Canto XXVI

While I was struggling with my vision gone dark,

from the blazing flame that had blinded me

came a voice that made me listen closely,

saying: "While you recover the power

of sight that you've consumed in me,

"You have consumed yourself in me—let your speaking now make recompense for that.

Begin then, and tell me what your soul aims toward, and know with certainty

that your sight is bewildered, not destroyed,

because the Lady who guides you through this divine realm

carries in her gaze the same power that Ananias held in his hands."

I said: "Whether soon or late, as it pleases her,

let the cure come to these eyes that were doorways

when she entered, bringing the fire I burn with eternally.

The Good that gives contentment to this Court

is the Alpha and Omega of all

the scripture that love reads to me, soft or loud."

The same voice that had taken from me

the terror of that sudden blazing light

stirred my thoughts to speak further,

and said: "You must sift with a finer mesh—

you must tell me who aimed your bow at such a target."

And I replied: "Through philosophical reasoning

and through authority that descends from here,

such love must imprint itself upon me.

For Good, insofar as it is good, when understood

immediately kindles love, and burns brighter

the more goodness it contains within itself.

Therefore toward that Essence—which holds such supremacy

that every good found outside it

is nothing but a ray of its own light—

more than anywhere else must the mind be drawn

of everyone who loves and who perceives

the truth on which this proof is founded.

This truth is revealed to me by him

who demonstrates the first love

of all eternal substances.

It is revealed by the voice of the truthful Author

who says to Moses, speaking of himself:

'I will make all my goodness pass before you.'

And you reveal it to me as well, beginning

that mighty Gospel which proclaims heaven's secret

to earth above all other proclamations."

And I heard: "By human reason

and by the authority that accords with it,

hold God as the highest of all your loves.

But tell me again if you feel other cords

drawing you toward him—proclaim

with how many teeth this love is biting you."

The holy purpose of Christ's Eagle

was not hidden from me—rather I perceived

where he wished to lead my confession.

Therefore I began again: "All those bites

that have the power to turn the heart toward God

have worked together in my love.

The existence of the world and my own existence,

the death he endured so that I might live,

and that which all believers hope for, as I do,

along with the living knowledge I spoke of—

these have drawn me from the sea of perverted love

and placed me on the shore of righteous love.

The leaves with which the Eternal Gardener's

entire garden is adorned, I love them

in proportion to the good he has granted them."

As soon as I finished speaking, the sweetest song

resounded through all heaven, and my Lady

joined the others, singing "Holy, holy, holy!"

And just as someone wakes from sleep at bright light,

as the visual spirit races toward

the splendor passed from layer to layer,

and the sleeper recoils from what he sees,

so unconscious in his sudden waking

until judgment comes to his aid—

so Beatrice chased every speck from my eyes

with the radiance of her own,

which cast light for a thousand miles and more.

I saw better afterward than before,

and in a kind of wonder I asked

about a fourth light I saw with us.

My Lady said: "Within those rays

the first soul that the First Power ever created

gazes upon its Maker."

As a branch bends its crown downward

when the wind passes, then lifts up again

by its own nature that inclines it upward,

so I did while she was speaking—

amazed at first, then made bold

by the desire to speak that burned in me.

And I began: "O fruit that was brought forth

mature and alone, O ancient father

to whom every wife is daughter and daughter-in-law,

as devoutly as I can, I beg you

to speak with me. You see my wish,

and I don't voice it, wanting to hear you sooner."

Sometimes a covered animal struggles

so that its movement must be apparent

because the covering follows its motion.

In the same way that first soul

showed me through its wrapping

how joyful it was to give me pleasure.

Then it breathed: "Without your speaking it,

I perceive your desire better

than you know anything most certain to you.

For I see it in the truthful mirror

that makes all things reflections of itself

while nothing can make it a reflection of anything else.

You want to hear how long ago God placed me

in the high garden where this Lady

prepared you for so long a climb,

and how long it delighted my eyes,

and the true cause of the great anger,

and the language I used and made.

Now know, my son: the tasting of the tree

was not in itself the cause of such great exile,

but only the transgression of the boundary.

From the place where your Lady summoned Virgil,

through four thousand three hundred and two revolutions

of the sun, I longed for this assembly.

And I saw the sun return to all the stars

of its path nine hundred and thirty times

while I remained upon the earth.

The language I spoke was already extinct

before Nimrod's people undertook

their impossible work.

For no product of human reason

was ever lasting, since human desire changes

in obedience to the heavens.

That humans speak is natural,

but whether this way or that, nature leaves

to your own choice, as seems best to you.

Before I descended to the infernal anguish,

'El' was the name on earth for the Supreme Good

from whom comes all the joy that wraps around me.

Later he was called 'Eli,' and this is fitting,

for human usage is like a leaf

on a branch—one falls and another comes.

On the mountain that rises highest above the waters

I lived, both innocent and guilty,

from the first hour until the one that follows

the sixth, when the sun changes quadrant."