The aspect of thy son, Hyperion, Here I sustained, and saw how move themselves Around and near him Maia and Dione. Thence there appeared the temperateness of Jove 145 'Twixt son and father, and to me was clear The change that of their whereabout they make ; And all the seven made manifest to me 150 How great they are, and eke how swift they are, CANTO XXIII. VEN as a bird, 'mid the beloved leaves, EVE Quiet upon the nest of her sweet brood Throughout the night, that hideth all things from us, Who, that she may behold their longed-for looks And find the food wherewith to nourish them, In which, to her, grave labors grateful are, Anticipates the time on open spray And with an ardent longing waits the sun, And vigilant, turned round towards the zone 5 10 So that beholding her suspense and wistful, For something yearns, and hoping is appeased. 15 Of Christ's triumphal march, and all the fruit A Sun that one and all of them enkindled, 20 25 30 35 And through the living light transparent shone Dilating so it finds not room therein, 40 So did my mind, among those aliments And that which it became cannot remember. 45 "Open thine eyes, and look at what I am : In vain to bring it back into his mind, Of so much gratitude, it never fades That Polyhymnia and her sisters made It would not reach, singing the holy smile The sacred poem must perforce leap over, This which goes cleaving the audacious prow, Nor for a pilot who would spare himself. "Why doth my face so much enamor thee, That to the garden fair thou turnest not, Which under the rays of Christ is blossoming? H 50 55 60 65 70 There is the Rose in which the Word Divine Became incarnate; there the lilies are By whose perfume the good way was discovered." Thus Beatrice; and I, who to her counsels Was wholly ready, once again betook me 76 As in the sunshine, that unsullied streams [flowers Through fractured cloud, ere now a meadow of Mine eyes with shadow covered o'er have seen, 81 So troops of splendors manifold I saw Illumined from above with burning rays, Beholding not the source of the effulgence. 85 O power benignant that dost so imprint them! Morning and evening utterly enthralled And cinctured it, and whirled itself about it. 90 95 On earth, and to itself most draws the soul, Would seem a cloud that, rent asunder, thunders, Compared unto the sounding of that lyre 100 Wherewith was crowned the sapphire beautiful, Which gives the clearest heaven its sapphire hue. "I am Angelic Love, that circle round The joy sublime which breathes from out the womb That was the hostelry of our Desire ; And I shall circle, Lady of Heaven, while Thou followest thy Son, and mak'st diviner 105 The sphere supreme, because thou enterest there." Thus did the circulated melody Seal itself up; and all the other lights Were making to resound the name of Mary. The regal mantle of the volumes all 110 Of that world, which most fervid is and living With breath of God and with his works and ways, Extended over us its inner border, So very distant, that the semblance of it There where I was not yet appeared to me. Therefore mine eyes did not possess the power 115 120 Of following the incoronated flame, Which mounted upward near to its own seed. And as a little child, that towards its mother Stretches its arms, when it the milk hath taken, Through impulse kindled into outward flame, Each of those gleams of whiteness upward reached So with its summit, that the deep affection They had for Mary was revealed to me. Thereafter they remained there in my sight, Regina cœli singing with such sweetness, That ne'er from me has the delight departed. O, what exuberance is garnered up Within those richest coffers, which had been 125 130 |