Purgatorio -- Canto XXXIII

Promise and Rebirth

Notes.

1 The women sing the opening line of Psalm 78(79), Deus, venerunt gentes.

10 These lines, Modicum, et non videbitis me; et iterum, ... modicum, et vos videbitis me are spoken by Jesus at the last supper when he announced his upcoming death (John 16:16).

15 Matilda and Statius still attend the poet.

43 The numbers transposed into Roman numerals read: DXV. Numerous solutions to the cryptogram involving dates and historical references to a DUX (Latin for leader) have been offered, but the prophecy, perhaps deliberately, remains mysterious. The answer may simply be: Deus X Vir (God X Man).

47 Themis, angered that Oedipus had solved the riddle of the Sphinx, sent a wild fox to ravage the crops of the Thebans. Dante's text of Ovid (Metamorphoses VII, 759) erroneously read "Naiades" for "Laiades" (son of Laius = Oedipus). So Naiads (I. 49) should correctly read Oedipus.

67 The Elsa is a tributary river of the Arno, known for its petrifying effect on objects left in the water.

69 The white mulberry turned to red with the blood of Pyramus (see Canto XXVII note to line 37).

85 Beatrice's theology is as far above Aristotle's philosophy as the Primum Mobile is high above the earth (l. 90). Ironically, Aristotle himself originated the idea of the Prime Mover.

96 Again, the water of Lethe wipes out all memories of evil.

104 It is now noon on Wednesday of Easter week.

112 These rivers of Asia Minor were traditionally said to flow from the Garden of Eden (Genesis 2:10-14).

129 The waters of Eunoč revive memories of good works done on earth, preparing the soul for its ascent into heaven.

          "O God, the Heathen Come," alternating

          Now three, now four, melodic psalmody,

          The weeping women now began to sing;

 

          And Beatrice, sighing and sympathetic,

5        Listened to them, so changed in her features

          That Mary at the cross looked no more sad-faced.

 

          But when those other virgins each gave way

          For her to speak, rising to her feet,

          She stood up straight and, coloring like fire,

 

10       "A little while and you shall not see me,

          And again," she said, "my dearest sisters,

          Another little while and you shall see me."

 

          Then she set all the seven in front of her,

          And at her back, with just a nod, she placed

15       Me and the lady and the sage who'd stayed.

 

          So she moved onward, and I do not think

          That she had put ten steps upon the ground

          When instantly she struck my eyes with her eyes,

 

          And with a tranquil look she spoke to me,

20       "Come forward more, that if I speak with you,

          You may be better placed to listen to me."

 

          As soon as I was with her as I should be,

          She said to me, "Brother, why not venture

          To question me, now that you come with me?"

 

25       Like those who with excessive reverence

          Speak in the presence of superiors

          And catch their living voices in their teeth,

 

          That was my case when with stumbling diction

          I began, "My lady, you know what

30       I need, and what will do me good you know."

 

          And she told me, "I want you from now on

          To tear yourself away from fear and shame

          And talk no more like someone in a dream.

 

          "Know that the vessel which the serpent smashed

35       Was, and is not. But he who bears the blame

          Shall learn that God’s revenge fears no delays.

 

          "The eagle that left its feathers on the chariot

          Which then became a monster, then a prey,

          Will not for all time be without an heir,

 

40       "For I see clearly, and so can tell you this,

          Stars are already near, secure from check

          Or hindrance, that will bring us to a time

 

          "In which a five hundred, ten and five,

          God’s messenger, shall kill the thieving whore

45       Together with the giant who sins with her.

 

          "Perhaps my prophecy, which is as obscure

          As Themis and the Sphinx, fails to convince you

          Since, in their fashion, it clouds up your mind;

 

          "But soon events themselves shall be the Naiads

50       That will resolve this difficult enigma

          Without the ravaging of herds or grain.

