Canto XVIII
CANTO XVIII
Cacciaguida, who sees things from an eternal perspective, rejoices in his inner thoughts, as Dante, still limited to the viewpoint of time, ruminates on the promising and ominous prophecies he has heard. When Beatrice reminds him of her proximity to God and the Pilgrim turns around to her, he beholds in her eyes a holy love that surpasses both his memory and his power of expression. The appearance of his Lady satisfies the longing of his heart with the reflection of the Eternal Joy shining from her eyes (1–18). Yet, Beatrice bids the Poet not to forget his ancestor in his absorption, for he is glowing with the desire to speak further. Cacciaguida then points out the souls of Joshua, Maccabeus, Roland, Charlemagne, William of Orange, Renouard, Godfrey of Bouillon, and Robert Guiscard, whose lights shoot across the arms of the cross like flashes of lightning as their names are called. Once this display of Jewish and Christian defenders of the faith has come to an end, Dante’s forebear resumes his place among the others and joins in their song (19–51). When the Pilgrim sees that Beatrice’s eyes have grown brighter than ever before, he realizes that he has ascended to the next sphere and notes that the change from the ruddy hue of Mars to the silvery white of Jupiter resembles that in the complexion of a fair-skinned girl who recovers her composure after blushing. Here sparkling souls fly up like cranes in flight formation and arrange themselves in the shapes of successive letters to spell out the first verse of the Book of Wisdom: Diligite iustitiam qui iudicatis terram. When the final letter has been fashioned, like a golden initial embossed upon a silver background, other lights descend upon the middle stem of the uncial M to form a heraldic fleur-de-lis. Then more than a thousand arise to transform the top of the lily into the imperial eagle’s neck and head, the middle stem into its body, and the two lateral stems into its wings (52–114). Dante now realizes that all earthly justice emanates from Heaven and prays that God may look down upon the smoke of ecclesiastical corruption clouding the radiance of Divine Justice on earth and blaze in anger against those who buy and sell in the temple of the Church, built upon the apostles and martyrs. Further, he asks the host of Heaven to intercede for those led astray by the bad example of the Pope, who fights his wars with excommunications and interdicts, thus laying waste the vineyard for which Peter and Paul died and cleaving only to the image of John the Baptist on the coin of Florence (115–136).
1 That blessèd mirror joyed in its own word;
And I now savored mine as all along
I tempered bitter things with sweet ones heard.
4 My Lady said, who led me to belong
To God: “Change thoughts; consider I am near
To Him who lifts the burden of each wrong.”
7 I turned round at the loving sounds of cheer
My Comfort spoke; but what a holy love[443]
I saw within her eyes I can’t tell here.
10 Not only do I doubt my speech thereof,
But, too, my mind can not retrace its way
Unless Another guides it from above.[444]
13 This much, though, of that point I can resay:
That, gazing on her so, my heart had grown
Quite free of every other longing’s sway,
16 For the Eternal Joy directly shone
On Beatrice and from those eyes so nice
Contented me with Its reflected tone.
19 She said: “Turn round and heed,” as in a trice
She won me with a smile so brightly lit,
“Not only in my eyes is Paradise.”
22 As sometimes here we see affection writ
Upon the face if it’s impassioned so
That all the mind is taken up by it,
25 So in the flaming of the holy glow
To which I turned I recognized that he
Still wished to speak with me a bit. “Now know
28 That here upon the fifth tier of the tree
That from its top draws life,” he said once more,
“And drops no leaves, but bears eternally,[445]
31 Are blessèd spirits that below, before
They came to Heaven, were of such great fame
That they would better any poet’s lore.
34 Behold the cross’s arms; and as I name[446]
Each spirit, he will there perform the act
That’s done in rain clouds by a rapid flame.”[447]
37 As soon as Joshua was called, I tracked[448]
A splendor that along the cross had run,
Nor did I note the word before the fact.
