menu_book Chapter 57

chapter fifty seven of jerusalem to revelations a quartet of spiritual experience by william blake and others this librivox recording is in the public domain recording by tony addison purgatorio nine anti purgatory the veil of flowers dante's first dream the gate of purgatory already was old titan's concubine whitening upon the orient's balcony outside the arms of her sweet paramour already was her forehead shining bright with gems arranged according to the shape of that cold beast which smites one with its tail and night had at the steps wherewith she climbs already taken to where we were then and now the third was lowering its wings when i who had somewhat of adam in me were come with sleep reclined upon the grass on which all five of us were sitting then

near morning at the hour in which the swallow begins to sing her melancholy lays perchance in memory of her earliest woes and when much more a pilgrim from the flesh and less imprisoned by its thoughts a mind well-nigh prophetic in its vision is an eagle in a dream i seemed to see suspended in the sky with plumes of gold and wings outspread intent on swooping down and it appeared to me that i was where his friends were left behind by ganymede when to the highest council he was raised i thought within myself perhaps this bird is wont to strike but here and from elsewhere perhaps disdains to lift one with its claws then having wheeled a while it seemed to me that terrible as lightning it came down

and bore me up as far as to the fire there it and i both seemed to burn together and so intense was that imagined burning my sleep was broken of necessity Achilles roused himself no differently, turning around him his awakened eyes, nor knowing in what region he might be, when, sleeping in her arms, his mother took him away from Chiron to the Isle of Cyrus, from which the Greeks removed him afterwards. Then I aroused myself when, from my face, sleep led away, and death-like pale I turned, like one who freezes when overcome by fright. Only my comforter was at my side, and now the sun was higher than two hours, and toward the open sea my face was turned. Be not afraid.

my lord then said to me be reassured for we are faring well restrain not but expand thine every power at purgatory art thou now arrived behold the cliff there which encloses it behold the entrance where it broken seems just now when in the dawn preceding day thy soul was sleeping in thee on the flowers wherewith the place down yonder is adorned a lady came and said i am lucia allow me to take up this sleeping man i shall assist him thus upon his way saw dello and the other noble forms remained she took thee and when daylight dawned hither came up and in her footprints i she laid thee here and first her lovely eyes revealed to me that opened entrance then both she and sleep together passed away

like one who when in doubt is reassured and into comfort turns his fear when once the truth has been disclosed to him i changed and when my leader wholly freed from care beheld me upward o'er the cliff he moved and i behind him followed toward the height reader thou surely seest how i exult my subject therefore be thou not surprised if i support it now with greater art nearer we drew and were in such a place that where at first there seemed to be a break just like a fissure that divides a wall i saw a gate and under to approach it three steps of different colour each and then a keeper who as yet said not a word

and as i opened more and more mine eyes i saw him sitting on the upper step such in his face that i endured him not and in his hand he had a naked sword which so reflected upon us its rays that toward him oft i turned my eyes in vain say what it is you wish from where you are he then began and where your escort is beware lest coming up should do you harm a heavenly lady of these things aware my teacher answered him said unto us just now go thither yonder is the gate and unto good may she advance your step the courteous keeper of the gate resumed come forward therefore unto these our stairs made of white marble was the first great step to which we came so polished and so smooth i mirrored me therein as i appeared the second step darker than purple-black was of a rough and calcine kind of stone cracked lengthwise and across

the third which rests in massive shape above it seemed to me to be a porpoise as flaming red as blood appears when spurting from a vein upon this last god's angel held both feet sitting upon the threshold which to me appeared to be a rock of adamant up over these three steps my leader then drew me along with my good will and said humbly request him to undo the lock devoutly at his holy feet i cast me i begged that of his mercy he would open but first i smote upon my breast three times then with his sword sharp point he traced seven peas upon my brow and told me see thou to it that when inside thou wash away these wounds ashes or earth when excavated dry would with his garments of one colour bead and from beneath it he drew forth two keys one was of gold the other silver was first with the white and after with the yellow he so did to the gate that i was pleased

whenever one of these keys faileth so that in the lock it doth not rightly turn said he to us this passage opens not more precious is the first and yet the other ere it unlocks much skill and judgment needs for it is that one which unties the knot peter from whom i hauled them bade me air rather in opening than in keeping clothes provided folk fell prostrate at my feet he pushed the holy portal's door thereat and said to us go in but i inform you that he who looks behind returns outside and when that sacred gateway's folding doors which were of strong resounding metal made were on their iron hinges turned around tarpeo roared not so nor proved so shrill when good metellus was removed from her because of which she afterwards kept lean i turned to heed its first resounding tones and thee we praise o lord

