Innocence Once Lost - Religious Classics Collection. Джон Мильтон

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СКАЧАТЬ that from her head descended,

       Encircled with the foliage of Minerva,

       Did not permit her to appear distinctly,

      In attitude still royally majestic

       Continued she, like unto one who speaks,

       And keeps his warmest utterance in reserve:

      "Look at me well; in sooth I'm Beatrice!

       How didst thou deign to come unto the Mountain?

       Didst thou not know that man is happy here?"

      Mine eyes fell downward into the clear fountain,

       But, seeing myself therein, I sought the grass,

       So great a shame did weigh my forehead down.

      As to the son the mother seems superb,

       So she appeared to me; for somewhat bitter

       Tasteth the savour of severe compassion.

      Silent became she, and the Angels sang

       Suddenly, "In te, Domine, speravi:"

       But beyond 'pedes meos' did not pass.

      Even as the snow among the living rafters

       Upon the back of Italy congeals,

       Blown on and drifted by Sclavonian winds,

      And then, dissolving, trickles through itself

       Whene'er the land that loses shadow breathes,

       So that it seems a fire that melts a taper;

      E'en thus was I without a tear or sigh,

       Before the song of those who sing for ever

       After the music of the eternal spheres.

      But when I heard in their sweet melodies

       Compassion for me, more than had they said,

       "O wherefore, lady, dost thou thus upbraid him?"

      The ice, that was about my heart congealed,

       To air and water changed, and in my anguish

       Through mouth and eyes came gushing from my breast.

      She, on the right-hand border of the car

       Still firmly standing, to those holy beings

       Thus her discourse directed afterwards:

      "Ye keep your watch in the eternal day,

       So that nor night nor sleep can steal from you

       One step the ages make upon their path;

      Therefore my answer is with greater care,

       That he may hear me who is weeping yonder,

       So that the sin and dole be of one measure.

      Not only by the work of those great wheels,

       That destine every seed unto some end,

       According as the stars are in conjunction,

      But by the largess of celestial graces,

       Which have such lofty vapours for their rain

       That near to them our sight approaches not,

      Such had this man become in his new life

       Potentially, that every righteous habit

       Would have made admirable proof in him;

      But so much more malignant and more savage

       Becomes the land untilled and with bad seed,

       The more good earthly vigour it possesses.

      Some time did I sustain him with my look;

       Revealing unto him my youthful eyes,

       I led him with me turned in the right way.

      As soon as ever of my second age

       I was upon the threshold and changed life,

       Himself from me he took and gave to others.

      When from the flesh to spirit I ascended,

       And beauty and virtue were in me increased,

       I was to him less dear and less delightful;

      And into ways untrue he turned his steps,

       Pursuing the false images of good,

       That never any promises fulfil;

      Nor prayer for inspiration me availed,

       By means of which in dreams and otherwise

       I called him back, so little did he heed them.

      So low he fell, that all appliances

       For his salvation were already short,

       Save showing him the people of perdition.

      For this I visited the gates of death,

       And unto him, who so far up has led him,

       My intercessions were with weeping borne.

      God's lofty fiat would be violated,

       If Lethe should be passed, and if such viands

       Should tasted be, withouten any scot

      Of penitence, that gushes forth in tears."

      XXXI. Reproaches of Beatrice and Confession of Dante. The Passage of Lethe. The Seven Virtues. The Griffon.

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      "O thou who art beyond the sacred river,"

       Turning to me the point of her discourse,

       That edgewise even had seemed to me so keen,

      She recommenced, continuing without pause,

       "Say, say if this be true; to such a charge,

       Thy own confession needs must be conjoined."

      My faculties were in so great confusion,

       That the voice moved, but sooner was extinct

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