If e’er it happen that the Poem Sacred,     To which both heaven and earth have set their hand,     So that it many a year hath made me lean,

O’ercome the cruelty that bars me out     From the fair sheepfold, where a lamb I slumbered,     An enemy to the wolves that war upon it,

With other voice forthwith, with other fleece     Poet will I return, and at my font     Baptismal will I take the laurel crown;

Because into the Faith that maketh known     All souls to God there entered I, and then     Peter for her sake thus my brow encircled.

Thereafterward towards us moved a light     Out of that band whence issued the first-fruits     Which of his vicars Christ behind him left,

And then my Lady, full of ecstasy,     Said unto me: “Look, look! behold the Baron     For whom below Galicia is frequented.”

In the same way as, when a dove alights     Near his companion, both of them pour forth,     Circling about and murmuring, their affection,

So one beheld I by the other grand     Prince glorified to be with welcome greeted,     Lauding the food that there above is eaten.

But when their gratulations were complete,     Silently ‘coram me’ each one stood still,     So incandescent it o’ercame my sight.

Smiling thereafterwards, said Beatrice:     “Illustrious life, by whom the benefactions     Of our Basilica have been described,

Make Hope resound within this altitude;     Thou knowest as oft thou dost personify it     As Jesus to the three gave greater clearness.”—

“Lift up thy head, and make thyself assured;     For what comes hither from the mortal world     Must needs be ripened in our radiance.”

This comfort came to me from the second fire;     Wherefore mine eyes I lifted to the hills,     Which bent them down before with too great weight.

“Since, through his grace, our Emperor wills that thou     Shouldst find thee face to face, before thy death,     In the most secret chamber, with his Counts,

So that, the truth beholden of this court,     Hope, which below there rightfully enamours,     Thereby thou strengthen in thyself and others,

Say what it is, and how is flowering with it     Thy mind, and say from whence it came to thee.”     Thus did the second light again continue.

And the Compassionate, who piloted     The plumage of my wings in such high flight,     Did in reply anticipate me thus:

“No child whatever the Church Militant     Of greater hope possesses, as is written     In that Sun which irradiates all our band;

Therefore it is conceded him from Egypt     To come into Jerusalem to see,     Or ever yet his warfare be completed.

The two remaining points, that not for knowledge     Have been demanded, but that he report     How much this virtue unto thee is pleasing,

To him I leave; for hard he will not find them,     Nor of self-praise; and let him answer them;     And may the grace of God in this assist him!”

As a disciple, who his teacher follows,     Ready and willing, where he is expert,     That his proficiency may be displayed,

“Hope,” said I, “is the certain expectation     Of future glory, which is the effect     Of grace divine and merit precedent.

From many stars this light comes unto me;     But he instilled it first into my heart     Who was chief singer unto the chief captain.

‘Sperent in te,’ in the high Theody     He sayeth, ‘those who know thy name;’ and who     Knoweth it not, if he my faith possess?

Thou didst instil me, then, with his instilling     In the Epistle, so that I am full,     And upon others rain again your rain.”

While I was speaking, in the living bosom     Of that combustion quivered an effulgence,     Sudden and frequent, in the guise of lightning;

Then breathed: “The love wherewith I am inflamed     Towards the virtue still which followed me     Unto the palm and issue of the field,

Wills that I breathe to thee that thou delight     In her; and grateful to me is thy telling     Whatever things Hope promises to thee.”

And I: “The ancient Scriptures and the new     The mark establish, and this shows it me,     Of all the souls whom God hath made his friends.

Isaiah saith, that each one garmented     In his own land shall be with twofold garments,     And his own land is this delightful life.

Thy brother, too, far more explicitly,     There where he treateth of the robes of white,     This revelation manifests to us.”

And first, and near the ending of these words,     “Sperent in te” from over us was heard,     To which responsive answered all the carols.

Thereafterward a light among them brightened,     So that, if Cancer one such crystal had,     Winter would have a month of one sole day.

And as uprises, goes, and enters the dance     A winsome maiden, only to do honour     To the new bride, and not from any failing,

Even thus did I behold the brightened splendour     Approach the two, who in a wheel revolved     As was beseeming to their ardent love.

Into the song and music there it entered;     And fixed on them my Lady kept her look,     Even as a bride silent and motionless.

“This is the one who lay upon the breast     Of him our Pelican; and this is he     To the great office from the cross elected.”

My Lady thus; but therefore none the more     Did move her sight from its attentive gaze     Before or afterward these words of hers.

Even as a man who gazes, and endeavours     To see the eclipsing of the sun a little,     And who, by seeing, sightless doth become,

So I became before that latest fire,     While it was said, “Why dost thou daze thyself     To see a thing which here hath no existence?

Earth in the earth my body is, and shall be     With all the others there, until our number     With the eternal proposition tallies.

With the two garments in the blessed cloister     Are the two lights alone that have ascended:     And this shalt thou take back into your world.”

And at this utterance the flaming circle     Grew quiet, with the dulcet intermingling     Of sound that by the trinal breath was made,

As to escape from danger or fatigue     The oars that erst were in the water beaten     Are all suspended at a whistle’s sound.

Ah, how much in my mind was I disturbed,     When I turned round to look on Beatrice,     That her I could not see, although I was

Close at her side and in the Happy World!