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Dante Alighieri (1265–1321). The Divine Comedy.
The Harvard Classics. 1909–14.

Paradise

Canto XVII ARGUMENT.—Cacciaguida predicts to our Poet his exile and the calamities he had to infer; and, lastly, exhorts him to write the present poem.

SUCH as the youth, who came to Clymene,

To certify himself of that reproach

Which had been fasten’d on him, (he whose end,

Still makes the fathers chary to their sons),

E’en such was I; nor unobserved was such

Of Beatrice, and that saintly lamp,

Who had erewhile for me his station moved;

When thus my lady: “Give thy wish free vent,

That it may issue, bearing true report

Of the mind’s impress: not that aught thy words

May to our knowledge add, but to the end

That thou mayst use thyself to own thy thirst,

And men may mingle for thee when they hear.”

“O plant, from whence I spring! revered and loved!

Who soar’st so high a pitch, that thou as clear,

As earthly thought determines two obtuse

In one triangle not contain’d, so clear

Dost see contingencies, ere in themselves

Existent, looking at the point whereto

All times are present; I, the whilst I scaled

With Virgil the soul-purifying mount

And visited the nether world of woe,

Touching my future destiny have heard

Words grievous, though I feel me on all sides

Well squared to fortune’s blows. Therefore my will

Were satisfied to know the lot awaits me;

The arrow, seen beforehand, slacks his flight.”

So said I to the brightness, which erewhile

To me had spoken; and my will declared,

As Beatrice will’d, explicitly.

Nor with oracular response obscure,

Such as, or e’er the Lamb of God was slain,

Beguiled the credulous nations: but, in terms

Precise, and unambiguous lore, replied

The spirit of paternal love, enshrined,

Yet in his smile apparent; and thus spake:

“Contingency, whose verge extendeth not

Beyond the tablet of your mortal mold,

Is all depictured in the eternal sight;

But hence deriveth not necessity,

More than the tall ship, hurried down the flood,

Is driven by the eye that looks on it.

From thence, as to the ear sweet harmony

From organ comes, so comes before mine eye

The time prepared for thee. Such as driven out

From Athens, by his cruel stepdame’s wiles,

Hippolytus departed; such must thou

Depart from Florence. This they wish, and this

Contrive, and will ere long effectuate, there,

Where gainful merchandize is made of Christ

Throughout the live-long day. The common cry,

Will, as ’tis ever wont, affix the blame

Unto the party injured: but the truth

Shall, in the vengeance it dispenseth, find

A faithful witness. Thou shalt leave each thing

Beloved most dearly: this is the first shaft

Shot from the bow of exile. Thou shalt prove

How salt the savour is of other’s bread;

How hard the passage, to descend and climb

By other’s stairs. But that shall gall thee most,

Will be the worthless and vile company,

With whom thou must be thrown into these straits.

For all ungrateful, impious all, and mad,

Shall turn ’gainst thee: but in a little while,

Theirs, and not thine, shall be the crimson’d brow.

Their course shall so evince their brutishness,

To have ta’en thy stand apart shall well become thee.

“First refuge thou must find, first place of rest,

In the great Lombard’s courtesy, who bears,

Upon the ladder perch’d, the sacred bird.

He shall behold thee with such kind regard,

That ’twixt ye two, the contrary to that

Which ’falls ’twixt other men, the granting shall

Forerun the asking. With him shalt thou see

That mortal, who was at his birth imprest

So strongly from this star, that of his deeds

The nations shall take note. His unripe age

Yet holds him from observance; for these wheels

Only nine years have compasst him about.

But, ere the Gascon practise on great Harry,

Sparkles of virtue shall shoot forth in him,

In equal scorn of labours and of gold

His bounty shall be spread abroad so widely,

As not to let the tongues, e’en of his foes,

Be idle in its praise. Look thou to him,

And his beneficence: for he shall cause

Reversal of their lot to many people;

Rich men and beggars interchanging fortunes.

And thou shalt bear this written in thy soul’

Of him, but tell it not:” and things he told

Incredible to those who witness them;

Then added: “So interpret thou, my son,

What hath been told thee.—Lo! the ambushment

That a few circling seasons hide for thee.

Yet envy not thy neighbours: time extends

Thy span beyond their treason’s chastisement.”

Soon as the saintly spirit, by silence, mark’d

Completion of that web, which I had stretch’d

Before it, warp’d for weaving; I began,

As one, who in perplexity desires

Counsel of other, wise, benign and friendly:

“My father! well I mark how time spurs on

Toward me, ready to inflict the blow,

Which falls most heavily on him who most

Abandoneth himself. Therefore ’tis good

I should forecast, that, driven from the place

Most dear to me, I may not lose myself

All other by my song. Down through the world

Of infinite mourning; and along the mount,

From whose fair height my lady’s eyes did lift me;

And, after, through this Heaven, from light to light;

Have I learnt that, which if I tell again,

It may with many wofully disrelish:

And, if I am a timid friend to truth,

I fear my life may perish among those,

To whom these days shall be of ancient date.”

The brightness, where enclosed the treasure smiled,

Which I had found there, first shone glisteringly,

Like to a golden mirror in the sun;

Next answer’d: “Conscience, dimm’d or by its own

Or other’s shame, will feel thy saying sharp.

Thou, notwithstanding, all deceit removed,

See the whole vision be made manifest;

And let them wince, who have their withers wrung.

What though, when tasted first, thy voice shall prove

Unwelcome: on digestion, it will turn

To vital nourishment. The cry thou raisest,

Shall, as the wind doth, smite the proudest summits;

Which is of honour no light argument.

For this, there only have been shown to thee,

Throughout these orbs, the mountain, and the deep,

Spirits, whom fame hath note of. For the mind

Of him, who hears, is loth to acquiesce

And fix its faith, unless the instance brought

Be palpable, and proof apparent urge.”