Part 16

Above us there are mirrors, Thrones you call them, From which shines out on us God Judicant, So that this utterance seems good to us.”

Here it was silent, and it had the semblance Of being turned elsewhither, by the wheel On which it entered as it was before.

The other joy, already known to me, Became a thing transplendent in my sight, As a fine ruby smitten by the sun.

Through joy effulgence is acquired above, As here a smile; but down below, the shade Outwardly darkens, as the mind is sad.

“God seeth all things, and in Him, blest spirit, Thy sight is,” said I, “so that never will Of his can possibly from thee be hidden;

Thy voice, then, that for ever makes the heavens Glad, with the singing of those holy fires Which of their six wings make themselves a cowl,

Wherefore does it not satisfy my longings? Indeed, I would not wait thy questioning If I in thee were as thou art in me.”

“The greatest of the valleys where the water Expands itself,” forthwith its words began, “That sea excepted which the earth engarlands,

Between discordant shores against the sun Extends so far, that it meridian makes Where it was wont before to make the horizon.

I was a dweller on that valley’s shore ’Twixt Ebro and Magra that with journey short Doth from the Tuscan part the Genoese.

With the same sunset and same sunrise nearly Sit Buggia and the city whence I was, That with its blood once made the harbour hot.

Folco that people called me unto whom My name was known; and now with me this heaven Imprints itself, as I did once with it;

For more the daughter of Belus never burned, Offending both Sichaeus and Creusa, Than I, so long as it became my locks,

Nor yet that Rodophean, who deluded was by Demophoon, nor yet Alcides, When Iole he in his heart had locked.

Yet here is no repenting, but we smile, Not at the fault, which comes not back to mind, But at the power which ordered and foresaw.

Here we behold the art that doth adorn With such affection, and the good discover Whereby the world above turns that below.

But that thou wholly satisfied mayst bear Thy wishes hence which in this sphere are born, Still farther to proceed behoveth me.

Thou fain wouldst know who is within this light That here beside me thus is scintillating, Even as a sunbeam in the limpid water.

Then know thou, that within there is at rest Rahab, and being to our order joined, With her in its supremest grade ’tis sealed.

Into this heaven, where ends the shadowy cone Cast by your world, before all other souls First of Christ’s triumph was she taken up.

Full meet it was to leave her in some heaven, Even as a palm of the high victory Which he acquired with one palm and the other,

Because she favoured the first glorious deed Of Joshua upon the Holy Land, That little stirs the memory of the Pope.

Thy city, which an offshoot is of him Who first upon his Maker turned his back, And whose ambition is so sorely wept,

Brings forth and scatters the accursed flower Which both the sheep and lambs hath led astray Since it has turned the shepherd to a wolf.

For this the Evangel and the mighty Doctors Are derelict, and only the Decretals So studied that it shows upon their margins.

On this are Pope and Cardinals intent; Their meditations reach not Nazareth, There where his pinions Gabriel unfolded;

But Vatican and the other parts elect Of Rome, which have a cemetery been Unto the soldiery that followed Peter

Shall soon be free from this adultery.”