Notes.
1 Saint Bernard’s prayer to the Virgin
praises her as the aim and purpose of creation since through her the Son of God was a
human being; through her, in turn, human beings return to the Son.
65 The Sibyl of Cumae wrote her prophecies,
inspired by Apollo, on the leaves of trees that then blew away on the wind from the rocky
cave where she had stored them (Aeneid III, 441-452).
96 So overwhelming is Dante’s vision
that he forgets more of it in an instant than has been lost in the account of the
Argonauts through twenty-five centuries. Neptune, the god of the ocean, here looks up in
amazement to see the Argo, first boat ever built, sailing above him.
127 Dante reaches his final vision of
Christ, his third in Paradise and fourth in the poem (see Cantos XIV, ll. 94-129; XXIII,
ll. 28-45; and; Purgatorio XXXI, ll. 118-126). The vision takes him into the
mystery of human nature in the Being of God, the Son mirroring the Father and the Love of
the Holy Spirit between them both. His final epic simile compares his effort to that of
squaring the circle, reconciling humanity with Godhood (ll. 133-135). For the poet, as for
the geometer, it is not achieving the impossible that finally matters, but attempting that
harmony. Dante does discover the secret in the last lines as he moves in harmony with the
spheres, with God, and with himself.
144 The wheel may be the Great Wheel
of cathedral towers. |
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-
"Virgin mother, daughter of your Son,
-
Humbler and higher than all other creatures,
- Fixed
aim and goal of the eternal plan,
-
-
"You are the one who lifted human nature
- 5
To such nobility that its own Maker
- Did
not disdain to be made of its making.
-
-
"Within your womb was lit once more the flame
- Of
that love through whose warmth this flower opened
- To
its full bloom in everlasting peace.
-
- 10
"To us up here you are the torch of noon
-
Blazing with love, and for the mortals down there
- You
are the living fountainhead of hope.
-
-
"Lady, you are so highly placed and helpful,
-
Whoever seeks grace and does not call on you
- 15
Wants his desires to fly up without wings.
-
-
"Your loving heart not only offers aid
- To
those who ask for it, but oftentimes
-
Free-handedly anticipates the asking.
-
-
"In you is mercy, in you largeheartedness,
- 20
In you compassion, and in you is found
-
Whatever good exists in any creature.
-
-
"Now this man who from down the deepest pit
- Of
the whole universe up to this point
- Has
seen the lives of spirits, one by one,
-
- 25
"Begs by your grace that you will give him strength
- To
enable him to rise on with his eyes
- Still
higher to the summit of salvation.
-
-
"And I, who never burned for my own vision
- More
than I burn for his, pour out to you
- 30
All of my prayers, and pray they be sufficient
-
-
"For you to scatter from him by your prayers
- Every
last cloud of his mortality
- That
he may see revealed the highest Pleasure.
-
-
"I pray you also, Queen, for you can do
- 35
Whatever you will, that after he has seen
- This
vision, you keep his affections wholesome.
-
-
"Watch and restrain his human impulses:
- See
Beatrice with so many blessed spirits
-
Clasping their hands to join me in this prayer."
-
- 40 The eyes God loves and reverences the most,
-
Fastened upon this praying saint, displayed
- How
deeply she is pleased by devout prayer.
-
- Then
her eyes turned to the eternal Light
- Into
whose depth we may believe the eyes
- 45
Of no other creature penetrates more clearly.
-
- And
I, now drawing closer to the end
- Of
every longing, lifted to that end,
- Just
as I should, the flame of all my longing.
-
-
Bernard gave me a signal and a smile
- 50
To look straight up, but by myself already
- I was
intent as he would have me be,
-
-
Because my sight, becoming crystal clear,
- Was
piercing deeper and deeper through the rays
- Of
that deep Light which in itself is true.
-
- 55
From that point on, my power to see was stronger
- Than
speech that fails before such sights can show,
- As
memory falls short of the beyond.
