Paradiso: A Verse Translation by Robert Hollander and Jean Hollander

PARADISO I\ OUTLINE\ 1-12 -proem: looking back at the completed journey and the promise to narrate the rest of its course\ 13-36 -invocation (fifth in the poem): the aid of "Apollo"\ 13-21 -invocation proper\ 22-36 -result of such inspiration; justification for it\ 37-60 -the narrative begins: Dante still in earthly paradise\ 37-42 -the constellation Aries\ 43-48 -noon: Dante looking as Beatrice looks into the sun\ 49-54 -simile: the sun in her eyes and reflecting rays\ 55-60 -Dante can look directly at the sun\ 61-81 -the ascent toward the Moon\ 61-63 -rising, Dante seems to see a second sun above him\ 64-66 -he looks back to see the stars reflected in her eyes\ 67-72 -simile: Glaucus and Dante's own "transhumanation"\ 73-75 -the poet cannot say whether he ascended in body\ 76-81 -reaching the sublunary ring of fire: son et lumiere\ 82-141 -Dante's questions and Beatrice's responses\ 82-93 -the first question: where is he? and the response\ 94-99 -the second: how can he pass through air and fire?\ 100-126 -response: the upward inclination of all things\ 127-135 -response: how things diverge from their true goal\ 136-141 -response: but not Dante, now freed from sin\ 142 -coda: Beatrice looks back up.\ PARADISO I\ La gloria di colui che tutto move\ per l'universo penetra, e risplende\ 3 in una parte piu e meno altrove.\ Nel ciel che piu de la sua luce prende\ fu' io, e vidi cose che ridire\ 6 ne sa ne puo chi di la su discende;\ perche appressando se al suo disire,\ nostro intelletto si profonda tanto,\ 9 che dietro la memoria non puo ire.\ Veramente quant' io del regno santo\ ne la mia mente potei far tesoro,\ 12 sara ora materia del mio canto.\ O buono Appollo, a l'ultimo lavoro\ fammi del tuo valor si fatto vaso,\ 15 come dimandi a dar l'amato alloro.\ Infino a qui l'un giogo di Parnaso\ assai mi fu; ma or con amendue\ 18 m'e uopo intrar ne l'aringo rimaso.\ Entra nel petto mio, e spira tue\ si come quando Marsia traesti\ 21 de la vagina de le membra sue.\ O divina virtu, se mi ti presti\ tanto che l'ombra del beato regno\ 24 segnata nel mio capo io manifesti,\ vedra'mi al pie del tuo diletto legno\ venire, e coronarmi de le foglie\ 27 che la materia e tu mi farai degno.\ The glory of Him who moves all things\ pervades the universe and shines\ 3 in one part more and in another less.\ I was in that heaven which receives\ more of His light. He who comes down from there\ 6 can neither know nor tell what he has seen,\ for, drawing near to its desire,\ so deeply is our intellect immersed\ 9 that memory cannot follow after it.\ Nevertheless, as much of the holy kingdom\ as I could store as treasure in my mind\ 12 shall now become the subject of my song.\ O good Apollo, for this last labor\ make me a vessel worthy\ 15 of the gift of your beloved laurel.\ Up to this point, one peak of Mount Parnassus\ has been enough, but now I need them both\ 18 in order to confront the struggle that awaits.\ Enter my breast and breathe in me\ as when you drew out Marsyas,\ 21 out from the sheathing of his limbs.\ O holy Power, if you but lend me of yourself\ enough that I may show the merest shadow\ 24 of the blessed kingdom stamped within my mind,\ you shall find me at the foot of your beloved tree,\ crowning myself with the very leaves\ 27 of which my theme and you will make me worthy.\ Si rade volte, padre, se ne coglie\ per triunfare o cesare o poeta,\ 30 colpa e vergogna de l'umane voglie,\ che parturir letizia in su la lieta\ delfica deita dovria la fronda\ 33 peneia, quando alcun di se asseta.\ Poca favilla gran fiamma seconda:\ forse di retro a me con miglior voci\ 36 si preghera perche Cirra risponda.\ Surge ai mortali per diverse foci\ la lucerna del mondo; ma da quella\ 39 che quattro cerchi giugne con tre croci,\ con miglior corso e con migliore stella\ esce congiunta, e la mondana cera\ 42 piu a suo modo tempera e suggella.\ Fatto avea di la mane e di qua sera\ tal foce, e quasi tutto era la bianco\ 45 quello emisperio, e l'altra parte nera,\ quando Beatrice in sul sinistro fianco\ vidi rivolta e riguardar nel sole:\ 48 aguglia si non li s'affisse unquanco.\ E si come secondo raggio suole\ uscir del primo e risalire in suso,\ 51 pur come pelegrin che tornar vuole,\ cosi de l'atto suo, per li occhi infuso\ ne l'imagine mia, il mio si fece,\ 54 e fissi li occhi al sole oltre nostr' uso.\ Molto e licito la, che qui non lece\ a le nostre virtu, merce del loco\ 57 fatto per proprio de l'umana spece.