Paradiso (11 page)
Authors: Dante
‘Wretched Cleopatra still weeps because of it.
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She, fleeing before its advancing front,
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took from the asp her quick and baleful death.
‘But what the standard that promotes my speech
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had done before and had yet to do
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in the mortal realm where it holds sway
‘comes to seem both small and dim
if we observe it, with clear eyes and pure affection,
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when it was held in the third Caesar’s hand.
‘For the living justice that inspires me
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allowed it, in the hand of him of whom I speak,
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the glory of the vengeance for His wrath.
‘And now marvel at what I unfold for you:
Afterward it raced with Titus, doing vengeance
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upon the vengeance for the ancient sin.
‘Then, beneath its wings,
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when Lombard tooth bit Holy Church,
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Charlemagne, in victory, gave her comfort.
‘Now you may judge such men as I accused before
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and consider their offenses,
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the very cause of all your ills.
‘One sets against the universal standard
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yellow lilies, while the other claims it for a party,
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so that it’s hard to see which one offends the more.
‘Let the Ghibellines ply them, ply their tricks
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beneath another standard, for he follows
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this one poorly who severs it from justice.
‘And let not this new Charles strive to fell it
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with his Guelphs, but let him fear its claws,
‘Many a time have children wept
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for the father’s sin, and let him not think
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that God will change His ensign for those lilies.
‘This little star is ornamented
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with righteous spirits, those whose deeds were done
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for the honor and the glory that would follow.
‘When such errant desires arise down there,
then the rays of the one true love
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must rise with less intensity.
‘But noting how our merit equals our reward
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is part of our happiness,
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because we see them being neither less nor more.
‘So much does living justice sweeten our affection
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we cannot ever then take on
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the warp of wickedness.
‘Differing voices make sweet music.
Just so our differing ranks in this our life
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create sweet harmony among these wheels.
‘Within this very pearl shines
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the shining light of Romeo,
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whose great and noble work was poorly paid.
‘But those of Provence who schemed against him
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have not had the last laugh—he takes an evil road
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to whom another’s good deed seems a wrong.
‘Raymond Berenger had four daughters,
each of them a queen, and Romeo, a man
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of little standing and a stranger, made that happen.
‘And when malicious tongues moved Raymond
to go over accounts with this just man,
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‘Romeo left there, poor in his old age.
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And, if the world knew the heart he had within
when, crust by crust, he begged his bread,
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much as it praises him, it would praise him more.’
MERCURY
’s double-tongued canto opening
(1) Beatrice’s response to Dante’s first question
, not reining in his will, took us down with him
Christ
was both pure (like new-made Adam’s) and, because flesh after original sin is what it is, impure in itself;
(2) Dante’s second doubt and Beatrice’s response
(3) Dante’s third doubt; Beatrice’s resolution of it
Eve
).
thus, wheeling to the notes of his own melody,
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I saw that being, in whom a double light
he and the others moving in their dance
and, like the fastest-flying sparks,
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veiled from me by their sudden distance.
I was in doubt, saying to myself, ‘Tell her,
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tell her,’ saying to myself, ‘tell this to my lady,
But the reverence that is mistress over me
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at the mere sound of
Be
or
ice
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bowed down my head, as when a man nods off.
Not long did Beatrice leave me in this state
before she spoke, shining with the rays of such a smile
‘In my infallible opinion this idea,
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that just revenge itself perhaps deserves
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just punishment, has set you thinking.
‘But I will quickly free your mind of doubt.
Still, you must listen closely, for my words
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shall set before you things of great importance.
‘By not enduring, for his own good, a rein
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upon his will, that man who was not born,
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damning himself, damned all his offspring.