PARADISO CANTO 02 Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.	Notes	Ann.
O you who are within your little bark, eager to listen, following behind my ship that, singing, crosses to deep seas, O YE, who in some pretty little boat, Eager to listen, have been following Behind my ship, that singing sails along,	02.003
turn back to see your shores again: do not attempt to sail the seas I sail; you may, by losing sight of me, be left astray. Turn back to look again upon your shores; Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure, In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.	02.006
The waves I take were never sailed before; Minerva breathes, Apollo pilots me, and the nine Muses show to me the Bears. The sea I sail has never yet been passed; Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo, And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.	02.009
You other few who turned your minds in time unto the bread of angels, which provides men here with life-but hungering for more- Ye other few who have the neck uplifted Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which One liveth here and grows not sated by it,	02.012
you may indeed commit your vessel to the deep salt-sea, keeping your course within my wake, ahead of where waves smooth again. Well may you launch upon the deep salt-sea Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you Upon the water that grows smooth again.	02.015
Those men of glory, those who crossed to Colchis, when they saw Jason turn into a ploughman were less amazed than you will be amazed. Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be, When Jason they beheld a ploughman made!	02.018
The thirst that is innate and everlasting- thirst for the godly realm-bore us away as swiftly as the heavens that you see. The con-created and perpetual thirst For the realm deiform did bear us on, As swift almost as ye the heavens behold.	02.021
Beatrice gazed upward. I watched her. But in a span perhaps no longer than an arrow takes to strike, to fly, to leave Upward gazed Beatrice, and I at her; And in such space perchance as strikes a bolt And flies, and from the notch unlocks itself,	02.024
the bow, I reached a place where I could see that something wonderful drew me; and she from whom my need could not be hidden, turned Arrived I saw me where a wondrous thing Drew to itself my sight; and therefore she From whom no care of mine could be concealed,	02.027
to me (her gladness matched her loveliness): "Direct your mind to God in gratefulness," she said; "He has brought us to the first star." Towards me turning, blithe as beautiful, Said unto me:"Fix gratefully thy mind On God, who unto the first star has brought us."	02.030
It seemed to me that we were covered by a brilliant, solid, dense, and stainless cloud, much like a diamond that the sun has struck. It seemed to me a cloud encompassed us, Luminous, dense, consolidate and bright As adamant on which the sun is striking.	02.033
Into itself, the everlasting pearl received us, just as water will accept a ray of light and yet remain intact. Into itself did the eternal pearl Receive us, even as water doth receive A ray of light, remaining still unbroken.	02.036
If I was body (and on earth we can not see how things material can share one space-the case, when body enters body), If I was body, (and we here conceive not How one dimension tolerates another, Which needs must be if body enter body,)	02.039
then should our longing be still more inflamed to see that Essence in which we discern how God and human nature were made one. More the desire should be enkindled in us That essence to behold, wherein is seen How God and our own nature were united.	02.042
What we hold here by faith, shall there be seen, not demonstrated but directly known, even as the first truth that man believes. There will be seen what we receive by faith, Not demonstrated, but self-evident In guise of the first truth that man believes.	02.045
I answered: "With the most devotion I can summon, I thank Him who has brought me far from the mortal world. But now tell me: I made reply:"Madonna, as devoutly As most I can do I give thanks to Him Who has removed me from the mortal world.	02.048
what are the dark marks on this planet's body that there below, on earth, have made men tell the tale of Cain?" She smiled somewhat, and then But tell me what the dusky spots may be Upon this body, which below on earth Make people tell that fabulous tale of Cain ?"	02.051
she said: "If the opinion mortals hold falls into error when the senses' key cannot unlock the truth, you should not be Somewhat she smiled; and then,"If the opinion Of mortals be erroneous,"she said, "Where'er the key of sense doth not unlock,	02.054
struck by the arrows of amazement once you recognize that reason, even when supported by the senses, has short wings. Certes, the shafts of wonder should not pierce thee Now, forasmuch as, following the senses, Thou seest that the reason has short wings.	02.057
But tell me what you think of it yourself." And I: "What seems to us diverse up here is caused-I think-by matter dense and rare." But tell me what thou think'st of it thyself." And I:"What seems to us up here diverse, Is caused, I think, by bodies rare and dense."	02.060
And she: "You certainly will see that your belief is deeply sunk in error if you listen carefully as I rebut it. And she:"Right truly shalt thou see immersed In error thy belief, if well thou hearest The argument that I shall make against it.	02.063
The eighth sphere offers many lights to you, and you can tell that they, in quality and size, are stars with different visages. Lights many the eighth sphere displays to you Which in their quality and quantity May noted be of aspects different.	02.066
If rarity and density alone caused this, then all the stars would share one power distributed in lesser, greater, or If this were caused by rare and dense alone, One only virtue would there be in all Or more or less diffused, or equally.	02.069
in equal force. But different powers must be fruits of different formal principles; were you correct, one only would be left, Virtues diverse must be perforce the fruits Of formal principles; and these, save one, Of course would by thy reasoning be destroyed.	02.072
the rest, destroyed. And more, were rarity the cause of the dim spots you question, then in part this planet would lack matter through Besides, if rarity were of this dimness The cause thou askest, either through and through This planet thus attenuate were of matter,	02.075
