The Portable Dante (57 page)

And then I saw the ground between the wheels opening up: a dragon issued forth, driving its tail up through the chariot;

then, as a wasp withdraws its sting, that thing drew back its poison tail, tearing away part of the floor—gloating, it wandered off;

the rest, like fertile soil left for thick weeds to thrive on, grew a rich cover of plumes granted with good intentions, it would seem,

and all the chariot, with both its wheels and pole as well, was overgrown with them in less time than it takes to heave a sigh.

Thus changed, the holy shrine began to sprout heads from all parts: three on the chariot’s pole and one from each of its four corners grew.

The three were horned like oxen, but the four had but one horn upon each of their heads. No one has ever seen a monster like it!

Seated thereon, securely, like a fort high on a hill, I saw an ungirt whore casting bold, sluttish glances all around.

Acting as if someone might take her from him, a giant, I saw, standing there by her side; from time to time the two of them would kiss.

But when she turned her roving, lustful eyes on me, her lover in a fit of rage beat her ferociously from head to foot.

Then, furious with jealousy, the giant ripped loose the monster, dragging it away far off into the woods, until the trees

blocked from my sight the whore and that strange beast. ?

Deus venerunt gentes,
sang the nymphs chanting in tears the dulcet psalmody, their voices alternating, three, then four,

and Beatrice listened to their song, sighing and sorrowful—hardly more grief showed in the face of Mary at the cross.

But when among those virgins silence reigned, yielding to her response, she stood up then and glowing like a flame, announced to them:

“Modicum et non videbitis me; et iterum,
sisters so dear to me,
modicum et vos videbitis me. ”

Then, having placed the seven in front of her, she had us move behind with just a nod to me and to the lady and the poet.

So she moved forward, and she had not gone ten steps into the wood when, suddenly, she turned to fix her eyes on mine, and said,

looking at me serenely: “Make more haste, so that, if I should wish to speak with you, you would be close enough to hear my words. ”

I did as I was told. Once I was close, she said: “Why, brother, do you hesitate to question me, now that you are with me?”

Like those who feel a paralyzing awe when in the presence of superiors and scarcely can find breath enough to speak—

I, too, could utter, indistinctly though, the words: “My lady, you know all my needs, and how to satisfy them perfectly. ”

Then she to me: “It is my wish that you from now on free yourself from fear and shame, and cease to speak like someone in a dream.

Know that the vessel which the serpent broke was, and is not. Let him who bears the blame learn that God’s vengeance has no fear of sops.

The eagle that shed feathers on the car that would become a monster, then a prey, will not remain forever without heirs;

I tell you this because I clearly see those stars, already near, that will bring in a time—its advent nothing can prevent—

in which five hundred, ten, and five shall be God’s emissary, born to kill the giant and the usurping whore with whom he sins.

Perhaps my prophecy with its dark words, obscure as those of Themis or the Sphinx, has not convinced you but confused your mind;

but soon events themselves shall be the Naiads that will untie this riddle’s complex knot— with no destruction of the sheep or grain.

Note well my words: what I have said to you, you will repeat, as you teach those who live that life which is merely a race to death.

And when you write, be sure that you describe the sad condition of the tree you saw despoiled, not once but twice, here on this spot.

Whoever robs this tree or breaks its limbs sins against God, blasphemes in deeds, for He created it to serve His Holy Self.

Because God’s first soul tasted of this tree, more than five thousand years in pain he yearned for Him Who paid the penalty Himself.

Your mind’s asleep if you do not perceive the special reason for the tree’s great height and why it grows inverted toward the top.

If your vain thoughts had not been to your mind waters of Elsa, and your joy in them a Pyramus to your mulberry, then

from the tree’s two strange attributes alone, you would have recognized its moral sense, and seen God’s justice in the interdict.

But since I see your mind has turned to stone and, like a stone, is dark and, being dark, cannot endure the clear light of my words,

it is my wish you carry back with you if not my words themselves, at least some trace, as pilgrims bring their staves back wreathed with palm. ”

And I to her: “As wax stamped by the seal will never lose the outline of the print, so, your seal is imprinted on my mind.

But your desired words, why do they fly so high above my mind? The more I try to follow them, the more they soar from sight. ”

She said: “Why do they? So that you may come truly to know that school which you have followed, and see how well its doctrine follows mine—

also, that you may see that mankind’s ways are just as far away from those divine as earth is from the highest spinning sphere. ”

To that I answered: “I cannot recall ever having estranged myself from you: I have no guilty conscience on that score. ”

“You say that you do not remember it?” smiling, she said. “But, surely, you recall drinking of Lethe’s waters just today;

and even as fire can be inferred from smoke, your lack of memory is patent proof that your estrangement from me was a sin.

But from now on, I promise you, my words will be as plain as they will have to be for your uneducated mind to grasp. ”

And blazing brighter, moving slower now, the sun was riding its meridian ring, whose point in space depends upon the viewer,

when—just as someone who escorts a group stops short if something very strange appears in front of him—those seven ladies stopped

as they approached the margin of a shade, pale as a mountain’s shadow on cool streams flowing beneath green foliage and dark boughs.

Ahead of them I saw spring from one source what might have been the Tigris and Euphrates! Then, like close friends, they slowly drew apart.

“O light, O glory of the human race, what is this water pouring from one source, and then dividing self from self?” I asked.

She answered: “Ask Matelda to explain. ” And then the lovely lady spoke, as though she felt she had to free herself from blame:

“I have already made this clear to him, this and much more; and Lethe, I am sure, could not have washed away the memory. ”

Then Beatrice: “A more important thing, perhaps, weighs on his mind, depriving him of memory and clouding his mind’s eye.

But here before us is the stream Eunoë: now, lead him there and, as it is your wont, revive his weakened powers in its flow. ”

Then, gracious as she was, without demur, submitting her own will to another’s will, once this was made apparent by a sign,

the lovely lady took me by the hand, and said to Statius as she moved ahead with queenly modesty: “And you come too. ”

Reader, if I had space to write more words, I’d sing, at least in part, of that sweet draught which never could have satisfied my thirst;

but now I have completed every page planned for my poem’s second canticle— I am checked by the bridle of my art!

From those holiest waters I returned to her reborn, a tree renewed, in bloom with newborn foliage, immaculate,

eager to rise, now ready for the stars.