Guide to the canto Where we are Dante is still in the eighth heaven, that of the Fixed Stars, where the blessed sing to the Trinity and the flame of Saint Peter, the third of the three that guide the examination of faith, blazes with indignation. The whole heaven flushes red, like a cloud at sunrise or sunset. The scene closes with a change of position: Beatrice turns Dante around and shows him the Earth, pointing out the place where Ulysses shipwrecked and the one where Ganymede was carried off as Europa.
Whom we meet Saint Peter, whose flame reddens to denounce the popes who have turned his tomb into a sewer and the successors who use the keys as a banner of war. Beatrice, who turns pale like the sky during the Passion, then explains to Dante the structure of the Primum Mobile, the unmoving center of the universe moved by love. No other historical figures appear on the scene, but Peter names martyred popes such as Sixtus and Pius alongside himself and Linus and Cletus, in contrast with the corrupt ones.
What to expect After the invective and the cosmic lesson, Beatrice prophesies an imminent redemption of the Church, often read as the arrival of a reformer capable of straightening its course. Dante is then carried up from the Starry Heaven: this is the passage toward the Empyrean, where the matter of the journey yields entirely to pure contemplation. The question of who will bring about the promised turning remains open.
"Glory be to the Father, to the Son,
1 And Holy Ghost!" all Paradise began,
2 So that the melody inebriate made me.
3 All of Paradise intoned "Glory to the Father, to the Son, and to the Holy Spirit," and that sweet song was intoxicating me. · Verses 1-3
What I beheld seemed unto me a smile
4 Of the universe; for my inebriation
5 Found entrance through the hearing and the sight.
6 O joy! O gladness inexpressible!
7 O perfect life of love and peacefulness!
8 O riches without hankering secure!
9 What joy, what inexpressible gladness! What a perfect life, made of nothing but love and peace! What a secure richness, without any desire at all! · Verses 7-9
Before mine eyes were standing the four torches
10 Enkindled, and the one that first had come
11 Began to make itself more luminous;
12 And even such in semblance it became
13 As Jupiter would become, if he and Mars
14 Were birds, and they should interchange their feathers.
15 Before my eyes the four flames were burning, and the one that had come first began to grow brighter, changing its appearance until it looked like what Jupiter would become if he and Mars were birds exchanging plumage. · Verses 10-15
That Providence, which here distributeth
16 Season and service, in the blessed choir
17 Had silence upon every side imposed.
18 When I heard say: "If I my colour change,
19 Marvel not at it; for while I am speaking
20 Thou shalt behold all these their colour change.
21 He who usurps upon the earth my place,
22 My place, my place, which vacant has become
23 Before the presence of the Son of God,
24 Has of my cemetery made a sewer
25 Of blood and stench, whereby the Perverse One,
26 Who fell from here, below there is appeased!"
27 Then it added: "The one who on earth usurps my place, that place which lies vacant in the presence of the Son of God, has turned my cemetery into a sewer of blood and stench; and so the devil, cast down from up here, finds his satisfaction down there." · Verses 22-27
With the same colour which, through sun adverse,
28 Painteth the clouds at evening or at morn,
29 Beheld I then the whole of heaven suffused.
30 And as a modest woman, who abides
31 Sure of herself, and at another's failing,
32 From listening only, timorous becomes,
33 Even thus did Beatrice change countenance;
34 And I believe in heaven was such eclipse,
35 When suffered the supreme Omnipotence;
36 Like an honest woman who remains sure of herself but, in the face of someone else's sin, grows timid and troubled even as she listens, so Beatrice changed her expression; and I believe a similar eclipse took place in the sky when the supreme Power suffered. · Verses 31-36
