Notes.
1 Phaethon, hearing rumors that Apollo
was not his true father, asked his mother Clymene who sent him to Apollo to confirm his
birth. His father rashly allowed him to drive the chariot of the sun (Metamorphoses
I, 748-756).
46 Hippolytus, son of Theseus and the
Amazon Antiope, was passionately loved by his stepmother Phaedra. When he spurned her, she
had Theseus banish him under a curse that Poseidon grimly fulfilled (Metamorphoses
XV, 493-505).
50 Boniface VIII plotted against the White
Guelphs of Florence from his seat in Rome.
55 This is the last and most poignant
prophecy of the poet’s upcoming exile.
71 The great Lombard may be Can Grande della
Scala (1291-1329), lord of Verona and head of the Ghibellines. Some suggest that the
reference is to Can Grande’s older brothers Bartolomeo (d. 1304) or Alboino (d.
1311). Can Grande is the subject of praise after line 76.
82 Pope Clement V, a Gascon and
Boniface’s successor, turned against Emperor Henry VII of Luxemburg and in 1312
threatened to excommunicate him. |
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- Like
him who came to Clymene to learn
- If
what he heard against himself were true,
- Who
still makes fathers cautious toward their sons,
-
- Such
was I and such was I seen to be
- 5
Both by Beatrice and by the holy lamp
- That
changed its place before to meet with me.
-
- With
that my lady said to me, "Send forth
- The
flame of your desire so that it may
- Come
clearly printed with its inner stamp.
-
- 10
"Not that our knowledge ever will increase
- By
what you say, but that you may learn how
- To
tell your thirst, and someone give you drink."
-
-
"O my dear root, who raise yourself so high
- That,
as our mind can grasp, a triangle
- 15
Cannot contain two obtuse angles in it,
-
-
"So do you see contingent things before
- They
come to be themselves, with your deep gazing
- Upon
the Point to which all time is present,
-
-
"While I was in the company of Virgil
- 20
High on the mountain that heals many souls,
- And
while I climbed down through the world of death,
-
-
"Foreboding words were said to me concerning
- My
future life, although I feel myself
- So
squarely set to face the blows of chance
-
- 25
"That I willingly would be content to hear
- What
fortune now draws near for me, because
- An
arrow seen beforehand has less shock."
-
- I
spoke this answer to that same bright light
- That
previously had spoken to me, and so,
- 30
As Beatrice wished, my own wish was confessed.
-
- Not
in dark sayings, with which foolish people
- Of
old were once ensnared, before the Lamb
- Of
God who takes away our sins was slain,
-
- But
in clear words and with exact discourse
- 35
That fatherly love made his reply to me,
-
Contained in and shown out of his own smile:
-
-
"Contingency, which does not stretch beyond
- The
meager volume of your world of matter,
- Is
fully pictured in the eternal vision;
-
- 40
"Yet thence it takes on no necessity,
- No
more than would a ship which sails downstream
-
Depend upon the eyes which mirror it;
-
-
"And thence, as to the ear sweet harmony
- Comes
from an organ, to my sight the time
- 45
Comes that already waits in store for you.
-
-
"As Hippolytus was driven out of Athens
-
Through the treachery and spite of his stepmother,
- So
you are destined to depart from Florence.
-
-
"Thus it was willed and thus already plotted,
- 50
And soon it shall be done by him who plans it
- There
where Christ every day is bought and sold.
-
-
"The common cry, as is the wont, will blame
- The
injured party, but the vengeance which
- The
truth demands will witness to the truth.
-
- 55
"You shall leave everything most dearly loved:
- This
is the first one of the arrows which
- The
bow of exile is prepared to shoot.
-
-
"You shall discover how salty is the savor
- Of
someone else’s bread, and how hard the way
- 60
To come down and climb up another’s stairs.
-
-
"And what will weigh down on your shoulders most
- Will
be the bad and brainless company
- With
whom you shall fall down into this ditch.
-
-
"For all shall turn ungrateful, all insane
- And
impious against you, but soon after
- 65
Their brows, and not your own, shall blush for it.
-
-
"Their own behavior will prove their brutishness,
- So
that it shall enhance your reputation
- To
have become a party to yourself.
-
- 70
"First refuge and first place of rest for you
- Shall
be in the great Lombard’s courtesy,
- Who
bears the sacred bird perched on the ladder
-
-
"And who shall hold you in such kind regard
- That
between you, in contrast with the others,
- 75
The granting will be first and asking last.
-
-
"With him you shall see one who at his birth
- Was
so imprinted by this star of strength
- That
men will take note of his noble deeds.
-
-
"Not yet have folk observed his worthiness
- 80
By reason of his age: these wheeling spheres
- Have
only for nine years revolved around him.
-
-
"But ere the Gascon cons high-riding Henry,
- Some
sparks of virtue shall show forth in him
- By hard
work and by caring naught for money.
-
- 85
"His bounty shall be so widespread hereafter
- That
the tongues, even of his enemies,
- Will
not be able to keep still about him.
-
-
"Look you to him and his beneficence.
-
Through him shall many folk find change of fortune,
- 90
Rich men and beggars shifting their positions.
-
-
"And you shall bear this written in your mind
- Of
him, but tell it not..." — and he told things
-
Beyond belief of those who witness them.
-
- Then
added, "Son, these are the glossaries
- 95
On what was told to you: behold the snares
-
Concealed by a few circlings of the sun!
-
-
"Yet be not envious against your neighbors,
- For
your life shall extend much longer than
- The
punishment of their perniciousness."
-
- 100
When this saintly soul showed by his silence
- That
he had set the woof across the warp
- Which
I had held in readiness for him,
-
- I
ventured, like someone who seeks advice,
- In
his confusion, from another person
- 105
Who sees and wills straightforwardly and loves:
-
-
"I clearly see, my father, how time spurs
-
Toward me to strike me such a blow as falls
- The
heaviest on him who heeds it least.
-
-
"So it is well I arm myself with foresight,
- 110
That if the dearest place be taken from me,
-
I’ll not lose all the others, through my verse.
-
-
"Down in that endlessly cruel world below
- And
on that mountain from whose lovely summit
- The
eyes of my own lady lifted me,
-
- 115
"And afterward, from light to light, through heaven,
- I
have learned things which, if I repeat them,
- Will
give a bitter taste to many people.
-
-
"Yet, should I be a timid friend to truth,
- I
fear I will not live among those who
- 120
Shall call this present time the ancient past."
-
- The
light in which the treasure I had found
- Kept
smiling started to flash out at first,
- Just
like a golden mirror in the sun;
-
- Then
he replied, "A conscience overclouded
- 125
Either with its own or others’ shame
- Will
certainly feel that your speech is harsh.
-
-
"But nonetheless — all falsehood set aside —
- Show
plainly everything that you have seen:
- Then
let them scratch wherever it may itch!
-
- 130
"For though your voice be bitter at first smack,
- Yet
later on when it has been digested,
- It
shall leave vital nourishment behind.
-
-
"This cry of yours shall strike as does the wind
- Which
hits against the highest peaks the hardest,
- 135
And that shall be no petty proof of honor.
-
-
"Therefore you have been shown within these spheres,
- Upon
the mountain, and in the woeful valley,
- Only
the souls of those known for their fame.
-
-
"For the mind of the listener never rests
- 140
And will not build its faith on an example
- Whose
roots remain unknown or undiscovered,
-
-
"Nor on any other proof that is not lucid."
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