i seemed to hear in voices mixed with those delightful sounds what i was hearing made upon me then just the impression one is wont to get when people with an organ sing for now the words are heard and now again are not purgatorio tem purgatory the first ring pride instances of humility the expiation of pride when past the threshold of the gate we were whose use the evil love of souls impairs because it makes the crooked path seem straight twas by its sound i knew that it had closed and had i turned my eyes in its direction what would have fittingly excused my fault we mounted through a fissure in the rock which moved about to this side and to that as moves a wave that flees and draweth near a little skill must here be used by us my leader then began in keeping close now here now there to the receding side

this caused our steps to be so slow and short that to her bed the waning moon had gone to rest herself again ere we had issued forth from that needle's eye but when set free we were and in the open up above where back the mountain side recedes i weary and both of us uncertain of our way stopped short upon a level place up there more lonely than our roads through desert lands from where its margined borders on the void up to the foot of that high-rising bank would measure thrice a human body's length and far as e'er mine eye could wing its flight now on the right and now upon the left such did this girding ledge appear to me our feet have not been moving on it yet when i perceived the bank surrounding it which being perpendicular could not be climbed white marble was and so adorned with carvings

that not only polycletus but nature too would there be put to shame the angel who to earth came with the word of peace which wept for during many years had after its long closure opened heaven appeared before us there in gentle mien sculptured so truthfully it did not seem that he could be an image that is dumb one would have sworn that he was saying hail for she was there portrayed in effigy who turned the key that opened love on high and in her mien and acts she had the word behold the handmaid of the lord impressed as clearly as a figure stamped in wax keep not thy mind on one place only fixed my gentle teacher said who had me there on that side of him where one has his heart i therefore moved my eyes and further on than mary on the side where him i had who urged me to go on

i then beheld another story graven in the rock passing by virgil therefore i drew near so that it might be set before mine eyes cut in the marble there the cart and oxen were drawing up the holy ark which made men dread a charge not given them in trust people in front of the and all of them forming seven choirs made one of my two senses say no and the other one say yes they sing so too by reason of the incense-smoke which there was pictured forth my eyes and nose became discordant as to yes and no the humble psalmist there with loins girt up came dancing on before the blessed vessel and doing so was more and less than king and michael opposite to this portrayed was from a palace window looking down as would an angry woman filled with scorn

from where i was i onward moved my feet that i might closely note another tale which after michael gleamed upon me white the glorious action of that roman prince was storied here whose work moved gregory to win his mighty triumph i refer to emperor trajam at his bridle stood a widow who in tears showed signs of grief the space around him there seemed trampled down and thronged with horsemen while above his head eagles it seemed upon a field of gold were fluttering in the wind among all these the sorrowing woman seemed to say My lord, avenge me for the slaying of my son, which breaks my heart.

And he, to answer her, Wait now till I return. And she, like one whom sorrow makes impatient, said, But what, my lord, if thou shalt not return? And he, that one will do it, who shall hold my place.

How shall another's goodness help thy case? She answered him, If thou forget thine own, then he, Now be thou comforted, for need must I perform my duty ere I leave. Justice so wills, and pity keeps me here. He, to whose vision naught was ever new, created this seen language, new to us, since not found here on earth. While, with delight, I looked upon the pictures of such great humilities, which, for their maker's sake, are also dear to see.

On this side, lo, much people come, but slow the steps they take. The poet murmured, toward the grades above, these souls will send us forward on our way. mine eyes intent on gazing to behold new things for which with eagerness they longed in turning toward him were not slow to move yet i'd not have thee reader shrink dismayed from thy good purposes through hearing how god wills it that what is due be paid heed not the nature of the torment think of what comes after think that at the very worst beyond the judgment day it cannot go then i began that teacher which toward us i see advancing does not look like people nor know i what

my sight is so deceived and he to me their torments heavy nature so bows them toward the ground that my eyes too struggle therewith at first but steadily gaze there and disentangle with thine eyes what underneath those stones is coming on thou now canst see how each one smites himself O ye proud Christians, sad and weary creatures, who, sick in mental vision, put your trust in backward-moving steps! Perceive ye not that worms we are, created but to form the angelic butterfly which flies unscreened to judgment? Why, then, is it that your mind soars up in pride, since ye are, as it were, defective insects, even as is a worm, in which formation is not yet complete?

