Canto XX
CANTO XX
As the many stars at night were thought to reflect the one sun, so when the Imperial Eagle has fallen silent, the many souls flare more brightly as they begin a song. No sooner have their angelic tones ceased than Dante seems to hear the murmur of a stream for the Eagle’s voice flows up its neck to its beak, like the notes fingered at a lute’s frets but issuing from the sound hole, or on a bagpipe’s chanter and emerging from the blowhole. The Eagle directs the Pilgrim’s attention to its one eye visible in profile and composed of the lights of six just rulers (1–36): King David of Israel, who forms the pupil (37–42); the Emperor Trajan, the first soul on the eyebrow’s arch (43–48); King Hezekiah of Judah, along the upward arc (49–54); the Emperor Constantine, at the peak of the arch (55–60); King William II of Naples and Sicily, along the downward arc (61–66); and Ripheus the Trojan, at the end (67–72). Then, like a lark, the Eagle soars in silence, content in the sweetness of its last notes. Dante wonders at the salvation of the pagans Trajan and Ripheus, and his doubt betrays itself like a colored surface behind transparent glass. When it finally erupts into a question, the Eagle glows more brightly in anticipation of its response (73–87). Realizing that the Pilgrim believes without understanding, it explains that their salvation is not a triumph over a stinting Divine Will but the victory of a generous Divine Will, through which Trajan put his faith in the Christ who had suffered and Ripheus believed in the Christ who was to suffer (88–105). By the intercession of Gregory the Great, Trajan was called back to earthly life from Limbo for sufficient time to make an act of faith in Christ and to burn with charity (106–117). Ripheus, on the other hand, set all his love on righteousness through God’s grace and received the gift of faith in a future redemption and baptism by desire (118–129). The Eagle then bursts into praise of Divine Predestination and warns Dante to exercise caution in judging others since not even the blessed know whom God’s counsel has chosen though they rejoice in whatever limitations the Divine Will may impose on their knowledge (130–138). While the Eagle administers the medicine of doctrine to the Pilgrim’s short-sighted vision, the lights of Trajan and Ripheus flash like two blinking eyes in measure with its speech just as a lutenist accompanies a singer (139–148).
1 When he who lights the world makes his descent
And finally our hemisphere is quit,
So that the day on every side is spent,
4 The heavens, which the sun alone had lit,
Will suddenly appear again, we find,
With many lights that shine, reflecting it.
7 This change within the skies sprang up to mind,
As this world’s and its rulers’ sign became
Quite silent in the blessèd beak that shined.
10 For all those living lights were set aflame
With brighter light, beginning songs whose style
Has lapsed to fade from recollection’s aim.
13 (O sweetest love, bemantled with a smile,
How ardent did you seem in flutes there blown
With breath of holy notions all the while!)
16 And then, when every bright and precious stone
I saw engem the sixth of stars agleam[473]
Had stilled the angel-chimes that they intone,
19 It seemed I heard the murmur of a stream
Descending clear from rock to rock to show
With what abundance its high sources teem.
22 As sound takes body at the neck to flow
Out of the lute, and as the wind will play
Through vents of bagpipes that it fills, just so,
25 Without a further moment of delay,
The Eagle’s murmuring began to float
Up through its neck as through a hollow way.
28 Out of its beak it issued from its throat,
Becoming voice as words that on my heart
—A heart that had awaited them—I wrote.
31 “Now you must gaze intently on the part
In me that mortal eagles use to see
And to endure the sun,” it took its start,[474]
34 “For of the fires that make this shape for me
Those give the eye within my head its spark
Which of all ranks are highest in degree.
37 That singer was the Holy Spirit’s lark[475]
Who as the pupil glows amid the throng;
From town to town he bore about the ark.
40 And now he knows the merit of his song,
As far as by his counsel it was done,
To which proportionate rewards belong.
43 Of five who form my eyebrow’s arch, the one[476]
Who nearest to my beak has come to sit
Consoled the little widow for her son.
46 And now he knows how dear they pay for it
Who don’t serve Christ by his experience
Of this sweet life and of its opposite.
