Paradiso -- Canto XXVI

Saint John, Examination of Love

Notes.

12 Ananias restored the sight of the blinded Paul (Acts 9:17-18).

13 Saint John examines the pilgrim on love: its possession, intensity, and sources; Dante begins his response.

38 Dante here cites Aristotle, perhaps to his Metaphysics.

42 The line echoes God’s words to Moses in Exodus 33:19.

43-45 See John 1:1, "In the beginning was the Word." Others take the "proclamation" here to refer to Revelation 1:8. "I am Alpha and Omega, the beginning and the end."

53 John the Evangelist is symbolized by an eagle.

83 The first soul is Adam, who will answer Dante’s questions about the Garden of Eden.

120 Dante calculates that the human race is 6,498 years old in 1300: Adam lived 930 years and spent 4,302 years in Limbo; it has been 1,266 years since the crucifixion (see Inferno XXI, l. 113).

125 Nimrod again is the leader responsible for the confusion of tongues by attempting to regain heaven through the Tower of Babel (Genesis 11:2-9). See Inferno XXXI, l. 77.

135 Adam states that God's original name was "I" (Jah>Jahweh) and then "El" (Elohim) in Hebrew.

142 Adam spent little more than six hours in Eden.

          While I stayed fearful for my dazzled sight,

          There issued out of the effulgent flame

          That blinded it, a breath that made me listen

 

          As it declared, "Until you can regain

5        The sight which you have lost in seeing me,

          You well would compensate for it by speaking.

 

          "Begin then, and tell at what mark your soul

          Is aimed — and you may rest assured your sight

          Is only clouded over and not lost,

 

10       "Because the lady who conducts you through

          This holy place has in her look that power

          The hand of Ananias once possessed."

 

          I said, "When it shall please her, soon or late,

          Let help come to the eyes which were the gates

15       She entered with the fire still burning in me.

 

          "The good which brings contentment to the court

          Is Alpha and Omega of all the scriptures

          Love reads to me with soft or louder tones."

 

          The same voice that had freed me from the fear

20       Of my blinding by this sudden dazzlement

          Returned me to my wish to speak again

 

          When it said, "Surely you must sift this matter

          With a much finer sieve, and you must tell:

          Who made you aim your bow at such a target?"

 

25       And I: "By reasons of philosophy,

          And by authority derived from heaven,

          Love of this sort must stamp its seal on me,

 

          "Because the good, so far as it is understood

          As such, enkindles love, and it does so the more,

30       The more goodness it contains within itself.

 

          "To the Essence, then, which is so excellent

          That every good outside of it is nothing

          Except a ray of its own radiance,

 

          "The mind of all those who discern the truth,

35       On which this proof of reason is established,

          Must move, in love more than to any other.

 

          "This truth is made plain to my mind by him

          Who demonstrates to me the primal loving

          Of all the sempiternal substances.

 

40       "The truthful Author’s voice reveals it where,

          In speaking of himself, he says to Moses,

          ‘I will make all my good pass in your sight.’

 

          "You show it to me too in the beginning

          Of your great gospel which, more than the other

45       Tidings, tells earth the mystery of heaven."

 

          And I heard, "Through human intellect

          And through authorities agreeing with it,

          Let the highest of your loves look up to God.

 

          "But tell me too if you feel other cords

50       Draw you toward Him, that you may so declare

          How many teeth this love has sunk in you."

 

          I could not fail to find the holy purpose

          Of the eagle of Christ — rather, I discerned

          The direction he’d have my profession take.

 

55       Again, then, I began, "All of those things

          With teeth to make the heart to turn to God

          Have fastened all together in my love:

 

          "The being of the world and my own being,

          The death that he endured that I might live,

60       And the reward the faithful (like me) hope for,

 

          "Fused with the living knowledge that I spoke of,

          Have hauled me from the sea of wrongful love

          And set me on the shore of love set straight.

 

          "As for the leaves that leaf out the whole garden

65       Of the eternal gardener, I love each one

          In measure as it grows in goodness from him."

 

          As soon as I grew still a most sweet song

          Resounded through the heavens, and my lady

          Sang with the others, "Holy, Holy, Holy!"

 

70       And as a shaft of sunlight shatters sleep

          When the spirit of one’s eyesight runs to meet

          The radiance that spreads from lid to lid,

 

          And one who wakes up shrinks from what he sees,

          His mind befuddled by the sudden rousing,

75       Until his judgment comes to help him out,

 

          So Beatrice scattered every speck away

          From my eyes with the beaming of her own

          Which shone back down a thousand miles and more,

 

          So that I now saw better than before,

80       And almost thunderstruck I questioned her

          About a fourth light that I saw with us.

 

          And my lady said, "Within those rays

          The first soul the first Power ever made

          Gazes lovingly upon its Maker."

 

85       Just as a bough that bends its twig-tips down

          With passing breezes and then lifts itself

          By its own power to spring up again,

 

          So I stood bowed with wonder while she spoke,

          And then the wish to speak that burned in me

90       Raised up my self-assurance once again,

 

          And I began, "O fruit, the only one

          Produced already ripe, O ancient father

          To whom each bride is daughter and daughter-in-law,

 

          "Devoutly as I may I beg of you

95       To speak to me: you see my willingness,

          And I — to hear you sooner — say no more."

 

          An animal at times beneath its wrappings

          So wriggles that it makes its feelings plain

          Because the wraps respond to all its movements:

 

100      In the same way, that first soul made it clear

          To me — right through its covering — just how

          Elatedly it came to do my pleasure.

          With that it breathed, "Without my being told

          By you, I seize your wish more lucidly

105      Than you grasp anything you hold for certain,

          "Because I see it in the truthful mirror

          That fashions a reflection of all else

          While nothing may reflect the mirror back.

 

          "You wish to hear how long it is since God

110      Placed me in that lofty garden, where

          This lady readied you for these high stairs,

 

          "And how long my eyes gladdened at their sight,

          And the real reason for His mighty anger,

          And the language that I framed and then employed.

 

115      "Now not the tasting of the tree, my son,

          Itself was reason for so long an exile,

          But only the overreaching of the mark.

 

          "The place from which your lady drew out Virgil,

          There I longed for this company throughout

120      Four thousand three hundred and two sun-years,

 

          "And while on earth I saw the sun return

          Nine hundred thirty times to all the lights

          Cast by the zodiac along its path.

 

          "The tongue that I had spoken was extinct

125      Even before those people of Nimrod’s tried

          Completing their unfinishable task,

 

          "Because no work of reason has endured

          Forever, due to human inclination

          Which changes with the shifting of the skies.

 

130     "The fact that mortals speak is nature’s doing,

          But whether you speak this or that, nature

          Then leaves to you to follow your own bent.

 

          "Before I went down to the pains of hell

          The highest Good from whom comes all the joy

135      That clothes me was called 'I' upon the earth,

 

          "And later was named ‘El’: and that must be,

          For mortal ways are like the leaves on branches:

          They fall away and then another forms.

 

          "On the mountain rising highest from the sea

140      I lived in innocence and, later, guilt,

          From the first hour to that which follows next

 

          "(When the sun changes quarter) after the sixth."

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