\ So rarely, father, are they gathered\ to mark the triumph of a Caesar or a poet--\ 30 fault and shame of human wishes--\ that anyone's even longing for them,\ those leaves on the Peneian bough, should make\ 33 the joyous Delphic god give birth to joy.\ Great fire leaps from the smallest spark.\ Perhaps, in my wake, prayer will be shaped\ 36 with better words so Cyrrha may respond.\ The lamp of the world rises on us mortals\ at different points. But, by the one that joins\ 39 four circles with three crossings, it comes forth\ on a better course and in conjunction\ with a better sign. Then it tempers and imprints\ 42 the wax of the world more to its own fashion.\ Its rising near that point had brought out morning there\ and evening here, and that hemisphere\ 45 was arrayed in light, this one in darkness,\ when I saw that Beatrice had turned toward her left\ and now was staring at the sun--\ 48 never had eagle so fixed his gaze on it.\ And, as a second ray will issue from the first\ and rise again up to its source,\ 51 even as a pilgrim longs to go back home,\ so her gaze, pouring through my eyes\ on my imagination, made itself my own, and I,\ 54 against our practice, set my eyes upon the sun.\ Much that our powers here cannot sustain is there\ allowed by virtue of the nature of the place\ 57 created as the dwelling fit for man.\ Io nol soffersi molto, ne si poco,\ ch'io nol vedessi sfavillar dintorno,\ 60 com' ferro che bogliente esce del foco;\ e di subito parve giorno a giorno\ essere aggiunto, come quei che puote\ 63 avesse il ciel d'un altro sole addorno.\ Beatrice tutta ne l'etterne rote\ fissa con li occhi stava; e io in lei\ 66 le luci fissi, di la su rimote.\ Nel suo aspetto tal dentro mi fei,\ qual si fe Glauco nel gustar de l'erba\ 69 che 'l fe consorto in mar de li altri dei.\ Trasumanar significar per verba\ non si poria; pero l'essemplo basti\ 72 a cui esperienza grazia serba.\ S'i' era sol di me quel che creasti\ novellamente, amor che 'l ciel governi,\ 75 tu 'l sai, che col tuo lume mi levasti.\ Quando la rota che tu sempiterni\ desiderato, a se mi fece atteso\ 78 con l'armonia che temperi e discerni,\ parvemi tanto allor del cielo acceso\ de la fiamma del sol, che pioggia o fiume\ 81 lago non fece alcun tanto disteso.\ La novita del suono e 'l grande lume\ di lor cagion m'accesero un disio\ 84 mai non sentito di cotanto acume.\ Ond' ella, che vedea me si com' io,\ a quietarmi l'animo commosso,\ 87 pria ch'io a dimandar, la bocca aprio\ I could not bear it long, yet not so brief a time\ as not to see it sparking everywhere,\ 60 like liquid iron flowing from the fire.\ Suddenly it seemed a day was added to that day,\ as if the One who has the power\ 63 had adorned the heavens with a second sun.\ Beatrice had fixed her eyes\ upon the eternal wheels and I now fixed\ 66 my sight on her, withdrawing it from above.\ As I gazed on her, I was changed within,\ as Glaucus was on tasting of the grass\ 69 that made him consort of the gods in the sea.\ To soar beyond the human cannot be described\ in words. Let the example be enough to one\ 72 for whom grace holds this experience in store.\ Whether I was there in that part only which you\ created last is known to you alone, O Love who rule\ 75 the heavens and drew me up there with your light.\ When the heavens you made eternal,\ wheeling in desire, caught my attention\ 78 with the harmony you temper and attune,\ then so much of the sky seemed set on fire\ by the flaming sun that neither rain nor river\ 81 ever fed a lake so vast.\ The newness of the sound and the bright light\ lit in me such keen desire to know their cause\ 84 as I had never with such sharpness felt before.\ And she, who knew me as I knew myself,\ to calm my agitated mind\ 87 before I even had begun to speak, parted her lips\ e comincio: "Tu stesso ti fai grosso\ col falso imaginar, si che non vedi\ 90 cio che vedresti se l'avessi scosso.\ Tu non se' in terra, s“ come tu credi;\ ma folgore, fuggendo il proprio sito,\ 93 non corse come tu ch'ad esso riedi."\ S'io fui del primo dubbio disvestito\ per le sorrise parolette brevi,\ 96 dentro ad un nuovo piu fu' inretito\ e dissi: "Gia contento requievi\ di grande ammirazion; ma ora ammiro\ 99 com' io trascenda questi corpi levi."\ Ond' ella, appresso d'un pio sospiro,\ li occhi drizzo ver' me con quel sembiante\ 102 che madre fa sovra figlio deliro,\ e comincio: "Le cose tutte quante\ hanno ordine tra loro, e questo e forma\ 105 che l'universo a Dio fa simigliante.\ Qui veggion l'alte creature l'orma\ de l'etterno valore, il qual e fine\ 108 al quale e fatta la toccata norma.