49 The next one there on that circumference[477]
Of which I speak, along the upward arc,
Delayed his death by his true penitence.
52 And now he knows eternal law is stark
And does not change when worthy prayer by grace
Lets one tomorrow, not today, embark.
55 The next one, then, to give the Shepherd place,[478]
Became a Greek as I did, with the laws;
With good intent he bore a fruit most base.
58 And now he knows he won’t be harmed because
Of ill derived from his good acts, although
The world should be destroyed by such a cause.
61 And he who’s seen within the downward bow
Was William, whom those earthly lands regret[479]
Which mourn that Charles and Frederick live below.[480]
64 And now he knows how Heaven’s love is set
On righteous kings, which you can see unfurled
In the effulgence of his aspect yet.
67 Who would believe down in the erring world
Just Ripheus of Troy is fifth in turn[481]
Of holy lanterns in this circle swirled?
70 And now he knows so much the earth can’t learn
Relating to the grace of God we share,
Though there are depths his sight can not discern.”
73 And as a lark goes soaring through the air
First singing, silent then, content to glee
In the last sweetness that so fills it there,
76 So did that image also seem to me,
Stamped with Eternal Pleasure, by whose will
All things become what they are meant to be.
79 I stood there to my doubting’s overspill
As glass to color that it cloaks does too;
Doubt could not bide its time by being still,
82 So, by its pressing weight, my lips forced through:
“What things are these?” I saw then so immense
A feast of brightly flashing lights ensue.
85 And now, its kindled eye yet more intense,
The blessèd sign replied to me anew,
So that I might not wonder in suspense:
88 “I see that you believe these things are true
Because I say so—how you cannot spy
For, though believed, they still are hid from view.
91 You act like one who grasps an object by
Its name but not its quiddity’s deep source,[482]
If no one lays it open to his eye.
94 The Reign of Heaven well may suffer force:
By fervent love and hope that’s living we
May overcome God’s will, though not, of course,
97 As man wins man; yet, since by its decree
It wills that it be won, we overcome;
And won, it wins us through benignity.
100 The first and fifth souls of the brow, in sum,
Have made you marvel since you see them fill
The realm of angels. But they have not come
103 As Gentiles from their bodies, as you still
Believe, but with firm faith as Christian men
In feet that suffered and would suffer ill.
106 One came back to his bones from Hell again[483]
(Where none returned to righteous will before)
As a reward for hope so lively when
109 That living hope gave strength to prayers one bore[484]
To God that He might resurrect a shade
So that its will could yet be moved once more.
112 This blest soul came from where it had been laid
For but short time back to his flesh on earth
To trust in Him whose might could lend him aid,
115 And, in believing, to such fires gave birth
In earnest love that at death’s second sting
He was made worthy to come join this mirth.
118 The other one, by graces issuing[485]
Out of a fount from so profound a site
No creature’s eyes have plumbed to its first spring,
121 Set all his love below on what is right.
From grace to grace God opened up his eyes
To witness our redemption’s future light;
124 Thus, he believed in it and in no wise
Endured more stench from paganism’s blights
But censured the perverted peoples’ lies.
127 And those three maids on whom you set your sights[486]
At the right wheel baptízed him by desire
A thousand years before baptismal rites.
130 Predestination! Oh, who could aspire
To roots so far from those whose eyes inspect
But do not see the Primal Cause entire!
133 And you, O mortal one, be circumspect
In judging men, for we who see God’s thought
Do not yet know all those who are elect.
136 This defect, though, is sweet to us as aught
Because our good is in this good refined
For we, except for what God wills, will naught.”
139 Thus, medicine was given me, half-blind,
To clear short-sighted vision for these things,
A cure an image so divine assigned.[487]
142 As a good lutenist with trembling strings
Accompanies an expert singer’s tries
And makes more pleasant every song he sings,
145 So, I recall, while it spoke these replies,
I saw the lights of those two blest ahead
Agree just like the blinking of the eyes:
148 They moved their flames in time with what it said.