Canto XV
CANTO XV
Out of their gracious will to answer Dante’s question, the shining souls in the cross cease their music and fall silent (1–12). The Pilgrim beholds one of them moving like a shooting star from the cross’s right arm to the center and then down the vertical axis to where he is standing, glowing like a fire behind an alabaster screen as it does so (13–24). On arrival, the spirit greets the Poet solemnly in Latin with the paternal affection that Anchises felt for his son, Aeneas, in Elysium. Turning to Beatrice, Dante is stupefied by her blazing smile on the one side and by the splendor of the soul on the other (25–36). The spirit begins speaking ecstatically in words that transcend human understanding as Dante stands enraptured by the sight and incomprehensible sounds. When its discourse has descended to a range within mortal grasp, the Pilgrim discerns a hymn of praise to the Trinity for the favor shown to this soul’s posterity. The spirit tells the Poet that it has long hungered for this moment, about which it had read in the unalterable book of the future (37–54). Although this soul sees in God Dante’s questions about its identity and the reason for its greater joy, it still wishes to have the pleasure of hearing the Pilgrim’s voice and thus invites him to express his desire, to which it promises a favorable response (55–69). Encouraged by Beatrice’s smile, the Poet expresses his gratitude for the affectionate welcome he has received and asks to know the soul’s name (70–87). The spirit reveals himself as Cacciaguida, Dante’s great-great-grandfather, and requests the Pilgrim’s prayers for his great-grandfather, who is still purging his sins of pride. First describing the Florence of his day as simple in its fashions, reasonable in its customs, moderate in its needs, happy in its domestic life, and pious in its traditions (88–129), he goes on to speak of his birth and baptism, his brothers and wife, his knighthood and crusades, his death and eternal reward (130–148).
1 A gracious will, in which is manifest
The love that always breathes with right desire
As in ill-will cupidity’s expressed,
4 Imposed a silence on that dulcet lyre[355]
And hushed the holy strings whose every cord
God’s right hand draws and slackens in each fire.[356]
7 How could those substances turn deaf, though, toward
My righteous prayer—those who, in prompting me
To beg of them, fell still with one accord?
10 It’s right that he should languish endlessly
Who, for the love of things that don’t endure,
Would lose this love for all eternity.
13 As through the evening sky, both calm and pure,
From time to time a sudden fire will race[357]
And move the eyes which stood, till then, secure,
16 Appearing as a star that changes place
(Except no star is lost from where its light
Flared up, and it endures for but a space),
19 So from the arm upon the cross’s right
Down to its foot there ran a starry sheen
Out of that constellation shining bright.
22 Nor from its ribbon did that gem careen,
But held the radii and seemed to run[358]
Like fire behind an alabaster screen.
25 Anchises’ pious shade ran like this one, [359]
If we lend credence to our greatest Musa,[360]
When in Elysium he saw his son.
28 “O sanguis meus, o super infusa
Gratia Deï, sicut tibi cui
Bis unquam coeli ianüa reclusa?”[361]
31 Thus spoke the light that I had faced to see;
My eyes turned to my Maid, and, in a trice,
On each side I was stupefied with glee,
34 For in her eyes there blazed a smile so nice
I thought that I with mine had touched the height
Of both my glory and my Paradise.
37 That soul (a joy to hearing and to sight!)
Then added to his former words things dark—
His speech was deep, my understanding slight.
40 He did not hide by choice but by a stark
Necessity: his thoughts in this respect
Were set too far above our mortal mark.
43 But when the bow that burned with love’s effect
Was slack enough to let his speech descend
To hit the mark of human intellect,
46 The first thing said that I could comprehend
Was “Blest be You who are both One and Three
And show my seed what favor you extend!
49 A long and happy fast,” continued he,
“While reading that great tome where black and white[362]
Are never altered, has just come to be
52 Relieved by you, my son, within this light
I speak in—thanks to her, who clothed you live
With plumes enough to make the lofty flight.
