Canto XXVII

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	GLORY be to the Father, to the Son,
2	And Holy Ghost ! all Paradise began,
3	So that the melody inebriate made me.

4	What I beheld seemed unto me a smile
5	Of the universe; for my inebriation
6	Found entrance through the hearing and the sight

7	O joy! O gladness inexpressible!
8	O perfect life of love and peacefulness!
9	O riches without hankering secure!

10	Before mine eyes were standing the four torches
11	Enkindled, and the one that first had come
12	Began to make itself more luminous;

13	And even such in semblance it became
14	As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars
15	Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers.

16	That Providence, which here distributeth
17	Season and service, in the blessed choir
18	Had silence upon every side imposed.

19	When I heard say: If I my colour change,
20	Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking
21	Thou shalt behold all these their colour change.

22	He who usurps upon the earth my place,
23	My place, my place, which vacant has become
24	Before the presence of the Son of God,

25	Has of my cemetery made a sewer
26	Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One
27	Who fell from here, below there is appeased!

28	With the same colour which, through sun adverse,
29	Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn,
30	Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused.

31	And as a modest woman, who abides
32	Sure of herself, and at another's failing,
33	From listening only, timorous becomes,

34	Even thus did Beatrice change countenance;
35	And I believe in heaven was such eclipse,
36	When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;

37	Thereafterward proceeded forth his words
38	With voice so much transmuted from itself,
39	The very countenance was not more changed.

40	The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been
41	On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus,
42	To be made use of in acquest of gold;

43	But in acquest of this delightful life
44	Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus,
45	After much lamentation, shed their blood.

46	Our purpose was not, that on the right hand
47	Of our successors should in part be seated
48	The Christian folk, in part upon the other;

49	Nor that the keys which were to me confided
50	Should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner,
51	That should wage war on those who are baptized;

52	Nor I be made the figure of a seal
53	To privileges venal and mendacious,
54	Whereat I often redden and flash with fire.

55	In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves
56	Are seen from here above o'er all the pastures !
57	O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still

58	To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons
59	Are making ready. O thou good beginning,
60	Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall!

61	But the high Providence, that with Scipio
62	At Rome the glory of the world defended,
63	Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive;

64	And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight
65	Shalt down return again, open thy mouth;
66	What I conceal not, do not thou conceal.'

67	As with its frozen vapours downward falls
68	In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn
69	Of the celestial; Goat doth touch the sun,

70	Upward in such array saw I the ether
71	Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapours,
72	Which there together with us had remained.

73	My sight was following up their semblances,
74	And followed till the medium, by excess,
75	The passing farther onward took from it;

76	Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed
77	From gazing upward, said to me: Cast down
78	Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round.

79	Since the first time that I had downward looked,
80	I saw that I had moved through the whole arc
81	Which the first climate makes from midst to end;

82	So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses
83	Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore
84	Whereon became Europa a sweet burden.

85	And of this threshing-floor the site to me
86	Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding
87	Under my feet, a sign and more removed.

88	My mind enamoured, which is dallying
89	At all times with my Lady, to bring back
90	To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent.

91	And if or Art or Nature has made bait
92	To catch the eyes and so possess the mind,
93	In human flesh or in its portraiture,

94	All joined together would appear as nought
95	To the divine delight which shone upon me
96	When to her smiling face I turned me round.

97	The virtue that her look endowed me with
98	From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth,
99	And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me.

100	Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty
101	Are all so uniform, I cannot say
102	Which Beatrice selected for my place.

103	But she, who was aware of my desire,
104	Began, the while she smiled so joyously
105	That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice:

106	The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet
107	The centre and all the rest about it moves,
108	From hence begins as from its starting point.

109	And in this heaven there is no other Where
110	Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled
111	The love that turns it, and the power it rains.

112	Within a circle light and love embrace it
113	Even as this doth the others, and that precinct
114	He who encircles it alone controls.

115	Its motion is not by another meted,
116	But all the others measured are by this,
117	As ten is by the half and by the fifth.

118	And in what manner time in such a pot
119	May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,
120	Now unto thee can manifest be made.

121	O Covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf
122	Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power
123	Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves!

124	Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will;
125	But the uninterrupted rain converts
126	Into abortive wildings the true plums.

127	Fidelity and innocence are found
128	Only in children; afterwards they both
129	Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered.

130	One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,
131	Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours
132	Whatever food under whatever moon;

133	Another, while he prattles, loves and listens
134	Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect
135	Forthwith desires to see her in her grave.

136	Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white
137	In its first aspect of the daughter fair
138	Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night.

139	Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee,
140	Think that on earth there is no one who governs;
141	Whence goes astray the human family.

142	Ere January be unwintered wholly
143	By the centesimal on earth neglected,
144	Shall these supernal circles roar so loud

145	The tempest that has been so long awaited
146	Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows;
147	So that the fleet shall run its course direct,

148	And the true fruit shall follow on the flower.

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Canto XXVII