English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow
| 1 | REMEMBER, Reader, if e’er in the Alps |
| 2 | A mist o’ertook thee, through which thou couldst see |
| 3 | Not otherwise than through its membrane |
| 4 | How, when the vapours humid and condensed |
| 5 | Begin to dissipate themselves, the sphere |
| 6 | Of the sun feebly enters in among them, |
| 7 | And thy imagination will be swift |
| 8 | In coming to perceive how I re-saw |
| 9 | The sun at first, that was already setting. |
| 10 | Thus, to the faithful footsteps of my Master |
| 11 | Mating mine own, I issued from that cloud |
| 12 | To rays already dead on the low shores. |
| 13 | O thou, Imagination, that dost steal us |
| 14 | So from without sometimes, that man perceives not, |
| 15 | Although around may sound a thousand trumpets, |
| 16 | Who moveth thee, if sense impel thee not? |
| 17 | Moves thee a light, which in the heaven takes form, |
| 18 | By self, or by a will that downward guides it. |
| 19 | Of her impiety, who changed her form |
| 20 | Into the bird that most delights in singing, |
| 21 | In my imagining appeared the trace; |
| 22 | And hereupon my mind was so withdrawn |
| 23 | Within itself, that from without there came |
| 24 | Nothing that then might be received by it. |
| 25 | Then reigned within my lofty fantasy |
| 26 | One crucified, disdainful and ferocious |
| 27 | In countenance, and even thus was dying. |
| 28 | Around him were the great Ahasuerus, |
| 29 | Esther his wife, and the just Mordecai, |
| 30 | Who was in word and action so entire. |
| 31 | And even as this image burst asunder |
| 32 | Of its own self, in fashion of a bubble |
| 33 | In which the water it was made of fails, |
| 34 | There rose up in my vision a young maiden |
| 35 | Bitterly weeping, and she said: O queen, |
| 36 | Why hast thou wished in anger to be naught? |
| 37 | Thou’st slain thyself, Lavinia not to lose; |
| 38 | Now hast thou lost me; I am she who mourns, |
| 39 | Mother, at thine ere at another’s ruin. |
| 40 | As sleep is broken, when upon a sudden |
| 41 | New light strikes in upon the eyelids closed, |
| 42 | And broken quivers ere it dieth wholly, |
| 43 | So this imagining of mine fell down |
| 44 | As soon as the effulgence smote my face, |
| 45 | Greater by far than what is in our wont. |
| 46 | I turned me round to see where I might be, |
| 47 | When said a voice, Here is the passage up; |
| 48 | Which from all other purposes removed me, |
| 49 | And made my wish so full of eagerness |
| 50 | To look and see who was it that was speaking, |
| 51 | It never rests till meeting face to face; |
| 52 | But as before the sun, which quells the sight, |
| 53 | And in its own excess its figure veils, |
| 54 | Even so my power was insufficient here. |
| 55 | This is a spirit divine, who in the way |
| 56 | Of going up directs us without asking |
| 57 | And who with his own light himself conceals. |
| 58 | He does with us as man doth with himself; |
| 59 | For he who sees the need, and waits the asking, |
| 60 | Malignly leans already tow’rds denial. |
| 61 | Accord we now our feet to such inviting, |
| 62 | Let us make haste to mount ere it grow dark; |
| 63 | For then we could not till the day return. |
| 64 | Thus my Conductor said; and I and he |
| 65 | Together turned our footsteps to a stairway, |
| 66 | And I, as soon as the first step I reached |
| 67 | Near me perceived a motion as of wings |
| 68 | And fanning in the face, and saying, Beati |
| 69 | Pacifi, who are without ill anger. |
| 70 | Already over us were so uplifted |
| 71 | The latest sunbeams, which the night pursues, |
| 72 | That upon many sides the stars appeared. |
| 73 | O manhood mine, why dost thou vanish so? |
| 74 | I said within myself; for I perceived |
| 75 | The vigour of my legs was put in truce. |
| 76 | We at the point were where no more ascends |
| 77 | The stairway upward, and were motionless, |
| 78 | Even as a ship, which at the shore arrives; |
| 79 | And I gave heed a little, if I might hear |
| 80 | Aught whatsoever in the circle new; |
| 81 | Then to my Master turned me round and said: |
| 82 | Say, my sweet Father, what delinquency |
| 83 | Is purged here in the circle where we are? |
| 84 | Although our feet may pause, pause not thy speech.’ |
| 85 | And he to me: The love of good, remiss |
| 86 | In what it should have done, is here restored; |
| 87 | Here plied again the ill-belated oar; |
| 88 | But still more openly to understand, |
| 89 | Turn unto me thy mind, and thou shalt gather |
| 90 | Some profitable fruit from our delay. |
| 91 | Neither Creator nor a creature ever, |
| 92 | Son, he began, was destitute of love |
| 93 | Natural or spiritual; and thou knowest it. |
| 94 | The natural was ever without error; |
| 95 | But err the other may by evil object, |
| 96 | Or by too much, or by too little vigour. |
| 97 | While in the first it well directed is, |
| 98 | And in the second moderates itself, |
| 99 | It cannot be the cause of sinful pleasure; |
| 100 | But when to ill it turns, and, with more care |
| 101 | Or lesser than it ought, runs after good, |
| 102 | ”Gainst the Creator works his own creation. |
| 103 | Hence thou mayst comprehend that love must be |
| 104 | The seed within yourselves of every virtue, |
| 105 | And every act that merits punishment. |
| 106 | Now inasmuch as never from the welfare |
| 107 | Of its own subject can love turn its sight, |
| 108 | From their own hatred all things are secure; |
| 109 | And since we cannot think of any being |
| 110 | Standing alone, nor from the First divided, |
| 111 | Of hating Him is all desire cut off. |
| 112 | Hence if, discriminating, I judge well, |
| 113 | The evil that one loves is of one’s neighbour, |
| 114 | And this is born in three modes in your clay. |
| 115 | There are, who, by abasement of their neighbour, |
| 116 | Hope to excel, and therefore only long |
| 117 | That from his greatness he may be cast down; |
| 118 | There are, who power, grace, honour, and renown |
| 119 | Fear they may lose because another rises, |
| 120 | Thence are so sad that the reverse they love; |
| 121 | And there are those whom injury seems to chafe, |
| 122 | So that it makes them greedy for revenge, |
| 123 | And such must needs shape out another’s harm. |
| 124 | This threefold love is wept for down below; |
| 125 | Now of the other will I have thee hear, |
| 126 | That runneth after good with measure faulty. |
| 127 | Each one confusedly a good conceives |
| 128 | Wherein the mind may rest, and longeth for it; |
| 129 | Therefore to overtake it each one strives. |
| 130 | If languid love to look on this attract you, |
| 131 | Or in attaining unto it, this cornice, |
| 132 | After just penitence, torments you for it. |
| 133 | There’s other good that does not make man happy; |
| 134 | ‘Tis not felicity, ’tis not the good |
| 135 | Essence, of every good the fruit and root. |
| 136 | The love that yields itself too much to this |
| 137 | Above us is lamented in three circles; |
| 138 | But how tripartite it may be described, |
| 139 | I say not, that thou seek it for thyself. |