Canto XXXIII
CANTO XXXIII
St. Bernard praises Mary, the mother and daughter of God, the most humble and most exalted of all creatures, who so ennobled human nature that its Creator did not disdain to become its creature, and entreats her as the noonday torch of charity in Heaven and the living fountain of hope on earth, the Mediatrix of all graces, who lends aid to all who ask and often anticipates their request. Presenting Dante to her in whom mercy, pity, munificence, and all created good unite, he implores her grace so that the Pilgrim may look on God. The Saint then adds his own prayer that she dispel the clouds of his mortality so he may see the Highest Joy, that she keep his affections sound thereafter, and that she protect him from the sway of human passions, as Beatrice and all the other blessed clasp their hands and join their prayers to his (1–39). Having looked approvingly on St. Bernard, the Blessed Virgin turns again to the Eternal Light, at which the great Contemplative signals to Dante to peer above as well, who in his ardent desire has already done so. His sight grows purer, piercing upwards through the ray of light, though now his memory and expression fail. As with one roused from sleep who retains nothing of the image but only the feeling of a dream, the vision fades in the retelling so that only its sweetness remains. The Poet invokes the Highest Light for the ability to show forth one small spark of Its glory and thus to manifest the Divine Power to human beings. Not turning away for fear of being lost, Dante braves the Living Ray until his sight has penetrated to the Infinite Good (40–84). In It the Pilgrim spies the multiple facets of the universe united in a simple light, like the many pages of a single book bound by love. The more he watches the more his mind grows aflame, finding it impossible to turn away from that Light which contains the true and perfect good. The Poet’s speech now falls as short of his recollection of what he sees next as that of a baby at the breast: three circles of three different colors contained within one circumference reveal themselves, the second reflecting the first as one arc of a double rainbow does the other, and the third seemingly breathed forth by both. Compared to what he now beholds, it is not enough to call the conception of the intellect feeble and the power of speech scant, for within the Godhead knowing and loving Itself there appears a human image. Dante stares at it like a geometer trying to square the circle but cannot fathom the commensurability of the human and the divine. Then a flash of revelation illumines him, fulfilling his longing, so that the desire of his intellect and the fruition of his will revolve in harmony with the Love that moves the sun and other stars (85–145).
1 “O Virgin Mother, daughter of your Son,
Most lowly of all creatures, highest though,
Fixed term to which eternal counsels run,
4 You had ennobled human nature so
Its Maker would not spurn the one by whom
He would become its making there below.
7 That Love whose warmth allowed this bud to bloom
Within the everlasting peace would be
The love rekindled deep within your womb.
10 You’re here the noonday torch of charity,
Below, that living fount from which there springs
For mortal men whatever hope we see.
13 Dear Maid, so great, so helpful in all things,
If one seeks grace without recourse to you,
Then his desire would fly but has no wings.
16 Not only does your kindness aid those who
Might ask of you but many times it would
Quite freely run before the asking too.
19 In you have mercy and all pity stood
With such munificence as to unite
Whatever in creation is found good.
22 This man, who one by one has had the sight
Of living spirits from the deepest den
Of all the universe up to this height,
25 Implores you of your grace for strength again
That he may lift himself with eyes upturned
Still higher towards the last salvation then.
28 And I, who for my vision never burned
More than for his, put forth my prayer, made bold
To pray it will not be too scant and spurned.
31 And may by prayers you say the clouds that hold
To his mortality be chased away
That he may see the Highest Joy unfold.
34 I further pray you, Queen, as one who may
Do all she wills, keep his affections sound
When he has witnessed such a great display.
37 Protect him, keep his human passions bound;
See Beatrice and all these many blest
Who clasp their hands with me in prayer all round!”
40 The eyes that God reveres and loves the best,[759]
Which, fixed upon that pleader, made appear[760]
How much she’s pleased by our devout request,
43 Then turned to the Eternal Light to peer,
In which, we may believe, there never came
A creature’s eye to find its way so clear.