Thereafterward proceeded forth his words
37 With voice so much transmuted from itself,
38 The very countenance was not more changed.
39 "The spouse of Christ has never nurtured been
40 On blood of mine, of Linus and of Cletus,
41 To be made use of in acquest of gold;
42 Then her words went on with a voice so transformed from before that her appearance changed no further: "The bride of Christ was not nourished with my blood, with that of Linus, or with that of Cletus, to be used as a tool for profit." · Verses 37-42
But in acquest of this delightful life
43 Sixtus and Pius, Urban and Calixtus,
44 After much lamentation, shed their blood.
45 Our purpose was not, that on the right hand
46 Of our successors should in part be seated
47 The Christian folk, in part upon the other;
48 "On the contrary, to win this happy life Sixtus, Pius, Callixtus, and Urban also shed their blood after much weeping. It was not our intention that, among our successors, one party should sit on the right and another on the left of the Christian people." · Verses 43-48
Nor that the keys which were to me confided
49 Should e'er become the escutcheon on a banner,
50 That should wage war on those who are baptized;
51 Nor I be made the figure of a seal
52 To privileges venal and mendacious,
53 Whereat I often redden and flash with fire.
54 In garb of shepherds the rapacious wolves
55 Are seen from here above o'er all the pastures!
56 O wrath of God, why dost thou slumber still?
57 To drink our blood the Caorsines and Gascons
58 Are making ready. O thou good beginning,
59 Unto how vile an end must thou needs fall!
60 Then he went on: "On earth one sees rapacious wolves dressed as shepherds in every pasture: O defense of God, why do you still lie idle? Frenchmen and Gascons are getting ready to drink our blood: O good beginning, to what vile end must you fall!" · Verses 55-60
But the high Providence, that with Scipio
61 At Rome the glory of the world defended,
62 Will speedily bring aid, as I conceive;
63 And thou, my son, who by thy mortal weight
64 Shalt down return again, open thy mouth;
65 What I conceal not, do not thou conceal."
66 "But the high Providence, which with Scipio defended the glory of the world for Rome, will come to help soon, as I conceive; and you, my son, who will return down here again beneath the mortal burden, open your mouth and do not hide what I do not hide." · Verses 61-66
As with its frozen vapours downward falls
67 In flakes our atmosphere, what time the horn
68 Of the celestial Goat doth touch the sun,
69 Upward in such array saw I the ether
70 Become, and flaked with the triumphant vapours,
71 Which there together with us had remained.
72 My sight was following up their semblances,
73 And followed till the medium, by excess,
74 The passing farther onward took from it;
75 Whereat the Lady, who beheld me freed
76 From gazing upward, said to me: "Cast down
77 Thy sight, and see how far thou art turned round."
78 My gaze followed their faces and kept on watching them until the excessive distance prevented it from going any farther; then the woman, seeing me free to look down from above, said to me: "Lower your gaze and see how you are turned." · Verses 73-78
Since the first time that I had downward looked,
79 I saw that I had moved through the whole arc
80 Which the first climate makes from midst to end;
81 So that I saw the mad track of Ulysses
82 Past Gades, and this side, well nigh the shore
83 Whereon became Europa a sweet burden.
84 From the moment I had first looked, I had moved along the whole arc that goes from the middle to the end of the first climate, so that I could see beyond Cadiz the mad folly of Ulysses, and on this side, near the shore where Europa took on her sweet burden. · Verses 79-84
And of this threshing-floor the site to me
85 Were more unveiled, but the sun was proceeding
86 Under my feet, a sign and more removed.
87 My mind enamoured, which is dallying
88 At all times with my Lady, to bring back
89 To her mine eyes was more than ever ardent.
90 The site of this little patch of earth would have been revealed to me still more, but the sun had advanced more than a sign beneath my feet. My loving mind, which was always conversing with my lady, burned with desire to turn my eyes back to her. · Verses 85-90
And if or Art or Nature has made bait
91 To catch the eyes and so possess the mind,
92 In human flesh or in its portraiture,
93 All joined together would appear as nought
94 To the divine delight which shone upon me
95 When to her smiling face I turned me round.
96 And if nature or art have created baits to catch the eyes and win the mind, in human flesh or in its paintings, all gathered together they would seem nothing beside the divine pleasure that shone upon me when I turned to her smiling face. · Verses 91-96
