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

>No, if your master writeth well for you.”1365
So came he with deductions to this point;
Then he concluded: “Therefore it behoves
The roots of your effects to be diverse.
Hence one is Solon born, another Xerxes,1366
Another Melchisedec, and another he
Who, flying through the air, his son did lose.
Revolving Nature, which a signet is
To mortal wax, doth practise well her art,
But not one inn distinguish from another;1367
Thence happens it that Esau differeth1368
In seed from Jacob; and Quirinus comes1369
From sire so vile that he is given to Mars.
A generated nature its own way
Would always make like its progenitors,
If Providence divine were not triumphant.
Now that which was behind thee is before thee;
But that thou know that I with thee am pleased,
With a corollary will I mantle thee.
Evermore nature, if it fortune find
Discordant to it, like each other seed
Out of its region, maketh evil thrift;1370
And if the world below would fix its mind
On the foundation which is laid by nature,
Pursuing that, ’twould have the people good.
But you unto religion wrench aside1371
Him who was born to gird him with the sword,
And make a king of him who is for sermons;
Therefore your footsteps wander from the road.” Canto IX

Cunizza, Folco of Marseilles, and Rahab.

Beautiful Clemence, after that thy Charles1372
Had me enlightened, he narrated to me
The treacheries his seed should undergo;1373
But said: “Be still and let the years roll round”;
So I can only say, that lamentation
Legitimate shall follow on your wrongs.
And of that holy light the life already
Had to the Sun which fills it turned again,
As to that good which for each thing sufficeth.
Ah, souls deceived, and creatures impious,
Who from such good do turn away your hearts,
Directing upon vanity your foreheads!
And now, behold, another of those splendors
Approached me, and its will to pleasure me
It signified by brightening outwardly.
The eyes of Beatrice, that fastened were
Upon me, as before, of dear assent
To my desire assurance gave to me.
“Ah, bring swift compensation to my wish,
Thou blessed spirit,” I said, “and give me proof
That what I think in thee I can reflect!”
Whereat the light, that still was new to me,1374
Out of its depths, whence it before was singing,
As one delighted to do good, continued:
“Within that region of the land depraved1375
Of Italy, that lies between Rialto
And fountainheads of Brenta and of Piava,
Rises a hill, and mounts not very high,1376
Wherefrom descended formerly a torch
That made upon that region great assault.
Out of one root were born both I and it;
Cunizza was I called, and here I shine1377
Because the splendor of this star o’ercame me.1378
But gladly to myself the cause I pardon1379
Of my allotment, and it does not grieve me;
Which would perhaps seem strong unto your vulgar.
Of this so luculent and precious jewel,1380
Which of our heaven is nearest unto me,
Great fame remained; and ere it die away
This hundredth year shall yet quintupled be.
See if man ought to make him excellent,
So that another life the first may leave!
And thus thinks not the present multitude
Shut in by Adige and Tagliamento,1381
Nor yet for being scourged is penitent.
But soon ’twill be that Padua in the marsh1382
Will change the water that Vicenza bathes,
Because the folk are stubborn against duty;
And where the Sile and Cagnano join1383
One lordeth it, and goes with lofty head,1384
For catching whom e’en now the net is making.
Feltro moreover of her impious pastor
Shall weep the crime, which shall so monstrous be1385
That for the like none ever entered Malta.1386
Ample exceedingly would be the vat
That of the Ferrarese could hold the blood,
And weary who should weigh it ounce by ounce,
Of which this courteous priest shall make a gift1387
To show himself a partisan; and such gifts
Will to the living of the land conform.1388
Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them,1389
From which shines out on us God Judicant,
So that this utterance seems good to us.”
Here it was silent, and it had the semblance
Of being turned elsewhither, by the wheel
On which it entered as it was before.
The other joy, already known to me,
Became a thing transplendent in my sight,
As a fine ruby smitten by the sun.1390
Through joy effulgence is acquired above,1391
-As here a smile; but down below, the shade
Outwardly darkens, as the mind is sad.
“God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit,1392
Thy sight is,” said I, “so that never will
Of his can possibly from thee be hidden;
Thy voice, then, that forever makes the heavens1393
Glad, with the singing of those holy fires1394
Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl,
Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings?
Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning
If I in thee were as thou art in me.”1395
“The greatest of the valleys where the water1396
Expands itself,” forthwith its words began,
“That sea excepted which the earth engarlands,
Between discordant shores against the sun1397
Extends so far, that it meridian makes
Where it was wont before to make the horizon.
I was a dweller on that valley’s shore
’Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short1398
Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese.
With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly
Sit Buggia and the city whence I was,1399
That with its blood