English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
| 1 | Let him imagine, who would well conceive |
| 2 | What now I saw, and let him while I speak |
| 3 | Retain the image as a steadfast rock, |
| 4 | The fifteen stars, that in their divers regions |
| 5 | The sky enliven with a light so great |
| 6 | That it transcends all clusters of the air; |
| 7 | Let him the Wain imagine unto which |
| 8 | Our vault of heaven sufficeth night and day, |
| 9 | So that in turning of its pole it fails not; |
| 10 | Let him the mouth imagine of the horn |
| 11 | That in the point beginneth of the axis |
| 12 | Round about which the primal wheel revolves,– |
| 13 | To have fashioned of themselves two signs in heaven, |
| 14 | Like unto that which Minos’ daughter made, |
| 15 | The moment when she felt the frost of death; |
| 16 | And one to have its rays within the other, |
| 17 | And both to whirl themselves in such a manner |
| 18 | That one should forward go, the other backward; |
| 19 | And he will have some shadowing forth of that |
| 20 | True constellation and the double dance |
| 21 | That circled round the point at which I was; |
| 22 | Because it is as much beyond our wont, |
| 23 | As swifter than the motion of the Chiana |
| 24 | Moveth the heaven that all the rest outspeeds. |
| 25 | There sang they neither Bacchus, nor Apollo, |
| 26 | But in the divine nature Persons three, |
| 27 | And in one person the divine and human. |
| 28 | The singing and the dance fulfilled their measure, |
| 29 | And unto us those holy lights gave need, |
| 30 | Growing in happiness from care to care. |
| 31 | Then broke the silence of those saints concordant |
| 32 | The light in which the admirable life |
| 33 | Of God’s own mendicant was told to me, |
| 34 | And said: Now that one straw is trodden out |
| 35 | Now that its seed is garnered up already, |
| 36 | Sweet love invites me to thresh out the other. |
| 37 | Into that bosom, thou believest, whence |
| 38 | Was drawn the rib to form the beauteous cheek |
| 39 | Whose taste to all the world is costing dear, |
| 40 | And into that which, by the lance transfixed, |
| 41 | Before and since, such satisfaction made |
| 42 | That it weighs down the balance of all sin, |
| 43 | Whate’er of light it has to human nature |
| 44 | Been lawful to possess was all infused |
| 45 | By the same power that both of them created; |
| 46 | And hence at what r said above dost wonder, |
| 47 | When I narrated that no second had |
| 48 | The good which in the fifth light is enclosed. |
| 49 | Now ope thine eyes to what I answer thee, |
| 50 | And thou shalt see thy creed and my discourse |
| 51 | Fit in the truth as centre in a circle. |
| 52 | That which can die, and that which dieth not, |
| 53 | Are nothing but the splendour of the idea |
| 54 | Which by his love our Lord brings into being |
| 55 | Because that living Light, which from its fount |
| 56 | Effulgent flows, so that it disunites not |
| 57 | From Him nor from the Love in them intrined, |
| 58 | Through its own goodness reunites its rays |
| 59 | In nine subsistences, as in a mirror, |
| 60 | Itself eternally remaining One. |
| 61 | Thence it descends to the last potencies, |
| 62 | Downward from act to act becoming such |
| 63 | That only brief contingencies it makes; |
| 64 | And these contingencies I hold to be |
| 65 | Things generated, which the heaven produces |
| 66 | By its own motion, with seed and without. |
| 67 | Neither their wax, nor that which tempers it, |
| 68 | Remains immutable, and hence beneath |
| 69 | The ideal signet more and less shines through; |
| 70 | Therefore it happens, that the selfsame tree |
| 71 | After its kind bears worse and better fruit, |
| 72 | And ye are born with characters diverse. |
| 73 | If in perfection tempered were the wax, |
| 74 | And were the heaven in its supremest virtue, |
| 75 | The brilliance of the seal would all appear; |
| 76 | But nature gives it evermore deficient, |
| 77 | In the like manner working as the artist, |
| 78 | Who has the skill of art and hand that trembles. |
| 79 | If then the fervent Love, the Vision clear, |
| 80 | Of primal Virtue do dispose and seal, |
| 81 | Perfection absolute is there acquired. |
| 82 | Thus was of old the earth created worthy |
| 83 | Of all and every animal perfection; |
| 84 | And thus the Virgin was impregnate made; |
| 85 | So that thine own opinion I commend, |
| 86 | That human nature never yet has been, |
| 87 | Nor will be, what it wasin, those two persons. |
| 88 | Now if no farther forth I should proceed, |
| 89 | ‘Then in what way was he without a peer?’ |
| 90 | Would be the first beginning of thy words. |
| 91 | But, that may well appear what now appears not, |
| 92 | Think who he was, and what occasion moved him |
| 93 | To make request, when it was told him, ‘Ask.’ |
| 94 | I’ve not so spoken that thou canst not see |
| 95 | Clearly he was a king who asked for wisdom, |
| 96 | That he might be sufficiently a king; |
| 97 | ‘Twas not to know the number in which are |
| 98 | The motors here above, or if necesse |
| 99 | With a contingent e’er necesse make, |
| 100 | Non si est dare primum motum esse, |
| 101 | Or if in semicircle can be made |
| 102 | Triangle so that it have no right angle. |
| 103 | Whence, if thou notest this and what I said, |
| 104 | A regal prudence is that peerless seeing |
| 105 | In which the shaft of my intention strikes |
| 106 | And if on ‘rose’ thou turnest thy clear eyes, |
| 107 | Thou’lt see that it has reference alone |
| 108 | To kings who’re many, and the good are rare. |
| 109 | With this distinction take thou what I said, |
| 110 | And thus it can consist with thy belief |
| 111 | Of the first father and of our Delight. |
| 112 | And lead shall this be always to thy feet, |
| 113 | To make thee, like a weary man, move slowly |
| 114 | Both to the Yes and No thou seest not; |
| 115 | For very low among the fools is he |
| 116 | Who affirms without distinction, or denies, |
| 117 | As well in one as in the other case; |
| 118 | Because it happens that full often bends |
| 119 | Current opinion in the false direction, |
| 120 | And then the feelings bind the intellect. |
| 121 | Far more than uselessly he leaves the shore, |
| 122 | (Since he returneth not the same he went,) |
| 123 | Who fishes for the truth, and has no skill; |
| 124 | And in the world proofs manifest thereof |
| 125 | Parmenides, Melissus, Brissus are, |
| 126 | And many who went on and knew not whither; |
| 127 | Thus did Sabellius, Arius, and those fools |
| 128 | Who have been even as swords unto the Scriptures |
| 129 | In rendering distorted their straight faces. |
| 130 | Nor yet shall people be too confident |
| 131 | In judging, even as he is who doth count |
| 132 | The corn in field or ever it be ripe. |
| 133 | For I have seen all winter long the thorn |
| 134 | First show itself intractable and fierce, |
| 135 | And after bear the rose upon its top; |
| 136 | And I have seen a ship direct and swift |
| 137 | Run o’er the sea throughout its course entire, |
| 138 | To perish at the harbour’s mouth at last. |
| 139 | Let not Dame Bertha nor Ser Martin think, |
| 140 | Seeing one steal, another offering make, |
| 141 | To see them in the arbitrament divine; |
| 142 | For one may rise, and fall the other may. |