and through, or else as, in a body, lean and fat can alternate, so would this planet alternate the pages in its volume. Or else, as in a body is apportioned The fat and lean, so in like manner this Would in its volume interchange the leaves.	02.078
To validate the first case, in the sun's eclipse, the light would have to show through, just as when it crosses matter that is slender. Were it the former, in the sun's eclipse It would be manifest by the shining through, Of light, as through aught tenuous interfused.	02.081
This is not so; therefore we must consider the latter case-if I annul that too, then your opinion surely is confuted. This is not so; hence we must scan the other, And if it chance the other I demolish, Then falsified will thy opinion be.	02.084
If rarity does not run through and through the moon, then there must be a limit where thickness does not allow the light to pass; But if this rarity go not through and through, There needs must be a limit, beyond which Its contrary prevents the further passing,	02.087
from there, the rays of sun would be thrown back, just as, from glass that hides lead at its back, a ray of colored light returns, reflected. And thence the foreign radiance is reflected, Even as a colour cometh back from glass, The which behind itself concealeth lead.	02.090
Now you will say that where a ray has been reflected from a section farther back, that ray will show itself to be more dim. Now thou wilt say the sunbeam shows itself More dimly there than in the other parts, By being there reflected farther back.	02.093
Yet an experiment, were you to try it, could free you from your cavil-and the source of your arts' course springs from experiment. From this reply experiment will free thee If e'er thou try it, which is wont to be The fountain to the rivers of your arts.	02.096
Taking three mirrors, place a pair of them at equal distance from you; set the third midway between those two, but farther back. Three mirrors shalt thou take, and two remove Alike from thee, the other more remote Between the former two shall meet thine eyes.	02.099
Then, turning toward them, at your back have placed a light that kindles those three mirrors and returns to you, reflected by them all. Turned towards these, cause that behind thy back Be placed a light, illuming the three mirrors And coming back to thee by all reflected.	02.102
Although the image in the farthest glass will be of lesser size, there you will see that it must match the brightness of the rest. Though in its quantity be not so ample The image most remote, there shalt thou see How it perforce is equally resplendent.	02.105
Now, just as the sub-matter of the snow, beneath the blows of the warm rays, is stripped of both its former color and its cold, Now, as beneath the touches of warm rays Naked the subject of the snow remains Both of its former colour and its cold,	02.108
so is your mind left bare of error; I would offer now to you a new form, light so living that it trembles in your sight. Thee thus remaining in thy intellect, Will I inform with such a living light, That it shall tremble in its aspect to thee.	02.111
Within the heaven of the godly peace revolves a body in whose power lies the being of all things that it enfolds. Within the heaven of the divine repose Revolves a body, in whose virtue lies The being of whatever it contains.	02.114
The sphere that follows, where so much is shown, to varied essences bestows that being, to stars distinct and yet contained in it. The following heaven, that has so many eyes, Divides this being by essences diverse, Distinguished from it, and by it contained.	02.117
The other spheres, in ways diverse, direct the diverse powers they possess, so that these forces can bear fruit, attain their aims. The other spheres, by various differences, All the distinctions which they have within them Dispose unto their ends and their effects.	02.120
So do these organs of the universe proceed, as you now see, from stage to stage, receiving from above and acting downward. Thus do these organs of the world proceed, As thou perceivest now, from grade to grade Since from above they take, and act beneath	02.123
Now do attend to how I pass by way of reason to the truth you want that-then- you may learn how to cross the ford alone. Observe me well, how through this place I come Unto the truth thou wishest, that hereafter Thou mayst alone know how to keep the ford	02.126
The force and motion of the holy spheres must be inspired by the blessed movers, just as the smith imparts the hammer's art; The power and motion of the holy spheres, As from the artisan the hammer's craft, Forth from the blessed motors must proceed.	02.129
and so, from the deep Mind that makes it wheel, the sphere that many lights adorn receives that stamp of which it then becomes the seal. The heaven, which lights so manifold make fair, From the Intelligence profound, which turns it. The image takes, and makes of it a seal.	02.132
And as the soul within your dust is shared by different organs, each most suited to a different potency, so does that Mind And even as the soul within your dust Through members different and accommodated To faculties diverse expands itself,	02.135
unfold and multiply its bounty through the varied heavens, though that Intellect itself revolves upon its unity. So likewise this Intelligence diffuses Its virtue multiplied among the stars. Itself revolving on its unity.	02.138
With the dear body that it quickens and with which, as life in you, it too is bound, each different power forms a different compound. Virtue diverse doth a diverse alloyage Make with the precious body that it quickens, In which, as life in you, it is combined.	02.141
Because of the glad nature of its source, the power mingled with a sphere shines forth, as gladness, through the living pupil, shines. From the glad nature whence it is derived, The mingled virtue through the body shines, Even as gladness through the living pupil.	02.144
From this, and not from matter rare or dense, derive the differences from light to light; this is the forming principle, producing, From this proceeds whate'er from light to light Appeareth different, not from dense and rare: This is the formal principle that produces,	02.147
conforming with its worth, the dark, the bright." According to its goodness, dark and bright."	02.148

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