Notes.
19 The speaker is Thomas
Aquinas, who, in the previous canto, told Dante of the corrupt Dominicans (ll. 94-96) and
Solomon's wisdom (ll. 109-114). The Dominicans he will discuss in this canto, and Solomon
in Canto XIII.
35 Saint Francis is identified with the
Seraphim, angels of love, and Saint Dominic with the Cherubim, angels of wisdom.
43 Assisi lies between the Topino river and
the Chiascio, a river near the hill where Saint Ubaldo (d. 1160) built his hermitage.
47 Porta Sole, eastern gate of Perugia, lets
in the heat of summer and the cold of winter. The towns of Gualdo and Nocera also feel the
weather on the eastern slope of Mount Subasio.
53 Dante puns on the meaning of Assisi’s
old name: Ascesi (which means: "I have risen") and the East (Orient,
where the sun rises). The sun and not a mere man has come into the world.
58 Saint Francis (1182-1226), against his
father’s ambitions for him, chose poverty for his lady.
69 Amyclas the fisherman was so poor that he
had nothing to fear, even from Caesar’s summons.
79 Bernard, Egidius and Sylvester (l. 83)
were early followers of Francis.
92 Pope Innocent III gave the Order of Friars
Minor his verbal approval in 1210. Official approval came thirteen years later under
Honorius III (l. 97).
101 The Sultan of Egypt received Saint
Francis in 1219, but was not converted.
106 On Mount Alvernia Saint Francis in 1224
was imprinted with the stigmata of the five wounds of Christ. |
|
- O
senseless the concerns of mortal men!
- How
empty are the reasonings that force you
- To
flap your wings and plunge in downward flight!
-
- Here
one pursues the law, there medicine;
- 5
Another hurries off into the priesthood,
- And
one would rule by fraud or violence!
-
- This
one looks to theft and that to business;
-
Another, caught in pleasures of the flesh,
- Wears
himself out; one lolls in idleness;
-
- 10
While I, delivered from all these concerns,
- Am
high in heaven now with Beatrice,
- Made
welcome in the glory of the blessed.
-
- When
each one of the spirits had come round
- To
that point of the circle that he’d left,
- 15
Each rested like a candle in its stand.
-
- And I
heard from within that radiance
- Which
first addressed me — all the while it smiled
- And
grew still brighter — a voice begin to say,
-
-
"Just as in turn I glitter with these rays,
- 20
So, staring into the Eternal Light,
- I
know your thoughts and why you’re thinking them.
-
-
"You’re puzzled and would like me to explain
- My
words in open and explicit language
- Aimed
at the level of your comprehension,
-
- 25
"When I just said, ‘Where fattening is good,’
- And
also this: ‘No second ever rose’;
- And
here a clear distinction must be made.
-
-
"The Providence that rules over the world
- With
counsel in which all created sight
- 30
Is overcome before it plumb the depths—
-
-
"So that the Bride of him who with loud cries
- Had
married her with his own blessed blood
- Might
move ahead to meet with her Beloved,
-
-
"Confident in herself and true to him—
- 35
Sent for her benefit two princes who
- On
this side and on that would be her guides:
-
-
"The one was all seraphic in his ardor,
- The
other for his wisdom was on earth
- An
iridescence of cherubic light.
-
- 40
"Of one I shall speak, for in praising one—
-
Whichever’s chosen — I will praise them both,
-
Because their labors led to one same goal.
-
-
"Between Topino and the stream that pours
- Down
from the hill picked by the blest Ubaldo,
- 45
A fertile slope slants from a soaring mountain
-
-
"Which makes Perugia feel the cold and heat
-
Through Porta Sole; and for their heavy yoke
-
Gualdo and Nocera weep behind it.
-
-
"From this slope, where its steepness tapers off,
- 50
A sun has risen up into the world,
- Just
as it sometimes rises from the Ganges.
-
-
"Let no one, then, who seeks to name this place
- Speak
of Assisi, a word that is too meager,
- But
of the East, if he would talk correctly.
