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PURGATORIO CANTO 27
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn. 

	Just as, there where its Maker shed His blood,
the sun shed its first rays, and Ebro lay
beneath high Libra, and the ninth hour's rays

	AS when he vibrates forth his earliest rays,
In regions where his Maker shed his blood,
(The Ebro falling under lofty Libra,








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	were scorching Ganges' waves; so here, the sun
stood at the point of day's departure when
God's angel-happy-showed himself to us.

	And waters in the Ganges burnt with noon,)
So stood the Sun; hence was the day departing, 
When the glad Angel of God appeared to us.








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	He stood along the edge, beyond the flames,
singing "Beati mundo corde" in
a voice that had more life than ours can claim.

	Outside the flame he stood upon the verge,
And chanted forth, "Beati mundo corde,"
In voice by far more living than our own.








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	Then: "Holy souls, you cannot move ahead
unless the fire has stung you first: enter
the flames, and don't be deaf to song you'll hear

	Then: "No one farther goes, souls sanctified,
If first the fire bite not; within it enter,
And be not deaf unto the song beyond."








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	beyond," he said when we were close to him;
and when I heard him say this, I became
like one who has been laid within the grave.

	Wherefore e'en such became I, when I heard him,
As he is who is put into the grave.  
Upon my clasped hands I straightened me,








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	I joined my hands and stretched them out to fend
the flames, watching the fire, imagining
clearly the human bodies I'd once seen

	Scanning the fire, and vividly recalling
The human bodies I had once seen burned.
Towards me turned themselves my good Conductors,








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	burning. My gentle escorts turned to me,
and Virgil said: "My son, though there may be
suffering here, there is no death. Remember,

	And unto me Virgilius said: "My son,
Here may indeed be torment, but not death.
Remember thee, remember! and if I








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	remember! If I guided you to safety
even upon the back of Geryon,
then now, closer to God, what shall I do?

	On Geryon have safely guided thee,
What shall I do now I am nearer God ?
Believe for certain, shouldst thou stand a full








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	Be sure: although you were to spend a full
one thousand years within this fire's center,
your head would not be balder by one hair.

	Millenniunn in the bosom of this flame,
It could not make thee bald a single hair.
And if perchance thou think that I deceive thee,








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	And if you think I am deceiving you,
draw closer to the flames, let your own hands
try out, within the fire, your clothing's hem-

	Draw near to it, and put it to the proof
With thine own hands upon thy garment's hem.
Now lay aside, now lay aside all fear,








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	put down, by now put down, your every fear;
turn toward the fire, and enter, confident!"
But I was stubborn, set against my conscience.

	Turn hithenward, and onward come securely ,"
And I still motionless, and 'gainst my conscience!
Seeing me stand still motionless and stubborn,








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	When he saw me still halting, obstinate,
he said, somewhat perplexed: "Now see, son: this
wall stands between you and your Beatrice."

	Somewhat disturbed he said: "Now look thou, Son,
'Twixt Beatrice and thee there is this wall."
As at the name of Thisbe oped his lids








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	As, at the name of Thisbe, Pyramus,
about to die, opened his eyes, and saw her
(when then the mulberry became bloodred),

	The dying Pyramus, and gazed upon her,
What time the mulberry became vermilion,
Even thus, my obduracy being softened,








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	so, when my stubbornness had softened, I,
hearing the name that's always flowering
within my mind, turned to my knowing guide.

	I turned to my wise Guide, hearing the name
That in my memory evermore is welling.
Whereat he wagged his head, and said: "How now ?








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	At which he shook his head and said: "And would
you have us stay along this side?"-then smiled
as one smiles at a child fruit has beguiled.

	Shall we stay on this side ?" then smiled as one
Does at a child who's vanquished by an apple.
Then into the fire in front of me he entered,








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	Then he, ahead of me, entered the fire;
and he asked Statius, who had walked between us
before, dividing us, to go behind.

	Beseeching Statius to come after me,
Who a long way before divided us.
When I was in it, into molten glass








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	No sooner was I in that fire than I'd
have thrown myself in molten glass to find
coolness-because those flames were so intense.

	I would have cast me to refresh myself,
So without measure was the burning there!
And my sweet Father, to encourage me,








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	My gentle father, who would comfort me,
kept talking, as we walked, of Beatrice,
saying: "I seem to see her eyes already."

	Discoursing still of Beatrice went on,
Saying: "Her eyes I seem to see already!"
A voice, that on the other side was singing,








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	A voice that sang beyond us was our guide;
and we, attentive to that voice, emerged
just at the point where it began to climb.

	Directed us, and we, attent alone
On that, came forth where the ascent began.
"Venite, bendicti Patri mei,"








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	"Venite, benedicti Patris mei,"
it sang within a light that overcame me:
I could not look at such intensity.

	Sounded within a splendour, which was there
Such it o'ercame me, and I could not look.
"The sun departs," it added, "and night cometh;








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	"The sun departs," it added; "evening comes;
don't stay your steps, but hurry on before
the west grows dark." The path we took climbed straight

	Tarry ye not, but onward urge your steps,
So long as yet the west becomes not dark."
Straight forward through the rock the path ascended








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	within the rock, and its direction was
such that, in front of me, my body blocked
the rays of sun, already low behind us.

	In such a way that I cut off the rays
Before me of the sun, that now was low.
And of few stairs we yet had made assay,








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	And we had only tried a few steps when
I and my sages sensed the sun had set
because the shadow I had cast was spent.

