Canto XVII
CANTO XVII
Like Phaethon, who ran to his mother, Clymene, for reassurance about his divine filiation, Dante turns to Cacciaguida for knowledge of his future life and confirmation of his mission. Beatrice urges the Pilgrim to express his desires, not because the blessed require such expressions to know his mind, but so that the Poet may accustom himself to begging in his exile. Confident that his ancestor sees contingent events with the same intuitive clarity with which we grasp geometrical relations, Dante asks Cacciaguida what arrows of fortune will be shot at him so that he may prepare his defense (1–30). His ancestor responds in clear and precise language rather than in the dark sayings of pagan oracles that he views the future in the Eternal Vision, which nevertheless imposes no necessity on contingent events. Like Hippolytus, who was obliged to leave Athens through unjust accusations, Dante will be forced to abandon Florence through the complicity of the papacy and the Roman curia. But though he will be wrongly maligned, divine retribution will reveal where the truth lies. The Pilgrim will indeed taste the bitterness of begging his bread and searching for lodging, and will even suffer the shameless betrayal of his own party, yet he will nevertheless win honor for making a party of himself. He will first receive hospitality from the great Lombard Bartolomeo della Scala, who will come to his aid before the Poet has even asked, and then from his younger brother, Cangrande, who, imprinted with the stamp of Mars, will one day so distinguish himself in the art of war that even his enemies will praise him. Finally, Cacciaguida exhorts his descendent not to grow envious of his neighbors because he will long outhve them and their punishments. (31–99). Braced for whatever fortune may bring, Dante worries that if he tells what he has seen and heard upon his journey, he may offend many of those who could assist him in his exile, whereas if he does not, he may forfeit his fame among future generations (100–120). Cacciaguida acknowledges that the Poet’s words will sting many but encourages him nonetheless to reveal all he has experienced since what tastes bitter at first will provide vital nourishment when digested. Furthermore, he will give evidence of his courage by denouncing the highest men in Church and state, like a wind blowing the hardest against the tallest peaks, and it is precisely such well-known examples that will prove the most instructive to his readers (121–142).
1 Like him who once to Clymene would run
To check what had been said against him (he
Who makes a father chary towards his son),[431]
4 Just so was I and so was felt to be
By Beatrice and by that holy light
Who first had changed his place because of me.
7 “Put forth the flames that your desires ignite,”
My Lady said to me, “so that they may
Go marked by your internal stamp aright—
10 Our knowledge will not grow from what you say,
But you will learn to tell your thirst when dry
That one may pour out drink for you that way.”
13 “Dear root of mine, you lifted up so high:
As in a triangle an earthling sees
That, if obtuse, two angles cannot lie,
16 So do you also see contingencies
Before they are, if on that Point you stare
To which are present all the times of these.
19 While I proceeded under Virgil’s care
Upon the mount that heals the spirit’s woes
And while descending to the dead world there,
22 Grave words were told me of life’s future throes;[432]
I feel, though, that I am foursquare below
Against an evil fortune’s future blows
25 So that my will would be content to know
What fortune has drawn near, for when foreguessed
An arrow shot will come on much more slow.”
28 Thus to that light by which I’d been addressed
I spoke at first; and as the will had been
Of Beatrice, my wish was now confessed.
31 Not in dark sayings that had taken in
Their snares the foolish people once, before
God’s Lamb was slain, who takes away our sin,
34 But in a speech precise and clear, once more
The shade of that paternal love replied,
Revealed yet hidden by the smile he wore:
37 “Contingency does not extend outside
The volume of your world of matter, writ
Where the Eternal View is always plied.
40 But, nonetheless, such things need not admit
Necessity more than a boat that steers
Downstream depends on eyes that mirror it.
43 As organ music sweetly strikes the ears,
So from that Sight there enters in my view
The times prepared for you in future years.
