第 32 节
作者:辛苦      更新:2021-02-20 05:04      字数:9322
  The holy purpose of this Archimandrite。
  And when he had; through thirst of martyrdom;
  In the proud presence of the Sultan preached
  Christ and the others who came after him;
  And; finding for conversion too unripe
  The folk; and not to tarry there in vain;
  Returned to fruit of the Italic grass;
  On the rude rock 'twixt Tiber and the Arno
  From Christ did he receive the final seal;
  Which during two whole years his members bore。
  When He; who chose him unto so much good;
  Was pleased to draw him up to the reward
  That he had merited by being lowly;
  Unto his friars; as to the rightful heirs;
  His most dear Lady did he recommend;
  And bade that they should love her faithfully;
  And from her bosom the illustrious soul
  Wished to depart; returning to its realm;
  And for its body wished no other bier。
  Think now what man was he; who was a fit
  Companion over the high seas to keep
  The bark of Peter to its proper bearings。
  And this man was our Patriarch; hence whoever
  Doth follow him as he commands can see
  That he is laden with good merchandise。
  But for new pasturage his flock has grown
  So greedy; that it is impossible
  They be not scattered over fields diverse;
  And in proportion as his sheep remote
  And vagabond go farther off from him;
  More void of milk return they to the fold。
  Verily some there are that fear a hurt;
  And keep close to the shepherd; but so few;
  That little cloth doth furnish forth their hoods。
  Now if my utterance be not indistinct;
  If thine own hearing hath attentive been;
  If thou recall to mind what I have said;
  In part contented shall thy wishes be;
  For thou shalt see the plant that's chipped away;
  And the rebuke that lieth in the words;
  'Where well one fattens; if he strayeth not。'〃
  Paradiso: Canto XII
  Soon as the blessed flame had taken up
  The final word to give it utterance;
  Began the holy millstone to revolve;
  And in its gyre had not turned wholly round;
  Before another in a ring enclosed it;
  And motion joined to motion; song to song;
  Song that as greatly doth transcend our Muses;
  Our Sirens; in those dulcet clarions;
  As primal splendour that which is reflected。
  And as are spanned athwart a tender cloud
  Two rainbows parallel and like in colour;
  When Juno to her handmaid gives command;
  (The one without born of the one within;
  Like to the speaking of that vagrant one
  Whom love consumed as doth the sun the vapours;)
  And make the people here; through covenant
  God set with Noah; presageful of the world
  That shall no more be covered with a flood;
  In such wise of those sempiternal roses
  The garlands twain encompassed us about;
  And thus the outer to the inner answered。
  After the dance; and other grand rejoicings;
  Both of the singing; and the flaming forth
  Effulgence with effulgence blithe and tender;
  Together; at once; with one accord had stopped;
  (Even as the eyes; that; as volition moves them;
  Must needs together shut and lift themselves;)
  Out of the heart of one of the new lights
  There came a voice; that needle to the star
  Made me appear in turning thitherward。
  And it began: 〃The love that makes me fair
  Draws me to speak about the other leader;
  By whom so well is spoken here of mine。
  'Tis right; where one is; to bring in the other;
  That; as they were united in their warfare;
  Together likewise may their glory shine。
  The soldiery of Christ; which it had cost
  So dear to arm again; behind the standard
  Moved slow and doubtful and in numbers few;
  When the Emperor who reigneth evermore
  Provided for the host that was in peril;
  Through grace alone and not that it was worthy;
  And; as was said; he to his Bride brought succour
  With champions twain; at whose deed; at whose word
  The straggling people were together drawn。
  Within that region where the sweet west wind
  Rises to open the new leaves; wherewith
  Europe is seen to clothe herself afresh;
  Not far off from the beating of the waves;
  Behind which in his long career the sun
  Sometimes conceals himself from every man;
  Is situate the fortunate Calahorra;
  Under protection of the mighty shield
  In which the Lion subject is and sovereign。
  Therein was born the amorous paramour
  Of Christian Faith; the athlete consecrate;
  Kind to his own and cruel to his foes;
  And when it was created was his mind
  Replete with such a living energy;
  That in his mother her it made prophetic。
  As soon as the espousals were complete
  Between him and the Faith at holy font;
  Where they with mutual safety dowered each other;
  The woman; who for him had given assent;
  Saw in a dream the admirable fruit
  That issue would from him and from his heirs;
  And that he might be construed as he was;
  A spirit from this place went forth to name him
  With His possessive whose he wholly was。
  Dominic was he called; and him I speak of
  Even as of the husbandman whom Christ
  Elected to his garden to assist him。
  Envoy and servant sooth he seemed of Christ;
  For the first love made manifest in him
  Was the first counsel that was given by Christ。
  Silent and wakeful many a time was he
  Discovered by his nurse upon the ground;
  As if he would have said; 'For this I came。'
  O thou his father; Felix verily!
