CANTO XX. WHEN he who all the world illuminates Out of our hemisphere so far descends That on all sides the daylight is consumed, The heaven, that erst by him alone was kindled, Doth suddenly reveal itself again By many lights, wherein is one resplendent. And came into mind this act of heaven, my When the ensign of the world and of its leaders Had silent in the blessed beak become; Because those living luminaries all, By far more luminous, did songs begin O gentle Love, that with a smile dost cloak thee, With which begemmed the sixth light I beheld, 5 ΤΟ 15 I seemed to hear the murmuring of a river That clear descendeth down from rock to rock, Showing the affluence of its mountain-top. And as the sound upon the cithern's neck Taketh its form, and as upon the vent Of rustic pipe the wind that enters it, Even thus, relieved from the delay of waiting, That murmuring of the eagle mounted up Along its neck, as if it had been hollow. There it became a voice, and issued thence From out its beak, in such a form of words In mortal eagles," it began to me, For of the fires of which I make my figure, 20 25 30 Those whence the eye doth sparkle in my head 35 He who is shining in the midst as pupil Was once the singer of the Holy Spirit, Who bore the ark from city unto city; In so far as effect of his own counsel, 40 Of five, that make a circle for my brow, He that approacheth nearest to my beak Not following Christ, by the experience Of which I speak, upon its highest arc, Suffers no change, albeit worthy prayer The next who follows, with the laws and me, Under the good intent that bore bad fruit From his good action is not harmful to him, And he whom in the downward arc thou seest Now knoweth he how heaven enamored is alive; With a just king; and in the outward show 45 50 55 60 65. Who would believe, down in the errant world, That e'er the Trojan Ripheus in this round Has not the power to see of grace divine, Like as a lark that in the air expatiates, 70 First singing and then silent with content Of the last sweetness that doth satisfy her, Such seemed to me the image of the imprint Of the eternal pleasure, by whose will And notwithstanding to my doubt I was As glass is to the color that invests it, To wait the time in silence it endured not, 75 80 But forth from out my mouth, "What things are these?" Extorted with the force of its own weight; Whereat I saw great joy of coruscation. Thereafterward with eye still more enkindled The blessed standard made to me reply, To keep me not in wonderment suspended: "I see that thou believest in these things Because I say them, but thou seest not how; So that, although believed in, they are hidden. 85 90 Thou doest as he doth who a thing by name Cannot perceive, unless another show it. From fervent love, and from that living hope That overcometh the Divine volition; Not in the guise that man o'ercometh man, Cause thee astonishment, because with them Unto good will, returned unto his bones, Of living hope, that placed its efficacy In prayers to God made to resuscitate him, Returning to the flesh, where brief its stay, 95 100 105 110 |