40 Great Maccabeus named, another one[449]
Went moving forth—I saw a wheeling knight,
And gladness whipped its top as round it spun.
43 And thus I followed with attentive sight
Both Charlemagne and Roland, held in view[450]
As by the eye the falcon is in flight.
46 Renouard, and William, and Duke Godfrey drew[451]
My sight along the cross to watch their gyres,
And after them Robert Guiscard did too.[452]
49 Then, moving, mingling with the other fires,
That soul who had addressed me let be spied
His artistry among that heaven’s choirs.
52 I turned to Beatrice on my right side
To see in her what duty would compel,
Which words or gesture might have signified,
55 And saw such purity, such joy, indwell
Her eyes that her appearance, thus enhanced,
Surpassed the others and the last as well.
58 As, if in doing good he is entranced
By more delight, a man from day to day
Becomes aware his virtue has advanced,
61 I saw my circling in that heaven’s play
Had now increased its arc on spying there
That miracle more lovely in array.[453]
64 Such change as quickly comes in maids of fair
Complexion when their faces are relieved
From burdens of the modest shame they bear
67 My eyes beheld as, turning, I perceived
The white in which the temperate star there lies,[454]
The sixth in which I now had been received.
70 I saw within the torch of Jove arise
The sparkling of a love throughout its ranks
That traced our human language for my eyes.
73 And just as birds upsoar from riverbanks
In circling flocks or other shapes and swell,
As if rejoicing for their food in thanks,
76 So too those lights in which blest creatures dwell
Went singing as they flew to make in drill
The figures of now D, now I, now L.
79 They sang and moved to their own notes until
They made one sign of these, then from their strains
They stopped a little while and thus were still.
82 O godly Pegasea, Muse who deigns[455]
To genius glory and long life that shines,
Which men, through you, give cities and their reigns,
85 Illumine me to set forth their designs
Such as in my conception they have jelled,
And let your power show in these brief lines!
88 Then five times seven letters I beheld,
Both consonants and vowels there amassed,
Whose parts I noted just as they seemed spelled.
91 Diligite IUSTITIAM first passed,
As verb and noun, of all of those enscrolled;
Qui iudicatis terram were the last.[456]
94 Once I had witnessed that fifth word unfold,
Those spirits held their order in the M,
So Jove seemed silver there, embossed with gold.
97 And next, atop that letter’s middle stem,
I saw more lights descend to rest, and these,[457]
I trusted, sang the Good that summons them.
100 Then, as when burning logs are struck, one sees
That countless sparks arise—and it’s from those
That fools are wont to draw their auguries—[458]
103 So here, it seemed, more than a thousand rose
And mounted up, some more, some less, in space,
But each just as the Sun that lit it chose.
106 When each one rested quietly in place,
I saw that fiery pattern represent
An eagle’s image both in neck and face.
109 The Painter there has none to guide His bent;
He guides Himself, and from Him we divine
The power that for building nests is lent.[459]
112 The other blest who seemed content to shine
At first and form a lily on the M
With but slight motion finished the design.
115 Sweet star, what jewels in that diadem
Have shown me that the justice which we know
Comes from the heaven that you so engem!
118 And thus I pray the Mind from which there flow
Your motion and your might to see the shrines
That puff the smoke which clouds your rays below,
121 And to be wroth again with the divines
Who buy and sell within that temple’s gate
Whose walls are made of martyrdom and signs.
124 O host of Heaven whom I contemplate,
Do pray for all of those on earth who shun
Right paths behind a bad example’s bait.
127 It once was by the sword that wars were won,
But now by taking here and there that fill
Of bread the tender Father bars from none.[460]
130 But you who write to cancel with your quill,[461]
Just think that Peter and that Paul—who died
For vineyards you lay waste—are living still.
133 You well may say: “My longing is so tied
To him who chose to live apart from all,
Once made a martyr by a dancer’s stride,
136 That I know neither Fisherman nor Paul!”[462]