| PARADISO CANTO 23 Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr. | Notes | Ann. |
As does the bird, among beloved branches, when, through the night that hides things from us, she has rested near the nest of her sweet fledglings EVEN as a bird, 'mid the beloved leaves, Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood Throughout the night, that hideth all things from us, |
23.003 |
|
and, on an open branch, anticipates the time when she can see their longed-for faces and find the food with which to feed them-chore Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks And find the food wherewith to nourish them, In which, to her, grave labours grateful are, |
23.006 |
|
that pleases her, however hard her labors- as she awaits the sun with warm affection, steadfastly watching for the dawn to break: Anticipates the time on open spray And with an ardent longing waits the sun, Gazing intent as soon as breaks the dawn: |
23.009 |
|
so did my lady stand, erect, intent, turned toward that part of heaven under which the sun is given to less haste; so that, Even thus my Lady standing was, erect And vigilant, turned round towards the zone Underneath which the sun displays less haste; |
23.012 |
|
as I saw her in longing and suspense, I grew to be as one who, while he wants what is not his, is satisfied with hope. So that beholding her distraught and wistful, Such I became as he is who desiring For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. |
23.015 |
|
But time between one and the other when was brief-I mean the whens of waiting and of seeing heaven grow more radiant. But brief the space from one When to the other; Of my awaiting, say I, and the seeing The welkin grow resplendent more and more. |
23.018 |
|
And Beatrice said: "There you see the troops of the triumphant Christ-and all the fruits ingathered from the turning of these spheres!" And Beatrice exclaimed: "Behold the hosts Of Christ's triumphal march, and all the fruit Harvested by the rolling of these spheres!" |
23.021 |
|
It seemed to me her face was all aflame, and there was so much gladness in her eyes- I am compelled to leave it undescribed. It seemed to me her face was all aflame; And eyes she had so full of ecstasy That I must needs pass on without describing. |
23.024 |
|
Like Trivia-at the full moon in clear skies- smiling among the everlasting nymphs who decorate all reaches of the sky, As when in nights serene of the full moon Smiles Trivia among the nymphs eternal Who paint the firmament through all its gulfs, |
23.027 |
|
I saw a sun above a thousand lamps; it kindled all of them as does our sun kindle the sights above us here on earth; Saw I, above the myriads of lamps, A Sun that one and all of them enkindled, E'en as our own doth the supernal sights, |
23.030 |
|
and through its living light the glowing Substance appeared to me with such intensity- my vision lacked the power to sustain it. And through the living light transparent shone 'The lucent substance so intensely clear Into my sight, that I sustained it not. |
23.033 |
|
O Beatrice, sweet guide and dear! She said to me: "What overwhelms you is a Power against which nothing can defend itself. O Beatrice, thou gentle guide and dear! To me she said: "What overmasters thee A virtue is from which naught shields itself |
23.036 |
|
This is the Wisdom and the Potency that opened roads between the earth and Heaven, the paths for which desire had long since waited." There are the wisdom and the omnipotence That oped the thoroughfares 'twixt heaven and earth, For which there erst had been so long a yearning." |
23.039 |
|
Even as lightning breaking from a cloud, expanding so that it cannot be pent, against its nature, down to earth, descends, As fire from out a cloud unlocks itself, Dilating so it finds not room therein, And down, against its nature, falls to earth, |
23.042 |
|
so did my mind, confronted by that feast, expand; and it was carried past itself- what it became, it cannot recollect. So did my mind, among those aliments Becoming larger, issue from itself, And that which it became cannot remember. |
23.045 |
|
"Open your eyes and see what I now am; the things you witnessed will have made you strong enough to bear the power of my smile." "Open thine eyes, and look at what I am: Thou hast beheld such things, that strong enough Hast thou become to tolerate my smile.'' |
23.048 |
|
I was as one who, waking from a dream he has forgotten, tries in vain to bring that vision back into his memory, I was as one who still retains the feeling Of a forgotten vision, and endeavours In vain to bring it back into his mind, |
23.051 |
|
when I heard what she offered me, deserving of so much gratitude that it can never be canceled from the book that tells the past. When I this invitation heard, deserving Of so much gratitude, it never fades out of the book that chronicles the past. |
23.054 |
|
If all the tongues that Polyhymnia together with her sisters made most rich with sweetest milk, should come now to assist If at this moment sounded all the tongues That Polyhymnia and her sisters made Most lubrical with their delicious milk, |
23.057 |
|
my singing of the holy smile that lit the holy face of Beatrice, the truth would not be reached-not its one-thousandth part. To aid me, to a thousandth of the truth It would not reach, singing the holy smile And how the holy aspect it illumed. |
23.060 |
|
And thus, in representing Paradise, the sacred poem has to leap across, as does a man who finds his path cut off. And therefore, representing Paradise, The sacred poem must perforce leap over, Even as a man who finds his way cut off; |
23.063 |
|
But he who thinks upon the weighty theme, and on the mortal shoulder bearing it, will lay no blame if, burdened so, I tremble: But whoso thinketh of the ponderous theme, And of the mortal shoulder laden with it Should blame it not, if under this it tremble. |
23.066 |
|
this is no crossing for a little bark- the sea that my audacious prow now cleaves- nor for a helmsman who would spare himself. It is no passage for a little boat This which goes cleaving the audacious prow, Nor for a pilot who would spare himself. |
23.069 |
|
