Paradiso (38 page)

               
‘But, before all January leaves the winter   
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for the hundredth part neglected there below,

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rays from these lofty circles shall shine forth   
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‘so that the long-awaited tempest turn the ships,   
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setting their poops where now they have their prows.   
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Then shall the fleet run its true course

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and the blossom shall be followed by good fruit.’   
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When she who does imparadise my mind   
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had revealed the truth against   
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the present life of wretched mortals,   
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then, as one whose way is lit by a double-candled lamp   
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held at his back, who suddenly in a mirror sees

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the flame before he has seen or even thought of it

               
and turns to see if the glass is telling him the truth,

               
and then sees that it reflects things as they are—   
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as notes reflect the score when they are sung—

               
just so do I remember having done,   
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gazing into the beautiful eyes

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which Love had made into the snare that caught me.   
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When I turned back and my eyes were struck   
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by what appears on that revolving sphere—   
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if one but contemplates its circling—   
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I saw a point that flashed a beam of light   
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so sharp the eye on which it burns

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must close against its piercing brightness.

               
The star that, seen from here below, seems smallest

               
would seem a moon if put beside it,

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as when one star is set beside another.

               
As near, perhaps, as a halo seems to be   
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when it encircles the light that colors it,

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where the vapor that forms it is most dense,

               
there whirled about that point a ring of fire   
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so quick it would have easily outsped

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the swiftest sphere circling the universe.   
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This ring was encircled by another ring,   
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and that by the third, the third by the fourth,

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the fourth by the fifth, and the fifth by the sixth.

               
Higher there followed the seventh, now spread so wide   
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that the messenger of Juno, in full circle,

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would be unable to contain its size.

               
And so, too, the eighth and ninth,   
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each one revolving with diminished speed

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the farther it was wheeling from the first.

               
And that one least removed from the blazing point of light   
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possessed the clearest flame, because, I think,

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it was the one that is the most intruthed by it.

               
My lady, who saw me in grave doubt

               
yet eager to know and comprehend, said:   
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‘From that point depend the heavens and all nature.

               
‘Observe that circle nearest it,   
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and understand its motion is so swift

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because it is spurred on by flaming love.’

               
And I to her: ‘If the universe were arranged   
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in the order I see here among these wheels

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I would be content with what you’ve set before me.

               
‘However, in the world of sense we see

               
the farther from the center they revolve

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the more divinity is in their orbits.

               
‘And so, if my desire to know shall gain its end   
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in this rare temple of the angels,

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which has but light and love for boundaries,

               
‘then I still need to learn exactly why   
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the model and copy fail to follow the same plan,

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for, using my own powers, I reflect on this in vain.’

               
‘That your fingers are not fit to undo this knot   
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is not surprising, so entangled

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has it become from never being tried.’

               
My lady said this, then went on: ‘Take

               
what I shall tell you if you would be fed,

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and see you sharpen your wits on it.

               
‘The material heavens are wide or narrow   
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according as power, greater or less,

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is diffused through all their parts.

               
‘Greater goodness makes for greater bliss,

               
and greater bliss takes on a greater body

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when all its parts are equal in perfection.

               
‘This sphere, therefore, which sweeps into its motion

               
the rest of the universe, must correspond

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to the ring that loves and knows the most,   
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‘so that, if you apply your measure,

               
not to their appearances but to the powers themselves

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of the angels that appear to you as circles,

               
‘you will see a marvelous congruence,

               
larger with more, smaller with less, in each sphere

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according to its celestial Intelligence.’

               
As the vault of our air is left   
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serene and shining when Boreas

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blows from his gentler cheek

               
and the dark refuse of the sky is cleared

               
and purged away so that the heavens smile

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as all their quarters fill with loveliness,

               
just so did I feel when my lady

               
bestowed on me her lucid answer,

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and, like a star in heaven, the truth shone clear.   
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And, when she paused in her speech,   
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as boiling iron shoots out sparks

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so did these circles sparkle,

               
each spark keeping to its flaming ring. They were   
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so many that their number ran to thousands more

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than the successive doubling of a chessboard’s squares.

               
From choir to choir I heard
Hosanna
sung   
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to the fixed point, which holds them—and forever shall—   
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in those
ubi
that have always been theirs.

               
And she, who understood the puzzled thoughts   
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now present in my mind, said: ‘The closer rings   
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reveal to you both Seraphim and Cherubim.

               
‘They seek their bonds so swiftly, hoping they may gain

               
as much as they can hold of likeness to the point,

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and this they can attain, the loftier their vision.

               
‘These other loving spirits circling them   
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are called the Thrones of God,   
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and with them the first triad was complete.   
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‘And you should know that all of them delight   
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in measure of the depth to which their sight

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can penetrate the truth, where every intellect finds rest.