Even as a bird, 'mid the beloved leaves,
Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood
Throughout the night, that hideth all things from us,
Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks
And find the food wherewith to nourish them, 5
In which, to her, grave labours grateful are,
Anticipates the time on open spray
And with an ardent longing waits the sun,
Gazing intent as soon as breaks the dawn:
Even thus my Lady standing was, erect 10
And vigilant, turned round towards the zone
Underneath which the sun displays less haste;
So that beholding her distraught and wistful,
Such I became as he is who desiring
For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. 15
But brief the space from one When to the other;
Of my awaiting, say I, and the seeing
The welkin grow resplendent more and more.
And Beatrice exclaimed: "Behold the hosts
Of Christ's triumphal march, and all the fruit 20
Harvested by the rolling of these spheres!"
It seemed to me her face was all aflame;
And eyes she had so full of ecstasy
That I must needs pass on without describing.
As when in nights serene of the full moon 25
Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal
Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs,
Saw I, above the myriads of lamps,
A Sun that one and all of them enkindled,
E'en as our own doth the supernal sights, 30
And through the living light transparent shone
The lucent substance so intensely clear
Into my sight, that I sustained it not.
O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear!
To me she said: "What overmasters thee 35
A virtue is from which naught shields itself.
There are the wisdom and the omnipotence
That oped the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth,
For which there erst had been so long a yearning."
As fire from out a cloud unlocks itself, 40
Dilating so it finds not room therein,
And down, against its nature, falls to earth,
So did my mind, among those aliments
Becoming larger, issue from itself,
And that which it became cannot remember. 45
"Open thine eyes, and look at what I am:
Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough
Hast thou become to tolerate my smile."
I was as one who still retains the feeling
Of a forgotten vision, and endeavours 50
In vain to bring it back into his mind,
When I this invitation heard, deserving
Of so much gratitude, it never fades
Out of the book that chronicles the past.
If at this moment sounded all the tongues 55
That Polyhymnia and her sisters made
Most lubrical with their delicious milk,
To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth
It would not reach, singing the holy smile
And how the holy aspect it illumed. 60
And therefore, representing Paradise,
The sacred poem must perforce leap over,
Even as a man who finds his way cut off;
But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme,
And of the mortal shoulder laden with it, 65
Should blame it not, if under this it tremble.
It is no passage for a little boat
This which goes cleaving the audacious prow,
Nor for a pilot who would spare himself.
"Why doth my face so much enamour thee, 70
That to the garden fair thou turnest not,
Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming?
There is the Rose in which the Word Divine
Became incarnate; there the lilies are
By whose perfume the good way was discovered." 75
Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels
Was wholly ready, once again betook me
Unto the battle of the feeble brows.
As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams
Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of flowers 80
Mine eyes with shadow covered o'er have seen,
So troops of splendours manifold I saw
Illumined from above with burning rays,
Beholding not the source of the effulgence.
O power benignant that dost so imprint them! 85
Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope
There to mine eyes, that were not strong enough.
The name of that fair flower I e'er invoke
Morning and evening utterly enthralled
My soul to gaze upon the greater fire. 90
And when in both mine eyes depicted were
The glory and greatness of the living star
Which there excelleth, as it here excelled,
Athwart the heavens a little torch descended
Formed in a circle like a coronal, 95
And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it.
Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth
On earth, and to itself most draws the soul,
Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders,
Compared unto the sounding of that lyre 100
Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful,
Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue.
"I am Angelic Love, that circle round
The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb
That was the hostelry of our Desire; 105
And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while
Thou followest thy Son, and mak'st diviner
The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there."
Thus did the circulated melody
Seal itself up; and all the other lights 110
Were making to resound the name of Mary.
The regal mantle of the volumes all
Of that world, which most fervid is and living
With breath of God and with his works and ways,
Extended over us its inner border, 115
So very distant, that the semblance of it
There where I was not yet appeared to me.
Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power
Of following the incoronated flame,
Which mounted upward near to its own seed. 120
And as a little child, that towards its mother
Stretches its arms, when it the milk has taken,
Through impulse kindled into outward flame,
Each of those gleams of whiteness upward reached
So with its summit, that the deep affection 125
They had for Mary was revealed to me.
Thereafter they remained there in my sight,
'Regina coeli' singing with such sweetness,
That ne'er from me has the delight departed.
O, what exuberance is garnered up 130
Within those richest coffers, which had been
Good husbandmen for sowing here below!
There they enjoy and live upon the treasure
Which was acquired while weeping in the exile
Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left. 135
There triumpheth, beneath the exalted Son
Of God and Mary, in his victory,
Both with the ancient council and the new,
He who doth keep the keys of such a glory.
NOTES
1 - 1
The Heaven of the Fixed Stars continued. The Triumph of Christ.
3 - 3
Milton, Par. Lost, III, 38: –
“As the wakeful bird
Sings darkling, and in shadiest covert hid
Tunes her nocturnal note.”
12 - 12
Towards the meridian, where the sun seems to move slower than where nearer the horizon.
20 - 20
Didron, Christ. Iconog., Millington's Tr., I, 308: “The triumph of Christ is, of all subjects, that which has excited the most enthusiasm amongst artists; it is seen in numerous monuments, and is represented both in painting and sculpture, but always with such remarkable midifications as impart to it the character of a new work. The eastern portion of the crypt of the cathedral of Auxerre contains, in the vaulting of that part which corresponds with the sanctuary, a fresco painting, executed about the end of the twelfth century, and representing, in the most simple form imaginable, the triumph of Christ. The background of the picture is intersected by a cross, which, if the transverse branches were a little longer, would be a perfect Greek cross. This cross is adorned with imitations of precious stones, round, oval and lozenge-shaped, disposed in quincunxes. In the centre is a figure of Christ, on a white horse with a saddle; he holds the bridle in his left hand, and in the right, the hand of power and authority, a black staff, the rod of iron by which he governs the nations. He advances thus, having his head adorned with an azure or bluish nimbus, intersected by a cross gules; his face is turned towards the spectator. In the four compartments formed by the square in which the cross is enclosed are four angels who form the escort of Jesus; they are all on horseback, like their master, and with wings outspread; the right hand of each, which is free, is open and raised, in token of adoring admiration. 'And I saw heaven opened, and behold a white horse; and he that sat upon him was called Faithful and True, and in righteousness he doth judge and make war. His eyes were as a flame of fire, and on his head were many crowns; and he had a name written that no man knew but he himself. And he was clothed with a vesture dipped in blood; and his name is called the Word of God. And the armies which were in heaven followed him upon white horses, clothed in fine linen white and clean'. Such is the language of the Apocalypse, and this the fresco at Auxerre interprets, although with some slight alterations, which it will be well to observe.”
See also Purg., XXIX, Note 154.
21 - 21
By the beneficent influences of the stars.
26 - 26
The Moon. Trivia is one of the surnames of Diana, given her because she presided over all the places where three roads met.
Purg., XXXI, 106: –
“We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars.”
Iliad, VIII, 550, Anon. Tr.: “As when in heaven the beauteous stars appear round the bright moon, when the air is breathless, and all the hills and lofty summits and forests are visible, and in the sky the boundless ether opens, and all the stars are seen, and the shepherd is delighted in his soul.”
29 - 29
Christ.
30 - 30
The old belief that the stars were fed by the light of the sun. Milton, Par. Lost, VII, 364: –
“Hither as to their fountain other stars
Repairing, in their golden urns draw light.”
And Calderon, El Principe Constante, sonnet in Jor. II:
“Those glimmerings of light, those scintillations,
That by supernal influences draw
Their nutriment in splendors from th sun.”
46 - 46
Beatrice speaks.
56 - 56
The Muse of harmony.