\ Ne l'ordine ch'io dico sono accline\ tutte nature, per diverse sorti,\ 111 pi? al principio loro e men vicine;\ onde si muovono a diversi porti\ per lo gran mar de l'essere, e ciascuna\ 114 con istinto a lei dato che la porti.\ Questi ne porta il foco inver' la luna;\ questi ne' cor mortali e permotore;\ 117 questi la terra in se stringe e aduna;\ and said: 'You make yourself dull-witted\ with false notions, so that you cannot see\ 90 what you would understand, had you but cast them off.\ 'You are not still on earth, as you believe.\ Indeed, lightning darting from its source\ 93 never sped as fast as you return to yours.'\ If I was stripped of my earlier confusion\ by her brief and smiling words,\ 96 I was the more entangled in new doubt\ and said: 'I was content to be released\ from my amazement, but now I am amazed\ 99 that I can glide through these light bodies.'\ Then she, having sighed with pity,\ bent her eyes on me with just that look\ 102 a mother casts on her delirious child,\ and said: 'All things created have an order\ in themselves, and this begets the form\ 105 that lets the universe resemble God.\ 'Here the higher creatures see the imprint\ of the eternal Worth, the end\ 108 for which that pattern was itself set forth.\ 'In that order, all natures have their bent\ according to their different destinies,\ 111 whether nearer to their source or farther from it.\ 'They move, therefore, toward different harbors\ upon the vastness of the sea of being,\ 114 each imbued with an instinct that impels it on its course.\ 'This instinct carries fire toward the moon,\ this is the moving force in mortal hearts,\ 117 this binds the earth to earth and makes it one.\ ne pur le creature che son fore\ d'intelligenza quest' arco saetta,\ 120 ma quelle c'hanno intelletto e amore.\ La provedenza, che cotanto assetta,\ del suo lume fa 'l ciel sempre quieto\ 123 nel qual si volge quel c'ha maggior fretta;\ e ora li, come a sito decreto,\ cen porta la virtu di quella corda\ 126 che cio che scocca drizza in segno lieto.\ Vero e che, come forma non s'accorda\ molte fiate a l'intenzion de l'arte,\ 129 perch' a risponder la materia e sorda,\ cosi da questo corso si diparte\ talor la creatura, c'ha podere\ 132 di piegar, cosi pinta, in altra parte;\ e si come veder si puo cadere\ foco di nube, si l'impeto primo\ 135 l'atterra torto da falso piacere.\ Non dei piu ammirar, se bene stimo,\ lo tuo salir, se non come d'un rivo\ 138 se d'alto monte scende giuso ad imo.\ Maraviglia sarebbe in te se, privo\ d'impedimento, giu ti fossi assiso,\ com' a terra quiete in foco vivo."\ 142 Quinci rivolse inver' lo cielo il viso.\ 'This bow impels not just created things\ that lack intelligence, but also those\ 120 that have both intellect and love.\ 'Providence, which regulates all this,\ makes with its light forever calm the heaven\ 123 that contains the one that whirls with greatest speed,\ 'and there now, as to a place appointed,\ the power of that bowstring bears us,\ 126 aimed, as is all it shoots, at a joyful target.\ 'It is true that as a work will often fail\ to correspond to its intended form, its matter\ 129 deaf and unresponsive to the craftsman's plan,\ 'so sometimes a creature, having the capacity\ to swerve, will, thus impelled, head off another way,\ 132 in deviation from the better course\ 'and, just as sometimes we see fire\ falling from a cloud, just so the primal impulse,\ 135 diverted by false pleasure, turns toward earth.\ 'If I am correct, you should no more wonder\ at your rising than at a stream's descent\ 138 from a mountain's peak down to its foot.\ 'It would be as astounding if you, set free\ from every hindrance, had remained below,\ as if on earth a living flame held still.'\ 142 Then she turned her face up to the heavens.\ PARADISO I\ 1-36. Dante clearly offers these verses as an introduction to the third and final cantica as a whole. So much is dealt with in them, and in precisely such a way as to set Paradiso off from the rest of the poem, that it is perhaps worth considering them as a unit before attempting to come to grips with particular lines. One burden of these remarks (and of the specific glosses that follow them) is that Dante is once again (see, e.g., Purg. XXIV.52-54) playing a dangerous game as he addresses his role as poet. He presents himself, if in hidden ways (in modern political parlance, he "preserves deniability"), as being inspired by God to write this part of the poem (a barely hidden claim in the first two canticles as well). At the same time he allows us to believe, if we are uncomfortable with that claim here, that he is only doing what all poets do, invoking deities for poetic inspiration as has been conventional since Homer's time.