第 60 节
作者:
辛苦 更新:2021-02-20 05:04 字数:9322
The natural was ever without error;
But err the other may by evil object;
Or by too much; or by too little vigour。
While in the first it well directed is;
And in the second moderates itself;
It cannot be the cause of sinful pleasure;
But when to ill it turns; and; with more care
Or lesser than it ought; runs after good;
'Gainst the Creator works his own creation。
Hence thou mayst comprehend that love must be
The seed within yourselves of every virtue;
And every act that merits punishment。
Now inasmuch as never from the welfare
Of its own subject can love turn its sight;
From their own hatred all things are secure;
And since we cannot think of any being
Standing alone; nor from the First divided;
Of hating Him is all desire cut off。
Hence if; discriminating; I judge well;
The evil that one loves is of one's neighbour;
And this is born in three modes in your clay。
There are; who; by abasement of their neighbour;
Hope to excel; and therefore only long
That from his greatness he may be cast down;
There are; who power; grace; honour; and renown
Fear they may lose because another rises;
Thence are so sad that the reverse they love;
And there are those whom injury seems to chafe;
So that it makes them greedy for revenge;
And such must needs shape out another's harm。
This threefold love is wept for down below;
Now of the other will I have thee hear;
That runneth after good with measure faulty。
Each one confusedly a good conceives
Wherein the mind may rest; and longeth for it;
Therefore to overtake it each one strives。
If languid love to look on this attract you;
Or in attaining unto it; this cornice;
After just penitence; torments you for it。
There's other good that does not make man happy;
'Tis not felicity; 'tis not the good
Essence; of every good the fruit and root。
The love that yields itself too much to this
Above us is lamented in three circles;
But how tripartite it may be described;
I say not; that thou seek it for thyself。〃
Purgatorio: Canto XVIII
An end had put unto his reasoning
The lofty Teacher; and attent was looking
Into my face; if I appeared content;
And I; whom a new thirst still goaded on;
Without was mute; and said within: 〃Perchance
The too much questioning I make annoys him。〃
But that true Father; who had comprehended
The timid wish; that opened not itself;
By speaking gave me hardihood to speak。
Whence I: 〃My sight is; Master; vivified
So in thy light; that clearly I discern
Whate'er thy speech importeth or describes。
Therefore I thee entreat; sweet Father dear;
To teach me love; to which thou dost refer
Every good action and its contrary。〃
〃Direct;〃 he said; 〃towards me the keen eyes
Of intellect; and clear will be to thee
The error of the blind; who would be leaders。
The soul; which is created apt to love;
Is mobile unto everything that pleases;
Soon as by pleasure she is waked to action。
Your apprehension from some real thing
An image draws; and in yourselves displays it
So that it makes the soul turn unto it。
And if; when turned; towards it she incline;
Love is that inclination; it is nature;
Which is by pleasure bound in you anew
Then even as the fire doth upward move
By its own form; which to ascend is born;
Where longest in its matter it endures;
So comes the captive soul into desire;
Which is a motion spiritual; and ne'er rests
Until she doth enjoy the thing beloved。
Now may apparent be to thee how hidden
The truth is from those people; who aver
All love is in itself a laudable thing;
Because its matter may perchance appear
Aye to be good; but yet not each impression
Is good; albeit good may be the wax。〃
〃Thy words; and my sequacious intellect;〃
I answered him; 〃have love revealed to me;
But that has made me more impregned with doubt;
For if love from without be offered us;
And with another foot the soul go not;
If right or wrong she go; 'tis not her merit。〃
And he to me: 〃What reason seeth here;
Myself can tell thee; beyond that await
For Beatrice; since 'tis a work of faith。
Every substantial form; that segregate
From matter is; and with it is united;
Specific power has in itself collected;
Which without act is not perceptible;
Nor shows itself except by its effect;
As life does in a plant by the green leaves。
But still; whence cometh the intelligence
Of the first notions; man is ignorant;
And the affection for the first allurements;