-
- As
someone who while dreaming sees a vision
- And,
after he has dreamed, the feeling stays
- 60
Impressed, but all the rest slips from his mind,
-
- I am
like that, for almost all my seeing
- Now
falls away, but sweetness sprung from it
- Still
drips down, drop by drop, into my heart.
-
- So is
the snow unsealed beneath the sunlight;
- 65
So were the sayings of the Sibyl upon
- The
light leaves left to drift off in the wind.
-
- O
highest Light, lifted up so far
- Above
all mortal thinking, lend my mind,
- Once
more, a little of what you were like,
-
- 70
And grant my tongue such powerful expression
- That
it may leave behind a single spark
- Of
glory for a people still to come.
-
- For
by returning some spark to my mind
- 75
And sounding out a little in these lines,
- Your
triumph shall be thought of more profoundly.
-
- I
think I would have been lost in a daze
- With
the dazzling I endured from that live beam
- If my
eyes once had turned away from it.
-
- I
remember I grew bolder for this reason
- 80
In bearing up with it, until I merged
- My
gazing with the infinite Goodness.
-
- O
grace abounding, by which I have dared
- To
fix my eyes through the eternal Light
- So
deeply that my sight was spent in it!
-
- 85
Within its depths I saw gathered together,
- Bound
by love into a single volume,
-
Leaves that lie scattered through the universe.
-
-
Substance and accidents and their relations
- I saw
as though they fused in such a way
- 90
That what I say is but a gleam of light.
-
- The
universal pattern of this knot
- I
believe I saw, because in telling this,
- I
feel my gladness growing ever larger.
-
- One
moment made more slip my memory than
- 95
Twenty-five centuries reft from the adventure
- That
awed Neptune with the shadow of the Argo.
-
- So my
mind, held in absolute suspense,
- Was
staring fixed, intent, and motionless,
- And
by its staring grew the more inflamed.
-
- 100
Within that Light a person is so changed
- It is
impossible to give consent
- Ever
to turn from it to other sights
-
-
Because the Good, the object of the will,
- Is
gathered all in it, and out of it
- 105
The thing that there is perfect has some flaw.
-
- Now
shall my telling of what I remember
- Fall
far below the babbling of a baby
- Still
bathing its tongue at the mother’s breast.
-
- Not
that there is more than a single semblance
- 110
Within that living Light on which I looked
- And
which is always what it was before,
-
- But
by the sight that gathered strength in me
- As I
gazed on, what was One in appearance
- Was
altering for me as I was changing.
-
- 115
In the profound and shining-clear Existence
- Of
the deep Light appeared to me three circles
- Of
one dimension and three different colors.
-
- One
seemed to be reflected by the other,
-
Rainbow by rainbow, while the third seemed fire
- 120
Breathed equally from one and from the other.
-
- O how
pale now is language and how paltry
- For
my conception! And for what I saw
- My
words are not enough to call them meager.
-
- O
everlasting Light, you dwell alone
- 125
In yourself, know yourself alone, and known
- And
knowing, love and smile upon yourself!
-
- That
middle circle which appeared in you
- To be
conceived as a reflected light,
- After
my eyes had studied it a while,
-
- 130
Within itself and in its coloring
-
Seemed to be painted with our human likeness
- So
that my eyes were wholly focused on it.
-
- As
the geometer who sets himself
- To
square the circle and who cannot find,
- 135
For all his thought, the principle he needs,
-
- Just
so was I on seeing this new vision
- I
wanted to see how our image fuses
- Into
the circle and finds its place in it,
-
- Yet
my wings were not meant for such a flight —
- 140
Except that then my mind was struck by lightning
-
Through which my longing was at last fulfilled.
-
- Here
powers failed my high imagination:
- But
by now my desire and will were turned,
- Like
a balanced wheel rotated evenly,
-
- 145
By the Love that moves the sun and the other stars.
|
return
to Paradiso XXXII