Canto XXX
CANTO XXX
As the stars gradually fade from the predawn sky, which begins to whiten with the rays of the approaching sun, so the flaming circles of Dante’s vision slowly disappear to leave the all-encompassing light of the Divine Point (1–13). The Pilgrim turns again in love to Beatrice and finds her beauty so unsurpassed that all his previous praise of her falls short and his present adulation comes to an impasse so that he must leave it to some future, greater poet to pay her proper homage (14–36). Then Beatrice announces that they have completed the crossing from the Primum Mobile into the light, love, and joy of the Empyrean, where the Poet will behold the angels and the blessed in the semblance of their glorified bodies (37–45). Like Saul on the road to Damascus, Dante is momentarily blinded by a flood of light that will strengthen his power of sight and ready his candle for the flame. He now sees a river of light flowing between two banks carpeted with springtime blooms as sparks dart back and forth between the stream and the flowers. When Beatrice explains to him that this vision prefigures the truth, he hurries like a hungry infant to its milk and bathes his eyes in the luminous current. No sooner has he done so than its linear flow rounds into a lake of light wider than the sun, and, as if their masks had fallen, the sparks emerge as angels and the blossoms as souls of the blessed (46–96). Below, on the outer surface of the ninth sphere, on which the divine rays have poured a sea of light, the Pilgrim spies the reflection of a thousand circular tiers, rising upwards to an incalculable height and breadth. The blessed sit upon them like petals in a rose, though here, where the laws of time and space no longer apply, all are equally present to him regardless of their distance. At this point, Beatrice leads the Poet into the lightsome center of the rose, which opens upwards in praise of the Divine Sun, and shows him the blessed robed in white (97–129). Only a few of their thrones remain unoccupied, among which is one with a crown suspended above it, reserved for the future Emperor Henry VII. He will unsuccessfully attempt to set right an avaricious, unwilling Italy, only to meet the opposition of Pope Clement V, who will soon be thrust into the hole of the simoniacs on top of Boniface VIII (130–148).
1 By now, perhaps six thousand miles ahead,
High noon will glow; this world has not yet quite
Inclined its shadow to a level bed.[698]
4 And high above, the midst of heaven’s height
Begins to change so that some stars which spun
Are lost at such a depth as ours to sight.
7 And as the brightest handmaid of the sun[699]
Comes closer and the heavens start to close
Light after light until the fairest one,[700]
10 So they whose play, triumphal, ever goes
Around the Point that had just vanquished me
And seems enclosed by what It must enclose
13 Had faded from my sight progressively;
Both love and seeing nothing made me veer
And turn my eyes to Beatrice to see.
16 Could all I’ve said of her thus far appear
In but one laud, it still would be too small
A praise of her to be of service here.
19 Her beauty seen not only does not fall
In human measures, I’d expect to meet
None but her Maker who enjoys it all.
22 At such a pass I must concede defeat
More than a bard outdone by any themes
The comic or the tragic poets treat.
25 Like weakest eyes before the sun’s bright beams,
So too, remembering her smile’s sweet grace,
I am deprived of mind itself, it seems.
28 And from the day when first I saw her face
In earthly life up to the present view,
My song has not been cut in any place.
31 But now I must desist and not pursue
Her beauty any longer in my song,
As artists at their utmost reach must do.
34 I leave her to a herald’s cry more strong
Than is my trumpet, which must end the flight
Of its hard subject now before too long.
37 With act and voice of one whose work’s done right,
My Guide began: “We’ve risen up above
From greatest sphere to heaven of pure light—[701]
40 Light of the intellect, replete with love,
Love of true good, filled with such joys that they
Transcend all joys and sweet delights thereof.
43 The one and other host you’ll here survey[702]
In Paradise, and one in just the guise
That you will see again on Judgment Day.”
46 As when the lightning scatters by surprise
The optic spirits and our sight is reft[703]
Of stronger objects, so, in just this wise,
49 When vivid light shone round me, I was left
With such a shining veil wrapt round my frame
That nothing else appeared to me, bereft.
