Paradiso (20 page)

               
‘And let this always be as lead upon your feet   
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to make you slow, just like a weary man, in moving,

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whether to yes or no, unless you see both clearly.

               
‘For he ranks low among the fools   
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who, without making clear distinctions,

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affirms or denies in one case or another,

               
‘since it often happens that a hasty opinion

               
inclines one to the erring side, and then

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fondness for it fetters the working of the mind.

               
‘He who casts off from shore to fish for truth   
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without the necessary skill does not return the same

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as he sets out, but worse, and all in vain.

               
‘Clear proof of this was given to the world

               
by Parmenides, Melissus, Bryson, and others,   
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who went to sea without a port in mind.

               
‘Such were Sabellius and Arius and the fools   
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who misread Scripture as a sword reflecting   
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the distorted image of a face upon its blade.

               
‘Let the people, then, not be too certain   
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in their judgments, like those that harvest in their minds

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corn still in the field before it ripens.

               
‘For I have seen the briar first look dry and thorny   
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right through all the winter’s cold,

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then later wear the bloom of roses at its tip,   
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‘and once I saw a ship, which had sailed straight   
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and swift upon the sea through all its voyage,

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sinking at the end as it made its way to port.

               
‘Let not Dame Bertha and Master Martin,   
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when they see one steal and another offer alms,   
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think that they behold them with God’s wisdom,

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for the first may still rise up, the other fall.’   
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From center to rim, as from rim to center,   
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the water in a rounded vessel moves

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as it is struck from outside or within.

               
This thought, just as I phrase it,   
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dropped into my mind the very instant

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the glorious living soul of Thomas fell silent,   
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because of the like effects that sprang   
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from his speech and from the words of Beatrice,

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who, responding, graciously began:

               
‘This man has need, but does not tell of it   
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either by word or yet in thought,

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because he seeks the root of still another truth.

               
‘Tell him if the light that blooms

               
and makes your substance radiant shall remain

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with you eternally the way it shines today,

               
‘and, if it remains, tell him how,

               
when all of you are visible once more,

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this would not prove distressing to your sight.’

               
As, impelled and drawn by heightened joy,   
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dancers in a round may raise their voices,

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their pleasure showing in their movements,

               
so, at that eager and devout appeal,

               
the holy circles showed new joy in wheeling

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as well as in their wondrous song.

               
Whoever here on earth laments that we must die   
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to find our life above knows not the fresh relief

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found there in these eternal showers.

               
That ever-living One and Two and Three   
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who reigns forever in Three and Two and One,

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uncircumscribed and circumscribing all,   
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was sung three times by each and every one   
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of these spirits, and with such melody

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as would be fit reward for any merit.   
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And I heard in the most resplendent light   
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of the lesser circle a modest voice,   
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such perhaps as the angel’s was to Mary,   
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reply: ‘Just as long as the festival of Paradise   
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shall last, that is how long our love

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shall dress us in this radiance.

               
‘Its brightness answers to our ardor,   
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the ardor to our vision, and that is given

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in greater measure of grace than we deserve.

               
‘When we put on again our flesh,

               
glorified and holy, then our persons

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will be more pleasing for being all complete,

               
‘so that the light, granted to us freely

               
by the Highest Good, shall increase,

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the light that makes us fit to see Him.

               
‘From that light, vision must increase,   
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and love increase what vision kindles,

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and radiance increase, which comes from love.

               
‘But like a coal that shoots out flame   
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and in its glowing center still outshines it

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so that it does not lose its own appearance,

               
‘just so this splendor that enfolds us now

               
will be surpassed in brightness by the flesh

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that earth as yet still covers.

               
‘Nor will such shining have the power to harm us,   
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for our body’s organs shall be strengthened

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to deal with all that can delight us.’

               
So quick and eager seemed to me both choirs   
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to say their
Amen
that they clearly showed   
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their desire for their dead bodies,

               
not perhaps for themselves alone, but for their mothers,   
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for their fathers, and for others whom they loved

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before they all became eternal flames.

               
And lo, all around and all of equal brightness,   
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rose a splendor, surpassing what had been,   
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as the horizon, at the rising sun, grows brighter.

               
And just as, at the approach of evening,   
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new lights begin to show throughout the sky,

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so faint they seem both real and yet unreal,