by Dante
87
shut in on all sides by walls of rock.
Only a small space could be seen beyond them,
but in that space I saw the stars →
90
bigger and brighter than usually they are.
Amidst such sights and thoughts
I was seized by sleep, which often knows
93
what is to be before it happens.
In the hour, I think, when Cytherea, →
who always seems aflame with fire of love,
96
first shone on the mountain from the east,
in a dream I seemed to see a lady,
young and lovely, passing through a meadow
99
as she gathered flowers, singing:
‘Let anyone who asks my name know I am Leah, →
and here I move about, using my fair hands
102
to weave myself a garland.
‘To be pleased at my reflection I adorn myself,
but my sister Rachel never leaves her mirror,
105
sitting before it all day long.
‘She is as eager to gaze into her own fair eyes
as I to adorn myself with my own hands.
108
She in seeing, I in doing, find our satisfaction.’
And now, along with the pre-dawn splendors
that, rising, become more welcome to the traveler, →
111
as, returning, he lodges a little nearer home,
the shadows all around were being put to flight →
and my sleep with them. And I rose up,
114
seeing the great masters already risen.
‘That sweet fruit which mortals seek
and strive to find on many boughs
117
today shall satisfy your cravings.’
Such were Virgil’s words to me,
and never was there promise of a gift
120
that might yield equal pleasure.
Desire upon desire so seized me to ascend
that with every step →
123
I felt that I was growing wings for flight.
When the stairs had all run past beneath us
and we were on the topmost step, →
126
Virgil fixed his eyes on me
and said: ‘The temporal fire and the eternal →
you have seen, my son, and now come to a place
129
in which, unaided, I can see no farther.
‘I have brought you here with intellect and skill.
From now on take your pleasure as your guide. →
132
You are free of the steep way, free of the narrow.
‘Look at the sun shining before you,
look at the fresh grasses, flowers, and trees
135
which here the earth produces of itself. →
‘You may sit down or move among these
until the fair eyes come, rejoicing,
138
which weeping bid me come to you.
‘No longer wait for word or sign from me. →
Your will is free, upright, and sound.
Not to act as it chooses is unworthy:
142
over yourself I crown and miter you.’ →
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXVIII
1–6
Dante begins his exploration of this place
7–12
facing east, he feels a steady breeze on his forehead, as the boughs of the trees bend gently westward
13–21
but not so much as to disturb the birds nesting in them
22–27
Dante cannot see where he came into the forest; his progress is halted by a stream
28–33
transparence of the river despite its darkness in this place protected from sun (and moon) by dense forest
34–36
his feet still, his eyes cross the river to gaze on the flowers on the other side
37–42
the lady there gathers those flowers and sings
43–51
Dante, believing she is in love, invites her to come closer so that he may understand the song she sings; she reminds him of Proserpina
52–60
simile: lady turning in a dance and this lady facing Dante so that he can make out her song
61–66
at the edge of the stream she lifts her eyes; her look is like Venus’s after she was pierced by Adonis’s arrow
67–69
holding flowers in her hands, she smiles
70–75
the wider Hellespont caused Leander no more hatred than this narrow stream caused Dante
76–84
[Matelda]: they are newcomers and thus perhaps do not understand why she smiles in this place
85–87
Dante: the water and the wind seem to counter something he has heard before
88–90
Matelda can explain (and proceeds to):
91–117
“God gave man Eden as his place of peace, but he sinned and lost it and has to toil; so that the winds caused by water and earth interacting with the sun might not harm his creature, this part of the mountain was raised above the realm of weather. Here the air you feel follows the circling of the primo mobile; when it strikes a plant, the plant puts its potency back into the breeze, which then scatters it to the appropriate parts of the earth, where a diversity of flora is found; thus on earth no one should be surprised that plants spring up without being sown; and where you are now, every seed is found, including those the fruit of which is unknown to earthlings
118–133
“As for the water, it’s not natural either, evaporating and condensing, but flows constantly from a source by God’s will in two currents, one having the capacity to take away the memory of sin (Lethe), while the other (Eunoe) has the power to bring back the memory of every good deed; and it must be tasted in that order in order to have such effect
134–144
“And, even if to know that much would completely answer your question, I will tell you still more by way of a corollary: this is the place the ancient poets had in mind when they sang of a golden age, perhaps dreaming of it in Parnassus; here the first people were innocent, and here spring is eternal, and every fruit; this is the nectar of which the poets told”
145–148
Dante turns to his right to the poets, who are smiling, and then turns back to Matelda
PURGATORIO XXVIII
Eager to explore the sacred forest’s boundaries →
and its depth, now that its thick and verdant foliage →
3
had softened the new day’s glare before my eyes,
I left the bank without delay
and wandered oh so slowly through the countryside →
6
that filled the air around with fragrance.
