Previous or Next Canto

 
PURGATORIO CANTO 29
Mandelbaum Tr. and Longfellow Tr.		 NotesAnn. 

	Her words were done, but without interruption
she sang-like an enamored woman-thus:
"Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata!"

	SINGING like unto an enamoured lady
She, with the ending of her words, continued:
"Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata."








29.003
 






	And just as nymphs who used to walk alone
among the woodland shadows, some desiring
to see and some to flee the sun, so she

	And even as Nymphs, that wandered all alone
Among the sylvan shadows, sedulous
One to avoid and one to see the sun,








29.006
 






	moved countercurrent as she walked along
the riverbank; and following her short
footsteps with my own steps, I matched her pace.

	She then against the stream moved onward, going
Along the bank, and I abreast of her,
Her little steps with little steps attending








29.009
 






	Her steps and mine together did not sum
one hundred when the banks, still parallel,
so curved about that I was facing east.

	Between her steps and mine were not a hundred,
When equally the margins gave a turn,
In such a way, that to the East I faced.








29.012
 






	Nor had we gone much farther on that path
when she turned fully round toward me and said:
"My brother, look and listen"; and I saw

	Nor even thus our way continued far
Before the lady wholly turned herself
Unto me, saying, "Brother, look and listen!'' 








29.015
 






	a sudden radiance that swept across
the mighty forest on all sides-and I
was wondering if lightning had not struck.

	And lo! a sudden lustre ran across
On every side athwart the spacious forest,
Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.








29.018
 






	But since, when lightning strikes, it stops at once,
while that light, lingering, increased its force,
within my mind I asked: "What thing is this?"

	But since the lightning ceases as it comes,
And that continuing brightened more and more,
Within my thought I said, "What thing is this?"








29.021
 






	And through the incandescent air there ran
sweet melody; at which, just indignation
made me rebuke the arrogance of Eve

	And a delicious melody there ran
Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal
Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;








29.024
 






	because, where earth and heaven were obedient,
a solitary woman, just created,
found any veil at all beyond endurance;

	For there where earth and heaven obedient were,
The woman only, and but just created,
Could not endure to stay 'neath any veil;








29.027
 






	if she had been devout beneath her veil,
I should have savored those ineffable
delights before, and for a longer time.

	Underneath which had she devoutly stayed,
I sooner should have tasted those delights
Ineffable, and for a longer time.








29.030
 






	While I moved on, completely rapt, among
so many first fruits of eternal pleasure,
and longing for still greater joys, the air

	While 'mid such manifold first-fruits I walked
Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt,
And still solicitous of more delights,








29.033
 






	before us altered underneath the green
branches, becoming like an ardent fire,
and now the sweet sound was distinctly song.

	In front of us like an enkindled fire
Became the air beneath the verdant boughs, 
And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.








29.036
 






	O Virgins, sacrosanct, if I have ever,
for your sake, suffered vigils, cold, and hunger,
great need makes me entreat my recompense.

	O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger,
Vigils, or cold for you I have endured,
The occasion spurs me their reward to claim!








29.039
 






	Now Helicon must pour its fountains for me,
Urania must help me with her choir
to put in verses things hard to conceive.

	Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me,
And with her choir Urania must assist me,
To put in verse things difficult to think.








29.042
 






	Not far beyond, we made out seven trees
of gold, though the long stretch of air between
those trees and us had falsified their semblance;

	A little farther on, seven trees of gold
In semblance the long space still intervening
Between ourselves and them did counterfeit;








29.045
 






	but when I'd drawn so close that things perceived
through mingled senses, which delude, did not,
now they were nearer, lose their real features,

	But when I had approached so near to them
The common object, which the sense deceives,
Lost not by distance any of its marks,








29.048
 






	the power that offers reason matter judged
those trees to be-what they were-candelabra,
and what those voices sang to be "Hosanna."

	The faculty that lends discourse to reason
Did apprehend that they were candlesticks,
And in the voices of the song "Hosanna!"








29.051
 






	The upper part of those fair candles flamed
more radiantly than the midmonth moon
shines at midnight in an untroubled sky.

