The Divine Comedy by Dante Alighieri (13 inch ebook reader .txt) 📕

slumbered,1865
An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,
With other voice forthwith, with other fleece1866
Poet will I return, and at my font1867
Baptismal will I take the laurel crown;
Because into the Faith that maketh known
All souls to God there entered I, and then
Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled.1868
Thereafterward towards us moved a light
Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits1869
Which of his vicars Christ behind him left,
And then my Lady, full of ecstasy,
Said unto me: “Look, look! behold the Baron1870
For whom below Galicia is frequented.”
In the same way as, when a dove alights
Near his companion, both of them pour forth,
Circling about and murmuring, their affection,
So one beheld I by the other grand
Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted,
Lauding the food that there above is eaten.
But when their gratulations were complete,
Silently coram me each one stood still,1871
So incandescent it o’ercame my sight.
Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice:
“Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions1872
Of our Basilica have been described,
Make Hope resound within this altitude;
Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it1873
As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness.”⁠—
“Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;1874
For what comes hither from the mortal world
Must needs be ripened in our radiance.”1875
This comfort came to me from the second fire;
Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills,1876
Which bent them down before with too great weight.
“Since, through his grace, our Emperor wills that thou
Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy death,
In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,1877
So that, the truth beholden of this court,
Hope, which below there rightfully enamours,
Thereby thou strengthen in thyself and others,
Say what it is, and how is flowering with it
Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee.”
Thus did the second light again continue.
And the Compassionate, who piloted1878
The plumage of my wings in such high flight,
Did in reply anticipate me thus:
“No child whatever the Church Militant
Of greater hope possesses, as is written
In that Sun which irradiates all our band;1879
Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt
To come into Jerusalem to see,
Or ever yet his warfare be completed.
The two remaining points, that not for knowledge1880
Have been demanded, but that he report
How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing,
To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,
Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them;1881
And may the grace of God in this assist him!”
As a disciple, who his teacher follows,
Ready and willing, where he is expert,
That his proficiency may be displayed,
“Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation1882
Of future glory, which is the effect
Of grace divine and merit precedent.
From many stars this light comes unto me;
But he instilled it first into my heart
Who was chief singer unto the chief captain.1883
Sperent in te, in the high Theody1884
He sayeth, ‘those who know thy name’; and who
Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess?
Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling
In the Epistle, so that I am full,
And upon others rain again your rain.”1885
While I was speaking, in the living bosom
Of that combustion quivered an effulgence,
Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning;
Then breathed: “The love wherewith I am inflamed
Towards the virtue still which followed me
Unto the palm and issue of the field,1886
Wills that I breathe to thee that thou delight
In her; and grateful to me is thy telling
Whatever things Hope promises to thee.”
And I: “The ancient Scriptures and the new
The mark establish, and this shows it me,1887
Of all the souls whom God hath made his friends.1888
Isaiah saith, that each one garmented1889
In his own land shall be with twofold garments,
And his own land is this delightful life.
Thy brother, too, far more explicitly,
There where he treateth of the robes of white,1890
This revelation manifests to us.”
And first, and near the ending of these words,
“Sperent in te” from over us was heard,
To which responsive answered all the carols.
Thereafterward a light among them brightened,1891
So that, if Cancer one such crystal had,1892
Winter would have a month of one sole day.
And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance
A winsome maiden, only to do honor
To the new bride, and not from any failing,1893
Even thus did I behold the brightened splendor
Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved1894
As was beseeming to their ardent love.
Into the song and music there it entered;
And fixed on them my Lady kept her look,
Even as a bride silent and motionless.
“This is the one who lay upon the breast
Of him our Pelican; and this is he1895
To the great office from the cross elected.”1896
My Lady thus; but therefore none the more
Did move her sight from its attentive gaze
Before or afterward these words of hers.
Even as a man who gazes, and endeavors
To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,
And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,
So I became before that latest fire,1897
While it was said, “Why dost thou daze thyself
To see a thing which here hath no existence?
Earth in the earth my body is, and shall be
With all the others there, until our number
With the eternal proposition tallies.1898
With the two garments in the blessed cloister