With eyes upon

the everlasting wheels

Stood Beatrice all intent, and I, on her
Fixing my vision from above removed,

Such at her aspect inwardly became

As Glaucus, tasting of the herb that made him.
Peer of the other gods beneath the sea.

To represent transhumanize in words

Impossible were; the example, then, suffice
Him for whom Grace the experience reserves.

If I was merely what of me thou newly

Createdst, Love who governest the heaven,

Thou knowest, who didst lift me with thy light! 75 When now the wheel, which thou dost make eternal Desiring thee, made me attentive to it

By harmony thou dost modulate and measure,

Then seemed to me so much of heaven enkindled

By the sun's flame, that neither rain nor river E'er made a lake so widely spread abroad. The newness of the sound and the great light

Kindled in me a longing for their cause,

Never before with such acuteness felt;
Whence she, who saw me as I saw myself,
To quiet in me my perturbed mind,
Opened her mouth, ere I did mine to ask,

80

85

And she began: "Thou makest thyself so dull

With false imagining, that thou seest not

What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off. 90

Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest;

But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site,

Ne'er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest."

If of my former doubt I was divested

By these brief little words more smiled than spoken,

I in a new one was the more ensnared;

And said: “Already did I rest content

From great amazement; but am now amazed
In what way I transcend these bodies light."
Whereupon she, after a pitying sigh,

Her eyes directed tow'rds me with that look
A mother casts on a delirious child;
And she began: "All things whate'er they be
Have order among themselves, and this is form,
That makes the universe resemble God.
Here do the higher creatures see the footprints
Of the Eternal Power, which is the end
Whereto is made the law already mentioned.

In the order that I speak of are inclined
All natures, by their destinies diverse,
More or less near unto their origin;

96

100

105

IIO

Hence they move onward unto ports diverse
O'er the great sea of being; and each one
With instinct given it which bears it on.
This bears away the fire towards the moon;

This is in mortal hearts the motive power;
This binds together and unites the earth.
Nor only the created things that are

Without intelligence this bow shoots forth,
But those that have both intellect and love.

The Providence that regulates all this

Makes with its light the heaven forever quiet, Wherein that turns which has the greatest haste. And thither now, as to a site decreed,

Bears us away the virtue of that cord

115

120

125

Which aims its arrows at a joyous mark.

True is it, that as oftentimes the form.

Accords not with the intention of the art,
Because in answering is matter deaf,

So likewise from this course doth deviate

Sometimes the creature, who the power possesses,
Though thus impelled, to swerve some other way,

(In the same wise as one may see the fire
Fall from a cloud,) if the first impetus
Earthward is wrested by some false delight.

130

135

Thou shouldst not wonder more, if well I judge,

At thine ascent, than at a rivulet

From some high mount descending to the lowland. Marvel it would be in thee, if deprived

Of hindrance, thou wert seated down below, 140
As if on earth the living fire were quiet."

Thereat she heavenward turned again her face.

CANTO II.

YE, who in some pretty little boat,
Eager to listen, have been following
Behind my ship, that singing sails along,
Turn back to look again upon your shores;

Do not put out to sea, lest peradventure,
In losing me, you might yourselves be lost.
The sea I sail has never yet been passed;

Minerva breathes, and pilots me Apollo,
And Muses nine point out to me the Bears.
Ye other few who have the neck uplifted

Betimes to th' bread of Angels upon which
One liveth here and grows not sated by it,
Well may you
launch upon the deep salt-sea
Your vessel, keeping still my wake before you
Upon the water that grows smooth again.
Those glorious ones who unto Colchos passed

Were not so wonder-struck as you shall be,
When Jason they beheld a ploughman made!

5

10

15