 

          "Take note! and as I utter these words to you

          Do you in your turn teach them to all those

          Who live the life that is a race to death;

 

55       "And keep in mind, when you shall write them down,

          Not to conceal what you saw of the tree

          Which now twice over has been here stripped bare.

 

          "Whoever robs that tree or rends its branches

          With act of blasphemy offends God who

60       For his sole use created it all-holy.

 

          "For eating of its fruit the first soul yearned

          Five thousand years and more in pain and hunger

          For him who with himself paid for the eating.

 

          "Your mind is fast asleep if it won’t guess

65       There is a special reason why this tree

          Is so tall and inverted at its top;

 

          "And had vain thoughts, like waters of the Elsa,

          Not petrified your mind, and pleasure in them

          Strained it, as Pyramus the mulberry,

 

70       "Then simply by details of height and width

          You would have recognized the moral sense

          Of God’s justice when he forbade this tree.

 

          "But since I see that in your intellect

          You turned to stone, and stony, so opaque

75       The light of what I say has dazzled you,

 

          "I want you to take back my words within you —

          And if not written down, at least depicted —

          As a pilgrim’s staff returns enwreathed with palm."

 

          And I: "As wax stamped by the seal takes on

80       The impressed figure without changing it,

          So is my brain imprinted now by you.

 

          "But why do your own deeply longed-for words

          Soar up so high beyond my vision that

          The more I strain the more they’re lost from sight?"

 

85       "They soar that you may know," she said,

          "The school which you have followed, and may see

          How well its teaching follows my own words,

 

          "And see too that your way is as far distant

          From the divine way as the earth is from

90       The heaven that spins highest of the nine."

 

          I answered her then, "I do not remember

          That ever I estranged myself from you,

          Nor does my conscience gnaw at me for this."

 

          "And if you cannot now remember it,"

95       She smilingly replied, "then call to mind

          How you have drunk of Lethe on this day,

 

          "And just as smoke is sure proof of a fire,

          So your forgetting clearly indicates

          A fault in your will’s tending somewhere else.

 

100     "But from now on my words shall be as bare

          As it is suitable or needful for me

          To make them plain for your rude sight to grasp."

 

          Now more glittering, now with slower steps,

          The sun tracked the meridian circle

105     Which with one’s point of view shifts here and there,

 

          When, just as one who goes before a group

          As guide will halt if he should happen on

          Something strange or trace of something strange,

 

          The seven women halted at the edge

110     Of a pale shadow such as mountains cast

          On cold streams under green leaves and black boughs.

 

          In front of them I seemed to see Euphrates

          And Tigris welling from a single spring

          And, in parting, lingering like friends.

 

115     "O light, O glory of the human race,

          What water is this that here gushes out

          From one source and then draws itself away?"

 

          To this request of mine, she answered, "Ask

          Matilda to tell you." The lovely woman,

120     As if she wished to free herself from blame,

 

          Replied, "I told him this and other things,

          And I am sure the waters of the Lethe

          Did not cloud out his recollection of it."

 

          And Beatrice: "Some greater care, perhaps,

125     Which often steals away one’s memory,

          Has left the eyes of his mind in the dark.

 

          "But see, there is Eunoč flowing onward:

          Lead him to it and, as it is your custom,

          Bring his fainting powers back to life."

 

130     As a noble soul that offers no excuse,

          But of another’s will makes her own will,

          As soon as some outward sign discloses it,

 

          So, when the lovely woman took me with her,

          She moved ahead, and with womanly grace

135     She said to Statius, "Come with him as well."

 

          If, reader, I had room to write more lines,

          I would sing still, in part, of the sweet drink

          That kept me thirsting always after more,

 

          But since all of the pages planned beforehand

140     For this, the second canticle, are filled,

          The curb of art lets me run on no further.

 

          From out those holiest waves I now returned,

          Refashioned, just as new trees are renewed

          With their new foliage, for I came back

 

145     Pure and prepared to leap up to the stars.

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