Canto XXVIII

English Edition, translated by Henry Wadsworth Longfellow

1	After the truth against the present life
2	Of miserable mortals was unfolded
3	By her who doth imparadise my mind,

4	As in a looking-glass a taper's flame
5	He sees who from behind is lighted by it,
6	Before he has it in his sight or thought,

7	And turns him round to see if so the glass
8	Tell him the truth, and sees that it accords
9	Therewith as doth a music with its metre,

10	In similar wise my memory recollecteth
11	That I did. looking into those fair eyes,
12	Of which Love made the springes to ensnare me.

13	And as I turned me round, and mine were touched
14	By that which is apparent in that volume,
15	Whenever on its gyre we gaze intent,

16	A point beheld I, that was raying out
17	Light so acute, the sight which it enkindles
18	Must close perforce before such great acuteness.

19	And whatsoever star seems smallest here
20	Would seem to be a moon, if placed beside it.
21	As one star with another star is placed.

22	Perhaps at such a distance as appears
23	A halo cincturing the light that paints it,
24	When densest is the vapour that sustains it,

25	Thus distant round the point a circle of fire
26	So swiftly whirled, that it would have surpassed
27	Whatever motion soonest girds the world;

28	And this was by another circumcinct,
29	That by a third, the third then by a fourth,
30	By a fifth the fourth, and then by a sixth the fifth;

31	The seventh followed thereupon in width
32	So ample now, that Juno's messenger
33	Entire would be too narrow to contain it.

34	Even so the eighth and ninth; and every one
35	More slowly moved, according as it was
36	In number distant farther from the first.

37	And that one had its flame most crystalline
38	From which less distant was the stainless spark,
39	I think because more with its truth imbued.

40	MyLady,who in my anxiety
41	Beheld me much perplexed, said: From that point
42	Dependent is the heaven and nature all.

43	Behold that circle most conjoined to it,
44	And know thou, that its motion is so swift
45	Through burning love whereby it is spurred on.

46	And I to her: If the world were arranged
47	In the order which I see in yonder wheels,
48	What's set before me would have satisfied me;

49	But in the world of sense we can perceive
50	That evermore the circles are diviner
51	As they are from the centre more remote

52	Wherefore if my desire is to be ended
53	In this miraculous and angelic temple,
54	That has for confines only love and light,

55	To hear behoves me still how the example
56	And the exemplar go not in one fashion,
57	Since for myself in vain I contemplate it.

58	If thine own fingers unto such a knot
59	Re insufficient. it is no great wonder,
60	So hard hath it become for want of trying.

61	My Lady thus; then said she: Do thou take
62	What I shall tell thee, if thou wouldst be sated,
63	And exercise on that thy subtlety.

64	The circles corporal are wide and narrow
65	According to the more or less of virtue
66	Which is distributed through all their parts.

67	The greater goodness works the greater weal,
68	The greater weal the greater body holds,
69	If perfect equally are all its parts.

70	Therefore this one which sweeps along with it
71	The universe sublime, doth correspond
72	Unto the circle which most loves and knows.

73	On which account, if thou unto the virtue
74	Apply thy measure, not to the appearance
75	Of substances that unto thee seem round,

76	Thou wilt behold a marvellous agreement,
77	Of more to greater, and of less to smaller,
78	In every heaven, with its Intelligence.

79	Even as remaineth splendid and serene
80	The hemisphere of air, when Boreas
81	Is blowing from that cheek where he is mildest,

82	Because is purified and resolved the rack
83	That erst disturbed it, till the welkin laughs
84	With all the beauties of its pageantry;

85	Thus did I likewise, after that my Lady
86	Had me provided with her clear response,
87	And like a star in heaven the truth was seen.

88	And soon as to a stop her words had come,
89	Not otherwise does iron scintillate
90	When molten, than those circles scintillated.

91	Their coruscation all the sparks repeated,
92	And they so many were, their number makes
93	More millions than the doubling of the chess.

94	I heard them sing hosanna choir by choir
95	To the fixed point which holds them at the Ubi,
96	And ever will, where they have ever been.

97	And she, who saw the dubious meditations
98	Within my mind, The primal circles, said,
99	Have shown thee Seraphim and Cherubim.

100	Thus rapidly they follow their own bonds,
101	To be as like the point as most they can,
102	And can as far as they are high in vision.

103	Those other Loves, that round about them go,
104	Thrones of the countenance divine are called,
105	Because they terminate the primal Triad.

106	And thou shouldst know that they all have delight
107	As much as their own vision penetrates
108	The Truth, in which all intellect finds rest.

109	From this it may be seen how blessedness
110	Is founded in the faculty which sees,
111	And not in that which loves, and follows next;

112	And of this seeing merit is the measure,
113	Which is brought forth by grace, and by good will;
114	Thus on from grade to grade doth it proceed.

115	The second Triad, which is germinating
116	In such wise in this sempiternal spring,
117	That no nocturnal Aries despoils,

118	Perpetually hosanna warbles forth
119	With threefold melody, that sounds in three
120	Orders of joy, with which it is intrined.

121	The three Divine are in this hierarchy,
122	First the Dominions, and the Virtues next;
123	And the third order is that of the Powers.

124	Then in the dances twain penultimate
125	The Principalities and Archangels wheel;
126	The last is wholly of angelic sports.

127	These orders upward all of them are gazing,
128	And downward so prevail, that unto God
129	They all attracted are and all attract.

130	And Dionysius with so great desire
131	To contemplate these Orders set himself
132	He named them and distinguished them as I do.

133	But Gregory afterwards dissented from him;
134	Wherefore, as soon as he unclosed his eyes
135	Within this heaven, he at himself did smile.

136	And if so much of secret truth a mortal
137	Proffered on earth, I would not have thee marvel,
138	For he who saw it here revealed it to him,

139	With much more of the truth about these circles.

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Canto XXVIII