Which are in you as instinct in the bee
To make its honey; and this first desire
Merit of praise or blame containeth not。
Now; that to this all others may be gathered;
Innate within you is the power that counsels;
And it should keep the threshold of assent。
This is the principle; from which is taken
Occasion of desert in you; according
As good and guilty loves it takes and winnows。
Those who; in reasoning; to the bottom went;
Were of this innate liberty aware;
Therefore bequeathed they Ethics to the world。
Supposing; then; that from necessity
Springs every love that is within you kindled;
Within yourselves the power is to restrain it。
The noble virtue Beatrice understands
By the free will; and therefore see that thou
Bear it in mind; if she should speak of it。〃
The moon; belated almost unto midnight;
Now made the stars appear to us more rare;
Formed like a bucket; that is all ablaze;
And counter to the heavens ran through those paths
Which the sun sets aflame; when he of Rome
Sees it 'twixt Sardes and Corsicans go down;
And that patrician shade; for whom is named
Pietola more than any Mantuan town;
Had laid aside the burden of my lading;
Whence I; who reason manifest and plain
In answer to my questions had received;
Stood like a man in drowsy reverie。
But taken from me was this drowsiness
Suddenly by a people; that behind
Our backs already had come round to us。
And as; of old; Ismenus and Asopus
Beside them saw at night the rush and throng;
If but the Thebans were in need of Bacchus;
So they along that circle curve their step;
From what I saw of those approaching us;
Who by good…will and righteous love are ridden。
Full soon they were upon us; because running
Moved onward all that mighty multitude;
And two in the advance cried out; lamenting;
〃Mary in haste unto the mountain ran;
And Caesar; that he might subdue Ilerda;
Thrust at Marseilles; and then ran into Spain。〃
〃Quick! quick! so that the time may not be lost
By little love!〃 forthwith the others cried;
〃For ardour in well…doing freshens grace!〃
〃O folk; in whom an eager fervour now
Supplies perhaps delay and negligence;
Put by you in well…doing; through lukewarmness;
This one who lives; and truly I lie not;
Would fain go up; if but the sun relight us;
So tell us where the passage nearest is。〃
These were the words of him who was my Guide;
And some one of those spirits said: 〃Come on
Behind us; and the opening shalt thou find;
So full of longing are we to move onward;
That stay we cannot; therefore pardon us;
If thou for churlishness our justice take。
I was San Zeno's Abbot at Verona;
Under the empire of good Barbarossa;
Of whom still sorrowing Milan holds discourse;
And he has one foot in the grave already;
Who shall erelong lament that monastery;
And sorry be of having there had power;
Because his son; in his whole body sick;
And worse in mind; and who was evil…born;
He put into the place of its true pastor。〃
If more he said; or silent was; I know not;
He had already passed so far beyond us;
But this I heard; and to retain it pleased me。
And he who was in every need my succour
Said: 〃Turn thee hitherward; see two of them
Come fastening upon slothfulness their teeth。〃
In rear of all they shouted: 〃Sooner were
The people dead to whom the sea was opened;
Than their inheritors the Jordan saw;
And those who the fatigue did not endure
Unto the issue; with Anchises' son;
Themselves to life withouten glory offered。〃
Then when from us so separated were
Those shades; that they no longer could be seen;
Within me a new thought did entrance find;
Whence others many and diverse were born;
And so I lapsed from one into another;
That in a reverie mine eyes I closed;
And meditation into dream transmuted。
Purgatorio: Canto XIX
It was the hour when the diurnal heat
No more can warm the coldness of the moon;
Vanquished by earth; or peradventure Saturn;
When geomancers their Fortuna Major
See in the orient before the dawn
Rise by a path that long remains not dim;
There came to me in dreams a stammering woman;
Squint in her eyes; and in her feet distorted;
With hands dissevered and of sallow hue。
I looked at her; and as the sun restores
The frigid members which the night benumbs;
Even thus my gaze did render voluble
Her tongue; and made her all erect thereafter
In little while; and the lost countenance
As love desires it so in her