46 And I, who was approaching to the aim
Of all of my desires, just as I ought,
Was fanning ardent longing more aflame.
49 Bernard, who smiled and signed to me, had thought
To have me look above although my view
Was of itself already as he sought
52 Because, becoming pure, my vision grew
To enter more and more through all the beams
Of that high Light which in Itself is true.
55 From then my vision was more great, it seems,
Than speech can show, which fails, such sights divined,
As mem’ry also fails at these extremes.
58 As one who sees in dreams and wakes to find
That after sleep the feeling’s print will stay
But nothing of the rest returns to mind,
61 So too am I—my vision fades away
Almost entirely, though the sweetness born
Of it still drops within my heart today.
64 Thus does the sun unseal the snow at morn;
Thus also on light leaves that winds had blown
The Sibyl lost the sayings they had borne.[761]
67 Raised high above all mortal concepts known,
O Highest Splendor, lend my mem’ry some
Small particle again of what was shown,
70 And make my tongue yet strong enough to plumb
Your glory that one spark of it may be
Left here behind for people still to come;
73 For, by returning to my memory
And sounding in these lines a little bit,
More is conceived of all Your victory.
76 I bore that living ray so keenly lit
I think I’d have been lost if from its fount
I’d turned away and torn my eyes from it.
79 And, I recall, I was on this account
More bold to bear it till my gaze, illumed,
Had joined the Good of infinite amount.
82 Abounding Grace, by which I had presumed
To fix my view on that Eternal Light
So long that all my vision was consumed!
85 I saw its depths contain, with leaves bound tight
In but one tome by love, what is dispersed
Throughout the universe in every site:
88 Thus substance, accidents, relations first[762]
Were fused in such a way that what I tell
Of here is but a simple light disbursed.
91 That knot’s most universal form as well[763]
I do believe I saw, for as I strive
To tell you this, I feel my gladness swell.
94 One point brings more forgetfulness than five
And twenty ages brought the quest that dazed
Old Neptune, seeing Argo’s shade arrive.[764]
97 In all suspense my mind thus further gazed,
Remaining fastened, motionless, intent,
And as it looked the more, the more it blazed.
100 It is impossible that one consent
To turn from It to other visions still
For in that Light the will is so content
103 Since good, which is the object of the will,
Is all contained in It, and all the rest
Defective, which has there its perfect fill.
106 My speech will fall as short of things possessed
In memory as that of babes, or more,
Who have their tongues still bathing at the breast—
109 Not that the Living Light I looked on bore
More semblances than one for me to see,
For It is ever as It was before,
112 But, through my sight made stronger in degree
While gazing there, one aspect’s plenitude,
As I was changing, was transformed for me.
115 Within that deep and clear Subsistence hued[765]
With lofty light, three rings were interwreathed[766]
Of three bright colors but one magnitude.[767]
118 One seemed, reflected, to the next bequeathed
As rainbow is to rainbow; fiery bright
The third appeared, which both there likewise breathed.[768]
121 How scant is speech, how weak conception’s flight!
For this is such compared to what I spied
That it is not enough to call it slight.
124 Eternal Light, who in Yourself abide,
As knowing Self and known to Self, You smile
For, knowing Self, You love the Self descried;
127 That circling, which, begotten in this style,
Appeared in You as lights reflected do,
Now that my eyes had dwelt there for a while,
130 Seemed in itself and in its very hue
Depicted with the image of our breed,[769]
And I set all my sight on it anew.
133 And as geometers attempt indeed
To square the circle though they can’t embrace,
By pondering, the principle they need,
136 So I was at this newly visioned grace:
I wished to know how could our image lie
Within that circle and have there its place.
139 But with such heights my wings could never vie
Save that a flash then struck my mind and one
That brought to it its longing from on high.
142 High fantasy here failed in strength, undone;
But as a wheel turns smoothly on a bar,
My will and my desire around were spun
145 By Love that moves the sun and every star.