CANTO XIV. FROM centre unto rim, from rim to centre, What I am saying, at the moment when Of his discourse and that of Beatrice, Blossoms your substance shall remain with you And if it do remain, say in what manner, It can be that it injure not your sight." As by a greater gladness urged and drawn They who are dancing in a ring sometimes So, at that orison devout and prompt, The holy circles a new joy displayed In their revolving and their wondrous song. Whoso lamenteth him that here we die That we may live above, has never there The One and Two and Three who ever liveth, And reigneth ever in Three and Two and One, Three several times was chanted by each one And, in the lustre most divine of all The lesser ring, I heard a modest voice, Answer: "As long as the festivity Of Paradise shall be, so long our love Shall radiate round about us such a vesture. Its brightness is proportioned to the ardour, Is reassumed, then shall our persons be Of light gratuitous the Good Supreme, And by its vivid whiteness overpowers it Shall be o'erpowered in aspect by the flesh, Nor can so great a splendour weary us, For strong will be the organs of the body So sudden and alert appeared to me Both one and the other choir to say Amen, That well they showed desire for their dead bodies; Nor sole for them perhaps, but for the mothers, The fathers, and the rest who had been dear And lo! all round about of equal brightness And as at rise of early eve begin Along the welkin new appearances, So that the sight seems real and unreal, It seemed to me that new subsistences Began there to be seen, and make a circle O very sparkling of the Holy Spirit, How sudden and incandescent it became But Beatrice so beautiful and smiling Appeared to me, that with the other sights Well was I ware that I was more uplifted By the enkindled smiling of the star, Which is the same in all, such holocaust Splendours appeared to me in twofold rays, Glimmers between the two poles of the world Those rays described the venerable sign Here doth my memory overcome my genius; For on that cross as levin gleamed forth Christ, 'But he who takes his cross and follows Christ From horn to horn, and 'twixt the top and base, We here behold, renewing still the sight, Across the sunbeam move, wherewith is listed Sometimes the shade, which for their own defence And as a lute and harp, accordant strung With many strings, a dulcet tinkling make To him by whom the notes are not distinguished, Because there came to me, "Arise and conquer !" As unto him who hears and comprehends not. So much enamoured I became therewith, That until then there was not anything That e'er had fettered me with such sweet bonds. Perhaps my word appears somewhat too bold, 130 Of every beauty grow in power ascending, 135 Can me excuse, if I myself accuse To excuse myself, and see that I speak truly: For here the holy joy is not disclosed, Because ascending it becomes more pure. CANTO XV. A WILL benign, in which reveals itself 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 Who for the love of thing that doth not last There shoots from time to time a sudden fire, Except that in the part where it is kindled Unto that cross's foot there ran a star "O sanguis meus, O super infusa Gratia Dei, sicut tibi, cui Bis unquam Cæli janua reclusa ?" 5 ΤΟ 15 20 25 30 Thus that effulgence; whence I gave it heed; That with mine own methought I touched the bottom Then, pleasant to the hearing and the sight, Was so far slackened, that its speech descended Was "Benedight be Thou, O Trine and One, Drawn from the reading of the mighty volume In which I speak to thee, by grace of her From Him who is the first, as from the unit, And therefore who I am thou askest not, And why I seem more joyous unto thee 35 40 45 50 55 60 Thou think'st the truth; because the small and great Wherein, before thou think'st, thy thought thou showest. But that the sacred love, in which I watch With sight perpetual, and which makes me thirst 65 Now let thy voice secure and frank and glad To Beatrice I turned me, and she heard Before I spake, and smiled to me a sign, Then in this wise began I: "Love and knowledge, Of the same weight for each of you became ; 70 75 |