Paradiso -- Canto XXX
The Empyrean, Light of Glory
Six thousand miles or so away from us
Noon blazes, and this world already slopes
Its shadow to an almost level bed,
When the midheaven high above us starts
5 To change in such a way that here and there
A star fades out of view from this abyss.
And as the brightest handmaid of the sun
Comes closer, heaven then puts out its lights
One by one, till the loveliest has faded:
10 No differently, the triumph that forever
Plays round the Point that overmastered me
And seems enclosed by that which it encloses
Little by little vanished from my sight,
So that my loving and my seeing nothing
15 Forced me to turn my eyes once more to Beatrice.
If what I have said up to now about her
Were all rolled in a single hymn of praise,
It would not serve to take this final turn.
The beauty that I saw transcends all measure
20 Not only past our reach, but I believe
Only its Maker can enjoy it all.
At this pass I admit myself defeated
More than all comic or all tragic poets
Were ever quelled by some point of their theme.
25 For as the sun confounds the feeblest sight,
So the remembrance of her fresh sweet smile
Severs my memory from my sense of self.
From the first day on which I saw her face
In this lifetime, until that sight of her,
30 My song has never stopped from following her.
But now must my pursuit cease following
Her beauty further in my poetry,
Like any artist come to his full limit.
So I leave her to nobler heralding
35 Than the sounding of my trumpet which here draws
Its arduous subject-matter to a close.
With gesture and voice of an accomplished leader
She began again, "Out from the largest body
We have come to this heaven of pure light:
40 "Light of the intellect, light full of love,
Love of true good, love full of joyousness,
Joyfulness surpassing every sweetness.
"Here you shall see both hosts of paradise,
The one arrayed in that embodiment
45 Which you shall witness on the judgment day."
Just like a sudden lightning flash that scatters
The power of vision so that it deprives
The eye of its sight of the sharpest objects,
So round about me shone a living light
50 Which left me wrapped in such a dazzling veil
That nothing else was visible to me.
"Always the love which makes this heaven restful
Receives all to itself with a like welcome,
To hold the candle ready for the flame."
55 No sooner did I take in these few words
Than inwardly I understood that I
Was rising high above my human powers.
And I was so inflamed with the new vision
That — however luminous the light —
60 My eyes could have withstood the sight of it.
And I saw a light flowing like a river
Glowing with amber waves between two banks
Brilliantly painted by spellbinding spring.
From out this river shot up living sparks
65 That dropped on every side into the blossoms,
Like rubies in a setting of pure gold.
Then, as if intoxicated by the fragrance,
They dove once more into the wondrous flood,
And as one sank, another spark shot out.
70 "The flame of high desire driving you
To gain more knowledge of what you see here
Pleases me the more the more it surges.
"But first you are required to drink this water
Before your burning thirst can be relieved."
75 These words the sun of my eyes said to me,
Then added, "The river and the topazes
Streaming in and out the smiling flowers
Are shadow-prelude of their reality.
"Not that these blooms are unripe in themselves,
80 But the defect comes from within yourself
That you do not yet have sight set so high."
No baby, after waking later than
The usual hour, ever makes a rush
So sudden with its face toward mother’s milk,
85 As I made then when I bent down to drink
The wave that flows there for our betterment,
To make still better mirrors of my eyes.
And even as the eaves that edge my eyelids
Drank of it, so it seemed to change its shape
90 From running lengthwise to revolving round.
Then, as the people hidden under masks
Look different from the way they looked before
When they doff the disguises that concealed them,
Just so the flowers and the sparks now changed
95 Before me into grander festivals,
So that I saw both courts of heaven open.
O splendor of God through which I saw the high
Triumph of the true kingdom, grant me the power
To tell how I was witness to this vision!
100 Light shines above which renders visible
The Creator to the creature who discovers
The peace found only in our seeing Him.
And this light stretches out into a circle
Which spreads so wide that its circumference
105 Would make too large a cincture for the sun.
The whole expanse is fashioned by the ray
Reflected from the top of the first-moved
Sphere from which it takes its might and motion.
And as a hillside is mirrored in a lake
110 Below, as if to look on its own beauty
When it is lush with flowers and fresh grass,
Just so, above the light and round and round,
Reflected from more than a thousand tiers,
I saw all those of us who have returned there.
115 And if the lowest rank holds in its row
So large a light, how vast is the expanse
Of this rose in its farthest-reaching petals!
My sight was not lost in its breadth and height,
But grasped the fullness of that happiness
120 In all its distance and intensity.
There near and far add nothing, nor subtract,
For where God governs without mediation
The laws of nature have no further bearing.
Into the yellow of that timeless rose
125 Which rises row on row and spreads and breathes
Perfumes of praise to the spring-renewing Sun,
Beatrice drew me, hushed and bent on speaking,
And told me, "Look with wonder on those robed
In white — how countless is that congregation!
130 "See how wide is the circuit of our city!
See how filled are our seats that so few people
From now on are expected to come here!
"And on that proud chair where you fix your eyes
To glimpse the crown already placed above it,
135 Before you partake of this wedding feast,
"Shall sit the soul — an emperor’s on earth —
Of lofty Henry, who will come to set
Italy straight before her time is ready.
"Blind greed which grips you all within its spell
140 Has made you like the little child who dies
Of hunger while he drives away his nurse.
"And then the pontiff of the Holy See
Shall, openly and secretly, be someone
Who will not walk with him along one road.
145 "But God won’t keep him in the sacred office
For long, because he shall be shoved below
Where Simon Magus squirms for his deserts,
"To cram still deeper that man from Anagni."
