by Dante
115–120
the poet exclaims that neither Scipio nor Augustus had so splendid a car, no, not even the sun
121–129
4) at the right wheel of the chariot are three ladies, red, green, and white
130–132
5) at the left wheel four ladies in purple, led by the one of them who has three eyes
133–141
6) next come two men, one a doctor, caring for mankind, the other showing hostility in his sword
142
7) four men of humble aspect
143–144
8) an old man, sleeping, his face alert
145–150
these last three “groups” dressed like the first one except, where those were crowned with lilies, these are crowned with roses and other red flowers
151–154
as the car reaches Dante, a thunderclap seems to be the cause of everything coming to a complete halt
PURGATORIO XXIX
After she had finished speaking →
like a lady touched by love she sang:
3
‘Beati quorum tecta sunt peccata!’
And like the nymphs that wandered all alone →
through shaded forests, one seeking to find,
6
another to escape, the sun,
she moved against the current’s flow, →
walking along the bank, while I on my side
9
tried to match her shorter steps with mine.
We had not taken a hundred steps between us
when the two banks curved as one around a bend
12
so that once more I was headed toward the east.
And we had not gone far in that direction
when the lady turned and faced me,
15
saying: ‘My brother, look and listen.’ →
Suddenly a shining brightness →
flared through all the forest
18
so that I thought it must be lightning.
But since lightning is gone even as it flashes
and that light, shining on, became more lustrous,
21
I asked myself: ‘Now what is this?’
Through the luminous air there came a melody →
so sweet that I was mastered by a worthy zeal
24
to reprimand the impudence of Eve:
there when earth and heaven were still obedient,
how she, a woman, alone and just then given shape,
27
could not resist, not stay beneath the veil.
Had she remained submissive there beneath it,
I should have tasted these ineffable delights
30
much sooner and a longer time.
While I walked on among so many first fruits, →
this foretaste of eternal bliss, enchanted
33
though desiring joys still greater,
beneath the green boughs the air before us
seemed to become a blazing fire
36
and that sweet sound could now be heard as song. →
O sacred Virgins, if fasting, cold, or sleepless nights →
I’ve ever suffered for your sake,
39
necessity drives me to call for my reward.
Now let the springs of Helicon pour forth
and let Urania help me with her choir
42
to put in verse things hard for thought. →
A short way on, seven golden trees →
seemed to appear, an illusion caused
45
by the space that separated them from us.
But when I had come close enough,
distance no longer could deceive the senses →
48
nor distort the common object’s proper shape,
and the faculty that readies reason for its matter
knew them as candelabra, which indeed they were,
51
and in the voices of the chant I heard ‘Hosanna.’
From above flared the glorious array, →
far brighter than the moon, bright
54
at mid-month in a midnight sky.
Full of wonder, I turned to my good Virgil →
and he answered with a look
57
no less charged with amazement.
Then I raised my face again to the high mysteries.
They moved so slowly toward us
60
even newly wedded brides would have outpaced them. →
The lady scolded: ‘Why is your desire so set →
on the display of living lights
63
that you have failed to note what comes behind them?’
Then I saw people, clad in white, who followed, →
as though led by the lights, their garments
66
of a whiteness never seen on earth.
The water to my left was all aglow →
and like a shimmering glass gave back
69
an image of my left side if I turned to look.
When I was at a point on my edge of the bank,
where only the river flowed between us,
72
I paused to have a better view
and saw the flames advance, →
leaving behind them painted air
75
as though they had been brushes in a painter’s hand,
so that above us blazed in streaks
the seven bands in all the hues the sun
78
takes for his bow and Delia for her girdle.
These banners stretched beyond my sight. →
As near as I could judge,
81
the outermost were set ten paces from each other.
Beneath so fair a sky as I describe
twenty-four elders, two by two, →
84
came crowned with lilies.
All were singing: ‘Blessèd are you →
among the daughters of Adam
87
and blessèd is your loveliness forever!’
When the flowers and the verdant grasses
across the river on the other bank
90
were left barren of those chosen people,
as, in the heavens, light comes after light,
four living creatures followed them, →
93
each crowned with green-leaved wreaths,
and every one had six wings as his plumage, →
wings so full of eyes that the eyes of Argus,
96
were they to come alive, would be just like them.
To describe their forms, reader, I do not spend →
more rhymes, for other outlay so constrains me
99
I cannot deal more lavishly in this.
Go read Ezechiel who depicts them as he saw them, →
descending from the frigid zone
102
in wind and cloud and fire.
And just as you shall find them on his pages,
such were they there—but for the wings,
105
where John accords with me and not with him. →
These four marked off a space that held →
a two-wheeled chariot of triumph,
108
drawn along behind a griffin’s neck. →
The griffin lifted both its wings between →
the middle band of light and the two sets of three
111
so that it did not cut through any band,
wings raised so high that they were lost to sight.
Its parts were golden where it was a bird, →
114
and all the rest of it was white, with some vermilion.
Never did Rome give joy to Africanus, →
nor indeed
Augustus, with such a splendid car.
117
Compared to it, the sun’s would seem but poor—
the chariot of the sun, which, gone astray,
at the pious prayer of Earth
120
was quite consumed in Jove’s mysterious justice.
Then came three ladies dancing in a round →
near the right wheel, one so flaming red
123
she hardly would be noticed in a fire.
Another seemed as though her flesh and bones
were made of emerald, while the third
126
seemed white as is new-fallen snow.
Sometimes it seemed the white, and now the red,
led in the dance. And from the red one’s song
129
the others took their movements, quick or slow.
Four other ladies, dressed in purple, →
were dancing at the left, keeping to the cadence
132
the three-eyed one among them set.
Behind the group I have described →
I made out two old men, unlike in their attire
135
but alike in bearing, honorable and grave.
