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

Ascent to the Third Heaven, or that of Venus, where are seen the spirits of lovers⁠—Charles Martel.

The world used in its peril to believe1335
That the fair Cypria delirious love1336
Rayed out, in the third epicycle turning;1337
Wherefore not only unto her paid honor
Of sacrifices and of votive cry
The ancient nations in the ancient error,
But both Dione honored they and Cupid,1338
That as her mother, this one as her son,
And said that he had sat in Dido’s lap;1339
And they from her, whence I beginning take,1340
Took the denomination of the star
That woos the sun, now following, now in front.1341
I was not ware of our ascending to it;
But of our being in it gave full faith
My Lady whom I saw more beauteous grow.
And as within a flame a spark is seen,
And as within a voice a voice discerned,
When one is steadfast, and one comes and goes,
Within that light beheld I other lamps
Move in a circle, speeding more and less,
Methinks in measure of their inward vision.1342
From a cold cloud descended never winds,
Or visible or not, so rapidly1343
They would not laggard and impeded seem
To anyone who had those lights divine
Seen come towards us, leaving the gyration
Begun at first in the high Seraphim.1344
And behind those that most in front appeared
Sounded “Osanna!” so that never since
To hear again was I without desire.
Then unto us more nearly one approached,
And it alone began: “We all are ready
Unto thy pleasure, that thou joy in us.
We turn around with the celestial Princes,1345
One gyre and one gyration and one thirst,
To whom thou in the world of old didst say,
‘Ye who, intelligent, the third heaven are moving’;1346
And are so full of love, to pleasure thee
A little quiet will not be less sweet.”
After these eyes of mine themselves had offered1347
Unto my Lady reverently, and she
Content and certain of herself had made them,
Back to the light they turned, which so great promise
Made of itself, and “Say, who art thou?” was
My voice, imprinted with a great affection.
O how and how much I beheld it grow1348
With the new joy that superadded was
Unto its joys, as soon as I had spoken!
Thus changed, it said to me: “The world possessed me1349
Short time below; and, if it had been more,
Much evil will be which would not have been.
My gladness keepeth me concealed from thee,
Which rayeth round about me, and doth hide me
Like as a creature swathed in its own silk.
Much didst thou love me, and thou hadst good reason;
For had I been below, I should have shown thee
Somewhat beyond the foliage of my love.
That left-hand margin, which doth bathe itself1350
In Rhone, when it is mingled with the Sorgue,
Me for its lord awaited in due time,
And that horn of Ausonia, which is towned1351
With Bari, with Gaeta and Catona,
Whence Tronto and Verde in the sea disgorge.
Already flashed upon my brow the crown
Of that dominion which the Danube waters1352
After the German borders it abandons;
And beautiful Trinacria, that is murky1353
’Twixt Pachino and Peloro, (on the gulf1354
Which greatest scath from Eurus doth receive,)
Not through Typhoeus, but through nascent sulphur,1355
Would have awaited her own monarchs still,
Through me from Charles descended and from Rudolph,1356
If evil lordship, that exasperates ever
The subject populations, had not moved
Palermo to the outcry of ‘Death! death!’1357
And if my brother could but this foresee,1358
The greedy poverty of Catalonia
Straight would he flee, that it might not molest him;
For verily ’tis needful to provide,
Through him or other, so that on his bark1359
Already freighted no more freight be placed.
His nature, which from liberal covetous1360
Descended, such a soldiery would need
As should not care for hoarding in a chest.”1361
“Because I do believe the lofty joy
Thy speech infuses into me, my Lord,
Where every good thing doth begin and end1362
Thou seest as I see it, the more grateful
Is it to me; and this too hold I dear,
That gazing upon God thou dost discern it.
Glad hast thou made me; so make clear to me,
Since speaking thou hast stirred me up to doubt,
How from sweet seed can bitter issue forth.”
This I to him; and he to me: “If I
Can show to thee a truth, to what thou askest
Thy face thou’lt hold as thou dost hold thy back.
The Good which all the realm thou art ascending1363
Turns and contents, maketh its providence
To be a power within these bodies vast;
And not alone the natures are foreseen
Within the mind that in itself is perfect,
But they together with their preservation.
For whatsoever thing this bow shoots forth
Falls foreordained unto an end foreseen,
Even as a shaft directed to its mark.
If that were not, the heaven which thou dost walk
Would in such manner its effects produce,
That they no longer would be arts, but ruins.
This cannot be, if the Intelligences
That keep these stars in motion are not maimed,
And maimed the First that has not made them perfect.
Wilt thou this truth have clearer made to thee?”
And I: “Not so; for ’tis impossible
That nature tire, I see, in what is needful.”
Whence he again: “Now say, would it be worse
For men on earth were they not citizens?”1364
“Yes,” I replied; “and here I ask no reason.”
“And can they be so, if below they live not
Diversely unto offices diverse?