Chapter 10

And peradventure my dark utterance, Like Themis and the Sphinx, may less persuade thee, Since, in their mode, it clouds the intellect;

But soon the facts shall be the Naiades Who shall this difficult enigma solve, Without destruction of the flocks and harvests.

Note thou; and even as by me are uttered These words, so teach them unto those who live That life which is a running unto death;

And bear in mind, whene’er thou writest them, Not to conceal what thou hast seen the plant, That twice already has been pillaged here.

Whoever pillages or shatters it, With blasphemy of deed offendeth God, Who made it holy for his use alone.

For biting that, in pain and in desire Five thousand years and more the first-born soul Craved Him, who punished in himself the bite.

Thy genius slumbers, if it deem it not For special reason so pre-eminent In height, and so inverted in its summit.

And if thy vain imaginings had not been Water of Elsa round about thy mind, And Pyramus to the mulberry, their pleasure,

Thou by so many circumstances only The justice of the interdict of God Morally in the tree wouldst recognize.

But since I see thee in thine intellect Converted into stone and stained with sin, So that the light of my discourse doth daze thee,

I will too, if not written, at least painted, Thou bear it back within thee, for the reason That cinct with palm the pilgrim’s staff is borne.”

And I: “As by a signet is the wax Which does not change the figure stamped upon it, My brain is now imprinted by yourself.

But wherefore so beyond my power of sight Soars your desirable discourse, that aye The more I strive, so much the more I lose it?”

“That thou mayst recognize,” she said, “the school Which thou hast followed, and mayst see how far Its doctrine follows after my discourse,

And mayst behold your path from the divine Distant as far as separated is From earth the heaven that highest hastens on.”

Whence her I answered: “I do not remember That ever I estranged myself from you, Nor have I conscience of it that reproves me.”

“And if thou art not able to remember,” Smiling she answered, “recollect thee now That thou this very day hast drunk of Lethe;

And if from smoke a fire may be inferred, Such an oblivion clearly demonstrates Some error in thy will elsewhere intent.

Truly from this time forward shall my words Be naked, so far as it is befitting To lay them open unto thy rude gaze.”

And more coruscant and with slower steps The sun was holding the meridian circle, Which, with the point of view, shifts here and there

When halted (as he cometh to a halt, Who goes before a squadron as its escort, If something new he find upon his way)

The ladies seven at a dark shadow’s edge, Such as, beneath green leaves and branches black, The Alp upon its frigid border wears.

In front of them the Tigris and Euphrates Methought I saw forth issue from one fountain, And slowly part, like friends, from one another.

“O light, O glory of the human race! What stream is this which here unfolds itself From out one source, and from itself withdraws?”

For such a prayer, ’twas said unto me, “Pray Matilda that she tell thee;” and here answered, As one does who doth free himself from blame,

The beautiful lady: “This and other things Were told to him by me; and sure I am The water of Lethe has not hid them from him.”

And Beatrice: “Perhaps a greater care, Which oftentimes our memory takes away, Has made the vision of his mind obscure.

But Eunoe behold, that yonder rises; Lead him to it, and, as thou art accustomed, Revive again the half-dead virtue in him.”

Like gentle soul, that maketh no excuse, But makes its own will of another’s will As soon as by a sign it is disclosed,

Even so, when she had taken hold of me, The beautiful lady moved, and unto Statius Said, in her womanly manner, “Come with him.”

If, Reader, I possessed a longer space For writing it, I yet would sing in part Of the sweet draught that ne’er would satiate me;

But inasmuch as full are all the leaves Made ready for this second canticle, The curb of art no farther lets me go.

From the most holy water I returned Regenerate, in the manner of new trees That are renewed with a new foliage,

Pure and disposed to mount unto the stars.