Notes
46
Marco Lombardo has not been
otherwise
identified.
.
98 The shepherd is Boniface
VIII. To chew the cud means to meditate
and the cloven hoof refers to the discernment of spirits.
115 Lombardy between the Adige
and the Po rivers was a battling-ground for Emperor Frederick II and the
popes with their allies.
125 Currado da Piazza,
a Guelph of Brescia, acted as Charles I of Anjou's vicar in Florence in
1276. Gherardo da Cammino of Brescia and Guido da Castello of Treviso are
here given as models of highborn generosity. 131
The sons of Levi are the priesthood. |
|
- Darkness
of hell and of a night devoid
- Of
all the planets, under a dingy sky
- As
overcast with clouds as it can be,
-
- Never
made for my eyes so thick a veil,
- 5
Nor yet a cloth so prickly to the touch,
- As
was the smoke that there wrapped us around,
-
- For
it would not let me keep my eyes open:
- At
sight of this my wise and trusted escort
- Drew
close to me and offered me his shoulder.
-
- 10
Just as a blind man goes behind his guide
- So
that he may not stray or strike against
- Some
thing that could cause hurt or maybe kill him,
-
- So I
walked through that vile and smarting air
-
Listening to my guide who kept repeating,
- 15
"Watch out that you are not cut off from me."
-
-
Voices I heard and each one seemed to pray
- The
Lamb of God who takes away our sins
- To
grant his mercy to us and his peace.
-
-
"Agnus Dei" their response began,
- 20
As if one word and measure were in all
- So
that full harmony appeared among them.
-
-
"Are those whom I am hearing, master, spirits?"
- I
asked. And he told me, "You grasp the truth,
- And
they go loosening the knot of anger."
-
- 25
"Now who are you who penetrate our smoke
- And
speak of us exactly as if you
- Still
counted time according to calendars?"
-
- These
words a voice called out. On hearing it,
- My
master said to me, "Reply to him
- 30
And ask if by this way we can climb upward."
-
- And
I: "O creature who cleanse yourself of sin
- To
return, beautiful, up to your Maker,
- You
shall hear wonders if you follow me."
-
-
"As far as I’m allowed I’ll follow you,
- 35
And if the smoke won’t let us see," he answered,
-
"Hearing instead will let us stay in touch."
-
- Then
I began, "Still with those fleshly bonds
- Which
death unbinds I make my upward journey,
- And I
have come here through the throes of hell.
-
- 40
"Since God has so enclosed me in his grace
- That
he had willed that I should see his court
- In a
way wholly strange to modern custom,
-
-
"Don’t hide from me who you were before death,
- But
tell me, and say if I’m headed straight
- 45
For the pass: your words shall be our guide."
-
-
"A Lombard was I and Marco I was called.
- I
knew the world and yet I loved the worth
- At
which the bows of men no longer aim.
-
-
"For mounting up you are on the right path."
- 50
This he replied — then added: "I pray you
- To
pray for me when you are up on high."
-
- And I
told him, "My faith I pledge to you
- To do
what you have asked me — but I burst
-
Inwardly with doubt I must be rid of:
-
- 55
"First my doubt was simple, now it’s doubled
- By
your statement which makes me certain here,
- As
elsewhere, by the words I couple with it.
-
-
"The world indeed is now completely void
- Of
every virtue, as you observed to me,
- 60
And burdened with iniquity, and buried.
-
-
"But I pray you to point me out the cause
- That
I may see it and then show it to others
- For
some place it in heaven, some below."
-
- Deep
sighs, which sorrow strained into an "Ah!"
- 65
He first heaved out, and then began, "Brother,
- The
world is blind and surely you come from it.
-
-
"You who are living refer every cause
-
Solely up to heaven, as if it moved
- All
things with it out of necessity.
-
- 70
"If this were so, the free will you possess
- Would
be destroyed, and there would be no justice
- In
having joy in good or grief in evil.
-
-
"The heavens set your impulses in motion —
- I
don’t say all of them, but suppose I did,
- 75
A light is dealt you to tell good from evil
-
-
"And know free will, which, though it be worn out
- In
its first struggles with the heavens, later
- It
shall yet conquer all, if nourished well.
-
-
"To a mightier power and a higher nature
- 80
You, though free, are subject, and that engenders
- The
mind in you the heavens do not sway.
-
-
"If, then, the world today has gone astray,
- In
you the cause lies, in you it’s to be sought!
- And
now I’ll prove a true informant for you.
-
- 85
"From out the hands of Him who fondly loves her
-
Before she comes to be, there issues forth,
- Like
a child at play in tears and laughter,
-
-
"The simple soul without a shred of knowledge,
-
Except that, springing from a joyous Maker,
- 90
Willingly she turns to what delights her.
-
-
"With trifles she first satisfies her taste:
- She
is beguiled and gambols after them
-
Unless a guide or bridle bend her love.
-
-
"Therefore, law was needed as a curb,
- 95
And needed also was a king who could
-
Discern at least the tower of the true city.
-
-
"The laws exist, but who sets hand to them?
- No
one! For the shepherd who heads the flock
- Can
chew the cud but has no cloven hooves.
-
- 100
"And so the people who behold their guide
-
Reaching for that good they’re greedy for
- Feed
themselves on that and seek no further.
-
-
"You now can clearly see that evil guidance
- Has
been the cause which made the world go wrong
- 105
And not that nature is corrupt in you.
-
-
"Rome, which made the world good, used to have
- Two
suns that made one and the other roadway
-
Visible, of God and of the world.
-
-
"One has eclipsed the other, and the sword
- 110
Has joined the crozier, but the two together
- By
force of their conjunction must go wrong
-
-
"Because, so joined, one need not fear the other.
- If
you do not believe me, regard the grain,
- Since
by the seed it bears the plant is known.
-
- 115
"In land the Adige and Po flow through,
- Honor
and courtesy once could be found
-
Before Frederick met with strong opposition.
-
-
"Now anyone can safely travel there
- Who
out of shame avoids conversing with
- 120
The upright or shuns having contact with them.
-
-
"True, three old men are still there, in whom
- The
old days rebuke the new, and long they pine
- Until
God calls them to a nobler life:
-
-
"Currado da Palazzo, good Gherardo,
- 125
And Guido da Castel who is better named,
- In
fashion of the French, ‘the simple Lombard.’
-
-
"From this time on, say that the Church of Rome,
-
Confounding in itself two sovereignties,
- Falls
in the filth, and fouls itself and office."
-
- 130
"O my Marco, you reason well," I said,
-
"And now I realize why the sons of Levi
- Were
not allowed to have inheritances.
-
-
"But what Gherardo is this who you say
-
Remains a sample of the race long-gone,
- 135
In strict reproach against this barbarous age?"
-
-
"Either your speech deceives me or would test me,"
- He
answered me, "for, though you talk in Tuscan,
- You
seem not to have known the good Gherardo.
-
-
"By any further name I do not know him,
- 140
Unless to say that Gaia is his daughter.
- God
be with you! I come no farther with you.
-
-
"See the rays of light already whiten
-
Through the smoke: and I must take my leave
- (The
angel’s there!) before I come in sight."
-
- 145
So he turned back and would not hear me further.
|
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to Purgatorio XV