Canto XXII

by Dante

　　Oppressed with stupor, I unto my guide

　　   Turned like a little child who always runs

　　   For refuge there where he confideth most;

　　And she, even as a mother who straightway

　　   Gives comfort to her pale and breathless boy

　　   With voice whose wont it is to reassure him,

　　Said to me: "Knowest thou not thou art in heaven,

　　   And knowest thou not that heaven is holy all

　　   And what is done here cometh from good zeal?

　　After what wise the singing would have changed thee

　　   And I by smiling, thou canst now imagine,

　　   Since that the cry has startled thee so much,

　　In which if thou hadst understood its prayers

　　   Already would be known to thee the vengeance

　　   Which thou shalt look upon before thou diest.

　　The sword above here smiteth not in haste

　　   Nor tardily, howe'er it seem to him

　　   Who fearing or desiring waits for it.

　　But turn thee round towards the others now,

　　   For very illustrious spirits shalt thou see,

　　   If thou thy sight directest as I say."

　　As it seemed good to her mine eyes I turned,

　　   And saw a hundred spherules that together

　　   With mutual rays each other more embellished.

　　I stood as one who in himself represses

　　   The point of his desire, and ventures not

　　   To question, he so feareth the too much.

　　And now the largest and most luculent

　　   Among those pearls came forward, that it might

　　   Make my desire concerning it content.

　　Within it then I heard: "If thou couldst see

　　   Even as myself the charity that burns

　　   Among us, thy conceits would be expressed;

　　But, that by waiting thou mayst not come late

　　   To the high end, I will make answer even

　　   Unto the thought of which thou art so chary.

　　That mountain on whose slope Cassino stands

　　   Was frequented of old upon its summit

　　   By a deluded folk and ill-disposed;

　　And I am he who first up thither bore

　　   The name of Him who brought upon the earth

　　   The truth that so much sublimateth us.

　　And such abundant grace upon me shone

　　   That all the neighbouring towns I drew away

　　   From the impious worship that seduced the world.

　　These other fires, each one of them, were men

　　   Contemplative, enkindled by that heat

　　   Which maketh holy flowers and fruits spring up.

　　Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus,

　　   Here are my brethren, who within the cloisters

　　   Their footsteps stayed and kept a steadfast heart."

　　And I to him: "The affection which thou showest

　　   Speaking with me, and the good countenance

　　   Which I behold and note in all your ardours,

　　In me have so my confidence dilated

　　   As the sun doth the rose, when it becomes

　　   As far unfolded as it hath the power.

　　Therefore I pray, and thou assure me, father,

　　   If I may so much grace receive, that I

　　   May thee behold with countenance unveiled."

　　He thereupon: "Brother, thy high desire

　　   In the remotest sphere shall be fulfilled,

　　   Where are fulfilled all others and my own.

　　There perfect is, and ripened, and complete,

　　   Every desire; within that one alone

　　   Is every part where it has always been;

　　For it is not in space, nor turns on poles,

　　   And unto it our stairway reaches up,

　　   Whence thus from out thy sight it steals away.

　　Up to that height the Patriarch Jacob saw it

　　   Extending its supernal part, what time

　　   So thronged with angels it appeared to him.

　　But to ascend it now no one uplifts

　　   His feet from off the earth, and now my Rule

　　   Below remaineth for mere waste of paper.

　　The walls that used of old to be an Abbey

　　   Are changed to dens of robbers, and the cowls

　　   Are sacks filled full of miserable flour.

　　But heavy usury is not taken up

　　   So much against God's pleasure as that fruit

　　   Which maketh so insane the heart of monks;

　　For whatsoever hath the Church in keeping

　　   Is for the folk that ask it in God's name,

　　   Not for one's kindred or for something worse.

　　The flesh of mortals is so very soft,

　　   That good beginnings down below suffice not

　　   From springing of the oak to bearing acorns.

　　Peter began with neither gold nor silver,

　　   And I with orison and abstinence,

　　   And Francis with humility his convent.

　　And if thou lookest at each one's beginning,

　　   And then regardest whither he has run,

　　   Thou shalt behold the white changed into brown.

　　In verity the Jordan backward turned,

　　   And the sea's fleeing, when God willed were more

　　   A wonder to behold, than succour here."

　　Thus unto me he said; and then withdrew

　　   To his own band, and the band closed together;

　　   Then like a whirlwind all was upward rapt.

　　The gentle Lady urged me on behind them

　　   Up o'er that stairway by a single sign,

　　   So did her virtue overcome my nature;

　　Nor here below, where one goes up and down

　　   By natural law, was motion e'er so swift

　　   That it could be compared unto my wing.

　　Reader, as I may unto that devout

　　   Triumph return, on whose account I often

　　   For my transgressions weep and beat my breast,--

　　Thou hadst not thrust thy finger in the fire

　　   And drawn it out again, before I saw

　　   The sign that follows Taurus, and was in it.

　　O glorious stars, O light impregnated

　　   With mighty virtue, from which I acknowledge

　　   All of my genius, whatsoe'er it be,

　　With you was born, and hid himself with you,

　　   He who is father of all mortal life,

　　   When first I tasted of the Tuscan air;

　　And then when grace was freely given to me

　　   To enter the high wheel which turns you round,

　　   Your region was allotted unto me.

　　To you devoutly at this hour my soul

　　   Is sighing, that it virtue may acquire

　　   For the stern pass that draws it to itself.

　　"Thou art so near unto the last salvation,"

　　   Thus Beatrice began, "thou oughtest now

　　   To have thine eves unclouded and acute;

　　And therefore, ere thou enter farther in,

　　   Look down once more, and see how vast a world

　　   Thou hast already put beneath thy feet;

　　So that thy heart, as jocund as it may,

　　   Present itself to the triumphant throng

　　   That comes rejoicing through this rounded ether."

　　I with my sight returned through one and all

　　   The sevenfold spheres, and I beheld this globe

　　   Such that I smiled at its ignoble semblance;

　　And that opinion I approve as best

　　   Which doth account it least; and he who thinks

　　   Of something else may truly be called just.

　　I saw the daughter of Latona shining

　　   Without that shadow, which to me was cause

　　   That once I had believed her rare and dense.

　　The aspect of thy son, Hyperion,

　　   Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves

　　   Around and near him Maia and Dione.

　　Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove

　　   'Twixt son and father, and to me was clear

　　   The change that of their whereabout they make;

　　And all the seven made manifest to me

　　   How great they are, and eke how swift they are,

　　   And how they are in distant habitations.

　　The threshing-floor that maketh us so proud,

　　   To me revolving with the eternal Twins,

　　   Was all apparent made from hill to harbour!

　　Then to the beauteous eyes mine eyes I turned.