Then,
in the form of a white rose, the host
of the sacred soldiery appeared to me,
all those whom Christ in his own blood espoused.
But the other host (who soar, singing and seeing
His glory, who to will them to his love
made them so many in such blissful being,
like a swarm of bees who in one motion dive
into the flowers, and in the next return
the sweetness of their labors to the hive)
flew ceaselessly to the many-petaled rose
and ceaselessly returned into that light
in which their ceaseless love has its repose.
Like living flame their faces seemed to glow.
Their wings were gold. And all their bodies shone
more dazzling white than any earthly snow.
On entering the great flower they spread about them,
from tier to tier, the ardor and the peace
they had acquired in flying close to Him.
Nor did so great a multitude in flight
between the white rose and what lies above it
block in the least the glory of that light;
for throughout all the universe God's ray
enters all things according to their merit,
and nothing has the power to block its way.
This realm of ancient bliss shone, soul on soul,
with new and ancient beings, and every eye
and every love was fixed upon one goal.
O Threefold Light which, blazoned in one star,
can so content their vision with your shining,
look down upon us in the storm we are!
If the barbarians (coming from that zone
above which Helice travels every day
wheeling in heaven with her belovèd son)
looking at Rome, were stupefied to see
her works in those days when the Lateran
outshone all else built by humanity;
what did I feel on reaching such a goal
from human to blest, from time to eternity,
from Florence to a people just and whole—
by what amazement was I overcome?
Between my stupor and my new-found joy
my bliss was to hear nothing and be dumb.
And as a pilgrim at the shrine of his vow
stares, feels himself reborn, and thinks already
how he may later describe it—just so now
I stood and let my eyes go wandering out
into that radiance from rank to rank,
now up, now down, now sweeping round about.
I saw faces that compelled love's charity
lit by Another's lamp and their own smiles,
and gestures graced by every dignity.
Without having fixed on any part, my eyes
already had taken in and understood
the form and general plan of Paradise:
and—my desire rekindled—I wheeled about
to question my sweet lady on certain matters
concerning which my mind was still in doubt.
One thing I expected; another greeted me:
I thought to find Beatrice there; I found instead
an elder in the robes of those in glory.
His eyes and cheeks were bathed in the holy glow
of loving bliss; his gestures, pious grace.
He seemed a tender father standing so.
'She—where is she?' I cried in sudden dread.
'To lead you to the goal of all your wish
Beatrice called me from my place,' he said;
'And if you raise your eyes you still may find her
in the third circle down from the highest rank
upon the throne her merit has assigned her.'
Without reply I looked up to that height
and saw her draw an aureole round herself
as she reflected the Eternal Light.
No mortal eye, though plunged to the last bounds
of the deepest sea, has ever been so far
from the topmost heaven to which the thunder sounds
as I was then from Beatrice; but there
the distance did not matter, for her image
reached me unblurred by any atmosphere.
'O lady in whom my hope shall ever soar
and who for my salvation suffered even
to set your feet upon Hell's broken floor;
through your power and your excellence alone
have I recognized the goodness and the grace
inherent in the things I have been shown.
You have led me from my bondage and set me free
by all those roads, by all those loving means
that lay within your power and charity.
Grant me your magnificence that my soul,
which you have healed, may please you when it slips
the bonds of flesh and rises to its goal.'
Such was my prayer, and she—far up a mountain,
as it appeared to me—looked down and smiled.
Then she turned back to the Eternal Fountain.
And the holy Elder said: 'I have been sent
by prayer and sacred love to help you reach
the perfect consummation of your ascent.
Look round this garden, therefore, that you may
by gazing at its radiance, be prepared
to lift your eyes up to the Trinal Ray.
The Queen of Heaven, for whom in whole devotion
I burn with love, will grant us every grace
because I am Bernard, her faithful one.'
As a stranger from afar—a Croat, if you will—
comes to see our Vernonica, and awed
by its ancient fame, can never look his fill,
but says to himself as long as it is displayed:
'My Lord, Jesus Christ, true God, and is this then
the likeness of thy living flesh portrayed?'—
just so did I gaze on the living love
of him who in this world, through contemplation,
tasted the peace which ever dwells above.
'Dear son of Grace,' he said, 'you cannot know
this state of bliss while you yet keep your eyes
fixed only on those things that lie below;
rather, let your eyes mount to the last round
where you shall see the Queen to whom this realm
is subject and devoted, throned and crowned.'
I looked up: by as much as the horizon
to eastward in the glory of full dawn
outshines the point at which the sun went down;
by so much did one region on the height
to which I raised my eyes out of the valley
outshine the rays of every other light.
And as the sky is brightest in that region
where we on earth expect to see the shaft
of the chariot so badly steered by Phaeton,
while to one side and the other it grows dim—
just so that peaceful oriflamme lit the center
and faded equally along either rim.
And in the center, great wings spread apart,
more than a thousand festive angels shone,
each one distinct in radiance and in art.
I saw there, smiling at this song and sport,
her whose beauty entered like a bliss
into the eyes of all that sainted court.
And even could my speech match my conception,
yet I would not dare make the least attempt
to draw her delectation and perfection.
Bernard, seeing my eyes so fixed and burning
with passion on his passion, turned his own
up to that height with so much love and yearning
that the example of his ardor sent
new fire through me, making my gaze more ardent.
of the sacred soldiery appeared to me,
all those whom Christ in his own blood espoused.
