 123 That little stirs the memory of the Pope. Thy city, which an offshoot is of him Brings forth and scatters the accursed flower Who first upon his Maker turned his back, Which both the sheep and lambs hath led astray, For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors Their meditations reach not Nazareth, Of Rome, which have a cemetery been Unto the soldiery that followed Peter, Shall soon be free from this adultery." CANTO X. LOOKING into his Son with all the Love Which each of them eternally breathes forth, 135 135 140 Whate'er before the mind or eye revolves With so much order made, there can be none With me thy vision straight unto that part That Master's art, who in himself so loves it That never doth his eye depart therefrom. Behold how from that point goes branching off The oblique circle, which conveys the planets, Much virtue in the heavens would be in vain, Were the departure, much would wanting be In thought pursuing that which is foretasted, If thou wouldst jocund be instead of weary. I've set before thee; henceforth feed thyself, For to itself diverteth all my care That theme whereof I have been made the scribe. Who with the power of heaven the world imprints Conjoined, along the spirals was revolving, I was not conscious, saving as a man From good to better, and so suddenly I, though I call on genius, art, and practice, Cannot so tell that it could be imagined; For altitude so great, it is no marvel, NN Such in this place was the fourth family Of the high Father, who forever sates it, To worship, nor to give itself to God And all my love was so absorbed in Him, Make us a centre and themselves a circle, Thus girt about the daughter of Latona We sometimes see, when pregnant is the air, So that it holds the thread which makes her zone. Within the court of Heaven, whence I return, Are many jewels found, so fair and precious Who takes not wings that he may fly up thither, As soon as singing thus those burning suns Had round about us whirled themselves three times, Ladies they seemed, not from the dance released, And within one I heard beginning: "When The radiance of grace, by which is kindled True love, and which thereafter grows by loving, Within thee multiplied is so resplendent That it conducts thee upward by that stair, Where without reascending none descends, Who should deny the wine out of his vial Unto thy thirst, in liberty were not Except as water which descends not seaward. Fain wouldst thou know with what plants is enflowered The Lady fair who makes thee strong for heaven. 85 90 Of the lambs was I of the holy flock Which Dominic conducteth by a road My brother and master was; and he Albertus Follow behind my speaking with thy sight Of Gratian, who assisted both the courts That Peter was who, e'en as the poor widow, The fifth light, that among us is the fairest, Breathes forth from such a love, that all the world Within it is the lofty mind, where knowledge So deep was put, that, if the true be true, Thou seest next the lustre of that taper, Which in the flesh below looked most within Within that other little light is smiling The advocate of the Christian centuries, From light to light pursuant of my praise, The sainted soul, which the fallacious world Down in Cieldauro, and from martyrdom The light is of a spirit unto whom It is the light eternal of Sigier, Who, reading lectures in the Street of Straw, |