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Paradiso
Canto 7
Translated by Robert Hollander
1 'Osanna, sanctus Deus sabaoth,
2 superillustrans claritate tua
3 felices ignes horum malacoth!' --
4 Thus, wheeling to the notes of his own melody,
5 I saw that being, in whom a double light
6 is twinned, caught up in song,
7 he and the others moving in their dance
8 and, like the fastest-flying sparks,
9 veiled from me by their sudden distance.
10 I was in doubt, saying to myself, 'Tell her,
11 tell her,' saying to myself, 'tell this to my lady,
12 who slakes my thirst with her sweet drops.'
13 But the reverence that is mistress over me
14 at the mere sound of Be or ice
15 bowed down my head, as when a man nods off.
16 Not long did Beatrice leave me in this state
17 before she spoke, shining with the rays of such a smile
18 as would content a man if he were set on fire:
19 'In my infallible opinion this idea,
20 that just revenge itself perhaps deserves
21 just punishment, has set you thinking.
22 'But I will quickly free your mind of doubt.
23 Still, you must listen closely, for my words
24 shall set before you things of great importance.
25 'By not enduring, for his own good, a rein
26 upon his will, that man who was not born,
27 damning himself, damned all his offspring.
28 'As a result, for centuries the human race
29 lay sick in an abyss of error
30 until the Word of God chose to descend,
31 'uniting human nature, estranged now
32 from its Maker, with Himself in His own person
33 by a single act of His eternal Love.
34 'Now direct your inner sight on what evolves from that.
35 This nature, united with its Maker,
36 was pure and good, even as it was when first created.
37 'But through the fault of its own doing
38 it was expelled from Eden
39 because it turned away from truth and life.
40 'If, then, the penalty exacted by the cross
41 is measured by the nature He assumed,
42 no other ever stung so justly.
43 'Yet it is also true that there was never done
44 so great an outrage with regard to Him who suffered,
45 having taken on that nature.
46 'From a single act, then, came diverse effects,
47 for the same death delighted God as well as Jews.
48 Because of it earth quaked and Heaven opened.
49 'No longer, from now on, should it seem puzzling
50 when you hear it said that a just vengeance
51 was afterward avenged in a just court.
52 'But now I see your mind entangled,
53 by one thought and another in a knot
54 from which, eager, it waits to be untied:
55 'You say, "I follow closely what I hear,
56 but why God wanted this to be the very way
57 for our redemption is obscure to me."
58 'The reason for this decree, brother, lies buried,
59 hidden from the eyes of all
60 whose minds have not been ripened in the flame of love.
61 'Nonetheless, because so many strive to hit this mark,
62 while so few can even see it, I shall explain
63 the reason this was the most fitting choice.
64 'Spurning any kind of envy, Divine Goodness,
65 burning within, so sparkles
66 that it unfolds Eternal Beauty.
67 'That which, unmediated, derives from it
68 is thus without an end, because its imprint,
69 once stamped, can never wear away.
70 'That which, unmediated, rains down from it
71 is wholly free, because it is not subject
72 to the influence of things more recent,
73 'is more like that Goodness and thus more pleases Him.
74 The holy ardor that irradiates all things
75 shines brightest in what most resembles it.
76 'In all these gifts the human creature
77 is advantaged, but, if a single gift is lacking,
78 he must fall from his exalted state.
79 'Sin alone is what enslaves him,
80 making him unlike the highest good
81 so that he is illumined by its light but little,
82 'never returning to his privilege
83 unless he fills the void created by his fault
84 with penalties fit for his sinful pleasure.
85 'Your nature, when it sinned in toto
86 in its seed, was separated
87 from these privileges and from its Eden.
88 'Nor could they be recovered --
89 if you consider closely -- by any other recourse
90 except to ford one of these crossings:
91 'either that God, in His own clemency,
92 had pardoned, or that man, of himself,
93 had given satisfaction for his foolish pride.
94 'Now fix your eyes deep in the abyss
95 of the everlasting will of God
96 and give your strict attention to my words.
97 'With his limitations, man could never offer
98 satisfaction, for he could not descend as deep
99 into humility, by latter-day obedience,
100 'as, by disobeying, he had thought to rise.
101 And this is the reason for which he was denied
102 the power of giving satisfaction on his own.
103 'Thus it was necessary that God in His own ways
104 restore man to the fullness of his life --
105 by one way, that is, or by both of them.
106 'But since the deed more gratifies the doer
107 the more it shows the goodness
108 of the heart from which it springs,
109 'divine goodness, which puts its imprint
110 on the world, was pleased to proceed
111 in both its ways to raise you up again.
112 'Nor between the last night and the first day
113 was, or will there be, a deed performed -- in the first way
114 or the second -- so sublime or generous.
115 'More bountiful was God when He gave Himself,
116 enabling man to rise again, than if,
117 in His sole clemency, he had simply pardoned.
118 'All other means fell short of justice
119 save that the Son of God
120 should humble Himself by becoming flesh.
121 'Now, to satisfy each of your desires,
122 I go back to clarify one point,
123 that you may understand it just as I do.
124 'You say: "I see water, I see fire, air,
125 and earth -- and all their combinations --
126 become corrupted, lasting only briefly.
127 '"And yet these things were created,
128 so that, if what was said is true,
129 they should be proof against corruption.
130 'The angels, brother, and this pure country
131 where you are may be said to have been created
132 just as they are and in their entire being,
133 'but those elements that have been named
134 and those other things made from them
135 take their form from a created power.
136 'Created was the matter that is in them,
137 created, the informing power
138 in these stars that wheel about them.
139 'The soul of every beast and every plant
140 is drawn from a complex of potentials
141 by the shining and the motion of the holy lights.
142 'But supreme goodness breathes life in you,
143 unmediated, and He so enamors your soul
144 of Himself that it desires Him forever after.
145 'From this you may, in consequence, deduce
146 your resurrection, if you but recall
147 how then your flesh was made
148 in the making of the first two parents.'
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