Paradiso -- Canto XXII
Contemplatives, Saint Benedict
Struck with amazement, I turned to my guide,
Like a small child that always runs back where
The person it trusts most is to be found.
And she, like a mother who is quick to calm
5 Her pale and panting son with her soft voice
Which often reassures him, said to me,
"Do you not know that you are now in heaven?
Do you not know that heaven is all holy,
And that what is done here springs from true zeal?
10 "Now you can comprehend how they by song
And I by smiling would have changed your soul,
When just this shout has moved you so profoundly.
"By this cry, had you understood their prayers,
You might have known already of the vengeance
15 Which you shall see down there before you die.
"The sword of heaven does not cut in haste
Nor strike too late, except in the opinion
Of those who wait in fear or longing for it.
"But turn now to the others gathered here,
20 For you will notice many famous spirits,
If you direct your gaze as I instruct you."
Just as she pleased, I turned my eyes and saw
A hundred little spheres which all together
Made themselves beautiful with rays they shared.
25 I stood as someone curbing in himself
The prick of his desire, who does not dare
To question, he so dreads to overdo.
And the most brilliant and magnificent
Of those bright pearls came forward from its cluster
30 To make content my wish concerning it.
Then I heard from within it, "Could you see,
As I can see, the love that burns among us,
You would have found expression for your thoughts.
"But that more waiting may not hold you from
35 Your goal on high, I will make my response,
Just to the thought that you keep to yourself.
"The mountain on whose slope Cassino lies,
Was, on its summit, visited of old
By a deluded and perverted people,
40 "And I am he who was the first to carry
Up there the name of Him who brought to earth
The truth that lifts us up so loftily,
"And such abundant grace shone down on me
That I led the surrounding towns away
45 From impious cults which have seduced the world.
"These other flames were all contemplatives
Enkindled by the heat which brings to birth
The sanctifying flowers and their fruits.
"Here is Macarius, here is Romualdus,
50 Here are my brothers who kept steadfast hearts
And planted their feet within the cloister walls."
And I told him, "The affection you display
In speaking to me, and the kindliness
That I observe in every glowing spirit,
55 "Have made my confidence spread as the sun
Opens the rose when it becomes full-blown
And its heart swells with fresh capacity.
"I therefore beg you, father, to assure me,
If I am able to obtain such grace,
60 That I may look upon your unveiled figure."
He then said, "Brother, your exalted longing
Shall be fulfilled up in the final sphere
Where mine and all desires are fulfilled.
"There every wish is perfect, ripe, and whole.
65 There only, in that highest point of heaven,
Is every part where it has always rested.
"That sphere is not in space, it has no pole,
And our bright ladder reaches up to it
So far that it must vanish from your view.
70 "The patriarch Jacob saw it stretching
To its top rung, when it appeared to him
Thronged full of angels pressing up and down.
"But no one now lifts his foot from the ground
To climb it, and my rule is left there like
75 Waste scraps of paper to be tossed aside.
"The walls which formerly enclosed an abbey
Now house a den of thieves, and the monks’ cowls
Are sacks stuffed to the brim with rotten flour.
"But even heavy usury violates less
80 Against God’s pleasure than the tempting fruit
That makes the hearts of monks so mad for it,
"For what the Church possesses is for all
The people who request it in God’s name,
Not for relations or others who are worse.
85 "The flesh of mortal creatures is so soft
That good beginnings on earth will not last
From seeding of the oak to acorn-bearing.
"Peter began his movement without gold
Or silver; I mine, with prayers and fasting;
90 Francis his, with pure humility:
"And if you look at each of their beginnings,
And then look back again to where it strayed,
You will see that the white has turned to black.
"Yet, Jordan driven back against its course
95 And the Red Sea divided, when God willed,
Would be less wondrous sights than help is here."
These words he said to me, and then rejoined
His company, and the company closed ranks.
Then like a whirlwind they were all swooped up.
100 My own sweet lady, simply with a sign,
Thrust me on up the ladder after them,
My nature was so vanquished by her power.
Never on earth, where we descend and climb
By nature’s law, has motion been so rapid
105 That it could be compared to my winged flight.
As I hope, reader, to return to that
Solemn triumph for whose sake I often
Weep for my sins and beat my breast in sorrow:
You could not put your finger in the fire
110 And pull it out as swiftly as I saw
The sign that trails the Bull and stood inside it.
O stars of glory, O light teeming full
With mighty power from which I obtain
All of whatever talent I may have,
115 Rising with you and setting with you was
The Sun that is father of all mortal life,
When first I felt the air of Tuscany,
And when the grace was granted then to me
To enter the high sphere that wheels you round,
120 Your region was the one assigned to me!
To you my soul devotedly now sighs
That she may gain the influencing power
For the hard pass which draws her to itself.
"You are so close now to the final solace,"
125 Beatrice began, "that it is necessary
For your eyes to be vigilant and clear.
"And so, before you go in any farther,
Look down and see how vast a universe
I have already set beneath your feet,
130 "So that your heart, rejoicing to the full,
May present itself to the triumphant throng
Which comes with joy through this ethereal zone."
I traveled back in gazing down through all
The seven spheres, and then I saw this globe
135 So paltry that I smiled at its appearance.
And that opinion I approve as best
Which holds the earth as least, and he whose thought
Is elsewhere may be named as truly upright.
I saw the daughter of Latona glowing
140 Without that shadow which was once the reason
Why I believed that she was rare and dense.
I there sustained the bright face of your son,
Hyperion; and, Maia and Dione,
I saw your children circling close to him.
145 Then I observed Jove’s tempering between
His son and father, and I clearly saw
The variations they make in their orbits.
And all the seven spheres displayed to me
How grand they are and how swift in their motion
150 And how apart in distance from each other.
As I revolved with the eternal Twins,
I saw revealed from hills to river outlets
The threshing-floor that makes us so ferocious.
Then my eyes turned back to the eyes of beauty.
