The glory of Him who moveth everything     Doth penetrate the universe, and shine     In one part more and in another less.

Within that heaven which most his light receives     Was I, and things beheld which to repeat     Nor knows, nor can, who from above descends;

Because in drawing near to its desire     Our intellect ingulphs itself so far,     That after it the memory cannot go.

Truly whatever of the holy realm     I had the power to treasure in my mind     Shall now become the subject of my song.

O good Apollo, for this last emprise     Make of me such a vessel of thy power     As giving the beloved laurel asks!

One summit of Parnassus hitherto     Has been enough for me, but now with both     I needs must enter the arena left.

Enter into my bosom, thou, and breathe     As at the time when Marsyas thou didst draw     Out of the scabbard of those limbs of his.

O power divine, lend’st thou thyself to me     So that the shadow of the blessed realm     Stamped in my brain I can make manifest,

Thou’lt see me come unto thy darling tree,     And crown myself thereafter with those leaves     Of which the theme and thou shall make me worthy.

So seldom, Father, do we gather them     For triumph or of Caesar or of Poet,     (The fault and shame of human inclinations,)

That the Peneian foliage should bring forth     Joy to the joyous Delphic deity,     When any one it makes to thirst for it.

A little spark is followed by great flame;     Perchance with better voices after me     Shall prayer be made that Cyrrha may respond!

To mortal men by passages diverse     Uprises the world’s lamp; but by that one     Which circles four uniteth with three crosses,

With better course and with a better star     Conjoined it issues, and the mundane wax     Tempers and stamps more after its own fashion.

Almost that passage had made morning there     And evening here, and there was wholly white     That hemisphere, and black the other part,

When Beatrice towards the left-hand side     I saw turned round, and gazing at the sun;     Never did eagle fasten so upon it!

And even as a second ray is wont     To issue from the first and reascend,     Like to a pilgrim who would fain return,

Thus of her action, through the eyes infused     In my imagination, mine I made,     And sunward fixed mine eyes beyond our wont.

There much is lawful which is here unlawful     Unto our powers, by virtue of the place     Made for the human species as its own.

Not long I bore it, nor so little while     But I beheld it sparkle round about     Like iron that comes molten from the fire;

And suddenly it seemed that day to day     Was added, as if He who has the power     Had with another sun the heaven adorned.

With eyes upon the everlasting wheels     Stood Beatrice all intent, and I, on her     Fixing my vision from above removed,

Such at her aspect inwardly became     As Glaucus, tasting of the herb that made him     Peer of the other gods beneath the sea.

To represent transhumanise in words     Impossible were; the example, then, suffice     Him for whom Grace the experience reserves.

If I was merely what of me thou newly     Createdst, Love who governest the heaven,     Thou knowest, who didst lift me with thy light!

When now the wheel, which thou dost make eternal     Desiring thee, made me attentive to it     By harmony thou dost modulate and measure,

Then seemed to me so much of heaven enkindled     By the sun’s flame, that neither rain nor river     E’er made a lake so widely spread abroad.

The newness of the sound and the great light     Kindled in me a longing for their cause,     Never before with such acuteness felt;

Whence she, who saw me as I saw myself,     To quiet in me my perturbed mind,     Opened her mouth, ere I did mine to ask,

And she began: “Thou makest thyself so dull     With false imagining, that thou seest not     What thou wouldst see if thou hadst shaken it off.

Thou art not upon earth, as thou believest;     But lightning, fleeing its appropriate site,     Ne’er ran as thou, who thitherward returnest.”

If of my former doubt I was divested     By these brief little words more smiled than spoken,     I in a new one was the more ensnared;

And said: “Already did I rest content     From great amazement; but am now amazed     In what way I transcend these bodies light.”

Whereupon she, after a pitying sigh,     Her eyes directed tow’rds me with that look     A mother casts on a delirious child;

And she began: “All things whate’er they be     Have order among themselves, and this is form,     That makes the universe resemble God.

Here do the higher creatures see the footprints     Of the Eternal Power, which is the end     Whereto is made the law already mentioned.

In the order that I speak of are inclined     All natures, by their destinies diverse,     More or less near unto their origin;

Hence they move onward unto ports diverse     O’er the great sea of being; and each one     With instinct given it which bears it on.

This bears away the fire towards the moon;     This is in mortal hearts the motive power     This binds together and unites the earth.

Nor only the created things that are     Without intelligence this bow shoots forth,     But those that have both intellect and love.

The Providence that regulates all this     Makes with its light the heaven forever quiet,     Wherein that turns which has the greatest haste.

And thither now, as to a site decreed,     Bears us away the virtue of that cord     Which aims its arrows at a joyous mark.

True is it, that as oftentimes the form     Accords not with the intention of the art,     Because in answering is matter deaf,

So likewise from this course doth deviate     Sometimes the creature, who the power possesses,     Though thus impelled, to swerve some other way,

(In the same wise as one may see the fire     Fall from a cloud,) if the first impetus     Earthward is wrested by some false delight.

Thou shouldst not wonder more, if well I judge,     At thine ascent, than at a rivulet     From some high mount descending to the lowland.

Marvel it would be in thee, if deprived     Of hindrance, thou wert seated down below,     As if on earth the living fire were quiet.”

Thereat she heavenward turned again her face.