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 XXVI

• While I was frightened by my loss of vision,
• from the refulgent flaming which had quenched it,
• a breath, which caused me to give heed, came forth,
• and said: “Till thou regain the sense of sight
• which thou hast spent by gazing up at me,
• ’t is well that thou make up for it by speech.
• Therefore begin to speak; and say toward what
• thy soul aspires, and also bear in mind
• that sight in thee is lost, but not destroyed;
• because the Lady who is leading thee
• through this divine expanse, hath in her look
• the power possessed by Ananias’ hand.”

• “At her own pleasure, soon or late,” I said,
• let the cure reach the eyes which portals were,
• when with that fire she entered, wherewithal
• I ever burn. The Good which sates this court
• is alpha and omega of all scriptures
• Love reads to me in tones or low or loud.”

• And that same voice which rid me of the fear
• the sudden blinding blaze had given me,
• inspired me with a wish to speak again,

• and said: “Thou surely through a finer sieve
• must pass thy meaning; it behooves thee say
• who toward so great a target turned thy bow.”

• And I: “By philosophic arguments,
• and by authority which from up here descends,
• must such a love needs stamp itself on me;
• because the good, when understood as such,
• enkindles love, and all the greater love,
• the more it holds of goodness in itself.
• Hence to that Being who so perfect is,
• that every good which lies outside of Him
• is nothing but a beam of His own radiance,
• more than to any other must the mind
• in love be moved, of all who recognize
• the truth on which this argument is based.
• He to mine understanding shows this truth,
• who demonstrates to me the Primal Love
• of all the sempiternal substances;
• the Truthful Author’s voice revealeth it,
• when, speaking of Himself, He saith to Moses:
• ‘All goodness shall I have thee see.’ Thou, too,
• revealest it to me when thou beginnest
• the loud announcement which o’er other trumps
• heralds on earth the secrets of this state.”

• Thereat I heard: “By human understanding,
• and by authorities therewith concordant,
• the sovereign of thy loves is turned to God.

• But further say if other cords thou feel
• attract thee toward Him; so that thou mayst say
• how many of love’s teeth are biting thee.”

• Not hidden was the purpose of Christ’s Eagle;
• nay, rather, I perceived to what he wished
• to lead my love’s profession to declare;
• hence, “All those bitings” I began again,
• “which possibly could turn one’s heart to God,
• have with my love of Him concurrent been;
• for, both the world’s existence, and mine own,
• the death which He endured that I might live,
• and that which all the faithful hope as I,
• together with the mentioned living knowledge,
• have drawn me from the sea of wrong desires,
• and set me on the shore of righteous love.

• I love the several leaves wherewith enleaved
• is all the garden of the Eternal Gardener,
• according to the good He giveth each.”

• As soon as I had ceased, a most sweet song
• throughout all heaven resounded, and my Lady
• said: “Holy, Holy, Holy!” with the rest.

• And ev’n as at a vivid flash of light
• one wakes from sleep, because one’s visual power
• turns toward the ray which moves from coat to coat;
• and as the one awakened shrinketh back
• from that which he hath seen, so senseless is
• his sudden waking, till reflection helps;

• thus Beatrice drove all motes from mine eyes
• by the mere radiance of her own, whose light
• shone further than a thousand miles away;
• I, therefore, saw far better than before;
• then, since I was amazed at it, I asked
• about a fourth light I beheld with us.

• My Lady then: “In yonder radiant light
• the first soul which the first Power e’er created
• is gazing joyfully upon his Maker.”

• Even as a bough which, while the wind is passing,
• bends its top down, and then uplifts itself,
• by innate strength which raises it again;
• even so did I, amazed, while she was speaking;
• and then the wish to speak, wherewith I burned,
• made me feel reassured, and I began:

• “O fruit that wast alone produced when ripe,
• O ancient Father, thou to whom each bride
• is both a daughter and a daughter-in-law,
• I beg thee as devoutly as I can
• to speak to me; thou see’st my wish, hence I,
• that I may quickly hear thee, tell it not.”

• At times a covered animal so stirs,
• that its own movement needs must be revealed,
• because its covering corresponds to it;
• so likewise did the first of souls display
• to me, through that which covered it, how gladly
• he came to give me pleasure. Then it breathed:

• “Without its being told to me by thee,
• better do I perceive what thou desirest,
• than thou perceivest what thou knowest best;
• for I behold it in the Truthful Mirror,
• which of Itself makes other things a likeness,
• though naught makes It a likeness of itself.
• Thou fain wouldst hear how long it is since God
• in that high garden placed me, where this Lady
• prepared thee for so long a flight of stairs;
• how long it was a pleasure to mine eyes;
• the real occasion for the mighty wrath;
• and what the tongue, which I both used and made.

• Now, son, the tasting of the tree was not
• itself the cause of such a banishment,
• but only the transgression of the bound.
• In that place, whence thy Lady started Virgil,
• I, hence, for this assembly longed four thousand
• three hundred revolutions of the sun
• and two; and him I saw return again
• to all his highway’s lights nine hundred times
• and thirty, while I still abode on earth.
• The tongue I spoke had quite extinct become
• a long time e’er the people under Nimrod
• attempted their unfinishable task;
• for never was a product of man’s reason
• apt to endure, for human appetite
• renews itself according to the heavens.

• That mankind speaks, a work of Nature is,
• but if in this or that way, Nature then
• leaves you to do according to your pleasure.
• Ere I descended to the grieving place
• below, the Highest Good, from whom proceeds
• the joy which swathes me, was on earth called I;
• EL was He called thereafter; this must be,
• for human custom is, as on a bough
• a leaf, which goeth as another comes.
• Upon the Mount which highest from the sea
• ascends, I lived, in innocence and sin,
• from the first hour until the one which follows,
• after the sun’s first quadrant change, the sixth.”