Then to the wheels the maidens turned themselves, Followed with Statius and myself the wheel By fault of her who in the serpent trusted, An arrow loosened from the string o'erpassed, Then circled they about a tree despoiled As higher they ascend, had been by Indians Among their forests marvelled at for height. "Blessed art thou, O Griffin, who dost not Pluck with thy beak these branches sweet to taste. After this fashion round the tree robust The others shouted; and the twofold creature: "Thus is preserved the seed of all the just." And turning to the pole which he had dragged, He drew it close beneath the widowed bough, Each one with its own colour, ere the Sun A hue disclosing, was renewed the tree I never heard, nor here below is sung, The hymn which afterward that people sang, Had I the power to paint how fell asleep Those eyes compassionless, of Syrinx hearing, Even as a painter who from model paints I would portray how I was lulled asleep; Therefore I pass to what time I awoke, And say a splendour rent from me the veil Of slumber, and a calling: "Rise, what dost thou ?" Which makes the Angels greedy for its fruit, Peter and John and James conducted were, By which still greater slumbers have been broken, And saw their school diminished by the loss And the apparel of their Master changed; So I revived, and saw that piteous one Above me standing, who had been conductress Behold the company that circles her; The rest behind the Griffin are ascending With more melodious song, and more profound." And if her speech were more diffuse I know not, Who from the hearing of aught else had shut ne. A Alone she sat upon the very earth, Left there as guardian of the chariot Which I had seen the biform monster fasten. Encircling her, a cloister made themselves The seven Nymphs, with those lights in their hands "Short while shalt thou be here a forester, And thou shalt be with me for evermore A citizen of that Rome where Christ is Roman. Therefore, for that world's good which liveth ill, Fix on the car thine eyes, and what thou seest, Of her commandments all devoted was, Fire from a heavy cloud, when it is raining As I beheld the bird of Jove descend Down through the tree, rending away the bark, And he with all his might the chariot smote, Whereat it reeled, like vessel in a tempest Tossed by the waves, now starboard and now larboard. Thereafter saw I leap into the body Of the triumphal vehicle a Fox, That seemed unfed with any wholesome food. But for his hideous sins upbraiding him, My Lady put him to as swift a flight Into the chariot's chest I saw the Eagle And such as issues from a heart that mourns, A voice from Heaven there issued, and it said : "My little bark, how badly art thou freighted!" Methought, then, that the earth did yawn between Both wheels, and I saw rise from it a Dragon, Drawing unto himself his tail malign, Thrust forward heads upon the parts of it, Firm as a rock upon a mountain high, Seated upon it, there appeared to me A shameless whore, with eyes swift glancing round, And, as if not to have her taken from him, Upright beside her I beheld a giant; And ever and anon they kissed each other. But because she her wanton, roving eye Turned upon me, her angry paramour He loosed the monster, and across the forest CANTO XXXIII. "DEUS, venerunt gentes," alternating Now three, now four, melodious psalmody Listened to them with such a countenance, With colour as of fire, she made response: "Modicum, et non videbitis me; Et iterum, my sisters predilect, Then all the seven in front of her she placed; That her tenth step was placed upon the ground, She said to me: "Why, brother, dost thou not As unto those who are too reverential, Speaking in presence of superiors, Who drag no living utterance to their teeth, It me befell, that without perfect sound Began I: "My necessity, Madonna, You know, and that which thereunto is good." And she to me: "Of fear and bashfulness Henceforward I will have thee strip thyself, Was, and is not; but let him who is guilty The Eagle that left his plumes upon the car, For verily I see, and hence narrate it, The stars already near to bring the time, One sent from God, shall slay the thievish woman And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, But soon the facts shall be the Naiades Who shall this difficult enigma solve, Without destruction of the flocks and harvests. These words, so teach them unto those who live Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant, Whoever pillages or shatters it, With blasphemy of deed offendeth God, For biting that, in pain and in desire Five thousand years and more the first-born soul Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not In height, and so inverted in its summit. And if thy vain imaginings had not been And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure, Thou by so many circumstances only But since I see thee in thine intellect Converted into stone and stained with sin, So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee, I will too, if not written, at least painted, Thou bear it back within thee, for the reason Which does not charge the figure stamped upon it, But wherefore so beyond my power of sight The more I strive, so much the more I lose it ?" |