Canto I
CANTO I
In retrospect Dante the Poet declares that he has visited the Empyrean Heaven, the abode of Him whose glory pervades the universe, and seen things that neither memory nor speech have the power to relate. Yet he will recount what he can and invokes Apollo, the god of poetry, in addition to the Muses, to grant him what is necessary to win the poet’s laurel. He laments that man so rarely deserves the bay-leaf crown and prays that the spark of his work may ignite other poetic fires (1–36). It is noon of the spring equinox, and Beatrice stands peering into the sun. As the Pilgrim imitates her gaze, the solar light grows in brilliance so that it seems to have doubled. Looking to his Lady again, Dante senses that he is being “transhumanized” just as Glaucus was divinized on eating the magic herb (37–72). The Wayfarer now starts to rise and, not knowing whether he is still in the body or not, sees the skies ablaze and hears the harmony of the spheres, which fills him with longing to discover the cause. Discerning his desire, Beatrice explains that he is ascending to his heavenly home more quickly than lightning descends from its natural place in the sphere of fire (73–93). But since Dante’s ascent seems to him as contrary to his nature as the descent of lightning is to that of fire, the Celestial Maiden must instruct him that Divine Providence orders each created thing to its proper end, which for the rational creature is the vision of God. A being possessed of free will may indeed divert itself from this divinely appointed end just as a faulty matter may not respond to the artist’s intention. But when the soul has been purified of sinful inclinations, it flies up to God as naturally as a river flows downhill or a flame rises. Having concluded her instruction, Beatrice turns her eyes to Heaven again (94–142).
1 The glory of the One who moves all things[2]
Pervades the universe with splendid might;
To one part more, to one part less it brings.
4 Within that Heaven taking most His light[3]
I stood and saw such things as none return
With either wits or power to recite
7 Since, nearing that for which its longings yearn,[4]
Our intellect must sink so deep the throng
Of memories can’t follow it in turn.
10 Yet, what my mind could treasure up this long
Of all that holy kingdom’s vast display
Shall now become the matter of my song.
13 For this last labor, good Apollo, pray,
Create from me a vessel of your might[5]
As you require to grant the longed-for bay.[6]
16 A single summit of Parnassus’ height
Sufficed before, but now I need the two[7]
To enter the arena left to fight.
19 Come, enter in my breast, and breathe anew,
And as you did when from his body’s rind
You drew forth Marsyas, so breathe now too.[8]
22 Oh, let your godly power be consigned
To show those shadows forth, to some degree,
Of that blest realm inscribed upon my mind,
25 And you will see me at your favored tree[9]
To crown myself with its green-leaved attire,
Which both my theme and you will merit me.
28 It’s plucked so rarely, father, to admire
A Caesar’s triumph or a poet’s wit
(Which is the fault and shame of man’s desire)
31 That the Peneian leafage would have lit
Delight in that glad Delphic god on high[10]
If it had caused some soul to thirst for it.
34 Great flames will follow little sparks that fly:
Perhaps behind me one may offer prayer
With better voice that Cyrrha might reply.[11]
37 The lantern of the world emerges fair
At diverse points for men, but through the spot
That joins four crosses with three circles there[12]
40 It goes conjoined with better stars to plot
A better course and warms and seals the sphere
Of earthly wax more to its ways than not.
43 Its entrance near that point made evening here
And morning there; that hemisphere, I found,[13]
Was almost white; the rest was black and drear.
46 I saw that Beatrice had turned around
And leftwards, where the sun held fast her ken[14]
As it has never held an eagle bound![15]
49 And like a ray that first descends and then
Gives issue to a second that will rise,
Much as a pilgrim longs for home again,
52 My deed reflected hers when, in this wise,
My sight infused her action on my mind;
And on the sun, past wont, I fixed my eyes.
55 For much not granted here is there assigned
To human powers through that spot once cast[16]
To be the proper place for humankind.
58 I did not stand it long nor tire so fast
I did not see it sparkle in the way
That molten iron leaves the fiery blast.
61 At once, it seemed that day was joined to day,
As if the One who’s able to had sent
A second sun to crown the sky’s array.
64 And there stood Beatrice with eyes intent
On the eternal wheels; and, equally,
My eyes were fixed on her, once downward bent.
67 On seeing her, I changed inside of me
As Glaucus did, who chewed the grassy range,[17]
Which made him consort of the gods at sea.
70 Words cannot tell of that trans-human change;
Example must suffice for others who
By grace will have experience so strange.
73 If I was only that in me which You
Created last, O heaven-guiding Love,[18]
You know, for by Your light I upwards flew.
76 And when the wheel that always turns above,[19]
Desiring You, had caused me to attend
To harmonies You tune and sort, then of[20]
79 The skies ablaze so much appeared to blend
With solar flames no stream or rainfall’s pour
Has ever made a lake so far extend.[21]
82 The novel sound and light in such great store
Inflamed so keen a longing to descry
Their cause as I had never felt before.
85 And she who saw in me as well as I,
To grant my troubled mind a quiet truce,
Had spread her lips before I asked her why.
88 Then she began: “You make yourself obtuse
With false imaginings and don’t perceive
What you would see if these were but let loose.
91 You are no more on earth as you believe;
But lightning never fled its proper site
As fast as you, returning homewards, leave. ”[22]
94 If these brief words she smiled to me had quite
Divested me of former doubt, alas!
Within a new one I was snared outright.
97 “Although I rest content from one great mass
Of wonder, now” I said, “I am amazed
That through these lightsome bodies I should pass.”[23]
100 At that she sighed with pity as she gazed
On me with just that very look, that nod,
A mother gives a child whom fever’s crazed.
103 “All things among themselves accept the rod
“Of order,” so she started, “and this form
Is that which makes the universe like God.
106 High creatures here see traces that conform[24]
To the Eternal Worth, which is the end
For which It fashioned the aforesaid norm;
109 For by their diverse lots all natures tend,
According to the order I report,
Up to their source with less or greater trend.
112 And thus they move, each towards a diverse port;
Across the sea of being each is strewn
And borne by instincts given to its sort.
115 Some bear the fire on upwards towards the moon;[25]
Some bind the earth, unite the parts thereof;
Some move all mortal hearts to seek their boon.
118 Not only are the creatures empty of
Intelligence shot forward by this bow,
But also those with intellect and love.
121 The Providence that orders all things so
Becalms that heaven always with Its light[26]
Inside of which the fastest sphere must go.[27]
124 And to that place, as towards a destined site,
We’re carried forth by virtue of the cord
That aims its shafts at targets of delight.
127 It’s true, as shapes will often not accord
With art’s intention, giving to the art
The deaf response their matters may afford,
130 So from this course the creature may depart
At times, for, thus propelled, it has the force
To be deflected towards some other part.
133 As fire is seen to fall from clouds, of course,
So may the primal drive of man alight
On earth, wrenched by a lying pleasure-source.
136 You should not marvel, if I deem aright,
More at your rise than at a river’s flow
That to a mountain’s base falls from its height.
139 It would be cause for marvel in you, though,
If, unimpeded, you remained in place,
As rest would be in living flames below.”
142 Then to the skies once more she turned her face.