46 From Athens good Hippolytus once flew
For lies his ruthless, faithless stepdame told;[433]
Like him, you’ll have to leave your Florence too.
49 That which is willed and sought shall soon unfold
By means of him who’s pondering your rout
Right there where Christ is daily bought and sold.[434]
52 Against the injured party they will shout
The blame as wont; but vengeance shall appear[435]
To witness to the Truth that deals it out.
55 And you will leave each thing you hold most dear;
This is the first of arrows, I declare,
That exile’s bow will shoot at your career.
58 And you shall taste just what a salty fare
Is others’ bread, how hard the path you trail
When climbing down and up another’s stair.
61 The weight that most will make your shoulders ail
Will be the evil, senseless crew ahead,
With whom you yet shall fall down in this vale.[436]
64 When—mad, ungrateful, impious—they’re led
To turn themselves against you, be it known,
Their brows, not yours, soon after will turn red.
67 Proof of their brutish folly will be shown
Through their own deeds; your fame will be assured
For having made a party all alone.
70 Your first abode and inn will be conferred
By courtesy of that great Lombard who[437]
Upon the ladder bears a holy bird.
73 And he will have such high regard for you
That, asking and bestowing, what the rest
Do slowly will be first between you two.
76 With him you shall see someone so impressed
By this strong star upon his day of birth
His deeds will be both notable and blest.[438]
79 The people have not noted yet his worth
Because of his young age; these wheels have turned
For but nine years around his place on earth.
82 His virtue’s spark—before good Henry’s spurned
By Gascon treachery—will show: though young,
He will not note hard toil or money earned.[439]
85 His great magnificence will yet be sung
So that his enemies will be, though late,
Unable then to keep a silent tongue.
88 So, look to him, and on his bounties wait;
Because of him great change will be assigned
To many, rich and beggars trading state.
91 Don’t tell, but bear this written in your mind … ”
And he said things so past belief that one
There present still would not believe their kind.
94 He added then: “These are the glosses, son,[440]
On what was told you; watch for snares like these,
Hid just behind few circlings of the sun.
97 But bear no envy towards your neighbors, please,
Because your life shall long outlast, aloof,
The punishment upon their treacheries.”[441]
100 When by his hush that holy soul gave proof
That he had finished weaving through for good
The warp that I had readied for his woof,
103 I started up as someone doubting would,
Who craves that person to give counsel back
Who sees, then wills and loves, just as he should:
106 “My Father, well I see how time’s attack
Spurs on to deal such blows before too long
As fall the hardest on the one most slack.
109 It’s good that foresight’s arms should make me strong,
So if they take my dearest place away,[442]
I may not lose the rest through this, my song.
112 Down through the world where endless gallings lay
And up the mountain from whose lovely height
My Lady’s eyes upraised me to survey
115 The heavens afterwards, from light to light,
I’ve come to learn what, if retold in rhymes,
For many mouths would smack of bitter spite.
118 Were I a timid friend to truth’s clear chimes,
Though, I would fear to lose my life’s great dreams
With those who’ll call the present ancient times.”
121 The light in which my treasure smiled its beams
(What wealth I found in him!) became a flash
As in the sun a golden mirror gleams.
124 Then it replied: “A conscience dark as ash
For shameful deeds that it or others hatch
Will feel indeed your speech is harsh and brash.
127 However, see that you give short dispatch
To lies, make all your vision manifest;
And then, where lies an itch, there let them scratch.
130 For if, at their first taste, your words molest
Such ones, they afterwards will leave those men
A vital nourishment when they digest.
133 Your cries will be just like the flurries when
They strike the highest peaks most hard below,
And that’s no little cause of honor then.
136 And therefore only souls whose fame all know
Were shone to you as through these wheels you rose,
And on the mount, and in the vale of woe.
139 The mind of him who hears will not repose
Nor fix its faith for an example here
Whose roots are hidden and that no one knows
142 Or for an argument that is not clear.”