The glory of the One who moves all things
penetrates the universe and shines
2
I was in that heaven which receives most fully His light,
and witnessed things that one who descends from above
neither knows how to tell nor has the power to express.
5
For as our intellect draws near to what it desires most,
it plunges so deep that memory cannot follow.
Yet whatever of that sacred realm
I could treasure in my mind
shall now become the subject of my song.
10
O blessed Apollo, for this final quest
make me such a vessel of your power
as the gift of your beloved laurel crown requires!
One peak of Parnassus has been enough for me until now,
but here I need both summits
to enter the arena that remains.
16
Come into my heart and breathe through me
as you did when you drew Marsyas
from the sheath of his own flesh.
O divine power, if you lend yourself to me
so that I can make manifest
the shadow of the blessed realm impressed upon my mind,
you will see me approach your cherished tree
and crown myself with those leaves
that my theme and you will make me worthy of.
25
So rarely, Father, are they gathered—
for triumph of Caesar or of poet—
the fault and shame of human desires—
that the Delphic laurel should bring
joy to the glad god of Delphi
when it kindles longing in anyone.
31
From a small spark follows a great flame.
Perhaps after me, others with better voices
will pray and Cyrrha will answer.
34
The lamp of the world rises to mortals
through different passages, but through that one
which joins four circles with three crosses,
it emerges with better course and better star,
and tempers and shapes the worldly wax
more nearly in its own image.
40
That passage had made it almost morning there
and evening here, making that hemisphere
completely bright and the other dark,
when I saw Beatrice turn toward her left side,
gazing directly at the sun.
No eagle ever fixed its gaze so firmly!
46
And just as a second ray will spring
from the first and rise again,
like a pilgrim eager to return home,
so from her action, flowing through my eyes
into my imagination, I made mine,
and fixed my gaze upon the sun beyond our mortal limit.
52
Much is permitted there that here
is forbidden to our powers,
by virtue of that place made as humanity's true home.
I could not bear it long, yet not so briefly
that I failed to see it sparkling all around
like iron emerging molten from the fire.
58
And suddenly it seemed that day was added to day,
as if He who has the power
had adorned heaven with another sun.
61
Beatrice stood with eyes fixed
on the eternal wheels, and I,
removing my sight from above, fixed it on her.
Looking at her, I became within
what Glaucus became when he tasted the herb
that made him peer to the sea gods.
67
To put this transformation beyond human nature into words
is impossible—let this example suffice
for those to whom grace reserves the experience.
70
If I was only what you newly created of me,
Love that governs heaven,
you know, you who lifted me with your light.
When the wheel that you make eternal
through its desire for you caught my attention
with the harmony you tune and measure,
so much of heaven seemed kindled
by the sun's flame that no rain or river
ever made a lake spread so wide.
79
The strangeness of the sound and the great light
kindled in me a desire to know their cause,
sharper than I had ever felt before.
And she who saw me as I saw myself,
to calm my troubled mind,
opened her mouth before I opened mine to ask.
85
She began: "You make yourself so dense
with false imagining that you cannot see
what you would see if you cast it off.
You are not on earth as you believe,
but lightning fleeing from its proper sphere
never ran as fast as you, returning to your source."
91
If I was freed from my first doubt
by these few words, more smiled than spoken,
I found myself caught in a new perplexity.
I said: "I was already satisfied,
released from great wonder, but now I wonder
how I can rise through these light bodies."
97
At this, after a pitying sigh,
she turned her eyes toward me with the look
a mother gives her delirious child.
She began: "All things, whatever they may be,
have order among themselves, and this order is the form
that makes the universe resemble God.
103
Here the higher creatures see the traces
of the Eternal Power, which is the goal
toward which the pattern I speak of tends.
In this order all natures are disposed
according to their different destinies,
nearer or farther from their source.
109
Therefore they move toward different harbors
across the great sea of being, each one
with the instinct given to carry it forward.
This instinct bears fire toward the moon,
this is the mover in mortal hearts,
this binds and unites the earth.
115
This bow shoots forth not only
creatures without intelligence,
but those that possess both intellect and love.
The Providence that orders all of this
makes forever quiet with its light the heaven
in which turns the sphere with greatest speed.
121
And there now, as to a destined place,
the power of that bowstring carries us,
which aims every arrow at a joyful target.
Yet it is true that just as form sometimes
fails to match the artist's intention
because the material is deaf to response,
so the creature sometimes deviates from this course,
having the power, though driven this way,
to swerve toward something else—
just as fire may be seen
falling from a cloud if its first impulse
is twisted earthward by false pleasure.
133
You should wonder no more at your ascent,
if I judge rightly, than at a stream
flowing from a high mountain to the valley.
It would be a marvel if you were deprived
of every obstacle yet remained seated below,
like living fire staying quiet on earth."
139
With that, she turned her face back toward heaven.
140