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Paradiso
Canto 28
Translated by Robert Hollander
1 When she who does imparadise my mind
2 had revealed the truth against
3 the present life of wretched mortals,
4 then, as one whose way is lit by a double-candled lamp
5 held at his back, who suddenly in a mirror sees
6 the flame before he has seen or even thought of it
7 and turns to see if the glass is telling him the truth,
8 and then sees that it reflects things as they are --
9 as notes reflect the score when they are sung --
10 just so do I remember having done,
11 gazing into the beautiful eyes
12 which Love had made into the snare that caught me.
13 When I turned back and my eyes were struck
14 by what appears on that revolving sphere --
15 if one but contemplates its circling --
16 I saw a point that flashed a beam of light
17 so sharp the eye on which it burns
18 must close against its piercing brightness.
19 The star that, seen from here below, seems smallest
20 would seem a moon if put beside it,
21 as when one star is set beside another.
22 As near, perhaps, as a halo seems to be
23 when it encircles the light that colors it,
24 where the vapor that forms it is most dense,
25 there whirled about that point a ring of fire
26 so quick it would have easily outsped
27 the swiftest sphere circling the universe.
28 This point was encircled by another ring,
29 and that by the third, the third by the fourth,
30 the fourth by the fifth, and the fifth by the sixth.
31 Higher there followed the seventh, now spread so wide
32 that the messenger of Juno, in full circle,
33 would be unable to contain its size.
34 And so, too, the eighth and ninth,
35 each one revolving with diminished speed
36 the farther it was wheeling from the first.
37 And that one least removed from the blazing point of light
38 possessed the clearest flame, because, I think,
39 it was the one that is the most intruthed by it.
40 My lady, who saw me in grave doubt
41 yet eager to know and comprehend, said:
42 'From that point depend the heavens and all nature.
43 'Observe that circle nearest it,
44 and understand its motion is so swift
45 because it is spurred on by flaming love.'
46 And I to her: 'If the universe were arranged
47 in the order I see here among these wheels
48 I would be content with what you've set before me.
49 'However, in the world of sense we see
50 the farther from the center they revolve
51 the more divinity is in their orbits.
52 'And so, if my desire to know shall gain its end
53 in this rare temple of the angels,
54 which has but light and love for boundaries,
55 'then I still need to learn exactly why
56 model and copy fail to follow the same plan,
57 for, using my own powers, I reflect on this in vain.'
58 'That your fingers are not fit to undo this knot
59 is not surprising, so entangled
60 has it become from never being tried.'
61 My lady said this, then went on: 'Take
62 what I shall tell you if you would be fed,
63 and see you sharpen your wits on it.
64 'The material heavens are wide or narrow
65 according as power, greater or less,
66 is diffused through all their parts.
67 'Greater goodness makes for greater blessedness,
68 and greater bliss takes on a greater body
69 when all its parts are equal in perfection.
70 'This sphere, therefore, which sweeps into its motion
71 the rest of the universe, must correspond
72 to the ring that loves and knows the most,
73 'so that, if you apply your measure,
74 not to their appearances but to the powers themselves
75 of the angels that appear to you as circles,
76 'you will see a marvelous congruence,
77 larger with more, smaller with less, in each sphere
78 according to its celestial Intelligence.
79 As the vault of our air is left
80 serene and shining when Boreas
81 blows from his gentler cheek
82 and the dark refuse of the sky is cleared
83 and purged away so that the heavens smile
84 as all their quarters fill with loveliness,
85 just so did I feel when my lady
86 bestowed on me her lucid answer,
87 and, like a star in heaven, the truth shone clear.
88 And, when she paused in her speech,
89 as boiling iron shoots out sparks
90 so did these circles sparkle,
91 each spark keeping to its flaming ring. They were
92 so many that their number ran to thousands more
93 than the successive doubling of a chessboard's squares.
94 From choir to choir I heard Hosanna sung
95 to the fixed point, which holds them -- and forever shall --
96 in those ubi that have always been theirs.
97 And she, who understood the puzzled thoughts
98 now present in my mind, said: 'The closer rings
99 reveal to you both Seraphim and Cherubim.
100 'They pursue their bonds so swiftly, hoping they may gain
101 as much as they can hold of likeness to the point,
102 and this they can attain, the loftier their vision.
103 'These other loving spirits circling them
104 are called the Thrones of God,
105 and with them the first triad was complete.
106 'And you should know that all of them delight
107 in measure of the depth to which their sight
108 can penetrate the truth, where every intellect finds rest.
109 'From this, it may be seen, beatitude itself
110 is based upon the act of seeing,
111 not on that of love, which follows after,
112 'and the measure of their sight reveals their worth,
113 which grace and proper will beget in them.
114 Such, then, is the process, step by step.
115 'The second triad thus blossoming
116 in this eternity of spring
117 which no nocturnal Ram cuts short
118 'ever sings hosannas, the threefold strain
119 resounding in the threefold ranks
120 of bliss by which they are intrined.
121 'In this hierarchy are found the next divinities --
122 Dominions first, then Virtues,
123 and the third are Powers.
124 'The penultimate two of these festive throngs
125 are whirling Principalities and Archangels,
126 while the last one is all Angels at their play.
127 'All these orders gaze in ecstasy above.
128 The highest so prevail on those below,
129 that the rest are drawn, and also draw, to God.
130 'Dionysius with such passion set his mind
131 to contemplate these orders
132 that he named them and arranged them as do I.
133 'But later Gregory took a different view,
134 so that, opening his eyes here in this heaven,
135 he saw his errors, laughing at himself.
136 'And if a mortal man on earth set forth
137 such hidden truth, you need not wonder: for he
138 who saw it here above revealed it then to him,
139along with many other truths about these circlings.'
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