Skelton, Elegy on the Earl of Northumberland, 155: –
“If the hole quere of the musis nyne
In me all onely wer sett and comprisyde,
Enbreathed with the blast of influence dyvyne,
And perfightly as could be thought or devysyde;
To me also allthouche it were promysyde
Of laureat Phebus holy the eloquence,
All were to littill for his magnyficence.”
70 - 70
Beatrice speaks again.
73 - 73
The Virgin Mary, Rosa Mundi, Rosa Mystica.
74 - 74
The Apostles, by following whom the good way was found.
Shirley, Death's Final Conquest: –
“Only the actions of the just
Smell sweet, and blossom in the dust.”
78 - 78
The struggle between his eyes and the light.
85 - 85
Christ, who had re-ascended, so that Dante's eyes, too feeble to bear the light of his presence, could now behold the splendor of this “meadow of flowers.”
88 - 88
The Rose, of the Virgin Mary, to whom Beatrice alludes in line 73. Afterwards he hears the hosts of heaven repeat her name, as described in line 110: –
“And all the other lights
Were making to resound the name of Mary.”
90 - 90
This greater fire is also the Virgin, greatest of the remaining splendors.
92 - 92
Stella Maris, Stella Matutina, are likewise titles of the Virgin, who surpasses in brightness all other souls in heaven, as she did here on earth.
94 - 94
The Angel Gabriel.
101 - 101
The mystic virtues of the sapphire are thus enumerated by Marbodus in his Lapidarium, King's Antique Gems, p. 395: –
“By nature with superior honors graced,
As gem of gems above all others placed;
Health to preserve and treachery to disarm,
And guard the wearer from intended harm.
No envy bends him, and no terror shakes;
The captive's chains its mighty virtue breaks;
The gates fly open, fetters fall away,
And send their prisoner to the light of day.
E'en Heaven is movèd by its force divine
To list to vows presented at its shrine.”
Sapphire is the color in which the old painters arrayed the Virgin, “its hue”, says Mr. King, “being the exact shade of the air or atmosphere in the climate of Rome.” This is Dante's
“Dolce color d'oriental zaffiro”,
in Purg., I, 13.
105 - 105
Haggai, ii, 7: “The desire of all nations shall come.”
112 - 112
The Primum Mobile, or Crystalline Heaven, which infolds all the other volumes or rolling orbs of the universe like a mantle.
115 - 115
Cowley, Hymn to Light: –
“Thou Scythian-like dost round thy lands above
The sun's gilt tent forever move;
And still as thou in pomp dost go,
The shining pageants of the world attend thy
show.”
120 - 120
The Virgin ascending to her son. Fray Luis Ponce de Leon, Assumption of the Virgin: –
“Lady! thine upward flight
The opening heavens receive with joyful song;
Blest who thy mantle bright
May seize amid the throng,
And to the sacred mount float peacefully along!
”Bright angels are around thee,
They that have served thee from thy birth are
there;
Their hands with stars have crowned thee;
Thou, peerless Queen of air,
As sandals to thy feet the silver moon dost
wear!
128 - 128
An Easter Hymn to the Virgin: –
“Regina coeli, laetare! Alleluia.
Quia quem meruisti portare, Alleluia.
Resurrexit, sicut dixit. Alleluia.”
This hymn, according to Collin de Plancy, Lègendes des Commandements de l'Église, p. 14, Pope Gregory the Great heard the angels singing, in the pestilence of Rome in 890, and on hearing it added another line: –
“Ora pro nobis Deum! Alleluia.”
135 - 135
Caring not for gold and silver in the Babylonian exile of this life, they laid up treasures in the other.
139 - 139
St. Peter, keeper of the keys, with the saints of the Old and New Testament.
Milton, Lycidas, 108: –
“Last came, and last did go,
The pilot of the Galilean lake;
Two massy keys he bore of metals twain,
(The golden opes, the iron shuts amain).”
And Fletcher, Purple Island, VII, 62: –
“Not in his lips, but hands, two keys he bore,
Heaven's doors and Hell's to shut and open
wide.”