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PARADISO CANTO 26
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn. 

	While I, with blinded eyes, was apprehensive,
from that bright flame which had consumed my vision,
there breathed a voice that centered my attention,

	WHILE I was doubting for my vision quenched,
Out of the flame refulgent that had quenched it
Issued a breathing, that attentive made me,








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	saying: "Until you have retrieved the power
of sight, which you consumed in me, it would
be best to compensate by colloquy.

	Saying: "While thou recoverest the sense
Of seeing which in me thou hast consumed, 
'Tis well that speaking thou shouldst compensate it.








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	Then do begin; declare the aim on which
your soul is set-and be assured of this:
your vision, though confounded, is not dead,

	Begin then, and declare to what thy soul
Is aimed, and count it for a certainty,
Sight is in thee bewildered and not dead;








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	because the woman who conducts you through
this godly region has, within her gaze,
that force the hand of Ananias had."

	Because the Lady, who through this divine
Region conducteth thee, has in her look
The power the hand of Ananias had."








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	I said: "As pleases her, may solace-sooner
or later-reach these eyes, her gates when she
brought me the fire with which I always burn.

	I said: "As pleaseth her, or soon or late
Let the cure come to eyes that portals were
When she with fire I ever burn with entered.








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	The good with which this court is satisfied
is Alpha and Omega of all writings
that Love has-loud or low-read out to me."

	The Good, that gives contentment to this Court,
The Alpha and Omega is of all
The writing that love reads me low or loud."








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	It was the very voice that had dispelled
the fear I felt at sudden dazzlement,
that now, with further words, made me concerned

	The selfsame voice, that taken had from me
The terror of the sudden dazzlement,
To speak still farther put it in my thought;








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	to speak again. He said: "You certainly
must sift with a still finer sieve, must tell
who led your bow to aim at such a target."

	And said: "In verity with finer sieve
Behoveth thee to sift; thee it behovetn
To say who aimed thy bow at such a target."








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	And I: "By philosophic arguments
and by authority whose source is here,
that love must be imprinted in me; for

	And I: "By philosophic arguments,
And by authority that hence descends,
Such love must needs imprint itself in me;








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	the good, once it is understood as such,
enkindles love; and in accord with more
goodness comes greater love. And thus the mind

	For Good, so far as good, when comprehended
Doth straight enkindle love, and so much greater
As more of goodness in itself it holds;   








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	of anyone who can discern the truth
on which this proof is founded must be moved
to love, more than it loves all else, that Essence

	Then to that Essence (whose is such advantage
That every good which out of it is found
Is nothing but a ray of its own light)








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	which is preeminent (since any good
that lies outside of It is nothing but
a ray reflected from Its radiance).

	More than elsewhither must the mind be moved
Of every one, in loving, who discerns
The truth in which this evidence is founded.








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	My mind discerns this truth, made plain by him
who demonstrates to me that the first love
of the eternal beings is their Maker.

	Such truth he to my intellect reveals
Who demonstrates to me the primal love
Of all the sempiternal substances.








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	The voice of the true Author states this, too,
where He tells Moses, speaking of Himself:
'I shall show you all goodness.' You reveal

	The voice reveals it of the truthful Author,
Who says to Moses, speaking of Himself,
' I will make all my goodness pass before thee.'








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	this, too, when you begin your high Evangel,
which more than any other proclamation
cries out to earth the mystery of Heaven."

	Thou too revealest it to me, beginning
The loud Evangel, that proclaims the secret
Of heaven to earth above all other edict." 








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	I heard: "Through human reasoning and through
authorities according with it, you
conclude: your highest love is bent on God.

	And I heard say: "By human intellect
And by authority concordant with it,
Of all thy loves reserve for God the highest.








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	But tell me, too, if you feel other cords
draw you toward Him, so that you voice aloud
all of the teeth by which this love grips you."

	But say again if other cords thou feelest,
Draw thee towards Him, that thou mayst proclaim 
With how many teeth this love is biting thee."








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	The holy intent of Christ's Eagle was
not hidden; I indeed was made aware
of what he would most have my words declare.

	The holy purpose of the Eagle of Christ
Not latent was nay, rather I perceived
Whither he fain would my profession lead.








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	Thus I began again: "My charity
results from all those things whose bite can bring
the heart to turn to God; the world's existence

	Therefore I recommenced: "All of those bites
Which have the power to turn the heart to God
Unto my charity have been concurrent.








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	and mine, the death that He sustained that I
might live, and that which is the hope of all
believers, as it is my hope, together

	The being of the world, and my own being,
The death which He endured that I may live,
And that which all the faithful hope, as I do,








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	with living knowledge I have spoken of-
these drew me from the sea of twisted love
and set me on the shore of the right love.

	With the forementioned vivid consciousness
Have drawn me from the sea of love perverse,
And of the right have placed me on the shore.








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	The leaves enleaving all the garden of
the Everlasting Gardener, I love
according to the good He gave to them."

	The leaves, wherewith embowered is all the garden
Of the Eternal Gardener, do I love
As much as he has granted them of good."








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	As soon as I was still, a song most sweet
resounded through that heaven, and my lady
said with the others: "Holy, holy, holy!"

	As soon as I had ceased, a song most sweet
Throughout the heaven resounded, and my Lady
Said with the others, "Holy, holy, holy!"








