The Divine Comedy, Volume 3, Paradise — Dante Alighieri — John Shaqi
The Divine Comedy, Volume 3, Paradise
Dante Alighieri · en
The holy intention of the Eagle of Christ was not latent to me; nay,
rather I perceived whither he wished to lead my profession; therefore,
I began again: “All those bitings which can make the heart turn to God
have been concurrent unto my charity;[1] for the existence of the
world, and my own existence, the death that He endured that I may live,
and that which all the faithful hope even as I do, together with the
aforesaid living knowledge, have drawn me from the sea of perverted
love, and have set me on the shore of the right. The leaves, wherewith
all the garden of the Eternal Gardener is enleaved, I love in
proportion as good is borne unto them from Him.”
[1] Have concurred to inspire me with love of God.
Soon as I was silent a most sweet song resounded through the heavens,
and my Lady said with the rest, “Holy, Holy, Holy.”
And as at a keen light sleep is broken by the spirit of sight, which
runs to the splendor that goes from coat to coat,[1] and he who awakes
shrinks from what he sees, so confused is his sudden wakening, until
his judgment comes to his aid; thus Beatrice chased away every mote
from my eyes with the radiance of her own, which were resplendent more
than a thousand miles; so that I then saw better than before; and, as
it were amazed, I asked about a fourth light which I saw with us. And
my Lady, “Within those rays the first soul which the First Power ever
created gazes with joy upon its creator.”
[1] The spirit of the sight runs to meet the light which flashes
through the successive coats of the eye.
As the bough that bends its top at passing of the wind, and then lifts
itself by its own virtue which raises it, so did I, in amazement, the
while she was speaking; and then a desire to speak, wherewith I was
burning, gave me again assurance, and I began, “O Apple, that alone
wast produced mature, O ancient Father, to whom every bride is daughter
and daughter-in-law, devoutly as I can, I supplicate thee that thou
speak to me; thou seest my wish, and in order to hear thee quickly, I
do not tell it.”