Purgatorio: Canto XVI
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Darkness of
hell, and of a night deprived
Of every planet under a poor sky,
As much as may be
tenebrous with
cloud,
Ne'er made unto my sight so thick a
veil,
As did that smoke which there
enveloped us,
Nor to the feeling of so rough a
texture;
For not an eye it suffered to stay open;
Whereat mine
escort,
faithful and
sagacious,
Drew near to me and offered me his
shoulder.
E'en as a blind man goes behind his guide,
Lest he should wander, or should
strike against
Aught that may harm or
peradventure kill him,
So went I through the bitter and foul air,
Listening unto my
Leader, who said only,
"Look that from me thou be not
separated."
Voices I heard, and every one appeared
To supplicate for peace and
misericord
The
Lamb of God who takes away our sins.
Still "
Agnus Dei" their exordium was;
One word there was in all, and metre one,
So that all harmony appeared among them.
"Master," I said, "are spirits those I hear?"
And he to me: "Thou apprehendest truly,
And they the knot of
Anger go unloosing."
"Now who art thou, that
cleavest through our smoke
And art
discoursing of us even as though
Thou didst by
calends still divide the time?"
After this manner by a voice was spoken;
Whereon my
Master said: "Do thou reply,
And ask if on this side the way go upward."
And I: "O
creature that dost cleanse thyself
To return beautiful to
Him who made thee,
Thou shalt hear marvels if thou follow me."
"Thee will I follow far as is allowed me,"
He answered; "and if smoke prevent our seeing,
Hearing shall keep us
joined instead thereof."
Thereon began I: "With that swathing band
Which death unwindeth am I going upward,
And hither came I through the infernal anguish.
And if
God in his grace has me
infolded,
So that he wills that I behold his court
By method wholly out of modern usage,
Conceal not from me who ere death thou wast,
But tell it me, and tell me if I go
Right for the pass, and be thy words our escort."
"
Lombard was I, and I was
Marco called;
The world I knew, and loved that excellence,
At which has each one now
unbent his bow.
For mounting upward, thou art going right."
Thus he made answer, and subjoined: "I pray thee
To pray for me when thou shalt be above."
And I to him: "My
faith I pledge to thee
To do what thou dost ask me; but am bursting
Inly with doubt, unless I rid me of it.
First it was simple, and is now made double
By thy opinion, which makes certain to me,
Here and elsewhere, that which I couple with it.
The world
forsooth is utterly deserted
By every
virtue, as thou tellest me,
And with iniquity is big and covered;
But I beseech thee point me out the cause,
That I may see it, and to others show it;
For one in the heavens, and here below one puts it."
A sigh profound, that grief forced into
Ai!
He first sent forth, and then began he: "
Brother,
The world is blind, and sooth thou comest from it!
Ye who are
living every cause refer
Still upward to the heavens, as if all things
They of
necessity moved with themselves.
If this were so, in you would be destroyed
Free will, nor any justice would there be
In having joy for good, or grief for evil.
The
heavens your movements do initiate,
I say not all; but granting that I say it,
Light has been given you for good and evil,
And free
volition; which, if some fatigue
In the first battles with the heavens it suffers,
Afterwards conquers all, if well 'tis nurtured.
To greater force and to a better
Nature,
Though free, ye subject are, and that creates
The mind in you the heavens have not in charge.
Hence, if the
present world doth go astray,
In you the cause is, be it sought in you;
And I therein will now be thy true spy.
Forth from the hand of
Him, who fondles it
Before it is, like to a
little girl
Weeping and laughing in her
childish sport,
Issues the simple soul, that nothing knows,
Save that, proceeding from a
joyous Maker,
Gladly it turns to that which gives it
pleasure.
Of trivial good at first it tastes the
savour;
Is cheated by it, and runs after it,
If guide or rein turn not aside its love.
Hence it
behoved laws for a rein to place,
Behoved a
king to have, who at the least
Of the
true city should
discern the tower.
The laws exist, but who sets hand to them?
No one; because the shepherd who precedes
Can
ruminate, but cleaveth not the
hoof;
Wherefore the people that perceives its
guide
Strike only at the good for which it
hankers,
Feeds upon that, and farther seeketh not.
Clearly canst thou perceive that evil guidance
The cause is that has made the world depraved,
And not that
Nature is corrupt in you.
Rome, that reformed the world, accustomed was
Two suns to have, which one road and the other,
Of God and of the world, made
manifest.
One has the other
quenched, and to the crosier
The sword is joined, and ill beseemeth it
That by main force one with the other go,
Because, being joined, one feareth not the other;
If thou believe not, think upon the grain,
For by its seed each
herb is recognized.
In the land laved by Po and Adige,
Valour and courtesy used to be found,
Before that
Frederick had his
controversy;
Now in security can pass that way
Whoever will
abstain, through sense of shame,
From speaking with the
good, or drawing near them.
True, three old men are left, in whom upbraids
The ancient age the new, and late they deem it
That God restore them to the better life:
Currado da Palazzo, and good
Gherardo,
And Guido da Castel, who better named is,
In fashion of the French, the simple
Lombard:
Say thou henceforward that the
Church of Rome,
Confounding in itself two
governments,
Falls in the
mire, and
soils itself and
burden."
"O
Marco mine," I said, "thou
reasonest well;
And now discern I why the sons of
Levi
Have been
excluded from the
heritage.
But what
Gherardo is it, who, as sample
Of a lost
race, thou sayest has remained
In
reprobation of the barbarous age?"
"Either thy speech deceives me, or it tempts me,"
He answered me; "for speaking
Tuscan to me,
It seems of good
Gherardo naught thou knowest.
By other surname do I know him not,
Unless I take it from his
daughter Gaia.
May
God be with you, for I come no
farther.
Behold the
dawn, that through the
smoke rays out,
Already whitening; and I must depart--
Yonder the
Angel is--ere he appear."
Thus did he speak, and would no farther hear me.
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