The Online Library of Liberty

A project of Liberty Fund, Inc.

• The Trinity of Love
• Preface
• Paradiso I
• Paradiso Ii
• Paradiso Iii
• Paradiso Iv
• Paradiso V
• Paradiso Vi
• Paradiso Vii
• Paradiso Viii
• Paradiso Ix
• Paradiso X
• Paradiso Xi
• Paradiso Xii
• Paradiso Xiii
• Paradiso Xiv
• Paradiso Xv
• Paradiso Xvi
• Paradiso Xvii
• Paradiso Xviii
• Paradiso Xix
• Paradiso Xx
• Paradiso Xxi
• Paradiso Xxii
• Paradiso Xxiii
• Paradiso Xxiv
• Paradiso Xxv
• Paradiso Xxvi
• Paradiso Xxvii
• Paradiso Xxviii
• Paradiso Xxix
• Paradiso Xxx
• Paradiso Xxxi
• Paradiso Xxxii
• Paradiso Xxxiii

PARADISO XIX

• Before me now, with wings outspread, appeared
• the lovely image, which in sweet fruition
• those joyous interwoven spirits made.
• Each one of them a little ruby seemed,
• wherein a ray of sunlight burned so brightly,
• that it was mirrored back into mine eyes.

• And what I now must needs relate, no voice
• hath e’er reported, nor hath ink inscribed,
• nor hath imagination ever grasped;
• for I both saw and heard the beak converse,
• and utter in its voice both ‘I’ and ‘My,’
• when in its meaning it was ‘We’ and ‘Our.’

• And it began: “Because of being just
• and merciful, I’m to a glory raised
• up here, which doth not let itself be won
• by mere desire; and such a fame I left
• on earth, that evil people there commend it,
• but fail to follow its recorded works.”

• As out of many embers one sole heat
• makes itself felt, so from that image, formed
• by many loves, a single voice came forth.

• Hence I thereafter: “O perpetual flowers
• of joy eternal, who let all your odors
• seem only one to me, by breathing, break
• the painful fast,
• which long hath given me hunger,
• for I on earth have found no food for it.
• Well do I know that, even if in Heaven
• Justice Divine makes of another realm
• its looking-glass, yours apprehends it not
• through any veil. Ye know with what attention
• I gird myself to listen; and ye know
• the doubt which is so old a fast for me.”

• And as a falcon, from his hood set free,
• tosses his head, and, flapping his proud wings,
• displays his eagerness, and plumes himself;
• such I beheld the symbol which is weaved
• by praises of the Grace Divine, become
• with songs, which who up there rejoices knows.

• It then began: “He who His compass turned
• around the world’s last verge, and in it parted
• its many hidden things from those revealed,
• was not so able to impress His Virtue
• on all the world, that His conceived ideal
• should not remain in infinite excess.
• And this assures one that the first proud being
• who greater was than all created spirits,
• through not awaiting light, untimely fell;

• it hence results that every lesser nature
• is but a scant recipient for the Good
• which hath no end, and measures Self by Self.
• Your vision, therefore, which must needs be one
• of that Mind’s rays,
• wherewith all things are filled,
• of its own nature cannot be so strong,
• that it should not perceive its Source as being
• far greater than is all that it can see.
• The vision, therefore, which your world receives,
• into Eternal Justice penetrates
• as doth an eye into the sea; because,
• though it perceive its bottom near the shore,
• when on the deep it sees it not; yet there
• it is, but its great depth conceals it.
• That is not light, which comes not from the Sky
• which never clouds itself; but rather darkness,
• a shadow of the flesh, or else its poison.

• Sufficiently disclosed to thee is now
• the hiding-place which once concealed from thee
• the Living Justice, which so frequently
• it was thy wont to question; for thou saidst:
• ‘A man is born upon the Indus’ banks,
• with no one there to speak of Christ, or read,
• or write; and all his actions and desires
• are good, as far as human reason sees,
• and without sin in either life or speech;

• then, unbaptized and without faith, he dies.
• Wherein consists the Justice which condemns him?
• Where is his fault, if he believeth not?’

• Now who art thou, that as a judge would’st sit
• to judge of things a thousand miles away
• with the short vision of a human span?
• Surely for him who subtly strives with me,
• were not the Scriptures ruling over you,
• wondrous occasions would there be for doubt.
• O earthly creatures! O uncultured minds!

• The Primal Will, which of Itself is Good,
• ne’er from Itself, the Highest Goodness, moved.
• That much is just, which is therewith accordant;
• no good created draws It to itself,
• but It by radiating causes it.”

• As o’er her nest a stork moves circling round,
• after the feeding of her little ones,
• and as the one that ’s fed looks up at her;
• such did the blessèd shape become, which moved
• its pinions, by so many counsels urged,
• and, likewise, so did I lift up my brows.

• Wheeling around, it sang and said: “As now
• my notes to thee, that understand’st them not,
• such to you mortals is Eternal Justice.”

• When those bright flamings of the Holy Spirit
• had come to rest, still in the shape which caused
• the Romans to be honored by the world,

• “None to this Kingdom” it began again,
• “ever ascended without faith in Christ,
• either before, or after He was nailed
• upon the tree. But many, lo! shout ‘Christ!’
• who at the Judgment shall be far less near Him,
• than will be such an one who knows not Christ;
• Christians like these the Ethiop will condemn,
• when parted shall the two assemblies be,
• one rich eternally, the other poor.

• What will the Persians to your rulers say,
• when lying open they shall see the Book,
• wherein all their dispraises are inscribed?

• There will be seen, among the deeds of Albert,
• that which ere long will move the pen, because
• thereby Prague’s kingdom will become a waste.
• There will be seen the woe, which on the Seine
• he who shall perish by a boar skin’s blow,
• bringeth about by falsifying coin.
• There will be seen the pride and thirsty greed,
• which makes the Scot and Englishman so mad,
• that neither can remain within his bounds.
• One will see there the easy life and lust
• of him of Spain, and of Bohemia, too,
• who neither of them knew, nor cared for, valor.
• One will see there, marked with a single I,
• the virtues of Jerusalem’s lame king,
• whereas an M will mark the contrary.

• One will see there the greed and cowardice
• of him who ruleth o’er the isle of fire,
• where once Anchises ended his long life.
• And, to explain his insignificance,
• his record will consist of shortened words,
• which in a little space will notice much.
• And there to each and all will be revealed
• the foul deeds of his uncle and his brother,
• who two crowns and a noble line disgraced.
• And he of Portugal, and he of Norway,
• will there be known, as also Rascia’s prince,
• who in an ill hour saw Venetia’s coin.
• O happy Hungary, if she no more
• shall let herself be wronged! Happy Navarre,
• if with her girding hills she arm herself!
• And both these should believe that Nicosìa
• and Famagosta, as a proof of this,
• are wailing now, and raging at their beast,
• because he does not differ from the rest.”