For yonder beast, who so to howl thee made, By no man ever lets her road be past, And many more will have, until that hound 95 100 Shall come, who must with grief cut short her date; Whose meat in land or dross shall not be found, But virtue, wisdom, love, shall feed him ever, And Feltro unto Feltro be his bound; He shall this humbled Italy deliver, For which Euryalus, Nisus, Turnus, fell Till whence she came he force her to return, And counsel, that thou follow me as guide, And I will take thee hence, by tracts eterne, 105 110 Where wailings of despair thy sense will gride, And thou wilt see the souls that live contented 115 In flames, thro' which they hope to mount up higher To blessed realms, when heaven has once consented; To which, if thou wilt afterwards aspire, Behold, a spirit worthier than I Shall come, and I, departing, leave thee by her; Because I have obeyed not his decree, Will have me not his city to draw nigh. O'er all with might, and there with majesty He reigns, there keeps his city and high throne; O blessed, whom he chooses there to see." 121 125 "I charge thee, by that God, to thee unknown, 130 Poet," I cried, "to lead me as thou sayest, That I may flee this hurt, nor this alone, Till on St. Peter's gate mine eyes may rest, And those who by thy telling make such moan." Then forth he moved, and I behind him prest. 135 CANTO II. DAY was departing, and the air embrowned By travel and by ruth upon me laid, O Mind that wrotest down what I descried, Herein thy nobleness shall be displayed. 10 15 Still, though the enemy of Evil laid This grace on him, minding the high effect Of who? and what? should from his root be made, It seems not vain to human intellect; For he of parent Rome and all her sway Was founder, in the empyreal heavens elect: All which (to speak the truth if I assay) Were thus establisht for the sacred seat, Which heirs o' th' elder Peter hold alway. 20 This proud adventure, which thou makest him meet, 25 For no Eneas, nor no Paul am I; I fear me, that like folly it may close; 30 35 336 And like a man unchoosing what he chose, Whose former mind by some new thought is crost, Till far astray from his first plan he goes; Thus I became, upon this lightless coast, And, thinking, all that fire of enterprise, Which I had in me at the first, I lost. "If well the sense thou speakest I surmise," Replied that shade magnanimous, "thy mind Must be offended' here with cowardice; The which full oft encumbereth mankind, And turns them back from honoured high career, Like seeing beasts, when shadows pass behind. From this misgiving then thy soul to clear, I'll tell thee why I came, and, when I erst Took thought for thee, what tale had reacht my ear. I stood among the neither saved nor curst, When called me such a blest and beauteous One, That to command me I besought her first. 45 50 Her eyes more brightly than the Planet shone, 55 And she addrest me, O how smooth and sweet, With angel voice, in language of her own: |