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	And just as a sharp light will startle us
from sleep because the spirit of eyesight
races to meet the brightness that proceeds

	And as at some keen light one wakes from sleep
By reason of the visual spirit that runs
Unto the splendour passed from coat to coat,








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	from layer to layer in the eye, and he
who wakens is confused by what he sees,
awaking suddenly, and knows no thing

	And he who wakes abhorreth what he sees,
So all unconscious is his sudden waking,
Until the judgment cometh to his aid,








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	until his judgment helps him; even so
did Beatrice dispel, with her eyes' rays,
which shone more than a thousand miles, the chaff

	So from before mine eyes did Beatrice
Chase every mote with radiance of her own,
That cast its light a thousand miles and more.








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	from my eyes: I saw better than I had
before; and as if stupefied, I asked
about the fourth light that I saw among us.

	Whence better after than before I saw,
And in a kind of wonderment I asked
About a fourth light that I saw with us.








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	My lady answered: "In those rays there gazes
with love for his Creator the first soul
ever created by the Primal Force."

	And said my Lady: "There within those rays
Gazes upon its Maker the first soul
That ever the first virtue did create."








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	As does a tree that bends its crown because
of winds that gust, and then springs up, raised by
its own sustaining power, so did I

	Even as the bough that downward bends its top
At transit of the wind, and then is lifted
By its own virtue, which inclines it upward,








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	while she was speaking. I, bewildered, then
restored to confidence by that desire
to speak with which I was inflamed, began:

	Likewise did I, the while that she was speaking,
Being amazed, and then I was made bold
By a desire to speak wherewith I burned.








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	"O fruit that was the only one to be
brought forth already ripe, o ancient father
to whom each bride is as a daughter and

	And I began: "O apple, that mature
Alone hast been produced, O ancient father,
To whom each wife is daughter and daughter-in-law,








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	daughter-in-law, devoutly as I can,
I do beseech you: speak with me. You see
my wish; to hear you sooner, I do not

	Devoutly as I can I supplicate thee
That thou wouldst speak to me; thou seest my wish; 
And I, to hear thee quickly, speak it not."








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	declare it." And the primal soul-much as
an animal beneath a cover stirs,
so that its feelings are made evident

	Sometimes an animal, when covered, struggles
So that his impulse needs must be apparent,
By reason of the wrappage following it;








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	when what enfolds it follows all its movements-
showed me, through that which covered him, with what
rejoicing he was coming to delight me.

	And in like manner the primeval soul
Made clear to me athwart its covering
How jubilant it was to give me pleasure.








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	Then he breathed forth: "Though you do not declare
your wish, I can perceive it better than
you can perceive the things you hold most certain;

	Then breathed: "Without thy uttering it to me,
Thine inclination better I discern
Than thou whatever thing is surest to thee;








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	for I can see it in the Truthful Mirror
that perfectly reflects all else, while no
thing can reflect that Mirror perfectly.

	For I behold it in the truthful mirror,
That of Himself all things parhelion makes,
And none makes Him parhelion of itself








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	You wish to hear how long it is since I
was placed by God in that high garden where
this lady readied you to climb a stair

	Thou fain wouldst hear how long ago God placed me
Within the lofty garden, where this Lady
Unto so long a stairway thee disposed.








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	so long, and just how long it pleased my eyes,
and the true cause of the great anger, and
what idiom I used and shaped. My son,

	And how long to mine eyes it was a pleasure,
And of the great disdain the proper cause,
And the language that I used and that I made.








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	the cause of my long exile did not lie
within the act of tasting of the tree,
but solely in my trespass of the boundary.

	Now, son of mine, the tasting of the tree
Not in itself was cause of so great exile,
But solely the o'erstepping of the bounds.








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	During four thousand three hundred and two
re-turnings of the sun, while I was in
that place from which your Lady sent you Virgil,

	There, whence thy Lady moved Virgilius,
Four thousand and three hundred and two circuits
Made by the sun, this Council I desired;








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	I longed for this assembly. While on earth,
I saw the sun return to all the lights
along its way, nine hundred thirty times.

	And him I saw return to all the lights
Of his highway nine hundred times and thirty,
Whilst I upon the earth was tarrying.








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	The tongue I spoke was all extinct before
the men of Nimrod set their minds upon
the unaccomplishable task; for never

	The language that I spake was quite extinct
Before that in the work interminable
The people under Nimrod were employed;








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	has any thing produced by human reason
been everlasting-following the heavens,
men seek the new, they shift their predilections.

	For nevermore result of reasoning
(Because of human pleasure that doth change,
Obedient to the heavens) was durable.








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	That man should speak at all is nature's act,
but how you speak-in this tongue or in that-
she leaves to you and to your preference.

	A natural action is it that man speaks;
But whether thus or thus, doth nature leave
To your own art, as seemeth best to you.








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	Before I was sent down to Hell's torments,
on earth, the Highest Good-from which derives
the joy that now enfolds me-was called I;

	Ere I descended to the infernal anguish,
El was on earth the name of the Chief Good,
From whom comes all the joy that wraps me round 








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	and then He was called El. Such change must be:
the ways that mortals take are as the leaves
upon a branch-one comes, another goes.

	Eli he then was called, and that is proper,
Because the use of men is like a leaf
On bough, which goeth and another cometh.








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	On that peak rising highest from the sea,
my life-first pure, then tainted-lasted from
the first hour to the hour that follows on

	Upon the mount that highest o'er the wave
Rises was I, in life or pure or sinful,
From the first hour to that which is the second,








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	the sixth, when the sun shifts to a new quadrant.

	As the sun changes quadrant, to the sixth."




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