	Above them flamed the harness beautiful,
Far brighter than the moon in the serene
Of midnight, at the middle of her month.








29.054
 






	Full of astonishment, I turned to my
good Virgil; but he only answered me
with eyes that were no less amazed than mine.

	I turned me round, with admiration filled,
To good Virgilius, and he answered me
With visage no less full of wonderment.








29.057
 






	Then I looked at the extraordinary
things that were moving toward us-but so slowly
that even brides just wed would move more quickly.

	Then back I turned my face to those high things,
Which moved themselves towards us so sedately,
They had been distanced by new-wedded brides.








29.060
 






	The woman chided me: "Why are you only
so eager to behold the living lights
and not in seeing what comes after them?"

	The lady chid me: "Why dost thou burn only
So with affection for the living lights,
And dost not look at what comes after them ?"








29.063
 






	Then I saw people following those candles,
as if behind their guides, and they wore white-
whiteness that, in this world, has never been.

	Then saw I people, as behind their leaders,
Coming behind them, garmented in white,
And such a whiteness never was on earth.








29.066
 






	The water, to my left, reflected flames,
and it reflected, too, my left-hand side
if I gazed into it, as in a mirror.

	The water on my left flank was resplendent,
And back to me reflected my left side,
E'en as a mirror, if I looked therein.








29.069
 






	When I was at a point along my shore
where all that sundered me from them was water,
I stayed my steps in order to see better,

	When I upon my margin had such post
That nothing but the stream divided us,
Better to see I gave my steps repose;








29.072
 






	and I could see the candle flames move forward,
leaving the air behind them colored like
the strokes a painter's brush might have described,

	And I beheld the flamelets onward go,
Leaving behind themselves the air depicted,
And they of trailing pennons had the semblance,








29.075
 






	so that the air above that retinue
was streaked with seven bands in every hue
of which the rainbow's made and Delia's girdle.

	So that it overhead remained distinct
With sevenfold lists, all of them of the colours
Whence the sun's bow is made, and Delia's girdle.








29.078
 






	These pennants stretched far back, beyond my vision;
as for the width they filled, I judged the distance
between the outer ones to be ten paces.

	These standards to the rearward longer were
Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to
Ten paces were the outermost apart.








29.081
 






	Beneath the handsome sky I have described,
twenty-four elders moved on, two by two,
and they had wreaths of lilies on their heads.

	Under so fair a heaven as I describe
The four and twenty Elders, two by two,
Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.








29.084
 






	And all were singing: "You, among the daughters
of Adam, benedicta are; and may
your beauties blessed be eternally."

	They all of them were singing: "Blessed thou
Among the daughters of Adam art, and blessed
For evermore shall be thy loveliness."








29.087
 






	After the flowers and the other fresh
plants facing me, along the farther shore,
had seen those chosen people disappear,

	After the flowers and other tender grasses
In front of me upon the other margin
Were disencumbered of that race elect,








29.090
 






	then-as in heaven, star will follow star-
the elders gone, four animals came on;
and each of them had green leaves as his crown;

	Even as in heaven star followeth after star,
There came close after them four animals,
Incoronate each one with verdant leaf.








29.093
 






	each had six wings as plumage, and those plumes
were full of eyes; they would be very like
the eyes of Argus, were his eyes alive.

	Plumed with six wings was every one of them,
The plumage full of eyes; the eyes of Argus 
If they were living would be such as these.








29.096
 






	Reader, I am not squandering more rhymes
in order to describe their forms; since I
must spend elsewhere, I can't be lavish here;

	Reader! to trace their forms no more I waste
My rhymes; for other spendings press me so,
That I in this cannot be prodigal.








29.099
 






	but read Ezekiel, for he has drawn
those animals approaching from the north;
with wings and cloud and fire, he painted them.

	But read Ezekiel, who depicteth them
As he beheld them from the region cold
Coming with cloud, with whirlwind, and with fire;








29.102
 






	And just as you will find them in his pages,
such were they here, except that John's with me
as to their wings; with him, John disagrees.