  O thou his mother; verily Joanna;
  If this; interpreted; means as is said!
  Not for the world which people toil for now
  In following Ostiense and Taddeo;
  But through his longing after the true manna;
  He in short time became so great a teacher;
  That he began to go about the vineyard;
  Which fadeth soon; if faithless be the dresser;
  And of the See; (that once was more benignant
  Unto the righteous poor; not through itself;
  But him who sits there and degenerates;)
  Not to dispense or two or three for six;
  Not any fortune of first vacancy;
  'Non decimas quae sunt pauperum Dei;'
  He asked for; but against the errant world
  Permission to do battle for the seed;
  Of which these four and twenty plants surround thee。
  Then with the doctrine and the will together;
  With office apostolical he moved;
  Like torrent which some lofty vein out…presses;
  And in among the shoots heretical
  His impetus with greater fury smote;
  Wherever the resistance was the greatest。
  Of him were made thereafter divers runnels;
  Whereby the garden catholic is watered;
  So that more living its plantations stand。
  If such the one wheel of the Biga was;
  In which the Holy Church itself defended
  And in the field its civic battle won;
  Truly full manifest should be to thee
  The excellence of the other; unto whom
  Thomas so courteous was before my coming。
  But still the orbit; which the highest part
  Of its circumference made; is derelict;
  So that the mould is where was once the crust。
  His family; that had straight forward moved
  With feet upon his footprints; are turned round
  So that they set the point upon the heel。
  And soon aware they will be of the harvest
  Of this bad husbandry; when shall the tares
  Complain the granary is taken from them。
  Yet say I; he who searcheth leaf by leaf
  Our volume through; would still some page discover
  Where he could read; 'I am as I am wont。'
  'Twill not be from Casal nor Acquasparta;
  From whence come such unto the written word
  That one avoids it; and the other narrows。
  Bonaventura of Bagnoregio's life
  Am I; who always in great offices
  Postponed considerations sinister。
  Here are Illuminato and Agostino;
  Who of the first barefooted beggars were
  That with the cord the friends of God became。
  Hugh of Saint Victor is among them here;
  And Peter Mangiador; and Peter of Spain;
  Who down below in volumes twelve is shining;
  Nathan the seer; and metropolitan
  Chrysostom; and Anselmus; and Donatus
  Who deigned to lay his hand to the first art;
  Here is Rabanus; and beside me here
  Shines the Calabrian Abbot Joachim;
  He with the spirit of prophecy endowed。
  To celebrate so great a paladin
  Have moved me the impassioned courtesy
  And the discreet discourses of Friar Thomas;
  And with me they have moved this company。〃
  Paradiso: Canto XIII
  Let him imagine; who would well conceive
  What now I saw; and let him while I speak
  Retain the image as a steadfast rock;
  The fifteen stars; that in their divers regions
  The sky enliven with a light so great
  That it transcends all clusters of the air;
  Let him the Wain imagine unto which
  Our vault of heaven sufficeth night and day;
  So that in turning of its pole it fails not;
  Let him the mouth imagine of the horn
  That in the point beginneth of the axis
  Round about which the primal wheel revolves;
  To have fashioned of themselves two signs in heaven;
  Like unto that which Minos' daughter made;
  The moment when she felt the frost of death;
  And one to have its rays within the other;
  And both to whirl themselves in such a manner
  That one should forward go; the other backward;
  And he will have some shadowing forth of that
  True constellation and the double dance
  That circled round t