The virtue that her look endowed me with
97 From the fair nest of Leda tore me forth,
98 And up into the swiftest heaven impelled me.
99 Its parts exceeding full of life and lofty
100 Are all so uniform, I cannot say
101 Which Beatrice selected for my place.
102 The power that her gaze granted me tore me from the fair nest of Leda and hurled me into the swiftest heaven. Its regions, so vivid and exalted, are so uniform that I cannot say in which place Beatrice chose to receive me. · Verses 97-102
But she, who was aware of my desire,
103 Began, the while she smiled so joyously
104 That God seemed in her countenance to rejoice:
105 "The nature of that motion, which keeps quiet
106 The centre and all the rest about it moves,
107 From hence begins as from its starting point.
108 But she, who saw my desire, began to speak, laughing so joyfully that God seemed to rejoice in her face: "The nature of the world, which holds the center still and moves all the rest around it, begins here as from its own goal;" · Verses 103-108
And in this heaven there is no other Where
109 Than in the Mind Divine, wherein is kindled
110 The love that turns it, and the power it rains.
111 Within a circle light and love embrace it,
112 Even as this doth the others, and that precinct
113 He who encircles it alone controls.
114 "and this heaven has no other reference point than the divine mind, in which are kindled the love that turns it and the power that it pours down. Light and love embrace it in a circle, as this one does the others, and only the one who encircles it comprehends that circle." · Verses 109-114
Its motion is not by another meted,
115 But all the others measured are by this,
116 As ten is by the half and by the fifth.
117 And in what manner time in such a pot
118 May have its roots, and in the rest its leaves,
119 Now unto thee can manifest be made.
120 Then she added: "Its motion is not measured by any other, but the others are measured by it, as ten is by five and two; and how time keeps its roots in this one and spreads its branches in the others, by now should be clear to you." · Verses 115-120
O Covetousness, that mortals dost ingulf
121 Beneath thee so, that no one hath the power
122 Of drawing back his eyes from out thy waves!
123 Full fairly blossoms in mankind the will;
124 But the uninterrupted rain converts
125 Into abortive wildings the true plums.
126 "O greed, that drowns mortals so deep beneath you that no one has the power to lift his eyes out of your waves! In human beings the will does truly blossom, but the continual rain turns true sloes into worm-eaten fruits." · Verses 121-126
Fidelity and innocence are found
127 Only in children; afterwards they both
128 Take flight or e'er the cheeks with down are covered.
129 One, while he prattles still, observes the fasts,
130 Who, when his tongue is loosed, forthwith devours
131 Whatever food under whatever moon;
132 "Faith and innocence are found only in little children; then each of the two flees before the cheeks are covered with down. There is one who, still babbling, fasts, and then, with tongue loosened, devours whatever food in whatever month;" · Verses 127-132
Another, while he prattles, loves and listens
133 Unto his mother, who when speech is perfect
134 Forthwith desires to see her in her grave.
135 Even thus is swarthy made the skin so white
136 In its first aspect of the daughter fair
137 Of him who brings the morn, and leaves the night.
138 "and one who, still babbling, loves and listens to his mother, and then, with eloquent speech, longs to see her in her grave. So the white skin turns black at the first sight of the fair daughter of him who brings the morning and leaves the evening." · Verses 133-138
Thou, that it may not be a marvel to thee,
139 Think that on earth there is no one who governs;
140 Whence goes astray the human family.
141 Ere January be unwintered wholly
142 By the centesimal on earth neglected,
143 Shall these supernal circles roar so loud
144 "You, so as not to be amazed, think that on earth there is no one left to govern, and so the human family goes so far astray. But before January is wholly thawed, because of the centesimal that down there is neglected, these supernal circles will blaze so" · Verses 139-144
The tempest that has been so long awaited
145 Shall whirl the poops about where are the prows;
146 So that the fleet shall run its course direct,
147 And the true fruit shall follow on the flower."
148 The list of places is under editorial review.
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