Yet not from their upright direction swayed,
So that the little birds upon their tops
Should leave the practice of each art of theirs ;
But with full ravishment the hours of prime,

Singing, received they in the midst of leaves,
That ever bore a burden to their rhymes,
Such as from branch to branch goes gathering on
Through the pine forest on the shore of Chiassi,
When Eolus unlooses the Sirocco.

Already my slow steps had carried me

Into the ancient wood so far, that I
Could not perceive where I had entered it.
And lo! my further course a stream cut off,

Which tow'rd the left hand with its little waves
Bent down the grass that on its margin sprang.

All waters that on earth most limpid are

Would seem to have within themselves some mixture
Compared with that which nothing doth conceal,

Although it moves on with a brown, brown current
Under the shade perpetual, that never
Ray of the sun lets in, nor of the moon.

With feet I stayed, and with mine eyes I passed
Beyond the rivulet, to look upon
The great variety of the fresh may.
And there appeared to me (even as appears
Suddenly something that doth turn aside
Through very wonder every other thought)

A lady all alone, who went along

Singing and culling floweret after floweret,
With which her pathway was all painted over.

“Ah, beauteous lady, who in rays of love

Dost warm thyself, if I may trust to looks,
Which the heart's witnesses are wont to be,

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May the desire come unto thee to draw

Near to this river's bank,” I said to her,

So much that I may hear what thou art singing.
Thou makest me remember where and what

Proserpina that moment was when lost
Her mother her, and she herself the Spring."
As turns herself, with feet together pressed

And to the ground, a lady who is dancing,
And hardly puts one foot before the other,
On the vermilion and the yellow flowerets

She turned towards me, not in other wise

Than maiden who her modest eyes casts down ;

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And my entreaties made to be content,

So near approaching, that the dulcet sound
Came unto me together with its meaning.
As soon as she was where the grasses are

Bathed by the waters of the beauteous river,
To lift her eyes she granted me the boon.
I do not think there shone so great a light

Under the lids of Venus, when transfixed
By her own son, beyond his usual custom!
Erect upon the other bank she smiled,

Bearing full many colours in her hands, Which that high land produces without seed. Apart three paces did the river make us;

But Hellespont, where Xerxes passed across,
(A curb still to all human arrogance,)
More hatred from Leander did not suffer

For rolling between Sestos and Abydos,
Than that from me, because it oped not then.
"Ye are new-comers; and because I smile,"
Began she, "peradventure, in this place
Elect to human nature for its nest,

Some apprehension keeps you marvelling ;
But the psalm Delectasti giveth light

Which has the power to uncloud your intellect.

And thou who foremost art, and didst entreat me,

Speak, if thou wouldst hear more; for I came ready
To all thy questionings, as far as needful."

"The water," said I, "and the forest's sound,
Are combating within me my new faith

In something which I heard opposed to this." Whence she: "I will relate how from its cause

Proceedeth that which maketh thee to wonder,
And purge away the cloud that smites upon thee.
The Good Supreme, sole in itself delighting,

Created man good, and this goodly place
Gave him as hansel of eternal peace.

By his default short while he sojourned here;
By his default to weeping and to toil

He changed his innocent laughter and sweet play.
That the disturbance which below is made

By exhalations of the land and water,
(Which far as may be follow after heat,)
Might not upon mankind wage any war,

This mount ascended tow'rds the heaven so high,
And is exempt, from there where it is locked.

Now since the universal atmosphere

Turns in a circuit with the primal motion
Unless the circle is broken on some side,
Upon this height, that all is disengaged

In living ether, doth this motion strike
And make the forest sound, for it is dense;
And so much power the stricken plant possesses
That with its virtue it impregns the air,
And this, revolving, scatters it around;
And yonder earth, according as 'tis worthy

In self or in its clime, conceives and bears
Of divers qualities the divers trees;
It should not seem a marvel then on earth,
This being heard, whenever any plant
Without seed manifest there taketh root.
And thou must know, this holy table-land

In which thou art is full of every seed,
And fruit has in it never gathered there.
The water which thou seest springs not from vein
Restored by vapour that the cold condenses,
Like to a stream that gains or loses breath;
But issues from a fountain safe and certain,

Which by the will of God as much regains
As it discharges, open on two sides.

Upon this side with virtue it descends,

Which takes away all memory of sin;

On that, of every good deed done restores it.

Here Lethe, as upon the other side

This

Eunoë, it is called; and worketh not
If first on either side it be not tasted.
every other savour doth transcend;
And notwithstanding slaked so far may be
Thy thirst, that I reveal to thee no more,

I'll give thee a corollary still in grace,

Nor think my speech will be to thee less dear If it spread out beyond my promise to thee. Those who in ancient times have feigned in song The Age of Gold and its felicity,

Dreamed of this place perhaps upon Parnassus.

Here was the human race in innocence;

Here evermore was Spring, and every fruit;
This is the nectar of which each one speaks."

Then backward did I turn me wholly round

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Unto my Poets, and saw that with a smile
They had been listening to these closing words;

Then to the beautiful lady turned mine eyes.

CANTO XXIX.

SINGING like unto an enamoured lady

She, with the ending of her words, continued:
"Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata."

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

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

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.
Nor even thus our way continued far

Before the lady wholly turned herself
Unto me, saying, " Brother, look and listen!"
And lo! a sudden lustre ran across

On every side athwart the spacious forest,
Such that it made me doubt if it were lightning.
But since the lightning ceases as it comes,

And that continuing brightened more and more,
Within my thought I said, "What thing is this?"

And a delicious melody there ran

Along the luminous air, whence holy zeal
Made me rebuke the hardihood of Eve;

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

I sooner should have tasted those delights
Ineffable, and for a longer time.

While 'mid such manifold first-fruits I walked
Of the eternal pleasure all enrapt,

And still solicitous of more delights,

In front of us like an enkindled fire

Became the air beneath the verdant boughs,
And the sweet sound as singing now was heard.

O Virgins sacrosanct! if ever hunger,

Vigils, or cold for you I have endured,

The occasion spurs me their reward to claim !

Now Helicon must needs pour forth for me,
And with her choir Urania must assist me,
To put in verse things difficult to think.
A little farther on, seven trees of gold

In semblance the long space still intervening
Between ourselves and them did counterfeit ;
But when I had approached so near to them

The common object, which the sense deceives,
Lost not by distance any of its marks,
The faculty that lends discourse to reason

Did apprehend that they were candlesticks,
And in the voices of the song "Hosanna!"
Above them flamed the harness beautiful,

Far brighter than the moon in the serene Of midnight, at the middle of her month. I turned me round, with admiration filled,

To good Virgilius, and he answered me With visage no less full of wonderment. 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. 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?" Then saw I people, as behind their leaders,

Coming behind them, garmented in white,
And such a whiteness never was on earth.
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.
When I upon my margin had such post

That nothing but the stream divided us,
Better to see I gave my steps repose;

And I beheld the flamelets onward go,

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Leaving behind themselves the air depicted,
And they of trailing pennons had the semblance,

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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.

These standards to the rearward longer were

Than was my sight; and, as it seemed to me,
Ten paces were the outermost apart.

Under so fair a heaven as I describe

The four and twenty Elders, two by two,

Came on incoronate with flower-de-luce.

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