Notes.
3 The Samaritan woman at the well asks Christ
for living water to drink (John 4:5-15).
7 On the day of his resurrection,
Christ appeared to two disciples on the road to Emmaus (Luke 24:13-32).
10 It is the shade of the Roman poet Statius,
see note 91 below.
25 Lachesis is the Fate who spins the thread
of life.
50 Iris, the rainbow, is the daughter of the
centaur Thaumas and Electra.
82 Titus, son of Vespasian, razed Jerusalem
in 70 A.D. The act was long regarded by Christians as a divine reprisal for the
crucifixion of Christ.
91 Statius, a Roman poet born in Naples,
authored the epics Thebaid on the siege of Thebes and Achilleid,
which he left unfinished at his death in 96 A.D. |
|
- That
natural thirst which is never quenched
-
Except with the water which the woman
- Of
Samaria sought as a source of grace
-
-
Tormented me, and our haste spurred me on
- 5
Along the straitened path behind my guide,
- As I
grieved at the payment of just penance.
-
- And
look! just as Saint Luke records for us
- That
Christ appeared to two along the way
-
Already risen from his burial cave,
-
- 10
A shade appeared to us, and came behind us
- While
we stared at the crowd stretched at our feet;
- Nor
did we notice him till he first spoke,
-
-
Saying, "My brothers, may God give you peace!"
- We
quickly turned, and Virgil answered him
- 15
With the sign appropriate for greeting,
-
- And
then began, "Within the blessed assembly
- May
the inerrant court that banishes me
- To
eternal exile settle you in peace."
-
-
"How then?" he asked as we walked on in haste,
- 20
"If you are shades God's not found fit for heaven,
- Who
guided you so far along his stairway?"
-
- And
my teacher: "If you look at the marks
- Which
this man bears and which the angel traced,
-
You’ll plainly see he must reign with the just.
-
- 25
"Since she, however, who spins day and night
- Had
not yet drawn the fiber off for him
- Which
Clotho loads and packs on each one’s distaff,
-
-
"His soul, which is your sister and my own,
-
Ascending here, could not have come alone,
- 30
Because she does not see the way we do.
-
-
"So I was snatched out of the gaping jaws
- Of
hell to guide him, and guide him so I will
-
Onward as far as my schooling can conduct him.
-
-
"But tell me, if you know, why just this moment
- 35
The mountain shook so, and all seemed to shout
- With
one voice downward to the shore-lined base."
-
- With
this request he threaded the needle’s eye
- Of my
desire so that with just the hope
- He
made my thirst seem less insatiable.
-
- 40
The soul began then, "Nothing without order
- Or
the support of custom is permitted
- By
the holy rule of the mountain.
-
-
"This place is free from every earthly change.
- What
heaven receives into and from itself
- 45
May function here as cause, and nothing else:
-
-
"So neither rain, nor hail, nor snow, nor dew,
- Nor
hoarfrost falls here any higher than
- The
stairway of the three short steps below;
-
-
"No thick, no thin clouds ever can appear,
- 50
Nor lightning flash, nor Thaumas’s daughter
- Who
often changes regions in your sky;
-
-
"Nor does dry vapor rise up any higher
- Than
to the top of the three steps I mentioned,
- On
which Saint Peter’s vicar rests his feet.
-
- 55
"Tremors, small or large, may chance down lower,
- But
here above, I don’t know why, it never
-
Trembles from wind concealed within the earth.
-
-
"It trembles here when some soul feels herself
-
Cleansed, so that she rises or sets out
- 60
To leap upward, and that shout follows then.
-
-
"Of this cleansing the will alone gives proof,
-
Surprising the soul, now fully free to change
-
Company, and powering her to will.
-
-
"The soul had will before, but the desire,
- 65
Which divine justice turns around toward penance
- And
which once bent toward sin, would not consent.
-
-
"And I, who for a hundred years and more
- Have
lain in this tormenting, only now
- Felt
freely willing for a better threshold.
-
- 70
"That is the cause you felt the quake and heard
- The
pious spirits up along the mountain
-
Praise the Lord — may he soon send them higher!"
-
- He
spoke to us this way; and since enjoyment
- Is
deeper when our thirst to drink is stronger,
- 75
I could not tell how deep the good he did me.
-
- And
my wise guide: "Now I espy the net
- That
snares you here and how you slip from it,
- Why
it quakes here and what makes you all glad:
-
-
"Now, if it pleases you, tell me who you were,
- 80
And let me learn from your own lips the reason
- You
have lain here so many centuries."
-
-
"In the time when the good Titus, with help
- Of
the highest King, avenged the wounds
- From
which the blood that Judas sold poured forth,
-
- 85
"I bore the most enduring and most honored
- Name
there in the world," replied that spirit;
-
"Fame I had, but not as yet the faith.
-
-
"So dulcet was the music of my verses
- That
from Toulouse, Rome drew me to herself,
- 90
Deservedly, to crown my brows with myrtle.
-
-
"Statius is my name, still heard on earth.
- I
sang of Thebes and then of great Achilles,
- But,
with the second labor, fell by the way.
-
-
"The seeds of my ardor were the sparks
- 95
That warmed me from the sacred flame from which
- More
than a thousand poets have been kindled:
-
-
"I speak of the Aeneid, which was for me
- A
mother and a nurse of poetry;
-
Without it I would not be worth a farthing.
-
- 100
"And to have lived on earth when Virgil lived
- I
would consent to add another year
- More
than I owe for my release from exile."
-
- These
words made Virgil turn to me and give
- A
look that, by its silence, said, "Be silent!"
- 105
Yet power of will cannot do everything,
-
- For
smiles and tears are such close followers
- On
the emotions from which each proceeds,
- They
least obey the will in those most truthful.
-
- I
smiled — barely — as one might hint at something;
- 110
At that the shade grew still and looked me fully
- In
the eyes which express the soul most clearly,
-
- And
said, "So may your trying task end well,
- Tell
me why, just now while I was speaking,
- Your
face betrayed that flashing smile to me."
-
- 115
Now I am caught on one side and the other:
- One
keeps me still, the other bids me speak,
- So
that I sigh and I am understood
-
- By my
master — and: "Do not be afraid
- To
talk," he told me; "but speak up and tell him
- 120
What he now asks of you with deep concern."
-
- So I
replied, "Perhaps you are amazed,
-
Ancient spirit, at the smile I gave you,
- But I
would have you wonder even more.
-
-
"This soul here who directs my eyes on high
- 125
Is that same Virgil from whom you have drawn
- The
power to sing about the gods and men.
-
-
"If you think something else caused me to smile,
-
Forget it as a falsehood, and believe
- It
was those words which you then spoke about him."
-
- 130
Already he was bowing to embrace
- My
teacher’s feet, but he said, "Brother, don’t!
- You
are a shade and here you see a shade."
-
- And
rising, he: "Now you can comprehend
- The
depth of love that burns in me for you,
- 135
When I forget the emptiness we are
-
-
"And treat the shades as being solid things."
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