Canto XXXI
CANTO XXXI
Like bees buzzing about flowers, angels fiery-faced, golden-winged, and white-robed now descend from on high to minister divine love and peace to the blessed and then ascend again as Dante beholds the Celestial Rose. In spite of their vast number, however, the angelic throng does not impede the vision of the sainted host of both the Old and New Covenant, which gazes towards the source of its beatitude (1–30). Having come from the human to the divine and from time to eternity, the Pilgrim feels as the barbarians from the North must have felt on seeing for the first time the glories of Rome. The Poet surveys the spectacle with the same delight as a pilgrim who finally attains the temple he has vowed to visit and with the same hope of recounting his experience when he returns (31–54). Pivoting to ask Beatrice a question, Dante discovers to his bewilderment that she has disappeared and that a white-clad, fatherly elder has taken her place. Once he explains that Beatrice has sent him to lead Dante to the fulfillment of his desire, he directs the Pilgrim’s sight up to his Lady seated now on the third tier of the amphitheater. The Poet lifts his gaze and spies Beatrice bathed in the rays of Divine Light, her image unblurred, though she sits at a greater remove from him than the highest reaches of the earth’s atmosphere from the depths of the ocean (55–78). When Dante addresses a prayer of gratitude to her for having ransomed him from the slavery of sin and a petition that he may remain in a state of purity until his death, Beatrice looks down upon the Pilgrim, smiles in approval, and then turns back to the Eternal Fountain (79–93). The elder encourages Dante to take in the whole Celestial Rose and identifies himself as St. Bernard, the devotee of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Like a foreign pilgrim gaping at the Veronica, the true image of Christ, the Poet stares at him in wonder until the Saint directs his eyes up to the highest tier to Mary, the Queen of Heaven. There Dante sees the blessed Virgin radiant, like the rising sun in the east, and surrounded by myriads of angels in homage, on whom she smiles. Then St. Bernard gazes ardently upon her as well and enflames the Pilgrim’s gaze even more in doing so (94–142).
1 So, in the form of that white rose, I spied
The saintly host as it was shown to me,[714]
The one that by his blood Christ made His bride;
4 But all the other host there flies to see[715]
And sing the Glory that enamors it,
That Good which made it great as it can be.
7 Just like a swarm of bees that first has lit
Inside a flower’s bloom and then returns
To all its fragrant work, it came to flit
10 Deep down in that great flower, which upturns
So many leaves, and next rose up to aim[716]
At where its Love eternally sojourns.[717]
13 They had their faces all of living flame,
Their wings of golden hue, the rest so white
The whitest snow could never match the same.
16 Descending in the flower, down each height,
They shared the ardor and the peace serene
They gathered as they fanned their sides in flight.
19 Nor did so vast a throng that flew between
The flower and the realm above make worse
The vision or impede the splendor seen.
22 God’s light so penetrates the universe
According to its worth that not a sole
Existence could have stood to it adverse.
25 This kingdom, this secure and joyful whole,
Abounding in such people, old and new,[718]
Had look and love directed towards one Goal.
28 O threefold Light of but one star, O You[719]
Who so content them, sparkling on their sight,
Look down and on our tempest turn your view!
31 If the barbarians from such a site
As that which Helice each day still rings[720]
When wheeling with her son, her great delight,
34 On seeing Rome, from which such vast work springs,
Were wonder-struck when Lateran had lain[721]
So far above all other mortal things,
37 I, who to the divine from human bane
And to eternity from time had come,
From Florence to a people just and sane,
40 How fully must I have been overcome!
Indeed, between my joy and wonder then
It pleased me not to hear and to stand dumb.
43 And as a pilgrim is replenished when
He peers inside the temple of his vow
And hopes to tell just how it was again,
46 So through the living light did I allow
My eyes to wander over each degree,
First up, then down, then circling further now.
49 I saw their faces swayed by charity,
Trimmed with the smile Another’s rays entice,
Their movements graced with every dignity.
52 My gaze had scanned the form of Paradise
By now, though in so general a sense
I paused upon no part more than a trice
55 But turned—my new-lit wish was so intense—
To ask my Lady that she clarify
The things that held my thinking in suspense.
58 I sought for one, another made reply:
I looked for Beatrice, but saw a man,
An elder clad like those in glory, nigh.
61 Benign rejoicing filled his eyes and ran
Across his cheeks; he had as kind a face
As but a tender-hearted father can.
64 And “She—where is she now?” I asked apace;
“To end your each desire,” he answered, kind,
“Your Beatrice has urged me from my place.
67 You will behold her, if you look to find
The third ring from the highest tier of praise,
Upon the throne her merits have assigned.”
70 Without reply, I lifted up my gaze
And saw her where she made herself a crown
As she reflected the eternal rays.
73 The highest place from which it thunders down
Does not so far surpass the mortal eye,
Though in the deepest ocean it should drown,
76 As Beatrice surpassed my sight on high;
It made no difference for her image fell
Straight down through all between, unblurred, and I:
79 “O Maid in whom my hopes most strongly dwell,
And who, for my salvation, let the trace
Of your own footsteps once be left in Hell,
82 I recognize the virtue and the grace
Of all the things I’ve seen to be from you
And from the might and goodness you embrace.
85 You’ve drawn this slave to liberty anew
By all the ways, by all the means of use,
By which you had the power so to do.
88 Preserve in me your bounty most profuse[722]
So that the soul you’ve healed of every scar
May please you when my body lets it loose.”
91 Thus did I pray; and she, who seemed so far
Away from me, while smiling, viewed me there,
Then turned to where eternal fountains are.
94 The holy elder said: “That you may fare
So as to finish perfectly your way,
I have been sent with holy love and prayer;
97 So let your eyes fly round for to survey
This garden will prepare your sight, my son,
That it may mount on up through God’s own ray.
100 And Heaven’s Queen, for whom I burn like none
With all my love, for my sake will instill
All grace—I am Bernard, her faithful one.”[723]
103 Just as a man, perhaps Croatian, will[724]
Look hard at the Veronica we own,[725]
While his old hunger cannot get its fill
106 But says in thought, as long as it is shown:
“My dear Lord Jesus Christ, true God above,
Was once Your semblance like the one here known?”
109 So did I gaze upon the living love
Of him who tasted on the earth we tread,
While contemplating, peace that’s not thereof.
112 “My Son of grace, you will not know,” he said,
“This glad existence if your eyes remain
Around the base below; so look instead
115 Upon the farthest rounds till you attain
The sight of her upon her seat, the Queen,[726]
Who holds as subject this devoted reign.”
118 I raised my eyes, and as the morning sheen
Of the horizon’s eastern side makes dim
That where the sun declines, so at this scene,
121 As though my eyes from valley depths could skim
To mountain peaks, I saw at its extreme
A light that paled the rest of all the rim.
124 And as that point where we await the team
That Phaëthon misled is most aflame,[727]
While on both sides the light is less agleam,
127 Just so the peaceful Oriflamme became:[728]
It lit its center, while on either side
In equal measure it decreased its flame.
130 And at the midpoint, with their wings spread wide,
I saw the festive angels, thousands strong,
Each one distinct in sheen and office plied.
133 I saw there, smiling to their sport and song,
A beauty that was such a joyful feast
Within the eyes of all the sainted throng.[729]
136 And were my speech as much in wealth increased
As my imagining, I would not dare
Attempt her great delights, not in the least.
139 And when he saw my eyes intently stare
Upon the object of his warm desire,
Bernard turned his with ardor so aflare
142 That he set mine, in gazing, more afire.