Canto III

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	That Sun, which erst with love my bosom warmed,
2	Of beauteous truth had unto me discovered,
3	By proving and reproving, the sweet aspect.

4	And, that I might confess myself convinced
5	And confident, so far as was befitting,
6	I lifted more erect my head to speak.

7	But there appeared a vision, which withdrew me
8	So close to it, in order to be seen,
9	That my confession I remembered not.

10	Such as through polished and transparent glass,
11	Or waters crystalline and undisturbed,
12	But not so deep as that their bed be lost,

13	Come back again the outlines of our faces
14	So feeble, that a pearl on forehead white
15	Comes not less speedily unto our eyes;

16	Such saw I many faces prompt to speak,
17	So that I ran in error opposite
18	To that which kindled love 'twixt man and fountain.

19	As soon as I became aware of them,
20	Esteeming them as mirrored semblances,
21	To see of whom they were, mine eyes I turned,

22	And nothing saw, and once more turned them forward
23	Direct into the light of my sweet Guide,
24	Who smiling kindled in her holy eyes.

25	Marvel thou not, she said to me, because
26	I smile at this thy puerile conceit,
27	Since on the truth it trusts not yet its foot,

28	But turns thee, as 'tis wont, on emptiness.
29	True substances are these which thou beholdest,
30	Here relegate for breaking of some vow.

31	Therefore speak with them, listen and believe;
32	For the true light, which giveth peace to them,
33	Permits them not to turn from it their feet.

34	And I unto the shade that seemed most wishful
35	To speak directed me, and I began,
36	As one whom too great eagerness bewilders:

37	O well-created spirit, who in the rays
38	Of life eternal dost the sweetness taste
39	Which being untasted ne'er is comprehended.

40	Grateful 'twill be to me, if thou content me
41	Both with thy name and with your destiny.
42	Whereat she promptly and with laughing eyes:

43	Our charity doth never shut the doors
44	Against a just desire, except as one
45	Who wills that all her court be like herself.

46	I was a virgin sister in the world;
47	And if thy mind doth contemplate me well,
48	The being more fair will not conceal me from thee,

49	But thou shalt recognise I am Piccarda,
50	Who, stationed here among these other blessed,
51	Myself am blessed in the slowest sphere.

52	All our affections, that alone inflamed
53	Are in the pleasure of the Holy Ghost,
54	Rejoice at being of his order formed;

55	And this allotment, which appears so low,
56	Therefore is given us, because our vows
57	Have been neglected and in some part void.

58	Whence I to her: In your miraculous aspects
59	There shines I know not what of the divine,
60	Which doth transform you from our first conceptions.

61	Therefore I was not swift in my remembrance;
62	But what thou tellest me now aids me so,
63	That the refiguring is easier to me.

64	But tell me, ye who in this place are happy,
65	Are you desirous of a higher place,
66	To see more or to make yourselves more friends?

67	First with those other shades she smiled a little;
68	Thereafter answered me so full of gladness,
69	She seemed to burn in the first fire of love:

70	Brother, our will is quieted by virtue
71	Of charity, that makes us wish alone
72	For what we have, nor gives us thirst for more.

73	If to be more exalted we aspired,
74	Discordant would our aspirations be
75	Unto the will of Him who here secludes us;

76	Which thou shalt see finds no place in these circles,
77	If being in charity is needful here,
78	And if thou lookest well into its nature;

79	Nay, 'tis essential to this blest existence
80	To keep itself within the will divine,
81	Whereby our very wishes are made one;

82	So that, as we are station above station
83	Throughout this realm, to all the realm 'tis pleasing,
84	As to the King, who makes his will our will.

85	And his will is our peace; this is the sea
86	To which is moving onward whatsoever
87	It doth create, and all that nature makes.

88	Then it was clear to me how everywhere
89	In heaven is Paradise, although the grace
90	Of good supreme there rain not in one measure

91	But as it comes to pass, if one food sates,
92	And for another still remains the longing,
93	We ask for this, and that decline with thanks.

94	E'en thus did I; with gesture and with word,
95	To learn from her what was the web wherein
96	She did not ply the shuttle to the end.

97	A perfect life and merit high in-heaven
98	A lady o'er us, said she, by whose rule
99	Down in your world they vest and veil themselves,

100	That until death they may both watch and sleep
101	Beside that Spouse who every vow accepts
102	Which charity conformeth to his pleasure.

103	To follow her, in girlhood from the world
104	I fled, and in her habit shut myself,
105	And pledged me to the pathway of her sect

106	Then men accustomed unto evil more
107	Than unto good, from the sweet cloister tore me;
108	God knows what afterward my life became.

109	This other splendour, which to thee reveals
110	Itself on my right side, and is enkindled
111	With all the illumination of our sphere,

112	What of myself I say applies to her;
113	A nun was she, and likewise from her head
114	Was ta'en the shadow of the sacred wimple.

115	But when she too was to the world returned
116	Against her wishes and against good usage,
117	Of the heart's veil she never was divested.

118	Of great Costanza this is the effulgence,
119	Who from the second wind of Suabia
120	Brought forth the third and latest puissance.

121	Thus unto me she spake, and then began
122	Ave Maria singing, and in singing
123	Vanished, as through deep water something heavy.

124	My sight, that followed her as long a time
125	As it was possible, when it had lost her
126	Turned round unto the mark of more desire,

127	And wholly unto Beatrice reverted;
128	But she such lightnings flashed into mine eyes,
129	That at the first my sight endured it not;

130	And this in questioning more backward made me.

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Canto III