Canto XXVII

by Dante

　　"Glory be to the Father, to the Son,

　　   And Holy Ghost!" all Paradise began,

　　   So that the melody inebriate made me.

　　What I beheld seemed unto me a smile

　　   Of the universe; for my inebriation

　　   Found entrance through the hearing and the sight.

　　O joy! O gladness inexpressible!

　　   O perfect life of love and peacefulness!

　　   O riches without hankering secure!

　　Before mine eyes were standing the four torches

　　   Enkindled, and the one that first had come

　　   Began to make itself more luminous;

　　And even such in semblance it became

　　   As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars

　　   Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers.

　　That Providence, which here distributeth

　　   Season and service, in the blessed choir

　　   Had silence upon every side imposed.

　　When I heard say: "If I my colour change,

　　   Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking

　　   Thou shalt behold all these their colour change.

　　He who usurps upon the earth my place,

　　   My place, my place, which vacant has become

　　   Before the presence of the Son of God,

　　Has of my cemetery made a sewer

　　   Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,

　　   Who fell from here, below there is appeased!"

　　With the same colour which, through sun adverse,

　　   Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn,

　　   Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused.

　　And as a modest woman, who abides

　　   Sure of herself, and at another's failing,

　　   From listening only, timorous becomes,

　　Even thus did Beatrice change countenance;

　　   And I believe in heaven was such eclipse,

　　   When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;

　　Thereafterward proceeded forth his words

　　   With voice so much transmuted from itself,

　　   The very countenance was not more changed.

　　"The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been

　　   On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus,

　　   To be made use of in acquest of gold;

　　But in acquest of this delightful life

　　   Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus,

　　   After much lamentation, shed their blood.

　　Our purpose was not, that on the right hand

　　   Of our successors should in part be seated

　　   The Christian folk, in part upon the other;

　　Nor that the keys which were to me confided

　　   Should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner,

　　   That should wage war on those who are baptized;

　　Nor I be made the figure of a seal

　　   To privileges venal and mendacious,

　　   Whereat I often redden and flash with fire.

　　In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves

　　   Are seen from here above o'er all the pastures!

　　   O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still?

　　To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons

　　   Are making ready. O thou good beginning,

　　   Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall!

　　But the high Providence, that with Scipio

　　   At Rome the glory of the world defended,

　　   Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive;

　　And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight

　　   Shalt down return again, open thy mouth;

　　   What I conceal not, do not thou conceal."

　　As with its frozen vapours downward falls

　　   In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn

　　   Of the celestial Goat doth touch the sun,

　　Upward in such array saw I the ether

　　   Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapours,

　　   Which there together with us had remained.

　　My sight was following up their semblances,

　　   And followed till the medium, by excess,

　　   The passing farther onward took from it;

　　Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed

　　   From gazing upward, said to me: "Cast down

　　   Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round."

　　Since the first time that I had downward looked,

　　   I saw that I had moved through the whole arc

　　   Which the first climate makes from midst to end;

　　So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses

　　   Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore

　　   Whereon became Europa a sweet burden.

　　And of this threshing-floor the site to me

　　   Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding

　　   Under my feet, a sign and more removed.

　　My mind enamoured, which is dallying

　　   At all times with my Lady, to bring back

　　   To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent.

　　And if or Art or Nature has made bait

　　   To catch the eyes and so possess the mind,

　　   In human flesh or in its portraiture,

　　All joined together would appear as nought

　　   To the divine delight which shone upon me

　　   When to her smiling face I turned me round.

　　The virtue that her look endowed me with

　　   From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth,

　　   And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me.

　　Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty

　　   Are all so uniform, I cannot say

　　   Which Beatrice selected for my place.

　　But she, who was aware of my desire,

　　   Began, the while she smiled so joyously

　　   That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice:

　　"The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet

　　   The centre and all the rest about it moves,

　　   From hence begins as from its starting point.

　　And in this heaven there is no other Where

　　   Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled

　　   The love that turns it, and the power it rains.

　　Within a circle light and love embrace it,

　　   Even as this doth the others, and that precinct

　　   He who encircles it alone controls.

　　Its motion is not by another meted,

　　   But all the others measured are by this,

　　   As ten is by the half and by the fifth.

　　And in what manner time in such a pot

　　   May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,

　　   Now unto thee can manifest be made.

　　O Covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf

　　   Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power

　　   Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves!

　　Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will;

　　   But the uninterrupted rain converts

　　   Into abortive wildings the true plums.

　　Fidelity and innocence are found

　　   Only in children; afterwards they both

　　   Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered.

　　One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,

　　   Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours

　　   Whatever food under whatever moon;

　　Another, while he prattles, loves and listens

　　   Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect

　　   Forthwith desires to see her in her grave.

　　Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white

　　   In its first aspect of the daughter fair

　　   Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night.

　　Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee,

　　   Think that on earth there is no one who governs;

　　   Whence goes astray the human family.

　　Ere January be unwintered wholly

　　   By the centesimal on earth neglected,

　　   Shall these supernal circles roar so loud

　　The tempest that has been so long awaited

　　   Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows;

　　   So that the fleet shall run its course direct,

　　And the true fruit shall follow on the flower."