-
- 55
"He was as yet not too far from his dawning
- When
he began to make the earth feel fairly
-
Strengthened by the power of his virtue;
-
-
"For he, while still a youth, rushed into battle
-
Against his father for a lady to whom,
- 60
Like death, no one unlocks the door with pleasure.
-
-
"And in the presence of his spiritual court
-
Before his father he was wedded to her,
- And
after, day by day, loved her more deeply.
-
-
"She, for eleven hundred years and more
- 65
Bereft of her first husband, scorned, obscure,
- Was
left without a wooer till he came.
-
-
"Nor was it any help to her to hear
- That
he who frightened the whole world found her,
- With
Amyclas, unruffled by his voice.
-
- 70
"Nor was there help in having been so steadfast
- And
fearless that, when Mary stayed below,
- She
mounted up with Christ high on the cross.
-
-
"But not to go on speaking too obscurely,
- Now,
from this point, take Francis and Poverty
- 75
To be the lovers in my long description.
-
-
"Their harmony and look of happiness
- Made
love and wonderment and tender glances
- The
wellspring of inspired holy thoughts,
-
-
"So that the venerable Bernard first
- 80
Took off his shoes and ran for such full peace,
- And
in his running thought himself too slow.
-
-
"Oh unknown wealthiness! oh fruitful good!
-
Egidius goes barefoot, Silvester too,
-
Behind the groom, the bride so pleases them!
-
- 85
"This father and this master then departs
- With
his dear lady and their family
-
Already cinctured with the lowly cord:
-
-
"No shame of heart made him bow down his head
- For
being Pietro Bernardone’s son,
- 90
Nor for appearing wondrously despised,
-
-
"But royally he revealed his stern resolve
- To
Innocent, and he received from him
- The
first seal of approval for his Order.
-
-
"After a poor multitude had swelled
- 95
Behind this man whose miracle-making life
- Were
better sung with hymns in heaven’s glory,
-
-
"The Eternal Spirit through Honorius
-
Encircled then the sacred purposes
- Of
the chief shepherd with a second crown.
-
- 100
"And after that, in thirst for martyrdom,
-
Before the haughty presence of the Sultan,
- He
preached Christ Jesus and his followers;
-
-
"And when he found the people too unripe
- To be
converted — not to waste his efforts—
- 105
He returned to harvest the Italian fields.
-
-
"Then on a harsh crag between Tiber and Arno
- He
received from Christ the last imprinted seal
- Which
for two years he bore upon his limbs.
-
-
"When He who’d chosen him for such great good
- 110
Was pleased to draw him up to the reward
- Which
he had earned by making himself little,
-
-
"To his brothers as to his rightful heirs
- He
recommended his most precious lady
- And
ordered them to love her faithfully;
-
- 115
"And from her bosom the illustrious soul
-
Chose to depart, returning to the kingdom,
- And
for his body wished no other bier.
-
-
"Reflect now what he was who was a worthy
-
Colleague to him for keeping Peter’s bark
- 120
Straight on its course across the open sea.
-
-
"And such was Dominic, our patriarch:
- So
you can see that he who follows him
- As he
commands transports a priceless cargo.
-
-
"But now his flock has grown so greedy for
- 125
New tastes in food that it is only found
-
Scattered throughout the pasture wilderness.
-
-
"The farther from him his sheep stray afield,
-
Remote and vagabond, the emptier
- Of
milk are they, returning to the fold.
-
- 130
"Some sheep there are indeed that, fearing danger,
- Keep
close to the shepherd, but they are so few
- That
little cloth can make up all their cowls!
-
-
"Now, if my words have not been indistinct,
- If
you have listened to them with attention,
- 135
And if you call to mind what I have said,
-
-
"Your wish to know is partially fulfilled
- For
you will see just how the tree is hacked,
- And
you will see the meaning of the charge:
-
-
" ‘Where fattening is good, unless they stray.’ "
|
return
to Paradiso X