DANTE'S SUBLIME COMEDY: PARADISE: Chapter 19

CHAPTER 19: The Eagle Speaks

In front of me appeared with open wings

            that great bird made of congregated souls,

            each a wee ruby with a star inside.                     3

What I tell now no tongue has ever told

            and none has written down. No one before

            ever conceived of such a splendid thing.            6

I saw and heard the beak begin to speak,

            say I and mine while meaning we and ours.

            “For being just and merciful,” it said,                 9

“I once possessed a glory none surpassed.

            Though rulers praise my memory on earth

            none have continued my great story there.”      12

I cried, “ O everlasting fruit of bliss,

            you represent a Justice higher still,

            yet you reflect it pure and know my mind.        15

Please feed the hunger that has famished me.

            How keen I am to hear you end the doubt

            upsetting my digestion many years.”                 18

Like an unhooded falcon flapping wings

            and preening them in readiness for flight

            so did that unity of noble souls,                         21

then it spoke out: “Turning his compasses

            to draw the ring that holds all space and time,

            the Universal Architect made no part                24

of the diversity within its bounds

            greater than His creating Mind and Word.

            As proof, the foremost intellect He made,         27

thinking itself His equal, would not wait

            to be ripened by His gift of light. Pride –

            overweening pride led Satan to rebel,               30

expel himself from height of Paradise.

            All natures less than God are far too small

            to measure the Eternal Infinite.                          33

  

Each thought is one ray of the Divine Mind

            but none can comprehend all other rays

            except by basking in their plenitude.                 36

Believe that ignorance and sin obscure

            most things you cannot understand. You think,

            Indians live who never heard Christ’s name,     39

           

yet guided by straight reason, do no wrong,

            like some born before God was crucified.

            What justice can condemn such souls to Hell?  42

That thought came when you could not see beyond

            the hills around your town, so could not know

            anything about those in Asia                             45

more than a thousand miles away, or guess

            how God will deal with them. His Gospel tells

            everything a good soul needs to know              48

for living sinlessly. Thinking further

can show His wonders for your admiration.

Apparent contradictions in His schemes           51

come by speculation further knowledge

            will solve, either before or after death.

            They cannot blight an honest Christian life.”   54

That glowing heraldry that spread respect

            for Roman government over the globe

            soared round above my head, as mother stork  57

will fly in circles over a young chick

            gazing lovingly up from the warm nest

            where it has just been fed. The eagle sang        60

a hymn whose words I did not know, then said,

            “Just as my song is meaningless to you,

            God’s justice is beyond men’s reasoning.          63

None rise up here who have not faith in Christ

            before or since they nailed Him to that tree,

            but now we hear too many cry, Christ! Christ!  66

who on Judgment Day will be deeper damned 

than Africans who never heard His name.

What will Asians think when they hear read out 69

  

the deeds of Christian kings? How Prague was made

            a wilderness by Emperor Albert?

            How the French King, debasing currency,           72

brought poverty to both banks of the Seine?

            There shall be seen arrogance maddening

            English and Scots who battle constantly              75

across the border nature built for them.

            They will hear about Naples’ crippled king,

            his single virtue and his thousand sins;                78

know too why crimes of the Sicilian king

            must be described in shorthand, to save space,

and how they have dishonoured good King        81      

William, their noble relative. Kings of

            Norway and Portugal seem just as bad

            as he of Serbia whose forged coins spread          84

distrust of Venice’s minted silver

            O Happy Hungary if Martell’s son

saves you from such misrule! Happy Navarre     87

if mountains protect you from the French

and their king’s foul stench! And you can see how

miserable Cyprus is, like all states

of islands that have Frenchmen as their mates!”             94