	Ere by the vanished shadow the sun's setting
Behind us we perceived, I and my Sages.
And ere in all its parts immeasurable








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	Before one color came to occupy
that sky in all of its immensity
and night was free to summon all its darkness,

	The horizon of one aspect had become,
And Night her boundless dispensation held,
Each of us of a stair had made his bed;








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	each of us made one of those stairs his bed:
the nature of the mountain had so weakened
our power and desire to climb ahead.

	Because the nature of the mount took from us
The power of climbing, more than the delight.
Even as in ruminating passive grow








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	Like goats that, when they grazed, were swift and tameless
along the mountain peaks, but now are sated,
and rest and ruminate-while the sun blazes-

	The goats, who have been swift and venturesome
Upon the mountain-tops ere they were fed,
Hushed in the shadow, while the sun is hot,








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	untroubled, in the shadows, silently,
watched over by the herdsman as he leans
upon his staff and oversees their peace;

	Watched by the herdsman, who upon his staff
Is leaning, and in leaning tendeth them;
And as the shepherd, lodging out of doors,








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	or like the herdsman in the open fields,
spending the night beside his quiet flock,
watching to see that no beast drives them off;

	Passes the night beside his quiet flock,
Watching that no wild beast may scatter it,
Such at that hour were we, all three of us,








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	such were all three of us at that point-they
were like the herdsmen, I was like the goat;
upon each side of us, high rock walls rose.

	I like the goat, and like the herdsmen they,
Begirt on this side and on that by rocks.
Little could there be seen of things without;








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	From there, one saw but little of the sky,
but in that little, I could see the stars
brighter and larger than they usually are.

	But through that little I beheld the stars
More luminous and larger than their wont.
Thus ruminating, and beholding these,








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	But while I watched the stars, in reverie,
sleep overcame me-sleep, which often sees,
before it happens, what is yet to be.

	Sleep seized upon me, -- sleep, that oftentimes
Before a deed is done has tidings of it.
It was the hour, I think, when from the East








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	It was the hour, I think, when Cytherea,
who always seems aflame with fires of love,
first shines upon the mountains from the east,

	First on the mountain Citherea beamed,
Who with the fire of love seems always burning;
Youthful and beautiful in dreams methought








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	that, in my dream, I seemed to see a woman
both young and fair; along a plain she gathered
flowers, and even as she sang, she said:

	I saw a lady walking in a meadow,
Gathering flowers; and singing she was saying:
"Know whosoever may my name demand








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	"Whoever asks my name, know that I'm Leah,
and I apply my lovely hands to fashion
a garland of the flowers I have gathered.

	That I am Leah, and go moving round
My beauteous hands to make myself a garland.
To please me at the mirror, here I deck me,








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	To find delight within this mirror I
adorn myself; whereas my sister Rachel
never deserts her mirror; there she sits

	But never does my sister Rachel leave
Her looking-glass, and sitteth all day long.
To see her beauteous eyes as eager is she,








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	all day; she longs to see her fair eyes gazing,
as I, to see my hands adorning, long:
she is content with seeing, I with labor."

	As I am to adorn me with my hands;
Her, seeing, and me, doing satisfies."
And now before the antelucan splendours








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	And now, with the reflected lights that glow
before the dawn and, rising, are most welcome
to pilgrims as, returning, they near home,

	That unto pilgrims the more grateful rise,
As, home-returning, less remote they lodge,
The darkness fled away on every side,








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	the shadows fled upon all sides; my sleep
fled with them; and at this, I woke and saw
that the great teachers had already risen.

	And slumber with it; whereupon I rose,
Seeing already the great Masters risen.
"That apple sweet, which through so many branches 








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	"Today your hungerings will find their peace
through that sweet fruit the care of mortals seeks
among so many branches." This, the speech,

	The care of mortals goeth in pursuit of,
To-day shall put in peace thy hungerings."
Speaking to me, Virgilius of such words








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	the solemn words, that Virgil spoke to me;
and there were never tidings to compare,
in offering delight to me, with these.

	As these made use; and never were there guerdons
That could in pleasantness compare with these.  
Such longing upon longing came upon me








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	My will on will to climb above was such
that at each step I took I felt the force
within my wings was growing for the flight.

	To be above, that at each step thereafter
For flight I felt in me the pinions growing
When underneath us was the stairway all








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	When all the staircase lay beneath us and
we'd reached the highest step, then Virgil set
his eyes insistently on me and said:

	Run o'er, and we were on the highest step,
Virgilius fastened upon me his eyes,
And said: "The temporal fire and the eternal,








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	"My son, you've seen the temporary fire
and the eternal fire; you have reached
the place past which my powers cannot see.

	Son, thou hast seen, and to a place art come
Where of myself no farther I discern.
By intellect and art I here have brought thee;








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	I've brought you here through intellect and art;
from now on, let your pleasure be your guide;
you're past the steep and past the narrow paths.

	Take thine own pleasure for thy guide henceforth;
Beyond the steep ways and the narrow art thou.
Behold the sun, that shines upon thy forehead,








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	Look at the sun that shines upon your brow;
look at the grasses, flowers, and the shrubs
born here, spontaneously, of the earth.

	Behold the grass, the flowerets, and the shrubs
Which of itself alone this land produces.
Until rejoicing come the beauteous eyes








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	Among them, you can rest or walk until
the coming of the glad and lovely eyes-
those eyes that, weeping, sent me to your side.

	Which weeping caused me to come unto thee,
Thou canst sit down, and thou canst walk among them.
Expect no more or word or sign from me;








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	Await no further word or sign from me:
your will is free, erect, and whole-to act
against that will would be to err: therefore

	Free and upright and sound is thy free-will,
And error were it not to do its bidding;
Thee o'er thyself I therefore crown and mitre!"








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	I crown and miter you over yourself."

	



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