Paradiso (22 page)

               
Then, a joy to hear and a joy to see,   
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the spirit added to what first he said

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words so profound I could not understand them.   
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Nor did he hide his thoughts from me by choice   
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but by necessity, for his conceptions

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were set beyond our mortal limit.

               
And when his bow of ardent love   
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relaxed enough to let his speech descend

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down toward the limits of our intellect,

               
the first thing I could understand was:

               
‘May you be blessed, Threefold and One,

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who show such favor to my seed!’   
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And he went on: ‘That long and welcome craving,

               
derived from reading in the massive book   
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where neither black nor white is ever altered,   
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‘you have satisfied, my son, within this light

               
from which I speak to you by grace of her

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who dressed you out in wings for this high flight.   
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‘You think your thoughts flow into mine through Him   
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who is the First, as from the number one   
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will radiate the five and six, if one is known.

               
‘For that reason you do not ask me who I am

               
nor why I seem to you more filled with joy

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than any other in this happy throng.

               
‘And you are right, for the humble and the mighty

               
up here in this life gaze into the mirror

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in which before you think them, thoughts shine clear.

               
‘But, that the sacred love, which keeps me watching

               
with enduring vision and makes me thirst

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with sweet desire, may be more happily fulfilled,

               
‘let your voice resound sure, bold, and joyful,

               
to proclaim the will, proclaim the desire,   
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for which my answer is already set.’

               
I turned to Beatrice, who had heard

               
before I spoke and smiled a sign

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that made my will put forth its wings.   
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And I began: ‘Love and intelligence,   
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once the prime Equality appeared to you,   
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then became yours in equal measure,

               
‘since that Sun that lit your way and made you warm

               
distributes both its heat and light so evenly

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that all comparisons fall short.

               
‘But for mortals, as you well know,

               
the will to act and the power to carry through

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have wings that are not feathered equally,   
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‘so that I, who am mortal, feel in myself

               
this inequality and thus can only offer thanks

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for your paternal welcome with my heart.

               
‘But I implore you, living topaz   
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set into this priceless ornament,

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that you reward my longing with your name.’   
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‘O bough of my tree, in whom I have rejoiced   
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even in expectation, I was your root.’

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Such was the preface of his words to me.

               
Then: ‘He from whom your house derives its name   
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and who for a hundred years and more

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has circled the mountain on its lowest bank

               
‘was your great-grandfather and my son.

               
It is most fitting that you shorten   
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his long and weary labor with your prayers.

               
‘Florence, within the circle of her ancient walls   
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from which she still hears tierce and nones,

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dwelled then in peace, temperate and chaste.

               
‘No bracelet, no tiara did she wear,   
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no embroidered gown, no waistband

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more striking to the eye than was its wearer.

               
‘Nor did a newborn daughter make her father fear,   
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for marriage age and dowry were not yet extreme,

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the one too low, the other one too high.

               
‘No houses then stood uninhabited,   
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nor had Sardanapalus as yet arrived   
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to show what might be done behind closed doors.

               
‘Not yet did your Uccellatoio surpass   
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in splendor Montemario but, exceeding

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in its rise, it shall surpass it in its fall.

               
‘I saw Bellincion Berti wear a belt of leather   
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and plain bone, and saw his lady step back

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from the glass, her face untouched by paint.   
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‘And I saw one of the Nerli and a del Vecchio   
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both content with wearing simple, unlined skins,

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their ladies busy with their spindles and their flax.

               
‘O fortunate women! Each knew for certain   
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where she would be buried, nor was any yet

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forsaken in her bed at France’s call.

               
‘One kept eager watch upon the cradle,   
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using sounds and words that first delight

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fathers and mothers when they soothe their child.

               
‘Another, while drawing the wool from its spool,   
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would delight her household with the tales   
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of Troy, Fiesole, and Rome.

               
‘A Cianghella or a Lapo Salterello,   
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in those days would have caused the same surprise

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as now would Cincinnatus or Cornelia.

               
‘It was to a municipal life so peaceful   
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and so fair, to a citizenry so loyal,

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to so sweet a place to live,

               
‘that Mary gave me when invoked with cries   
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of childbirth, and in your ancient Baptistry,

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I was at once Cacciaguida and a Christian.

               
‘Moronto was my brother, as was Eliseo.   
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My wife came from the valley of the Po,   
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and from her you took the surname that you bear.

               
‘Later, I became a partisan of Emperor Conrad,   
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who girded me to be his knight

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once, with my faithful service, I had won his favor.

               
‘I followed him to oppose the iniquity

               
of that false creed whose people, by the failure

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of your shepherds, usurp your right.

               
‘There was I freed by that foul race   
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from all the snares of the deceitful world—

               
the love of which corrupts so many souls—

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and came from being martyred to this peace.’

               
O insignificant nobility of blood,   
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if you make us glory in you here below,

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where our affections are ephemeral,