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 XXXI

• In semblance, therefore, of a pure white Rose
• the sacred soldiery which with His blood
• Christ made His Bride, revealed itself to me;
• meanwhile the other host, which, flying, sees
• the glory of Him who wins its love, and sings
• the goodness which had made them all so great,
• was, like a swarm of bees, which now inflowers
• itself, and now returns to where its toil
• is sweetened, ever coming down to enter
• the spacious Flower, which with so many leaves
• adorns itself, and reascending thence
• to where its Love forever makes His home.

• The faces of them all were living flames,
• their wings were golden, and the rest so white,
• that never is such whiteness reached by snow.
• When down into the Flower they came, they spread
• from bench to bench the peace and ardent love,
• which by the fanning of their sides they won.
• Nor did so vast a host of flying forms
• between the flower and that which o’er it lies,
• hinder the sight, or dim the splendor seen;

• because the Light Divine so penetrates
• the Universe, according to its worth,
• that naught can be an obstacle thereto.
• And this secure and joyous Kingdom, thronged
• by people of the ages old and new,
• wholly on one Mark set its looks and love.

• O Trinal Light, that in a Single Star,
• sparkling before their eyes, dost so appease them,
• look down upon our tempest here below!

• If the Barbarians — coming from a region,
• above which Helicë looms every day,
• while circling with the son who is her joy,
• on seeing Rome and all her lofty buildings,
• what time the Lateran rose eminent
• o’er every mortal thing — were wonderstruck;
• how overwhelmed with awe must I have been,
• I, who from human things, to things divine,
• from time, into eternity had come,
• from Florence — to a people just and sane!
• Because of this, indeed, and of my joy,
• it pleased me to be mute and hear no sound.

• And ev’n as in the temple of his vow,
• when hoping to describe it all some day,
• a pilgrim looks around him, and is cheered;
• ev’n so, while wandering through the living Light,
• I turned mine eyes on all the graded ranks,
• circling now up, now down, and now around.

• There love-persuasive faces I beheld,
• decked by Another’s light and their own smiles,
• and gestures fraught with grace and dignity.

• My look now as a whole had comprehended
• the general form of Paradise, but had not yet
• settled especially on any part;
• and I was longing with rekindled wish
• to ask my Lady as to many things,
• concerning which my mind was in suspense.

• Though one thing I had meant, another answered;
• thinking to look at Beatrice, an elder
• I saw arrayed as are the glorious folk.
• His eyes and cheeks were all suffused with joy
• and kindliness, and such his pious mien,
• as fitting is a father’s tenderness.

• Hence “Where is she?” I said impulsively;
• and he: “To bring thy longing to an end,
• was I by Beatrice from mine own place
• withdrawn; and if upon the highest rank’s
• third round thou look, thou shalt again behold her
• enthroned where her deserts allotted her.”

• Without reply I lifted up mine eyes,
• and saw her, as, reflecting from herself
• the eternal rays, she made herself a crown.
• Not from the tract whence highest thunders peal
• is any mortal eye so far removed
• from whatsoever sea it fathoms most.

• as Beatrice was distant from mine eyes;
• but naught was that to me, because her face
• came down to me unblurred by aught between.

• “O Lady, thou in whom my hope is strong,
• and who for my salvation didst endure
• to leave the traces of thy feet in Hell,
• I recognize the virtue and the grace
• of all the many things which I have seen,
• as coming from thy power and kindliness.
• From slavery to freedom thou hast drawn me
• in every way, and over every path,
• within thy power to achieve that end.
• Guard thou in me the fruitage of thy bounty,
• that thus my soul, restored to health by thee,
• may, when it leaves my body, please thee still!”

• I thus implored; and she, though so far off
• she seemed, looked down at me and smiled;
• then to the Eternal Fount she turned again.

• Thereat the holy elder said: “That thou
• mayst bring thy journey to its perfect end,
• for which both prayers and holy love have sent me,
• hover about this Garden with thine eyes,
• for to have seen it will prepare thy look
• to rise still higher through the Ray Divine.
• The Queen of Heaven, for whom I wholly burn
• with love, will grant us this and very grace,
• for I her faithful servant Bernard am.”

• As he who from Croatia comes, perchance,
• to look at our Veronica, and who,
• because of its old fame, is never sated,
• but says in thought, as long as it is shown:
• “My Lord, Christ Jesus, God in very truth,
• was, then, your countenance like unto this?”
• even such was I, as on the living love
• I gazed on him, who in this world received
• a taste, in contemplation, of that Peace.

• “This glad existence, son of Grace,” he then
• began, “will not be known to thee, if fixed
• at this low level only are thine eyes.
• Look at the circles, to the most remote,
• till yonder thou behold that Queen enthroned,
• to whom devoutly subject is this Realm.”

• I raised mine eyes; and as at early morn
• the horizon’s eastern parts excel in light
• the regions where the sun is setting; so,
• as with mine eyes from vale to mount I moved,
• I saw a region at the utmost verge
• vanquish in light all other parts before me.
• And as the skies where one awaits the car
• which Phaethon badly drove, more brightly gleam,
• while pale the light on either side becomes;
• so likewise, brilliant in the middle loomed
• that peaceful Oriflamme, and on each side
• the fire in equal measure burned less bright.

• And clustered there with wings outspread I saw
• more than a thousand Angels jubilant,
• and each distinct in splendor and in speed;
• while smiling down upon their sports and songs
• a Beauty I beheld, who was the joy
• within the eyes of all the other Saints.
• And even if I in utterance were as rich
• as in imagination, I ’d not dare
• attempt to tell the least of its delight.

• When Bernard saw mine eyes intently fixed
• upon the object of his ardent love,
• he turned to it his own with such affection,
• that mine more eager grew to look again.