A steady gentle breeze, →
no stronger than the softest wind,
9
caressed and fanned my brow.
It made the trembling boughs →
bend eagerly toward the shade
12
the holy mountain casts at dawn,
yet they were not so much bent down →
that small birds in the highest branches
15
were not still practicing their every craft,
meeting the morning breeze
with songs of joy among the leaves,
18
which rustled such accompaniment to their rhymes
as builds from branch to branch →
throughout the pine wood at the shore of Classe
21
when Aeolus unleashes his Sirocco.
Already my slow steps had carried me →
so deep into the ancient forest
24
I could not see where I had entered,
when I was stopped from going farther by a stream. →
Its lapping waves were bending to the left
27
the grasses that sprang up along the bank.
All the streams that run the purest here on earth
would seem defiled beside that stream,
30
which reveals all that it contains,
even though it flows in darkness,
dark beneath perpetual shade →
33
that never lets the sun or moon shine through.
Though my feet stopped, my eyes passed on
beyond the rivulet to contemplate
36
the great variety of blooming boughs,
and there appeared to me, as suddenly appears
a thing so marvelous
39
it drives away all other thoughts,
a lady, who went here and there alone, singing →
and picking flowers from among the blossoms
42
that were painted all along her way.
‘Pray, fair lady, warming yourself in rays of love— → →
if I am to believe the features
45
that as a rule bear witness to the heart,’
I said to her, ‘may it please you
to come closer to this stream,
48
near enough that I may hear what you are singing.
‘You make me remember where and what →
Proserpina was, there when her mother
51
lost her and she lost the spring.’
As a lady turns in the dance →
keeping her feet together on the ground,
54
and hardly puts one foot before the other,
on the red and yellow flowers
she turned in my direction,
57
lowering her modest eyes, as does a virgin,
and, attending to my plea, came closer
so that the sound of her sweet song →
60
reached me together with its meaning.
As soon as she was where the grass is merely
moistened by the waters of the lovely stream,
63
she granted me the gift of raising up her eyes.
I do not think such radiant light blazed out →
beneath the lids of Venus when her son by chance,
66
against his custom, pierced her with his arrow.
Straightening up, she smiled from the other shore, →
arranging in her hands the many colors
69
that grow, unplanted, on that high terrain.
The river kept us just three steps apart, → →
yet the Hellespont where Xerxes crossed—
72
a bridle still on human pride—
was not more hated by Leander for its tossing waves
between Sestos and Abydos than I did hate
75
that rivulet for not parting then.
‘You are new here,’ she began, ‘and, → →
perhaps because I’m smiling in this place
78
chosen for mankind as its nest,
‘you are perplexed and filled with wonder,
but the psalm Delectasti offers light →
81
that may disperse the clouds within your minds.
‘And you who stand in front and who entreated me, →
say if you’d hear more, for I have come
84
ready to answer every question you might have.’
‘The water and the sound of wind among the trees →
contradict what I was told and had accepted,’
87
I said, ‘about the nature of this place.’
