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 XXXIII

• “O Virgin Mother, Daughter of thy Son,
• humbler and loftier than any creature,
• eternal counsel’s predetermined goal,
• thou art the one that such nobility
• didst lend to human nature, that its Maker
• scorned not to make Himself what He had made.
• Within thy womb rekindled was the Love,
• through whose warm influence in the eternal Peace
• this Flower hath blossomed thus. Here unto us
• thou art a noonday torch of Charity;
• and down below ’mong mortal men, thou art
• a living fount of Hope. Lady, so great
• thou art, and hast such worth, that one who longs
• for Grace, and unto thee hath not recourse,
• wingless would wish to have his longing fly.
• Not only doth thy Kindliness give help
• to him that asketh it, but many times
• it freely runs ahead of his request.
• In thee is Mercy, Pity is in thee,
• in thee Magnificence, and all there is
• of Goodness in a creature meets in thee.

• Now doth this man, who from the lowest drain
• of the Universe hath one by one beheld,
• as far as here, the forms of spirit-life,
• beseech thee, of thy grace, for so much strength
• that with his eyes he may uplift himself
• toward Ultimate Salvation higher still.
• And I, who never for mine own sight burned
• more than I do for his, offer thee all
• my prayers, and pray that they be not too poor,
• that thou with thy prayers so dissolve each cloud
• of his mortality, that unto him
• the Highest Pleasure may unfold Itself.
• And furthermore, I pray to thee, O Queen,
• who canst whate’er thou wilt, that, after such
• a sight, thou keep all his affections sound.
• His human promptings let thy care defeat;
• see with how many blest ones Beatrice
• is clasping for my prayers her hands to thee!”

• The eyes belovèd and revered by God,
• intent on him who prayed, revealed to us
• how grateful unto her are earnest prayers.
• Thence they addressed them to the Eternal Light,
• wherein it may not be believed the eye
• of any creature finds so clear a way.

• And I, who to the End of all desires
• was drawing near, within me, as I ought,
• brought to its goal the ardor of desire.

• Bernard was smiling, and was making signs
• for me to look on high; but, as he wished,
• I was already of mine own accord;
• because my sight, as purer it became,
• was penetrating more and more the radiance
• of that High Light, which of Itself is true.

• From this time onward greater was my sight
• than is our speech, which yields to such a vision,
• and memory also yields to such excess.

• And such as he, who seeth in a dream,
• and after it, the imprinted feeling stays,
• while all the rest returns not to his mind;
• even such am I; for almost wholly fades
• my vision, yet the sweetness which was born
• of it is dripping still into my heart.

• Even thus the snow is in the sun dissolved;
• even thus the Sibyl’s oracles, inscribed
• on flying leaves, were lost adown the wind.

• O Light Supreme, that dost uplift Thyself
• so far from mortal thought, relend my mind
• a little of what Thou didst seem to be,
• and cause my tongue to be so powerful,
• that of Thy Glory it may leave at least
• a spark unto the people still to come;
• for to my mem’ry if it but a while
• return, and speak a little in these lines,
• more of Thy Victory will be conceived.

• I think the keenness of the living Ray
• which I endured would have confounded me,
• if from it I had turned away mine eyes.
• And I recall that I, because of this,
• the bolder was to bear it, till I made
• my vision one with Value Infinite.

• O the abundant Grace, whereby I dared
• to pierce the Light Eternal with my gaze,
• until I had therein exhausted sight!

• I saw that far within its depths there lies,
• by Love together in one volume bound,
• that which in leaves lies scattered through the world;
• substance and accident, and modes thereof,
• fused, as it were, in such a way, that that,
• whereof I speak, is but One Simple Light.

• This union’s general form I think I saw,
• since, saying so, I feel that I the more
• rejoice. Of more forgetfulness for me
• one moment is, than centuries twenty-five
• are for the enterprise which once caused Neptune
• to wonder at the shadow Argo cast.

• My mind, thus wholly in suspense, was gazing
• steadfast and motionless, and all intent,
• and, gazing, grew enkindled more and more.

• Such in that Light doth one at last become,
• that one can never possibly consent
• to turn therefrom for any other sight;

• because the Good, which is the will’s real object,
• is therein wholly gathered, and, outside,
• that is defective which is perfect there.

• Ev’n as to what I do remember, mine
• will now be shorter than an infant’s speech,
• who at the breast still bathes his tongue. ’T was not
• that there was other than a simple semblance
• within the Living Light wherein I gazed,
• which always is what It hath been before;
• but through my sight, which in me, as I looked,
• was gathering strength, because I changed, one sole
• appearance underwent a change for me.

• Within the Lofty Light’s profound and clear
• subsistence there appeared to me three Rings,
• of threefold color and of one content;
• and one, as Rainbow is by Rainbow, seemed
• reflected by the other, while the third
• seemed like a Fire breathed equally from both.

• Oh, how, to my conception, short and weak
• is speech! And this, to what I saw, is such,
• that it is not enough to call it small.

• O Light Eternal, that alone dost dwell
• within Thyself, alone dost understand
• Thyself, and love and smile upon Thyself,
• Self-understanding and Self-understood!

• That Circle which appeared to be conceived
• within Thyself as a Reflected Light,
• when somewhat contemplated by mine eyes,

• within Itself, of Its own very color,
• to me seemed painted with our Human Form;
• whence wholly set upon It was my gaze.

• Like the geometer, who gives himself
• wholly to measuring the circle, nor,
• by thinking, finds the principle he needs;
• ev’n such was I at that new sight. I wished
• to see how to the Ring the Image there
• conformed Itself, and found therein a place;
• but mine own wings were not enough for this;
• had not my mind been smitten by a flash
• of light, wherein what it was willing came.

• Here power failed my high imagining;
• but, like a smoothly moving wheel, that Love
• was now revolving my desire and will,
• which moves the sun and all the other stars.

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