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