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Paradiso Canto 2
Canto 2
Translated by Robert Hollander
1 O you, eager to hear more,
2 who have followed in your little bark
3 my ship that singing makes its way,
4 turn back if you would see your shores again.
5 Do not set forth upon the deep,
6 for, losing sight of me, you would be lost.
7 The seas I sail were never sailed before.
8 Minerva fills my sails, Apollo is my guide,
9 nine Muses point me toward the Bears.
10 You other few who craned your necks in time
11 to reach for angels' bread, which gives us life on earth,
12 yet never leaves us satisfied,
13 you may indeed set out, your ship afloat
14 upon the salty deep, keeping to the furrow
15 I have made, before the sea goes smooth again.
16 Those famous men who made their way to Colchis,
17 when they saw Jason had become a plowman,
18 were not as stunned as you shall be.
19 The innate and never-ending thirst for God
20 in His own kingdom drew us up,
21 almost as swiftly as you know the heavens turn.
22 Beatrice was gazing upward, my gaze fixed on her,
23 when, perhaps as quickly as a bolt strikes,
24 flies, and releases from its catch,
25 suddenly I found myself there
26 where my eyes were drawn to an astounding sight.
27 And she, from whom my thoughts could not be kept
28 turned to me, as full of joy as she was fair,
29 to say: 'Direct your grateful mind to God,
30 who has conjoined us with the nearest star.'
31 It seemed to me that we were in a cloud,
32 shining, dense, solid, and unmarred,
33 like a diamond struck by sunlight.
34 The eternal pearl received us in itself,
35 as water does a ray of light
36 and yet remains unsundered and serene.
37 If I was there in flesh -- on earth we can't conceive
38 how matter may admit another matter to it,
39 when body flows into, becomes another body –
40 that, all the more, should kindle our desire
41 to see the very One who lets us see
42 the way our nature was conjoined with God.
43 What now we take on faith will then be seen,
44 not demonstrated but made manifest,
45 like a priori truths, which we accept.
46 I replied: 'My Lady, with absolute devotion
47 I offer thanks to Him
48 who has removed me from the world of death.
49 'But tell me, what are the dark spots
50 on this body that make those down on earth
51 repeat their preposterous tales of Cain?'
52 She smiled a little, then: 'If the understanding
53 of mortals errs,' she said, 'there where the key
54 of the senses fails in its unlocking,
55 'surely the shafts of wonder should no longer
56 strike you, since you see that, dependent
57 on the senses, reason's wings fall short.
58 'But tell me what you make of this yourself.'
59 And I: 'The different shadings here
60 are caused, I think, by bodies rare or dense.'
61 And she: 'No doubt but you shall see that this belief
62 lies deep in error -- if you consider well
63 the arguments that I shall lodge against it.
64 'The eighth sphere shows you many lights,
65 which, both in magnitude and luminosity,
66 may be seen as having different aspects.
67 'If this were caused by rare and dense alone,
68 a single power would be in them all:
69 here more, there less -- or equally.
70 'Different powers must be the fruit resulting from
71 formative principles, but these, except for one,
72 according to your reasoning, would be annulled.
73 'What is more, if that dark of which you ask
74 had rareness as its cause, this planet
75 would be lacking matter in some parts,
76 'or else, just as fat and lean
77 alternate in mass upon a body, this planet
78 would alternate the pages of its volume.
79 'Were the first case true, this would be shown
80 in the sun's eclipse, when light showed through,
81 as when it shines through any rarer medium.
82 'But such is not the case: therefore, let us consider
83 your other argument and, if I show it to be false,
84 then your opinion will be proven wrong.
85 'If this rarer substance does not go all the way,
86 there must be a point at which its denser opposite
87 would not allow the light to pass on throug
88 'and thus a ray of light would be thrown back
89 just as color is reflected from the glass
90 by the hidden layer of lead that lies beneath.
91 'Now, you will object, the ray shows dark there
92 more than in the other parts
93 because it is reflected from a farther source.
94 'From this objection, an experiment --
95 should you ever try it -- may set you free, experiment,
96 the source that feeds the streams of all your arts.
97 'Take three mirrors, placing two at equal distance
98 from you, letting the third, from farther off,
99 also meet your eyes, between the other two.
100 'Still turned to them, have someone set,
101 well back of you, a light that, shining out,
102 returns as bright reflection from all three.
103 'Although the light seen farthest off
104 seems smaller in its size, still you will observe
105 that it must shine with equal brightness.
106 'Now, as the substantial form of snow,
107 if struck by warming rays, is then deprived
108 both of its former color and its cold,
109 'I shall now reshape your intellect,
110 thus deprived, with a light so vibrant
111 that your mind will quiver at the sight.
112 'Beneath the heaven of divine repose
113 revolves a body in whose power resides
114 the being of all things contained in it.
115 'The next heaven, which holds so many sights,
116 distributes its being among various forms,
117 contained in it and yet distinct from it.
118 'All the other spheres, in varying ways,
119 direct their distinctive qualities
120 to their own purposes and influence.
121 'Thus do these organs of the universe proceed,
122 as now you see, step by step,
123 rendering below what they take from above.
124 'Observe well how I pass along this way
125 to the truth you seek, so that in time
126 you may know how to ford the stream alone.
127 'The motion and the power of the holy wheels
128 must be derived from the blessèd movers,
129 as the work of the hammer from the smith.
130 'And the heaven made fair by all these lights
131 takes its stamp from the intellect that makes it turn,
132 making of itself the very seal of that imprinting.
133 'And as the soul within your dust
134 is distributed through the different members,
135 conforming to their various faculties,
136 'so angelic intelligence unfolds its bounty,
137 multiplied down through the stars,
138 while revolving in its separate oneness.
139 'Each differentiated power makes a different alloy
140 with each precious body that it quickens,
141 with which, even as does life in you, it binds.
142 'From the joyous nature whence it springs,
143 the mingled potency shines through its star,
144 as joy shines in the living pupil of an eye.
145 'From this power is derived the difference seen
146 from light to light, and not from dense and rare.
147 This is the formative principle that creates,
148 according to its worth, the dark and bright.'
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