Paradiso -- Canto XVIII
Jupiter, Just Rulers
By now that blissful mirror only brightened
At his own thoughts, and I too tasted mine,
Tempering the bitter with the sweet,
When the lady who was leading me to God
5 Said, "Shift your thoughts and think on how I am
Near Him who lifts the burden of all wrongs."
I turned around at the melodious sound
Of my soul’s comfort, and what love I saw
Then in those saintly eyes I leave unsaid:
10 Not only do I distrust my own speech,
But memory cannot turn back so far
Above itself, unless Another guide it.
This much I can recount about that moment,
That while I looked upon her my affection
15 Was liberated from all other longing,
While the eternal joy that rayed straight down
On Beatrice filled me with contentment in
The lovely eyes with their reflected joy.
She overwhelmed me with light from her smile,
20 And said to me, "Turn around and listen,
For paradise is not just in my eyes."
As here on earth one sometimes notices
Affection in a look that is so striking
That the whole soul is swept up in one glance,
25 So in the flaming of that holy brilliance
To which I turned I recognized in him
The wish to talk to me a short time longer.
He spoke, "In this, the fifth tier of the tree
Which takes life from the top and which bears fruit
30 Forever and which never sheds its leaves,
"Bloom blessed spirits who, before they came
To heaven, had below such wide renown
That any muse would find a wealth in them.
"Gaze, therefore, on the bright horns of the cross,
35 And he whom I shall name there will flash forth
Swift as the fire of lightning from a cloud."
I saw a light streak out along the cross
The instant Joshua was named aloud,
Nor did I catch the sound before the motion.
40 And at the name of the high Maccabee
I saw leap out another spinning light —
Elation was the whip that spun that top!
Two more I followed with my craving sight
When Charlemagne and Roland were called out,
45 As the eye tracks the falcon in its flight.
William of Orange next, and Renouart,
And then Duke Godfrey, drew my eager gaze
Along that cross, and Robert Guiscard too.
Then moving and mingling with the other lights,
50 The soul who’d spoken to me let me hear
His art among the singers of that heaven.
I turned around once more to my right side
To see in Beatrice what I ought to do
By giving me a sign in word or gesture,
55 And I saw her eyes light so joyfully,
So clearly, that her likeness now outshone
All it had been till then, even the latest.
And as a man, through feeling more delight
In doing good, from day to day becomes
60 Aware that he advances in his virtue,
Even so was I aware my circling round
With heaven went in ever widening arcs
When I perceived her wonder still more dazzling.
And like the change that comes on in a moment
65 In a fair-skinned lady, when her face is free
From the burden of its bashfulness,
Such was the change for my eyes when I turned,
Because of the soft whiteness of the sixth
Star which enfolded me within itself.
70 I saw the Jovial torch within its cresset
Shoot sparks of love that had its dwelling there,
Patterning out our language to my eyes.
And as birds, risen from a river bank,
As though rejoicing in their pasture, fly
75 Now in a circle, now in one long line,
So in those lights were holy creatures singing
While they were flying, and in their figures
Formed letters: now D, now I, and now L.
At first they moved in rhythm with their song,
80 But then, as they became one of those letters,
They stopped for a brief interval in silence.
O Pegasean goddess, you give glory
To the talented and offer them long life
Which by your aid they give to kingdoms, cities,
85 Shed your light on me that I may set forth
These figures as I have conceived their shape,
And let your power show through these few verses!
In five times seven vowels and consonants
They then displayed themselves, and I took note
90 Of characters that I seemed to see spoken.
DILIGITE JUSTITIAM were the first
Verb and noun of all depicted there;
QUI JUDICATIS TERRAM were the last.
After, they formed the M of the fifth word,
95 Which stayed so placed that Jupiter appeared
Silvery behind that spot stitched out with gold.
And I saw other lights descend to where
The top of the M rose, and come to rest
There, singing, I believe, the Good that draws them.
100 Then, as innumerable sparks fly up
With a striking blow at burning logs
(From this the foolish try to tell their fortunes),
More than a thousand lights appeared to rise
From there and soar, some higher and some lower,
105 To where the Sun that kindles them appoints.
And when each one had nestled in its place,
I saw the head and shoulders of an eagle
Presented in the patterned points of flame.
He who paints there has no need of a guide:
110 He guides Himself, and from Him has derived
That instinctive power that builds nests.
The rest of the blest souls who seemed at first
Content to form a lily on the M
With a slight movement finished the design.
115 O dulcet star! how numerous and bright
The gems that made it clear to me our justice
Comes from the heaven which you so bejewel!
Therefore I pray the Mind in which begin
Your motion and your power to attend
120 To where the smoke that blocks your rays arises,
So that once more he may be angry with
The buying and the selling in the temple
Whose walls were built by miracles and martyrs.
O soldiery of heaven on whom I gaze,
125 Pray for all who stray from the straight path
By following bad example down on earth!
Men used to make war at one time with swords,
But now they make it by taking here and there
The bread the kindly Father keeps from no one.
130 But you, who inscribe only to cross out,
Recall that Paul and Peter, who died for
The vineyard you lay waste, are still alive!
You may well say, "I have so set my passion
On him who wished to live alone and who
135 For a girl’s dance was dragged to martyrdom
"That I don’t know the Fisherman or Paul."