52 “The Love that calms this heaven gives the same[704]
Bright greeting as It welcomes all It sees
To make the candle ready for Its flame.”
55 No sooner had my ears been pierced by these
Brief words she spoke than I was made aware
Of being raised beyond my faculties.
58 New sight was lit in me so that no flare
Could ever shine so brightly that my eyes
Would not be able to withstand its glare.
61 I saw a light that formed a stream arise
And flash with tawny splendor as it rolled
Between two banks of wondrous spring-like dyes.
64 From such a river living sparks leapt bold,
And on both sides each dropped upon a bloom
To glisten like a ruby set in gold.
67 Then after, as if drunk by such perfume,
They hit that wondrous flood from either verge;
And as one plunged, one issued from the spume.
70 “The high desire that flames you with the urge
To gain some knowledge of the things you see
Delights me more the more I see it surge.
73 First drink, though, of these streams for this must be
Before so great a thirst is slaked in you,”
So spoke the Sunlight of my eyes to me,[705]
76 And then: “The streams, the gems of topaz-hue,
Which dive and surface, and the smiling green
Are shadows that prefigure what is true.
79 No lack besets the things themselves here seen;
The defect, rather, must as yours be classed:
Your sight is not yet so sublime, I mean.”
82 No babe in arms would ever run so fast,
Its face upturned towards milk, should it awake
Long after its accustomed time has passed,
85 As I bent down that eyes might better make
A mirror in the waves that here abound
So that in them we may improve our stake.
88 No sooner were my eyelids’ eaves thus drowned[706]
On drinking deeply of the wave than did
It seem to change its length to something round.
91 And just as those beneath a mask are rid
Of first appearances when they divest
Themselves of semblances in which they’ve hid,
94 So too the sparks and flowers changed and dressed
With greater festiveness so that I saw
The twofold court of Heaven manifest.
97 O splendid light of God, by which I saw
The lofty triumph of true rule, increase
The strength in me to tell all that I saw!
100 There is a light above that does not cease
To show Creator unto creature, who
In seeing Him alone possesses peace.
103 And as it formed a circle, it spread through
A great circumference whose belt would fit
The sun too large. Its whole appearance grew
106 From the reflection of a ray that hit
Atop the First Moved Sphere, which draws its flow[707]
Of life and potency from out of it.
109 And just as cliffs reflect in pools below,
As if to see themselves adorned and gowned
When all their grass and blooms most richly grow,
112 So too, above the light and all around,
I saw reflected those returned up there,
Who on a thousand tiers or more were found.
115 And if the lowest ranks take in a share
Of so immense a light upon them shined,
What breadth that Rose in its far leaves must bear!
118 Within its breadth and height I did not find
My sight was lost for it took in the play
Of all that joy in its extent and kind.
121 There near and far don’t add or take away;
For where God rules with none to interpose,
The law of nature can no more hold sway.
124 Straight to the gold of the Eternal Rose,
Whose ranks rise up, expand, and, wafting, shed
Their praise on that spring Sun which ever glows,[708]
127 I was conveyed by Beatrice, who said:
“See this great company in white attired!”
While I who wished to speak kept still instead.
130 “See what expanse our city has required!
And see our thrones so full you may surmise
That but few people here are still desired.
133 On that great chair on which you fix your eyes
Because a crown is hanging over it,
Before you join the wedding feast we prize,
136 A soul, imperial below, will sit:
High Henry, who will come to Italy[709]
To set her right before she would submit.
139 You are bewitched by blind cupidity,[710]
Which makes you like a child who at the goad
Of hunger starves but makes its nursemaid flee.
142 The prefect of God’s forum will have showed
That publicly he is in full accord
While secretly he walks another road.[711]
145 He won’t be long permitted by the Lord
To hold his holy office; he’ll be cast
Where Simon Magus lies for his reward[712]
148 To drive Alagna’s son more deep at last.”[713]