	And such as thou shalt find them in his pages,
Such were they here; saving that in their plumage
John is with me, and differeth from him.








29.105
 






	The space between the four of them contained
a chariot-triumphal-on two wheels,
tied to a griffin's neck and drawn by him.

	The interval between these four contained
A chariot triumphal on two wheels,
Which by a Griffin's neck came drawn along;








29.108
 






	His wings, stretched upward, framed the middle band 
with three bands on each outer side, so that,
though he cleaved air, he left the bands intact.

	And upward he extended both his wings
Between the middle list and three and three,
So that he injured none by cleaving it








29.111
 






	His wings-so high that they were lost to sight;
his limbs were gold as far as he was bird;
the rest of him was white mixed with bloodred.

	So high they rose that they were lost to sight;
His limbs were gold, so far as he was bird,
And white the others with vermilion mingled.








29.114
 






	Not only did no chariot so handsome
gladden Rome's Africanus or Augustus
himself-even the Sun's own cannot match it;

	Not only Rome with no such splendid car
E'er gladdened Africanus, or Augustus,
But poor to it that of the Sun would be, --








29.117
 






	the Sun's-which, gone astray, was burnt to cinders
because Earth offered up her pious prayers,
when Jove, in ways not known to us, was just.

	That of the Sun, which swerving was burnt up
At the importunate orison of Earth,
When Jove was so mysteriously just








29.120
 






	Three circling women, then advancing, danced:
at the right wheel; the first of them, so red
that even in a flame she'd not be noted;

	Three maidens at the right wheel in a circle
Came onward dancing; one so very red
That in the fire she hardly had been noted.








29.123
 






	the second seemed as if her flesh and bone
were fashioned out of emerald; the third
seemed to be newly fallen snow. And now

	The second was as if her flesh and bones
Had all been fashioned out of emerald;
The third appeared as snow but newly fallen.








29.126
 






	the white one seemed to lead them, now the red;
and from the way in which the leader chanted,
the others took their pace, now slow, now rapid.

	And now they seemed conducted by the white,
Now by the red, and from the song of her
The others took their step, or slow or swift.








29.129
 






	Upon the left, four other women, dressed
in crimson, danced, depending on the cadence
of one of them, with three eyes in her head.

	Upon the left hand four made holiday
Vested in purple, following the measure
Of one of them with three eyes m her head.








29.132
 






	Behind all of the group I have described
I saw two elders, different in their dress
but like in manner-grave and decorous.

	In rear of all the group here treated of
Two old men I beheld, unlike in habit,
But like in gait, each dignified and grave.








29.135
 






	The first seemed to be one of the disciples
of great Hippocrates, whom nature made
for those who are her dearest living beings;

	One showed himself as one of the disciples
Of that supreme Hippocrates, whom nature
Made for the animals she holds most dear;








29.138
 






	the other showed an opposite concern-
his sword was bright and sharp, and even on
this near side of the river, I felt fear.

	Contrary care the other manifested,
With sword so shining and so sharp, it caused
Terror to me on this side of the river.








29.141
 






	Then I saw four of humble aspect; and,
when all the rest had passed, a lone old man,
his features keen, advanced, as if in sleep.

	Thereafter four I saw of humble aspect,
And behind all an aged man alone
Walking in sleep with countenance acute.








29.144
 






	The clothes these seven wore were like the elders'
in the first file, except that these had no
garlands of lilies round their brow; instead,

	And like the foremost company these seven
Were habited; yet of the flower-de-luce
No garland round about the head they wore,








29.147
 






	roses and other red flowers wreathed their heads;
one seeing them less closely would have sworn
that all of them had flames above their eyebrows.

	But of the rose. and other flowers vermilion;
At little distance would the sight have sworn
That all were in a flame above their brows.  








29.150
 






	And when the chariot stood facing me,
I heard a bolt of thunder; and it seemed
to block the path of that good company,

	And when the car was opposite to me
Thunder was heard; and all that folk august
Seemed to have further progress interdicted,








29.153
 






	which halted there, its emblems in the lead.

	There with the vanward ensigns standing still.




29.154

Previous or Next Canto