One showed himself conjoined with those
who follow great Hippocrates,
138
whom nature shaped for creatures she loves most,
while the other showed a different disposition,
his sword so bright and sharp
141
that even from across the stream it made me fear.
Then I saw four, humble in their aspect, →
and, after them, an old man came alone and walked
144
as though he slept, despite his keen expression.
All seven of these were dressed just like the group →
that first appeared, except they did not have
147
garlands of lilies around their heads—
theirs were of roses and other crimson flowers.
From just a little farther off one would have sworn
150
that they were all on fire above the eyebrows.
And when the chariot stood across the stream from me →
a thunder-clap was heard and all that worthy throng
seemed forbidden to go farther and they stopped
154
behind the banners that had come before them.
OUTLINE: PURGATORIO XXX
The Church Triumphant in the Garden: climax
1–7
simile (1): when the chariot, which showed each there his duty, just as the North Star guides earthly helmsmen to port, came to a stop, the Hebrew Scriptures turn around to face it
8–12
one of them sings “Veni, sponsa, de Libano” three times, followed by the others
13–18
simile (2): the saved souls at Resurrection and 100 angels on the chariot
19–21
they chant and throw lilies over and around the chariot
22–33
simile (3): sunrise observed by Dante through a cloud and Beatrice observed by Dante through the flowers flung by the angels; olive-crowned, she is behind a white veil, wearing green and red garments
34–39
Dante feels again, even though he cannot yet discern her features, the power of his great love for Beatrice
40–42
Dante turns toward Virgil
43–45
simile (4): he is like a child running to his mother in distress
46–54
only to find him gone; Dante’s tears
55–57
Beatrice: “Dante, do not weep for Virgil; I will give you true cause for tears”
58–66
simile (5): admiral urging on men on other ships as Beatrice looks at Dante across the stream
67–75
veiled, she angrily berates Dante for his tears
76–78
Dante is ashamed at his reflection in Lethe
79–81
simile (6): mother scolding child and Beatrice chiding Dante
82–84
the angels intercede for Dante, reciting Psalm 30:1–9
85–99
simile (7): Italian ice/candle:African wind/flame: :angelic intercession: Dante’s tears
100–108
Beatrice’s justification of her anger to the angels
109–145
Beatrice’s “Life of Dante”: Alighieri’s rise and fall
109–117
he was singled out by God’s stars at his birth and by His special grace so that, in his youth, he was disposed for great things
118–120
but weeds grow bigger in good soil
121–123
still, in his youth she led him well
124–141
after she died, he gave himself to another; and, where she was now better, he loved her less, following false images of good; and he disregarded messages from her, in dream and in other form; there was nothing to do but to send him to hell; and so she went to Limbo and, by means of tearful prayer, summoned the one who brought him up here
142–145
and so it is right that he undergo penance
PURGATORIO XXX
When the seven-starred Wain of highest heaven— →
which never sets and never rises
3
and never wore a veil of fog except for sin
and which had made all of them mindful of their duty,
as lower down those seven stars direct
6
the helmsman making for his port—
came to a stop, the chosen people
that first appeared between it and the griffin →
9
turned toward the chariot as to their peace.
One of them, who seemed dispatched from Heaven, →
sang out aloud three times: ‘Veni, sponsa,
12
de Libano,’ and all the others echoed him.
As quickly as from their graves at the last trumpet →
the blessèd shall arise, their voices
15
rejoined to flesh in joyous Hallelujahs,
there, on the sacred chariot, rose up → →
ad vocem tanti senis, one hundred →
18
ministers and messengers of life eternal.
All were chanting: ‘Benedictus qui venis’ and, →
tossing flowers up into the air and all around them, →
21
‘Manibus, oh, date lilïa plenis!’ →
At break of day, I have seen the sky,
its eastern parts all rosy
24
and the rest serene and clear
even as the sun’s face rose obscured
so that through tempering mist
27
the eye could bear it longer,
thus, within that cloud of blossoms
rising from angelic hands and fluttering
30
back down into the chariot and around it,
olive-crowned above a veil of white →
appeared to me a lady, beneath a green mantle,
33
dressed in the color of living flame.
And in my spirit, which for so long a time →
had not been overcome with awe
36
that used to make me tremble in her presence—
even though I could not see her with my eyes—
through the hidden force that came from her I felt
39
the overwhelming power of that ancient love. →
As soon as that majestic force, →
which had already pierced me once
42
before I had outgrown my childhood, struck my eyes,
I turned to my left with the confidence →
a child has running to his mamma
4
5
when he is afraid or in distress
to say to Virgil: ‘Not a single drop of blood
remains in me that does not tremble—
48
I know the signs of the ancient flame.’ →
But Virgil had departed, leaving us bereft: →
Virgil, sweetest of fathers,
51
Virgil, to whom I gave myself for my salvation.
And not all our ancient mother lost →
could save my cheeks, washed in the dew,
54
from being stained again with tears. →
‘Dante, because Virgil has departed, →
do not weep, do not weep yet— →
57
there is another sword to make you weep.’
Just like an admiral who moves from stern to prow →
to see the men that serve the other ships
60
and urge them on to better work,
so on the left side of the chariot—
as I turned when I heard her call my name,
63
which of necessity is here recorded— →
I saw the lady, who had just appeared
veiled beneath the angels’ celebration, →
66
fix her eyes on me from across the stream.
Although the veil, encircled with Minerva’s leaves
and descending from her head, →
69
did not allow me unrestricted sight,
regally, with scorn still in her bearing,
she continued like one who, even as he speaks,
72
holds back his hottest words:
‘Look over here! I am, I truly am Beatrice. →
How did you dare approach the mountain?
75
Do you not know that here man lives in joy?’