And she: ‘I will explain that what you marvel at
has its own special cause
90
and thus disperse the fog assailing you. →
‘Supreme Goodness, pleased in Itself alone, →
made man good and to do good only. This place
93
He gave to him as token of eternal peace.
‘Through his own fault his sojourn here was brief.
Through his own fault he changed lighthearted frolic
96
and unblemished joy for toil and tears.
‘So that the turbulence below,
created by the vapors rising both from land and sea
99
toward the sun’s heat as far as they can rise,
‘should do no harm to man,
this mountain rose just high enough toward heaven
102
to tower free of it above the bolted gate.
‘Now, since all the air revolves in a circle →
with the first circling, unless
105
its revolution is at some point blocked,
‘that movement strikes upon this summit,
standing free in the living air, and makes
108
the forest, because it is so dense, resound.
‘The wind-lashed plants have such fecundity
that with their power they pollinate the air,
111
which after, in its circling, scatters seed abroad.
‘Your earth below, according to its qualities
and climate, conceives and then brings forth
114
from various properties its various plants.
‘If this were understood, it would not seem
so marvelous on earth each time a plant
117
takes root without its seedling being known.
‘And you should know the holy ground
on which you stand is filled with every kind of seed
120
and gives forth fruit that is not plucked on earth.
‘The water you see here does not spring from a vein →
that is restored by vapor when condensed by cold,
123
like a river that gains and loses flow,
‘but issues from a sure, unchanging source,
which by God’s will regains as much
126
as it pours forth to either side.
‘On this side it descends and has the power →
to take from men the memory of sin.
129
On the other it restores that of good deeds.
‘Here it is called Lethe and on the other side
Eünoè, but its water has no effect
132
until they both are tasted.
‘The second surpasses every sweetness. →
And even though your thirst might have been slaked
135
were I to reveal no more to you,
‘I will offer a corollary as a further gift, →
nor do I think my words will be less welcome
138
if they extend beyond the promise that I made.
‘Those who in ancient times called up in verse →
the age of gold and sang its happy state
141
dreamed on Parnassus of perhaps this very place.
‘Here the root of humankind was innocent, →
here it is always spring, with every fruit in season.
144
This is the nectar of which the ancients tell.’
I turned around then to my poets
and saw that they had listened →
to her final utterance with a smile.
148
Then I turned back to the fair lady.
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXIX
The Church Triumphant in the Garden: prologue
1–3
Matelda sings “Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata”
4–9
simile: nymph, whether in search of the sun or not and Matelda, heade
d against the stream, moving south
10–15
fewer than fifty paces along, the banks bend back east
16–21
a lightninglike sudden brightness that grows brighter
22–30
a melody runs upon the shining air; Dante blames Eve for depriving him of paradise
31–36
Dante enjoys the primal joy of God’s eternal beauty: the “lightning” and the melody
37–42
invocation (fourth in the canticle): Helicon and Urania
The procession of the Church Triumphant
43–51
some way off Dante seems to make out seven golden trees; closer, they are candlesticks, the melody “Hosanna”
52–54
the brightness of the candlesticks above them greater than that of the full moon in a clear midnight sky
55–57
Dante, in wonderment, turns to Virgil, who is amazed
58–60
Dante looks back at the slow-moving candles
61–63
Matelda: “Why don’t you look past them?”
64–66
Dante sees people in white following the candles
67–69
Dante’s image reflected in the river to his left
70–81
Dante, even with the procession across the river, stops to see it better; the candles leave the air behind them in bands “painted” with seven colors of the rainbow
82–87
1) 24 elders crowned with lilies
88–96
2) four living creatures, each with six wings full of eyes
97–105
address to the reader: since Dante must conserve poetic space he will not describe the four creatures
106–114
3) among these four is a griffin drawing a two-wheeled triumphal car; his wings rise up through the middle of the bands without harming them; his bird-parts are gold while his lion-parts are red and white