Canto II
CANTO II
Twelve hours have elapsed since the opening of the poem, and it is now the evening of Good Friday as Dante prepares himself for a physically and emotionally arduous journey (1–6). After invoking the Muses, genius, and memory in order to recount his experience accurately (7–9), he begins by confessing a doubt about his strength for undertaking such a trek (10–12). Recalling Aeneas’ descent into the underworld, which led to the founding of the Roman Empire as a preparation for the Church (13–27), and the rapture into Paradise of St. Paul, whose witness provides supernatural confirmation of the truth of faith (28–30), he considers that he has no such lofty mission as they, fearing to commit an act of hubris and finding himself paralyzed in hesitating reflections (31–42). Virgil, however, reveals the true nature of the Pilgrim’s fear as cowardice (43–48) and emboldens him by relating the descent into Limbo of Beatrice, who, out of love for the wayward Dante, petitioned the ancient Bard to lead him by his poetic wisdom out of the dark woods (49–74). Virgil responded to her request with alacrity but inquired why she did not recoil at descending into Hell. Untouched by the torments of the damned (85–93), Beatrice explains in strongly allegorical terms that the Blessed Virgin Mary (the symbol of divine mercy) commended Dante (the representative of humanity) to St. Lucy (the type of illuminating grace). The latter, in turn, implored the aid of Beatrice, who has now sent Virgil (as the voice of reason) to the Pilgrim to prepare him for herself (as divine revelation) (94–114). Upon completing his story, Virgil asks how Dante can persist in his timorousness when aided by both the guidance of reason and the heavenly court (115–126). The Pilgrim’s courage is then renewed like a flower in the warmth of the morning sun and, returning to his first resolve, he enters on the rugged, savage way (127–142).
1 The day departed, and the dusky air
Withdrew each earthly creature from its chore;
And that is when I started to prepare
4 To undergo alone the coming war
Of pity to be felt and journey made,
Which my unerring mem’ry tells once more.
7 O Muses, O high genius, be my aid!
O memory that wrote what I descried,
Here your nobility shall be displayed!
10 I started: “Poet, you who are my guide,
See if the force is strong enough in me
Before to that deep pass you trust my stride.
13 You say the sire of Silvius, while he[20]
Was yet corruptible, went ’cross the sill
To the immortal world—and bodily.
16 But if the Adversary of all ill[21]
Was kind to him and thought the high effect
To come, and who and what he was, this will
19 Not seem unfit to men of intellect;
For of Rome’s glory and her Empire’s reach
He was the father Heaven would elect.[22]
22 To tell the truth, they were established each[23]
To be a holy place, one where the true
Successor of great Peter sits to teach.[24]
25 And through the journey that was praised by you
He learned the things that caused him yet to win
The victory and papal mantle too.
28 There also has the Chosen Vessel been[25]
To bring back comfort to the faith, that where
The pathways of salvation all begin.
31 But who allows, and why, that I go there?
Aeneas I am not, nor Paul am I;
To think me fit, nor I, nor others dare.
34 Thus, if I yield and come, my fear runs high
That coming would be folly; you are wise
And better understand my reasons why.”
37 As one unwills what he had willed and flies
To change his purpose with new thoughts so spun
That from his starting point he wholly shies,
40 So too did I myself become, undone
On that dark slope: my thinking ended this,
The enterprise I quickly had begun.
43 “Should I not understand your words amiss,”
The shade of that great-hearted man replied,[26]
“Your spirit is beset by cowardice,
46 Which often has encumbered one and pried
Him from an honorable venture’s deed
As seeing falsely turned the beast that shied.
49 But to dissolve this fear, I shall proceed
To tell you why I came and what I heard,
As I first felt compassion for your need.
52 When with suspended souls I was deterred,[27]
A lady called to me so fair and blest[28]
That I requested her commanding word.
55 With brighter eyes than stars she then progressed
To utter with a soft and gentle aim
These words, which her angelic voice expressed:
58 ‘O kindly soul of Mantua, whose fame[29]
Still lasting in the world shall persevere
As long as earth itself endures the same,
61 This friend of mine, who is not Fortune’s dear,[30]
Has now been so impeded in his way
On desert slopes that he’s turned back from fear.
64 From what in Heaven I have heard them say,
I fear I rise too late to help; behold
How he has gone already so astray!
67 Now go with your embellished speech as told,
Take what you need for his escape below,
Assist him so that I may be consoled.
70 For I am Beatrice who bid you go;
I came from where I long to rise, though, when[31]
The love that made me speak first moved me so.
73 And soon I’ll stand before my Lord again,
To whom I’ll often make your praises known.’
The moment she fell still, I started then:
76 O Maid of virtue, you through whom alone[32]
Mankind exceeds the content of the sphere
That has the smallest circles as its own,[33]
79 So pleasing is your order to me here
It would be late did I but now comply;
You only need to make your wishes clear.
82 But tell the reason that you did not shy
From coming to this center here so low[34]
From spacious places where you burn to fly.[35]
85 ‘Because you have so deep a wish to know,
I’ll tell you very briefly,’ she replied,
‘Why to this place I did not fear to go.
88 Our fearfulness is only justified
With things that have the force to harm us much;
By nothing else should one be terrified.
91 Our God has, in his mercy, made me such
That by these burning flames I’m not assailed,
And neither do I feel your torment’s touch.
94 A gentle maid in Heaven so bewailed[36]
The obstacle to which I send you there
That stringent judgment broke above and failed.
97 And she appealed to Lucy in her prayer:[37]
“You’re needed by your faithful votary,
And I,” she said, “commend him to your care.”
100 Thus, Lucy, foe of every cruelty,
Bestirred herself and to my place was sped,
There where the ancient Rachel sat by me.[38]
103 “O Beatrice, true praise of God,” she said,
“Will you not aid the one who loved you so
That for your sake the vulgar crowd was fled?
106 Do you not hear his plaintive cry of woe,
See death combat him on a stream so vast
No sea can vaunt against it there below?”
109 On earth there never was a man so fast
To flee his harm or seize his benefit
As I was when these words were said at last.
112 I came here from the blessèd seat I sit
Upon, full trusting in your honest word,
Which honors you and all who’ve heeded it.’
115 And after all these things had been averred,
She turned her shining, tearful eyes to me,
By which my coming was more quickly spurred.
118 I came to you, as was her will’s decree,
And from the beast that blocked the shortest way
Up to the seemly mount I set you free.[39]
121 What then is this? Why do you still delay?
Why does your heart hold cowardly despair?
Why are you not both bold and free today,
124 As long as three such blessèd ladies care[40]
So much for you in Heaven’s courtly height,
And my words promise you so good a fare?”
127 As little flowers bent and closed at night
Because of cold will, standing up, spread wide
Upon their stems when sunshine turns them white,
130 So from exhausted strength was I inside,
With such good daring to my heart conveyed
That I began as one set free and cried:
133 “Oh, merciful is she who was my aid,
And what great courtesy have you disclosed,
Obeying soon the words of truth relayed!
136 By you my heart’s desire is so disposed
To come along, which by your words was done,
That I’ve returned to what I first proposed.
139 Now go, the will of both of us is one,
My Leader, Master, Lord,” I thus could say;
And when his forward movement had begun,
142 I entered on the rugged, savage way.