But the other host (who soar, singing and seeing
His glory, who to will them to his love
made them so many in such blissful being,
like a swarm of bees who in one motion dive
into the flowers, and in the next return
the sweetness of their labors to the hive)
flew ceaselessly to the many-petaled rose
and ceaselessly returned into that light
in which their ceaseless love has its repose.
Like living flame their faces seemed to glow.
Their wings were gold. And all their bodies shone
more dazzling white than any earthly snow.
On entering the great flower they spread about them,
from tier to tier, the ardor and the peace
they had acquired in flying close to Him.
Nor did so great a multitude in flight
between the white rose and what lies above it
block in the least the glory of that light;
for throughout all the universe God's ray
enters all things according to their merit,
and nothing has the power to block its way.
This realm of ancient bliss shone, soul on soul,
with new and ancient beings, and every eye
and every love was fixed upon one goal.
O Threefold Light which, blazoned in one star,
can so content their vision with your shining,
look down upon us in the storm we are!
If the barbarians (coming from that zone
above which Helice travels every day
wheeling in heaven with her belovèd son)
looking at Rome, were stupefied to see
her works in those days when the Lateran
outshone all else built by humanity;
what did I feel on reaching such a goal
from human to blest, from time to eternity,
from Florence to a people just and whole—
by what amazement was I overcome?
Between my stupor and my new-found joy
my bliss was to hear nothing and be dumb.
And as a pilgrim at the shrine of his vow
stares, feels himself reborn, and thinks already
how he may later describe it—just so now
I stood and let my eyes go wandering out
into that radiance from rank to rank,
now up, now down, now sweeping round about.
I saw faces that compelled love's charity
lit by Another's lamp and their own smiles,
and gestures graced by every dignity.
Without having fixed on any part, my eyes
already had taken in and understood
the form and general plan of Paradise:
and—my desire rekindled—I wheeled about
to question my sweet lady on certain matters
concerning which my mind was still in doubt.
One thing I expected; another greeted me:
I thought to find Beatrice there; I found instead
an elder in the robes of those in glory.
His eyes and cheeks were bathed in the holy glow
of loving bliss; his gestures, pious grace.
He seemed a tender father standing so.
'She—where is she?' I cried in sudden dread.
'To lead you to the goal of all your wish
Beatrice called me from my place,' he said;
'And if you raise your eyes you still may find her
in the third circle down from the highest rank
upon the throne her merit has assigned her.'
Without reply I looked up to that height
and saw her draw an aureole round herself
as she reflected the Eternal Light.
No mortal eye, though plunged to the last bounds
of the deepest sea, has ever been so far
from the topmost heaven to which the thunder sounds
as I was then from Beatrice; but there
the distance did not matter, for her image
reached me unblurred by any atmosphere.
'O lady in whom my hope shall ever soar
and who for my salvation suffered even
to set your feet upon Hell's broken floor;
through your power and your excellence alone
have I recognized the goodness and the grace
inherent in the things I have been shown.
You have led me from my bondage and set me free
by all those roads, by all those loving means
that lay within your power and charity.
Grant me your magnificence that my soul,
which you have healed, may please you when it slips
the bonds of flesh and rises to its goal.'
Such was my prayer, and she—far up a mountain,
as it appeared to me—looked down and smiled.
Then she turned back to the Eternal Fountain.
And the holy Elder said: 'I have been sent
by prayer and sacred love to help you reach
the perfect consummation of your ascent.
Look round this garden, therefore, that you may
by gazing at its radiance, be prepared
to lift your eyes up to the Trinal Ray.
The Queen of Heaven, for whom in whole devotion
I burn with love, will grant us every grace
because I am Bernard, her faithful one.'
As a stranger from afar—a Croat, if you will—
comes to see our Vernonica, and awed
by its ancient fame, can never look his fill,
but says to himself as long as it is displayed:
'My Lord, Jesus Christ, true God, and is this then
the likeness of thy living flesh portrayed?'—
just so did I gaze on the living love
of him who in this world, through contemplation,
tasted the peace which ever dwells above.
'Dear son of Grace,' he said, 'you cannot know
this state of bliss while you yet keep your eyes
fixed only on those things that lie below;
rather, let your eyes mount to the last round
where you shall see the Queen to whom this realm
is subject and devoted, throned and crowned.'
I looked up: by as much as the horizon
to eastward in the glory of full dawn
outshines the point at which the sun went down;
by so much did one region on the height
to which I raised my eyes out of the valley
outshine the rays of every other light.
And as the sky is brightest in that region
where we on earth expect to see the shaft
of the chariot so badly steered by Phaeton,
while to one side and the other it grows dim—
just so that peaceful oriflamme lit the center
and faded equally along either rim.
And in the center, great wings spread apart,
more than a thousand festive angels shone,
each one distinct in radiance and in art.
I saw there, smiling at this song and sport,
her whose beauty entered like a bliss
into the eyes of all that sainted court.
And even could my speech match my conception,
yet I would not dare make the least attempt
to draw her delectation and perfection.
Bernard, seeing my eyes so fixed and burning
with passion on his passion, turned his own
up to that height with so much love and yearning
that the example of his ardor sent
new fire through me, making my gaze more ardent.
Source: Alighieri, Dante. The Divine Comedy:
Paradiso. Translated by John Ciardi. W. W. Norton &
Company, 1970.
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