55 Since you believe your thoughts to me derive
From Him who’s first just as the unit too,
When it is known, rays out the four and five,[363]
58 You ask not who I am nor why to you
I should appear more joyful than the rest
Of those who have composed this festive crew.
61 You think the truth: the great and lesser blest
Within this life behold a glass inside[364]
Of which, before you think, your thought’s expressed.
64 But that the sacred love, in which I’ve spied
With constant sight, which makes me wish to feed
Sweet longing, may be better satisfied,
67 Your voice—secure, and bold, and glad indeed—
Should sound your will; sound forth desires you store:
My answer has already been decreed!”
70 I turned to Beatrice who’d heard before
I spoke a word; she smiled a sign to me
And made the wings of my desire grow more.
73 “Love and intelligence were equally
Well poised in all,” I started in a bit,
“When you divined the First Equality,[365]
76 Because the Sun by which you’re warmed and lit
Has light and ardor from such equal springs
That all comparison falls short of it.
79 But wish and faculty in mortal things,
For reasons you find manifestly clear,
Are feathered differently in both their wings.
82 And therefore I, a mortal, feel this sheer
Disparity, and with but heart proclaim
My thanks for your paternal welcome here.
85 But I beseech you, topaz, living flame,[366]
You jewel in this precious diadem,[367]
To satisfy my wish to know your name.”
88 And thus began the answer of that gem:
“O you who are my leaf, how joyfully
I have expected you—I was your stem!”
91 And then: “The one who named your family
Has ringed on the first ledge the mountain spire
A hundred years or more, and that would be[368]
94 My son, and father of your father’s sire.
It would be fitting if you helped decrease
By works you do the length his toils require.
97 In ancient walls, from which she does not cease[369]
To take the hours of tierce and nones rung down,[370]
Once Florence, chaste and sober, lived in peace.
100 Back then there was no necklace nor a crown
To look on more than on the person’s worth,
Nor such a girdle, nor embroidered gown.
103 A father did not fear a daughter’s birth;
The time and dowry did not yet outrun
All measure everywhere. There was no dearth[371]
106 Of families in her houses; and that one[372]
Named Sardanápalus had not yet come[373]
To show what in a chamber could be done,
109 Nor your Uccellatoio overcome
Rome’s Montemalo, passed up in the race
To scale the heights—and in the fall therefrom![374]
112 And I’ve seen Bellincione Berti pace[375]
With bone and leather girt; his wife, who went[376]
Back from her glass without a painted face;
115 De’ Nerli and del Vecchio content[377]
To go about in unlined skins instead;[378]
Their women over spool and spindle bent.
118 Each one was certain of her tomb when dead,[379]
—What happy wives were they!—and no one had
For France been yet deserted in her bed.[380]
121 One watched to mind the pen of lass or lad
And used consolingly the language then[381]
That makes new fathers and new mothers glad.
124 And, drawing thread from distaff, one again
Would tell her family the tales of good
Old Rome, Fiésole, and Trojan men.[382]
127 A Salterello or Cianghella would[383]
Have caused such wonder then as now down there
A Cincinnatus or Cornelia could.[384]
130 And to a life so restful and so fair
Of citizens in faithful comity,
To an abode of such a pleasing air,
133 Did Mary, sought with cries, deliver me;[385]
Soon after, Cacciaguida I became,
And Christian too, in your old Baptistery.[386]
136 Moronto, Eliseo, did they name[387]
My brothers; Val di Po gave me my wife;[388]
And from her family your surname came.
139 I followed Conrad in my later life,[389]
The Emperor who girt me as a knight,[390]
For so I pleased him with my gallant strife.
142 And then I set out after him to fight
That evil law whose people, by the crime[391]
Of your own pastors, have usurped your right.[392]
145 I died among that vulgar race to climb
Unfettered from the lying world, the love
Of which will sully many souls in time,
148 And came from martyrdom to peace above.”[393]