Part 59

“Ere from the abyss I tear myself away, My Master,” said I when I had arisen, “To draw me from an error speak a little;

Where is the ice? and how is this one fixed Thus upside down? and how in such short time From eve to morn has the sun made his transit?”

And he to me: “Thou still imaginest Thou art beyond the centre, where I grasped The hair of the fell worm, who mines the world.

That side thou wast, so long as I descended; When round I turned me, thou didst pass the point To which things heavy draw from every side,

And now beneath the hemisphere art come Opposite that which overhangs the vast Dry-land, and ’neath whose cope was put to death

The Man who without sin was born and lived. Thou hast thy feet upon the little sphere Which makes the other face of the Judecca.

Here it is morn when it is evening there; And he who with his hair a stairway made us Still fixed remaineth as he was before.

Upon this side he fell down out of heaven; And all the land, that whilom here emerged, For fear of him made of the sea a veil,

And came to our hemisphere; and peradventure To flee from him, what on this side appears Left the place vacant here, and back recoiled.”

A place there is below, from Beelzebub As far receding as the tomb extends, Which not by sight is known, but by the sound

Of a small rivulet, that there descendeth Through chasm within the stone, which it has gnawed With course that winds about and slightly falls.

The Guide and I into that hidden road Now entered, to return to the bright world; And without care of having any rest

We mounted up, he first and I the second, Till I beheld through a round aperture Some of the beauteous things that Heaven doth bear;

Thence we came forth to rebehold the stars.

PURGATORIO

Purgatorio: Canto I

To run o’er better waters hoists its sail The little vessel of my genius now, That leaves behind itself a sea so cruel;

And of that second kingdom will I sing Wherein the human spirit doth purge itself, And to ascend to heaven becometh worthy.

But let dead Poesy here rise again, O holy Muses, since that I am yours, And here Calliope somewhat ascend,

My song accompanying with that sound, Of which the miserable magpies felt The blow so great, that they despaired of pardon.

Sweet colour of the oriental sapphire, That was upgathered in the cloudless aspect Of the pure air, as far as the first circle,

Unto mine eyes did recommence delight Soon as I issued forth from the dead air, Which had with sadness filled mine eyes and breast.

The beauteous planet, that to love incites, Was making all the orient to laugh, Veiling the Fishes that were in her escort.

To the right hand I turned, and fixed my mind Upon the other pole, and saw four stars Ne’er seen before save by the primal people.

Rejoicing in their flamelets seemed the heaven. O thou septentrional and widowed site, Because thou art deprived of seeing these!

When from regarding them I had withdrawn, Turning a little to the other pole, There where the Wain had disappeared already,

I saw beside me an old man alone, Worthy of so much reverence in his look, That more owes not to father any son.

A long beard and with white hair intermingled He wore, in semblance like unto the tresses, Of which a double list fell on his breast.