"Why are you so enraptured by my face as to deny your eyes the sight of that fair garden blossoming beneath Christ's rays? "Why doth my face so much enamour thee, That to the garden fair thou turnest not, Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming ? |
23.072 |
|
The Rose in which the Word of God became flesh grows within that garden; there-the lilies whose fragrance let men find the righteous way." There is the Rose in which the Word Divine Became incarnate; there the lilies are By whose perfume the good way was discovered." |
23.075 |
|
Thus Beatrice, and I-completely ready to do what she might counsel-once again took up the battle of my feeble brows. Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels Was wholly ready, once again betook me Unto the battle of the feeble brows. |
23.078 |
|
Under a ray of sun that, limpid, streams down from a broken cloud, my eyes have seen, while shade was shielding them, a flowered meadow; As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of flowers Mine eyes with shadow covered o'er have seen, |
23.081 |
|
so I saw many troops of splendors here lit from above by burning rays of light, but where those rays began was not in sight. So troops of splendours manifold I saw Illumined from above with burning rays, Beholding not the source of the effulgence. |
23.084 |
|
O kindly Power that imprints them thus, you rose on high to leave space for my eyes- for where I was, they were too weak to see You! O power benignant that dost so imprint them! Thou didst exalt thyself to give more scope There to mine eyes, that were not strong enough. |
23.087 |
|
The name of that fair flower which I always invoke, at morning and at evening, drew my mind completely to the greatest flame. The name of that fair flower I e'er invoke Morning and evening utterly enthralled My soul to gaze upon the greater fire. |
23.090 |
|
And when, on both my eye-lights, were depicted the force and nature of the living star that conquers heaven as it conquered earth, And when in both mine eyes depicted were The glory and greatness of the living star Which there excelleth, as it here excelled, |
23.093 |
|
descending through that sky there came a torch, forming a ring that seemed as if a crown: wheeling around her-a revolving garland. Athwart the heavens a little torch descended Formed in a circle like a coronal, And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it. |
23.096 |
|
Whatever melody most sweetly sounds on earth, and to itself most draws the soul, would seem a cloud that, torn by lightning, thunders, Whatever melody most sweetly soundeth On earth, and to itself most draws the soul, Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders, |
23.099 |
|
if likened to the music of that lyre which sounded from the crown of that fair sapphire, the brightest light that has ensapphired heaven. Compared unto the sounding of that Iyre Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful, Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue. |
23.102 |
|
"I am angelic love who wheel around that high gladness inspired by the womb that was the dwelling place of our Desire; "I am Angelic Love, that circle round The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb That was the hostelry of our Desire; |
23.105 |
|
so shall I circle, Lady of Heaven, until you, following your Son, have made that sphere supreme, still more divine by entering it." And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while Thou followest thy Son, and mak'st diviner The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there." |
23.108 |
|
So did the circulating melody, sealing itself, conclude; and all the other lights then resounded with the name of Mary. Thus did the circulated melody Seal itself up; and all the other lights Were making to resound the name of Mary. |
23.111 |
|
The royal cloak of all the wheeling spheres within the universe, the heaven most intense, alive, most burning in the breath The regal mantle of the volumes all Of that world, which most fervid is and living With breath of God and with his works and ways, |
23.114 |
|
of God and in His laws and ordinance, was far above us at its inner shore, so distant that it still lay out of sight Extended over us its inner border, So very distant, that the semblance of it There where I was not yet appeared to me. |
23.117 |
|
from that point where I was; and thus my eyes possessed no power to follow that crowned flame, which mounted upward, following her Son. Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power Of following the incoronated flame. Which mounted upward near to its own seed. |
23.120 |
|
And like an infant who, when it has taken its milk, extends its arms out to its mother, its feeling kindling into outward flame, And as a little child, that towards its mother Stretches its arms, when it the milk has taken, Through impulse kindled into outward flame, |
23.123 |
|
each of those blessed splendors stretched its peak upward, so that the deep affection each possessed for Mary was made plain to me. Each of those gleams of whiteness upward reached So with its summit, that the deep affection They had for Mary was revealed to me. |
23.126 |
|
Then they remained within my sight, singing "Regina coeli" with such tenderness that my delight in that has never left me. Thereafter they remained there in my sight, Regina coeli singing with such sweetness, That ne'er from me has the delight departed. |
23.129 |
|
Oh, in those richest coffers, what abundance is garnered up for those who, while below, on earth, were faithful workers when they sowed! O, what exuberance is garnered up Within those richest coffers, which had been Good husbandmen for sowing here below! |
23.132 |
|
Here do they live, delighting in the treasure they earned with tears in Babylonian exile, where they had no concern for gold. There they enjoy and live upon the treasure Which was acquired while weeping in the exile Of Babylon, wherein the gold was left. |
23.135 |
|
Here, under the high Son of God and Mary, together with the ancient and the new councils, he triumphs in his victory- There triumpheth, beneath the exalted Son Of God and Mary, in his victory, Both with the ancient council and the new, |
23.138 |
|
he who is keeper of the keys of glory. He who doth keep the keys of such a glory. |
23.139 |