That whatsoever I had seen before

Did not suspend me in such admiration,

Nor show me such similitude of God. And the same Love that first descended there, "Ave Maria, gratia plena," singing,

In front of her his wings expanded wide. Unto the canticle divine responded

From every part the court beatified,

So that each sight became serener for it. "O holy father, who for me endurest

To be below here, leaving the sweet place
In which thou sittest by eternal lot,
Who is the Angel that with so much joy

Into the eyes is looking of our Queen,
Enamored so that he seems made of fire?"

Thus I again recourse had to the teaching

Of that one who delighted him in Mary As doth the star of morning in the sun. And he to me: "Such gallantry and grace

As there can be in Angel and in soul,

All is in him; and thus we fain would have it;

Because he is the one who bore the palm

Down unto Mary, when the Son of God

To take our burden on himself decreed.

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But now come onward with thine eyes, as I
Speaking shall go, and note the great patricians
Of this most just and merciful of empires.
Those two that sit above there most enraptured,
As being very near unto Augusta,

Are as it were the two roots of this Rose.

He who upon the left is near her placed

The father is, by whose audacious taste
The human species so much bitter tastes.
Upon the right thou seest that ancient father

Of Holy Church, into whose keeping Christ
The keys committed of this lovely flower.

And he who all the evil days beheld,

Before his death, of her the beauteous bride

Who with the spear and with the nails was won,

Beside him sits, and by the other rests

That leader under whom on manna lived

The people ingrate, fickle, and stiff-necked.

Opposite Peter seest thou Anna seated,

So well content to look upon her daughter,

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Her eyes she moves not while she sings Hosanna. 135

And opposite the eldest household father

Lucìa sits, she who thy Lady moved

When to rush downward thou didst bend thy brows.

But since the moments of thy vision fly,

Here will we make full stop, as a good tailor

Who makes the gown according to his cloth, And unto the first Love will turn our eyes,

That looking upon Him thou penetrate As far as possible through his effulgence. Truly, lest peradventure thou recede,

Moving thy wings believing to advance,

By prayer behoves it that grace be obtained; Grace from that one who has the power to aid thee;

And thou shalt follow me with thy affection That from my words thy heart turn not aside." And he began this holy orison.

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CANTO XXXIII.

"THOU Virgin Mother, daughter of thy Son, Humble and high beyond all other creature,

The limit fixed of the eternal counsel,

Thou art the one who such nobility

To human nature gave, that its Creator

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Did not disdain to make himself its creature.

Within thy womb rekindled was the love,

By heat of which in the eternal peace
After such wise this flower has germinated.

Here unto us thou art a noonday torch

Of charity, and below there among mortals
Thou art the living fountain-head of hope.

Lady, thou art so great, and so prevailing,

That he who wishes grace, nor runs to thee,
His aspirations without wings would fly.

Not only thy benignity gives succor

To him who asketh it, but oftentimes
Forerunneth of its own accord the asking.

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In thee compassion is, in thee is pity,

In thee magnificence; in thee unites Whate'er of goodness is in any creature. Now doth this man, who from the lowest depth Of the universe as far as here has seen

One after one the spiritual lives,

Supplicate thee through grace

for so much

That with his eyes he may uplift himself
Higher towards the uttermost salvation.
And I, who never burned for my own seeing
More than I do for his, all of my prayers
Proffer to thee, and pray they come not short,

That thou wouldst scatter from him every cloud

Of his mortality so with thy prayers,

That the Chief Pleasure be to him displayed.
Still farther do I pray thee, Queen, who canst

Whate'er thou wilt, that sound thou mayst preserve
After so great a vision his affections.

Let thy protection conquer human movements;

The

See Beatrice and all the blessed ones

My prayers to second clasp their hands to thee!"
eyes beloved and revered of God,

Fastened upon the speaker, showed to us

How grateful unto her are prayers devout;

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