Paradiso

Canto XIII

Of the Wisdom of Solomon. St. Thomas reproaches Dante's Judgement. Let him imagine, who would well conceive What

Let me complete that passage. Here's the modern translation of the opening of Paradiso Canto 13:

Let anyone who wants to truly understand

what I saw next

imagine fifteen of the brightest stars

that bring life to the night sky

scattered across different regions of heaven,

imagine that constellation we call the Great Bear

that stays within our northern sky

both day and night,

so that it never disappears

as our world turns on its axis,

imagine the bright mouth of the horn

that begins at the tip of the axle

around which the first sphere revolves—

imagine all of these stars

forming themselves into two circles,

like the crown that Ariadne made

when she felt the chill of death,

one ring of light spinning within the other,

both turning in perfect harmony,

one circle moving clockwise,

the other counter-clockwise—

and even then you'd have only a pale shadow

of the true constellation

and the double dance

I witnessed there,

as far beyond our earthly experience

as the swiftest heaven

is beyond the slow movement

of the river Chiana.

Now I saw—and let the reader hold this image

firm as bedrock in his mind—

the fifteen brightest stars that kindle heaven

in all its regions with such blazing light

it cuts through every veil of earthly air.

Picture the Great Bear, that constellation

our dome of sky contains both night and day,

so that it never fades as the pole turns.

Imagine the bright mouth of that great horn

that starts where the axis meets its point,

around which the first sphere revolves—

Picture these forming two signs in the heavens,

like the crown that Ariadne made

the moment death's cold touch fell on her.

One circle holds its rays within the other,

both whirling in such perfect motion

that one spins forward, one spins back.

Then you might glimpse some shadow of that

true constellation, that double dance

circling the point where I now stood—

for it surpasses our experience

as much as the swiftest heaven outpaces

the sluggish crawling of the Chiana River.

There they sang neither of Bacchus nor Apollo,

but of three Persons in the divine nature,

and divine and human joined in one Person.

The singing and the dancing reached completion,

and those holy lights turned toward us,

joy deepening as they moved from care to care.

Then the silence of that blessed harmony broke,

and the light that had told me the wondrous story

of God's own beggar saint began to speak:

"Now that one sheaf is threshed,

its grain already stored away,

sweet love compels me to thresh the other.

You believe that into the breast

from which the rib was drawn

to form that lovely face whose taste

costs all the world so dear,

and into that breast which, pierced by the lance,

gave such satisfaction before and after

it outweighs the balance of all sin—

into both these, whatever light

it was lawful for human nature to possess

was poured by the same Power that made them both.

So you wonder at what I said before:

that no second ever equaled

the good enclosed within the fifth light.

Open your eyes now to my answer,

and you will see your belief and my words

fit together like center in a circle.

All that can die and all that cannot die

are nothing but the radiance of that Idea

which our Lord brings forth through love.

That living Light which streams effulgent

from its Source, never separating

from Him or from the Love entwined in them,

through its own goodness gathers its rays

into nine orders, as in mirrors,

while remaining eternally One.

From there it descends to the lowest powers,

moving downward from act to act,

until it creates only brief contingencies—

by which I mean those generated things

that heaven produces through its motion,

with seed or without seed.

Neither their matter nor what shapes it

stays unchanging, and so beneath

the ideal seal, more and less shine through.

This is why the same tree,

true to its species, bears both

worse fruit and better fruit,

and why you are born with different natures.

If the matter were perfectly prepared

and heaven were at its highest power,

the seal's full brilliance would appear.

But nature always gives imperfectly,

working like an artist who masters

the craft but has a trembling hand.

Yet when fervent Love and the clear Vision

of that first Power both shape and seal,

then absolute perfection is achieved.

This is how earth was made worthy

of every animal's perfection,

and how the Virgin was made fruitful.

So I approve your belief

that human nature never was,

nor ever will be, what it was in those two.

Now if I went no further,

your first words would be:

'Then how was Solomon without peer?'

But to make clear what now seems hidden,

think who he was, and what moved him

to ask when he was told, 'Request.'

I have not spoken so obscurely

that you cannot see clearly

he was a king who asked for wisdom

to be a king worthy of his calling.

He did not ask to know the number

of the moving spirits here above,

or whether necessity combined

with contingency ever makes necessity,

or whether 'there must be a first motion,'

or whether in a semicircle

you can construct a triangle

with no right angle.

So if you note this and what I said before,

it was kingly prudence—that peerless insight—

at which my arrow aimed.

And if you turn your clear eyes to 'arose,'

you will see it refers only

to kings, who are many, though few are good.

Take what I said with this distinction,

and it can stand with your belief

about our first father and our Beloved.

Let this always weight your feet like lead,

making you move slowly, like one weary,

toward any Yes or No you do not see clearly.

Among fools, those rank lowest

who affirm or deny without distinction,

whether in one case or another—

for it often happens that hasty opinion

bends toward falsehood,

and then emotion binds the intellect.

More than uselessly does one leave shore

who fishes for truth without skill—

he does not return the same as when he left.

The world holds clear proof of this:

Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus,

and many others who went on

not knowing where they headed.

So did Sabellius and Arius

and those fools who became like swords

against Scripture, distorting

its straight features into crooked ones.

Let people not be too confident in judging,

like one who counts the grain in a field

before it ripens.

I have seen the thornbush

show itself harsh and forbidding all winter,

then later bear the rose at its crown.

I have seen a ship run straight and swift

across the sea through its entire voyage,

only to perish at the harbor's mouth.

Let not Mistress Bertha or Master Martin think,

seeing one person steal and another give offerings,

that they see them as God's judgment sees—

for one may rise while the other falls."