| PARADISO CANTO 12 Dante and Mandelbaum Tr. | Notes | Ann. |
Sì tosto come l'ultima parola la benedetta fiamma per dir tolse, a rotar cominciò la santa mola; No sooner had the blessed flame begun to speak its final word than the millstone of holy lights began to turn, but it |
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e nel suo giro tutta non si volse prima ch'un'altra di cerchio la chiuse, e moto a moto e canto a canto colse; was not yet done with one full revolution before another ring surrounded it, and motion matched with motion, song with song- |
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canto che tanto vince nostre muse, nostre serene in quelle dolci tube, quanto primo splendor quel ch'e' refuse. a song that, sung by those sweet instruments, surpasses so our Muses and our Sirens as firstlight does the light that is reflected. |
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Come si volgon per tenera nube due archi paralelli e concolori, quando Iunone a sua ancella iube, Just as, concentric, like in color, two rainbows will curve their way through a thin cloud when Juno has commanded her handmaid, |
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nascendo di quel d'entro quel di fori, a guisa del parlar di quella vaga ch'amor consunse come sol vapori; the outer rainbow echoing the inner, much like the voice of one-the wandering nymph- whom love consumed as sun consumes the mist |
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e fanno qui la gente esser presaga, per lo patto che Dio con Noè puose, del mondo che già mai più non s'allaga: (and those two bows let people here foretell, by reason of the pact God made with Noah, that flood will never strike the world again): |
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così di quelle sempiterne rose volgiensi circa noi le due ghirlande, e sì l'estrema a l'intima rispuose. so the two garlands of those everlasting roses circled around us, and so did the outer circle mime the inner ring. |
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Poi che 'l tripudio e l'altra festa grande, sì del cantare e sì del fiammeggiarsi luce con luce gaudiose e blande, When dance and jubilation, festival of song and flame that answered flame, of light with light, of gladness and benevolence, |
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insieme a punto e a voler quetarsi, pur come li occhi ch'al piacer che i move conviene insieme chiudere e levarsi; in one same instant, with one will, fell still (just as the eyes, when moved by their desire, can only close and open in accord), |
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del cor de l'una de le luci nove si mosse voce, che l'ago a la stella parer mi fece in volgermi al suo dove; then from the heart of one of the new lights there came a voice, and as I turned toward it, I seemed a needle turning to the polestar; |
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e cominciò: «L'amor che mi fa bella mi tragge a ragionar de l'altro duca per cui del mio sì ben ci si favella. and it began: "The love that makes me fair draws me to speak about the other leader because of whom my own was so praised here. |
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Degno è che, dov'è l'un, l'altro s'induca: sì che, com'elli ad una militaro, così la gloria loro insieme luca. Where one is, it is right to introduce the other: side by side, they fought, so may they share in glory and together gleam. |
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L'essercito di Cristo, che sì caro costò a riarmar, dietro a la 'nsegna si movea tardo, sospeccioso e raro, Christ's army, whose rearming cost so dearly, was slow, uncertain of itself, and scanty behind its ensign, when the Emperor |
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quando lo 'mperador che sempre regna provide a la milizia, ch'era in forse, per sola grazia, non per esser degna; who rules forever helped his ranks in danger- only out of His grace and not their merits. And, as was said, He then sustained His bride, |
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e, come è detto, a sua sposa soccorse con due campioni, al cui fare, al cui dire lo popol disviato si raccorse. providing her with two who could revive a straggling people: champions who would by doing and by preaching bring new life. |
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In quella parte ove surge ad aprire Zefiro dolce le novelle fronde di che si vede Europa rivestire, In that part of the West where gentle zephyr rises to open those new leaves in which Europe appears reclothed, not far from where, |
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non molto lungi al percuoter de l'onde dietro a le quali, per la lunga foga, lo sol talvolta ad ogne uom si nasconde, behind the waves that beat upon the coast, the sun, grown weary from its lengthy course, at times conceals itself from all men's eyes- |
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siede la fortunata Calaroga sotto la protezion del grande scudo in che soggiace il leone e soggioga: there, Calaroga, blessed by fortune, sits under the aegis of the mighty shield on which the lion loses and prevails. |
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dentro vi nacque l'amoroso drudo de la fede cristiana, il santo atleta benigno a' suoi e a' nemici crudo; Within its walls was born the loving vassal of Christian faith, the holy athlete, one kind to his own and harsh to enemies; |
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e come fu creata, fu repleta sì la sua mente di viva vertute, che, ne la madre, lei fece profeta. no sooner was his mind created than it was so full of living force that it, still in his mother's womb, made her prophetic. |
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Poi che le sponsalizie fuor compiute al sacro fonte intra lui e la Fede, u' si dotar di mutua salute, Then, at the sacred font, where Faith and he brought mutual salvation as their dowry, the rites of their espousal were complete. |
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la donna che per lui l'assenso diede, vide nel sonno il mirabile frutto ch'uscir dovea di lui e de le rede; The lady who had given the assent for him saw, in a dream, astonishing fruit that would spring from him and from his heirs. |
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e perché fosse qual era in costrutto, quinci si mosse spirito a nomarlo del possessivo di cui era tutto. And that his name might echo what he was, a spirit moved from here to have him called by the possessive of the One by whom |
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Domenico fu detto; e io ne parlo sì come de l'agricola che Cristo elesse a l'orto suo per aiutarlo. he was possessed completely. Dominic became his name; I speak of him as one whom Christ chose as the worker in His garden. |
