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

her meaning.
And as my countenance was lifted up,
Mine eye perceived those creatures beautiful1135
Had rested from the strewing of the flowers;
And, still but little reassured, mine eyes
Saw Beatrice turned round towards the monster,
That is one person only in two natures.
Beneath her veil, beyond the margent green,
She seemed to me far more her ancient self
To excel, than others here, when she was here.
So pricked me then the thorn of penitence,
That of all other things the one which turned me
Most to its love became the most my foe.
Such self-conviction stung me at the heart
O’erpowered I fell, and what I then became
She knoweth who had furnished me the cause.
Then, when the heart restored my outward sense,
The lady I had found alone, above me1136
I saw, and she was saying, “Hold me, hold me.”
Up to my throat she in the stream had drawn me,
And, dragging me behind her, she was moving1137
Upon the water lightly as a shuttle.
When I was near unto the blessed shore,
“Asperges me,” I heard so sweetly sung,1138
Remember it I cannot, much less write it.
The beautiful lady opened wide her arms,
Embraced my head, and plunged me underneath,
Where I was forced to swallow of the water.
Then forth she drew me, and all dripping brought
Into the dance of the four beautiful,1139
And each one with her arm did cover me.
“We here are Nymphs, and in the Heaven are stars;1140
Ere Beatrice descended to the world,
We as her handmaids were appointed her.
We’ll lead thee to her eyes; but for the pleasant
Light that within them is, shall sharpen thine
The three beyond, who more profoundly look.”1141
Thus singing they began; and afterwards
Unto the Griffin’s breast they led me with them,
Where Beatrice was standing, turned towards us.1142
“See that thou dost not spare thine eyes,” they said;
“Before the emeralds have we stationed thee,1143
Whence Love aforetime drew for thee his weapons.”
A thousand longings, hotter than the flame,
Fastened mine eyes upon those eyes relucent,
That still upon the Griffin steadfast stayed.
As in a glass the sun, not otherwise
Within them was the twofold monster shining,1144
Now with the one, now with the other nature.1145
Think, Reader, if within myself I marvelled,
When I beheld the thing itself stand still,
And in its image it transformed itself.
While with amazement filled and jubilant,
My soul was tasting of the food, that while
It satisfies us makes us hunger for it,
Themselves revealing of the highest rank
In bearing, did the other three advance,
Singing to their angelic saraband.1146
“Turn, Beatrice, O turn thy holy eyes,”
Such was their song, “unto thy faithful one,
Who has to see thee ta’en so many steps.
In grace do us the grace that thou unveil
Thy face to him, so that he may discern
The second beauty which thou dost conceal.”
O splendor of the living light eternal!
Who underneath the shadow of Parnassus
Has grown so pale, or drunk so at its cistern,
He would not seem to have his mind encumbered
Striving to paint thee as thou didst appear,
Where the harmonious heaven o’ershadowed thee,
When in the open air thou didst unveil? Canto XXXII

The Tree of Knowledge.

So steadfast and attentive were mine eyes1147
In satisfying their decennial thirst,1148
That all my other senses were extinct,
And upon this side and on that they had
Walls of indifference, so the holy smile
Drew them unto itself with the old net;
When forcibly my sight was turned away
Towards my left hand by those goddesses,
Because I heard from them a “Too intently!”
And that condition of the sight which is1149
In eyes but lately smitten by the sun
Bereft me of my vision some short while;
But to the less when sight reshaped itself,
I say the less in reference to the greater
Splendor from which perforce I had withdrawn,
I saw upon its right wing wheeled about
The glorious host returning with the sun
And with the sevenfold flames upon their faces.
As underneath its shields, to save itself,
A squadron turns, and with its banner wheels,
Before the whole thereof can change its front,
That soldiery of the celestial kingdom
Which marched in the advance had wholly passed us
Before the chariot had turned its pole.
Then to the wheels the maidens turned themselves,
And the Griffin moved his burden benedight,
But so that not a feather of him fluttered.
The lady fair who drew me through the ford
Followed with Statius and myself the wheel
Which made its orbit with the lesser arc.
So passing through the lofty forest, vacant
By fault of her who in the serpent trusted,
Angelic music made our steps keep time.
Perchance as great a space had in three flights
An arrow loosened from the string o’erpassed,1150
As we had moved when Beatrice descended.
I heard them murmur altogether, “Adam!”
Then circled they about a tree despoiled1151
Of blooms and other leafage on each bough.
Its tresses, which so much the more dilate
As higher they ascend, had been by Indians1152
Among their forests marvelled at for height.
“Blessed art thou, O Griffin, who dost not1153
Pluck with thy beak these branches sweet to taste,
Since appetite by this was turned to evil.”
After this fashion round the tree robust
The others shouted; and the twofold creature:
“Thus is preserved the seed of all the just.”
And turning to the pole which he had dragged,
He drew it close beneath the widowed bough,
And what was of it unto it left bound.1154
In the same manner as our trees (when downward
Falls the great light, with that together mingled
Which after the celestial Lasca shines)1155
Begin to swell,