as to hold up a ceiling or a roof in lieu of corbel one perceives at times a human figure joining knees to breast which out of unreality gives birth to real distress in him who sees it such seemed these to me when i had given good heed they were in truth both more and less bowed down as each had more or less upon his back but he that in his acts most patient was seemed to say weeping i can bear no more purgatorio eleven purgatory the first ring pride the lord's prayer the proud Our Father, thou that in the heavens dost dwell, not circumscribe, but for the greater love thou hast for what thou madest first on high, let both thy name and worth be given praise by every creature, even as it is meek, that to thy loving spirit thanks be given, and may thy kingdom's peace come down to us, since we cannot attain it of ourselves, for all our striving save it also come. as gladly of their will thine angels make a sacrifice to thee singing all hail so likewise gladly may men do with theirs give us this day a daily spirit food without which through this bitter wilderness he backward goes who onward toileth most

and as we pardon every one the wrong we've suffered of thy mercy do thou us forgive regarding not what we deserve our virtue which is easily overcome test thou not through our ancient enemy but set us free from him who tempts it so this last request dear lord is not indeed made for ourselves who need not make it here but is for their sakes who behind us stayed thus praying good speed for themselves and us those shades beneath the burden went their way not unlike that whereof one dreams at times unequally tormented all of them and weary o'er the first ring round and round purging away the world's defiling mist if good things there be always said for us what can be said and done on their behalf down here by those whose will is rooted well surely one ought to help them wash away the stains they brought with them that they may issue cleansed and unburdened to the starry spheres

pray so may pity and justice speedily unburden you that ye may move unto your wings and raise yourselves according to your wish show us on which hand lies the shortest way to reach the stair and be there more than one teach us the pass that hath the gentlest slope for owing to the load of adam's flesh which clothes his spirit he who with me comes is slowing climbing though against his will as to the words which in reply they said to those which he whom i was following spoke it was not evident from whom they came but this was said Come with us on the right, along the bank, and ye shall find the pass, which may be climbed by one that's still alive. And were I not prevented by the stone, which tames my haughty neck, and forces me to keep my face bowed down, at this man here, who liveth still, and telleth not his name, I'd look, to see if he is one I know, and stir his pity for this heavy load. Latin I was, and born to a great Tuscan.

Guglielmo, Aldo Brandesio, was my father. I know not if you ever knew his name. My forebear's ancient blood and noble deed caused me to be so arrogant that I, unmindful of our common mother earth,

held every man in scorn to such extent. I died for it, as well knows Siena's folk, and every child in campagnatico. I am Umberto. Not to me alone doth this work ill,

for pride hath with itself drawn all my kin into calamity, and here for this must I needs bear this load among the dead, till God be satisfied, since I among the living bore it not. listening I bowed my face

and one of them not he who had been speaking writhed around under the burden which was hampering him and having seen

and recognized me called and kept his eyes with effort fixed on me who as I went along with them was stooping

then oh said I art thou not Odorisi the glory of Agobio, and the art which is in Paris called Illuminating? Brother, said he, more smiling are the parchments which Franco Bolognese paints.

The glory is now all his, and only partly mine. Because of that great longing to excel whereon my heart was set, I certainly would not have been so courteous while I lived. Here is the forfeit paid for pride like this. nor should I be here yet. Had it not been that while I still could sim, I turned to God.

Oh, empty glory of our human powers, how short a time green lasts upon its top, unless uncultured ages overtake it. One, Kimabue, thought that he would hold the field in painting, yet the cry is all for Giotto now, hence that one's fame is dark. Thus hath one Guido, taken from the other, the glory of our tongue, and he is born, perhaps, who from the nest will banish both. Worldly repute is but a breath of wind, which cometh now from here, and now from

there, and shifts its name, because its quarter shifts. What greater fame shalt thou have, if when old thou quit thy flesh, than hadst thou died, e'er pap and chink were dropped, a thousand years from now, for that, if to eternity compared, is shorter than the twinkling of an eye is to the sky's most slowly moving sphere. All Tuscany proclaim the fame of him who walked so slowly on the road before me. Yet hardly is a whisper of him left in Siena now,

whose governor he was, what time the rage of Florence was destroyed, which then, as haughty was as abject now. Your worldly fame is like the hue of grass, which comes and goes, and he discolours it, through whom it springs up tender from the ground. And I, thy true speech, heartening me with good humility, thou prickst my swollen pride. But who is he of whom thou spokes just now? that, he replied, is Provenza and Salvani, and here he is, because presumptuously he brought all Sienna under his control.