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Ben parve messo e famigliar di Cristo: che 'l primo amor che 'n lui fu manifesto, fu al primo consiglio che diè Cristo. He seemed the fitting messenger and servant of Christ: the very first love that he showed was for the first injunction Christ had given. |
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Spesse fiate fu tacito e desto trovato in terra da la sua nutrice, come dicesse: 'Io son venuto a questo'. His nurse would often find him on the ground, alert and silent, in a way that said: 'It is for this that I have come.' Truly, |
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Oh padre suo veramente Felice! oh madre sua veramente Giovanna, se, interpretata, val come si dice! his father was Felice and his mother Giovanna if her name, interpreted, is in accord with what has been asserted. |
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Non per lo mondo, per cui mo s'affanna di retro ad Ostiense e a Taddeo, ma per amor de la verace manna Not for the world, for which men now travail along Taddeo's way or Ostian's, but through his love of the true manna, he |
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in picciol tempo gran dottor si feo; tal che si mise a circuir la vigna che tosto imbianca, se 'l vignaio è reo. became, in a brief time, so great a teacher that he began to oversee the vineyard that withers when neglected by its keeper. |
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E a la sedia che fu già benigna più a' poveri giusti, non per lei, ma per colui che siede, che traligna, And from the seat that once was kinder to the righteous poor (and now has gone astray, not in itself, but in its occupant), |
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non dispensare o due o tre per sei, non la fortuna di prima vacante, non decimas, quae sunt pauperum Dei, he did not ask to offer two or three for six, nor for a vacant benefice, nor decimas, quae sunt pauperum Dei- |
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addimandò, ma contro al mondo errante licenza di combatter per lo seme del qual ti fascian ventiquattro piante. but pleaded for the right to fight against the erring world, to serve the seed from which there grew the four-and-twenty plants that ring you. |
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Poi, con dottrina e con volere insieme, con l'officio appostolico si mosse quasi torrente ch'alta vena preme; Then he, with both his learning and his zeal, and with his apostolic office, like a torrent hurtled from a mountain source, |
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e ne li sterpi eretici percosse l'impeto suo, più vivamente quivi dove le resistenze eran più grosse. coursed, and his impetus, with greatest force, struck where the thickets of the heretics offered the most resistance. And from him |
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Di lui si fecer poi diversi rivi onde l'orto catolico si riga, sì che i suoi arbuscelli stan più vivi. there sprang the streams with which the catholic garden has found abundant watering, so that its saplings have more life, more green. |
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Se tal fu l'una rota de la biga in che la Santa Chiesa si difese e vinse in campo la sua civil briga, If such was one wheel of the chariot in which the Holy Church, in her defense, taking the field, defeated enemies |
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ben ti dovrebbe assai esser palese l'eccellenza de l'altra, di cui Tomma dinanzi al mio venir fu sì cortese. within, then you must see the excellence of him-the other wheel-whom Thomas praised so graciously before I made my entry. |
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Ma l'orbita che fé la parte somma di sua circunferenza, è derelitta, sì ch'è la muffa dov'era la gromma. And yet the track traced by the outer rim of that wheel is abandoned now-as in a cask of wine when crust gives way to mold. |
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La sua famiglia, che si mosse dritta coi piedi a le sue orme, è tanto volta, che quel dinanzi a quel di retro gitta; His family, which once advanced with steps that followed his footprints, has now turned back: its forward foot now seeks the foot that lags. |
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e tosto si vedrà de la ricolta de la mala coltura, quando il loglio si lagnerà che l'arca li sia tolta. And soon we are to see, at harvest time, the poor grain gathered, when the tares will be denied a place within the bin-and weep. |
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Ben dico, chi cercasse a foglio a foglio nostro volume, ancor troveria carta u' leggerebbe "I' mi son quel ch'i' soglio"; I do admit that, if one were to search our volume leaf by leaf, he might still read one page with, 'I am as I always was'; |
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ma non fia da Casal né d'Acquasparta, là onde vegnon tali a la scrittura, ch'uno la fugge e altro la coarta. but those of Acquasparta or Casale who read our Rule are either given to escaping it or making it too strict. |
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Io son la vita di Bonaventura da Bagnoregio, che ne' grandi offici sempre pospuosi la sinistra cura. I am the living light of Bonaventure of Bagnorea; in high offices I always put the left-hand interests last. |
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Illuminato e Augustin son quici, che fuor de' primi scalzi poverelli che nel capestro a Dio si fero amici. Illuminato and Augustine are here; they were among the first unshod poor brothers to wear the cord, becoming friends of God. |
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Ugo da San Vittore è qui con elli, e Pietro Mangiadore e Pietro Spano, lo qual giù luce in dodici libelli; Hugh of St. Victor, too, is here with them; Peter of Spain, who, with his twelve books, glows on earth below; and Peter Book-Devourer, |
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Natàn profeta e 'l metropolitano Crisostomo e Anselmo e quel Donato ch'a la prim'arte degnò porre mano. Nathan the prophet, Anselm, and Chrysostom the Metropolitan, and that Donatus who deigned to deal with that art which comes first. |
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Rabano è qui, e lucemi dallato il calavrese abate Giovacchino, di spirito profetico dotato. Rabanus, too, is here; and at my side shines the Calabrian Abbot Joachim, who had the gift of the prophetic spirit. |
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Ad inveggiar cotanto paladino mi mosse l'infiammata cortesia di fra Tommaso e 'l discreto latino; To this-my praise of such a paladin- the glowing courtesy and the discerning language of Thomas urged me on and stirred, |
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e mosse meco questa compagnia». with me, the souls that form this company." |
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