Canto VIII
CANTO VIII
It is evening, that time of day when travelers yearn nostalgically for their homes as these rulers perhaps long for their homeland in Heaven. Ceasing to listen to Sordello, Dante focuses his attention on a soul who intones the Te lucis ante with his hands folded in prayer, at which the others join in and raise their eyes aloft (1–18). When they finish the hymn, they continue gazing upwards in an attitude of humble expectation. From Mary’s bosom come two angels, golden-haired, robed in green, bearing blunted, flaming swords, and swooping down to take up their stations on either side of the princes to guard them against the attack of the serpent. Dazzled by their splendor and chilled by the coming assault, the Pilgrim draws close to his Guide (19–42). Sordello escorts the pilgrims into the valley, where, in the onsetting darkness, the Poet recognizes and greets Nino Visconti. Assuming that he is a poor soul, Nino asks when Dante arrived. The Pilgrim explains that though he has not quit his first life, he is journeying to gain the second, whereupon Sordello and Nino recoil in amazement at this extraordinary grace. Nino then implores him to request the intercession of his daughter, Giovanna, and complains that her remarried mother has forgotten her love for him (43–84). When the four stars of the moral virtues have sunk below the mountain, the Poet witnesses the rise of the three torches of faith, hope, and charity. Suddenly, Sordello points out the advance of the serpent, which slithers through the grass and flowers with deceptive nonchalance, as if to typify temptation among worldly delights. Cleaving the air with their wings, the angelic sentinels take to flight, rout the serpent, and return to their posts (85–108). Corrado Malaspina, who had been eyeing Dante since his revelation to Nino, asks for news of his native Val di Magra. The Pilgrim replies that though he has not visited the region, he knows the Malaspina family to be undiminished in its liberality and prowess at arms. Corrado in turn prophecies that the exiled Poet himself will one day have occasion to experience their kindness (109–139).
1 It was the hour that turns the longing sigh[123]
Of sailors home and melts the heart away
The day when they have bid sweet friends good-bye;
4 New pilgrims then are pierced with love if they
Should hear a bell whose ring afar is made
And seems to mourn the dying of the day.
7 I now began to let my hearing fade
And watched one of the souls just risen there,
Who sought a hearing with his hand. That shade
10 Raised up his palms and joined them both in prayer,
His eyes fixed towards the east, as if inclined
To say to God: “For nothing else I care.”
13 “Te lucis ante,” with sweet notes combined,[124]
Rang so devoutly from his mouth in peals
That I was drawn by it quite out of mind.
16 And all the others followed his appeals,
Devoutly, sweetly, till the hymn was through,
Their gaze intent on the supernal wheels.[125]
19 Make sharp your eyes, O Reader, for the true:
Since now the veiling is so thin indeed,
To pass within should come with ease for you.
22 I saw that noble company proceed
To look in silence upwards at the sky,
As if in hope, a pale and humble breed.
25 And as they did, descending from on high,
Two angels bearing flaming swords were seen
—Swords broken and deprived of points—to fly
28 In garments like to new-born leaves of green,
Which each of them behind himself entrained,
Bestirred and fanned by wings of verdant sheen.
31 A stance a bit above us one maintained;
The other took a bank opposed to us
So that, between, the people were contained.
34 I well descried their golden heads though, thus
Bedazzled by their faces, sight was blear,
Like sense confounded by an overplus.
37 “From Mary’s breast,” Sordello said, “both near
The valley to protect it from attack
Made by the serpent that will soon appear.”
40 And at that point, not knowing by which track,
I turned myself around and, chilled with dread,
To trusted shoulders drew much farther back.
43 “Let’s go down to the vale,” Sordello said,
“Among great shades and speak to those there pent;[126]
They will be pleased to see you, just ahead.”
46 A mere three paces down, I think, I went
And stood below to see a spirit peer
As if on knowing me his will were bent.
49 It was the time the air turns dark, though here,
Between our eyes, it was not yet so dim
That what had been shut off was not made clear.
52 He moved towards me, and I advanced towards him.
(O Nino, noble judge, I’m gratified[127]
To see you’re not with those whom guilt makes grim!)
55 Fair greetings were not hushed on either side;
He asked me then: “When did you come to see
The mountain’s base, across the distant tide?”
58 I said: “I left the realms of misery
This morning, and before the first is done,
By going thus I gain the life to be.”
61 At that Sordello and the other one,
On hearing my reply, drew back a space,
Like people suddenly dismayed. One spun
64 Towards Virgil as the other turned to face
One sitting; “Up, Currado!” he implored,[128]
“Come see what God has chosen by His grace!
67 Now by the special thanks you owe the Lord,”
He turned to me and said, “who knows to hide
His primal cause, to which there is no ford,
70 When you return beyond the waves spread wide,
Keep my Giovanna praying for me where[129]
Response to innocence is not denied.
73 Her mother has for me no love to spare,[130]
I think, since she has changed her bands of white,
Which she, poor soul, will long again to wear.
76 Through her, with ease one understands aright
How long the fires of love in women stay,
Not lit repeatedly by touch or sight.
79 The viper that the Milanese display
In camps of war won’t make a tomb so fair
As would have done Gallura’s cock one day.”[131]
82 As thus he spoke, his aspect bore the air
Of one who had been stamped with righteous zeal,
Which in due measure sets the heart aflare.
85 My eyes kept watching what the skies reveal
And, eager, saw where stars most slowly turn[132]
As nearest to the axle does a wheel.
88 My Leader: “Son, what does your gaze discern?”
“I’m looking at three torches,” answered I,[133]
“By which this pole has come throughout to burn.”
91 “The four bright stars,” he told me in reply,
“You saw this morning have gone down today,
And where those were, now these have risen high.”
94 Sordello drew him to himself to say
As he spoke on: “Look there! Our enemy!”[134]
And pointed so that he would look that way.
97 And where the little valley had no lee
A serpent slid, perhaps the very sneak
Who gave to Eve food from the bitter tree.
100 Through grass and flowers came the evil streak;
Its head turned now and then about the dell
And licked, like any beast, its backside sleek.
103 I did not see, and therefore cannot tell,
Just how those hawks of Heaven took to flight;[135]
I saw them both in motion, though, quite well.
106 On hearing green wings cleave the air of night,
The serpent fled; the angels wheeled about
And flew abreast, each one up to its site.
109 The shade who’d neared the judge when he’d called out[136]
Had watched me every moment of the fight
And did not loose his gaze from me throughout.
112 “So may your lamp and upward-guiding light
Find in your will the wax you need to fare
Upon the way to that enameled height;[137]
115 And if of Val di Magra you should bear[138]
True news,” he said, “or of some neighbor zone,
Please tell me so—I once was mighty there.
118 Then as Currado Malaspina known
(I’m not the elder, but of his descent),[139]
I here refine the love I bore my own.”
121 I said: “Oh, through your lands I never went,
But are there any dwelling where your name
Is not renowned, through Europe’s whole extent?
124 Your noble house is honored by a fame
Proclaiming all your lands and every lord,
So he who never went there knows the same.
127 I swear to you by heights to be explored
Your honored race has not stripped off below
The glory of the purse and of the sword.
130 It’s favored so by wont and nature, though
The wicked head may wrench the world aside,[140]
It still goes straight and shuns the paths of woe.”
133 “Be certain that the sun,” so he replied,
“Will not have seven times lain in the bed
The Ram’s four feet all cover and bestride
136 Before there’s hammered squarely in your head
The courteous opinion you’ve displayed
With stronger nails than talk that others spread—
139 If but the course of judgment is not stayed!”[141]