Thus hath he gone, and without rest he goes, as since he died. Who yonder dares too much in satisfaction pay such coin as this? and i then if the spirit who delays before repenting till the verge of life abides below and cometh not up here unless good prayers assist him till as long a time be passed as he had been alive wherefore hath this man's coming been vouchsafed when in his greatest glory he replied all shame removed he freely took his stand in sieno's campo and there to free a friend suffering in charles's prison he brought himself to quake in every vein i'll say no more and know that what i say is darkly spoken but so ere long will thine own neighbours act that thou be able to interpret it this deed of his relieved him from those bounds

purgatorio twelve purgatory the first ring pride instances of punished pride the angel of humility with equal steps like oxen going yoke i went along beside that burdened soul as long as my dear pedagogue allowed but when he said leave him and go thou on for here tis well that each should urge his back with sail and oars as much as e'er he can i straightened me as much as walking called for although my thought kept humble and depressed on had i moved and in my teacher's step was following willingly and both of us were showing now how light of step we were when downward turn thine eyes he said to me well will it be to calm thee on thy way that thou shouldst see the bed thy souls are treading as over those that neath them buried lie that they may be recalled to people's minds tombs level with the ground the record bare of what they were before whence there they oft are wept for through the prick of memory which spurs to grief the pitiful alone

even so i saw engraved in sculpture here though finer in respect to workmanship as much as from the mount jets out as part i saw on one side him who once was made nobler by far than any other creature fall like a flash of lightning down from heaven i saw reaureus on the other side pierced by an arrow from the sky like prone and heavy on the ground with mortal cold i saw apollo mars i saw and pallas as still in armour round their sire they stood gazing upon the giant's scattered limbs i saw great nimrod neath his mighty work dumb with confusion as he watched the folk who once were proud with him on shinar's plain o niobe with what sad eyes i thee saw pictured forth in stone between thy children the seven and seven thy dead upon the road

o saul how plainly there on thine own sword didst thou seem dead upon gilboa's mount which felt thereafter neither rain nor dew o mad arachne thee i saw as when already half a spider thou wast sad amid the tatters of thy fatal work o rehoboam not a threat seems now thy face but terror-stricken as a way a chariot bears thee lest thou be pursued it showed moreover that hard pavement did how costly once our maon caused his mother's unlucky ornament to seem to her it showed how in the temple's walls his sons cast themselves on sennacherib and how when he was dead they there abandoned him it showed the slaughter and the cruel woe wrought by tomyris when she said to cyrus with blood i feel thee that it's thirst for blood

it showed too how the assyrians took to flight routed when holofernes had been killed and also what was of that slaughter left i saw proud troy in ashes and in caves oh ilion how degraded and how vile it showed thou wast the image there perceived what master or a brush or graving tool could reproduce the shadows and the features which there would cause all cultured minds to wonder the dead seemed dead the living seemed alive whoever saw the real no better saw than i then did what i was treading on as long as bowed i walked be ye then proud and go with haughty looks ye sons of eve nor bow your heads to see your evil part more of the mountain had we circled now and of the sun's course far more had we spent than my not disengaged mind had supposed when he who always walked attentively ahead of me began

lift up thy head the time for going thus absorbed is past see there an angel who is making ready to come toward us see how the sixth handmaiden returns now from the service of the day with reverence adorn thine axe and face that he may now be pleased to send us up think that this day will never dawn again so well accustomed was i to his warning that i should never let my time be lost that on this theme he could not darkly speak Toward us the lovely creature was advancing, arrayed in white, and in his countenance, such as, when trembling, seems the morning star. His arms he opened, then he oped his wings, and said to us, Come, near by are the steps, and going up is easy after this.

only a few to this announcement come O human race why born for upward flight fallest thou so before a little wind he led us on

to where the rock was cut and there my forehead with his wings he stroked and promised that my passage would be safe as on the right hand

to ascend the mount where seated is the church which dominates the well-ruled town Or Rubicante's bridge. The slope's bold flight

Is broken by the stairs Constructed in an age When choir and stave were safe. So likewise doth the bank relax Which from the next ledge

Here quite steeply falls. But closely on each side The high rock rubs. While, turning thither, We were on our way.

Blessed are the poor in spirit, voices sang in such a way as words could not describe alas how different are the passes here from those in hell for one up here goes in with songs but there below with frightful wails we now were climbing up the holy stairs and lighter far i felt than formerly i seemed to be when on the level ground i hence said teacher say what heavy thing has been removed from me that as i walk i almost feel no weariness at all he answered when the peas which still remain almost extinct upon thy brow are quite erased as one is now thy feet will so be conquered by good-will that they will feel not only no fatigue but it will be a pleasure to them to be upward urged

i then did as do those who go about with something on their head they know not of till others gestures cause them to suspect whereat their hand assists in ascertaining searches and finds and so performs the work which cannot be accomplished by their sight and with my right hand's fingers spread i found that only six the letters were which he who held the keys had all my temples cut on seeing which my leader smiled with joy chapter fifty seven