# Divine Comedy (Longfellow 1867)/Volume 3/Canto 30

Perchance six thousand miles remote from us  Is glowing the sixth hour, and now this world  Inclines its shadow almost to a level,
When the mid-heaven begins to make itself  So deep to us, that here and there a star  Ceases to shine so far down as this depth,
And as advances bright exceedingly  The handmaid of the sun, the heaven is closed  Light after light to the most beautiful;
Not otherwise the Triumph, which for ever  Plays round about the point that vanquished me,  Seeming enclosed by what itself encloses,
Little by little from my vision faded;  Whereat to turn mine eyes on Beatrice  My seeing nothing and my love constrained me.
If what has hitherto been said of her  Were all concluded in a single praise,  Scant would it be to serve the present turn.
Not only does the beauty I beheld  Transcend ourselves, but truly I believe  Its Maker only may enjoy it all.
Vanquished do I confess me by this passage  More than by problem of his theme was ever  O'ercome the comic or the tragic poet;
For as the sun the sight that trembles most,  Even so the memory of that sweet smile  My mind depriveth of its very self.
From the first day that I beheld her face  In this life, to the moment of this look,  The sequence of my song has ne'er been severed;
But now perforce this sequence must desist  From following her beauty with my verse,  As every artist at his uttermost.
Such as I leave her to a greater fame  Than any of my trumpet, which is bringing  Its arduous matter to a final close,
With voice and gesture of a perfect leader  She recommenced: "We from the greatest body  Have issued to the heaven that is pure light;
Light intellectual replete with love,  Love of true good replete with ecstasy,  Ecstasy that transcendeth every sweetness.
Here shalt thou see the one host and the other  Of Paradise, and one in the same aspects  Which at the final judgment thou shalt see."
Even as a sudden lightning that disperses  The visual spirits, so that it deprives  The eye of impress from the strongest objects,
Thus round about me flashed a living light,  And left me swathed around with such a veil  Of its effulgence, that I nothing saw.
"Ever the Love which quieteth this heaven  Welcomes into itself with such salute,  To make the candle ready for its flame."
No sooner had within me these brief words  An entrance found, than I perceived myself  To be uplifted over my own power,
And I with vision new rekindled me,  Such that no light whatever is so pure  But that mine eyes were fortified against it.
And light I saw in fashion of a river  Fulvid with its effulgence, 'twixt two banks  Depicted with an admirable Spring.
Out of this river issued living sparks,  And on all sides sank down into the flowers,  Like unto rubies that are set in gold;
And then, as if inebriate with the odours,  They plunged again into the wondrous torrent,  And as one entered issued forth another.
"The high desire, that now inflames and moves thee  To have intelligence of what thou seest,  Pleaseth me all the more, the more it swells.
But of this water it behoves thee drink  Before so great a thirst in thee be slaked."  Thus said to me the sunshine of mine eyes;
And added: "The river and the topazes  Going in and out, and the laughing of the herbage,  Are of their truth foreshadowing prefaces;
Not that these things are difficult in themselves,  But the deficiency is on thy side,  For yet thou hast not vision so exalted."
There is no babe that leaps so suddenly  With face towards the milk, if he awake  Much later than his usual custom is,
As I did, that I might make better mirrors  Still of mine eyes, down stooping to the wave  Which flows that we therein be better made.
And even as the penthouse of mine eyelids  Drank of it, it forthwith appeared to me  Out of its length to be transformed to round.
Then as a folk who have been under masks  Seem other than before, if they divest  The semblance not their own they disappeared in,
Thus into greater pomp were changed for me  The flowerets and the sparks, so that I saw  Both of the Courts of Heaven made manifest.
O splendour of God! by means of which I saw  The lofty triumph of the realm veracious,  Give me the power to say how it I saw!
There is a light above, which visible  Makes the Creator unto every creature,  Who only in beholding Him has peace,
And it expands itself in circular form  To such extent, that its circumference  Would be too large a girdle for the sun.
The semblance of it is all made of rays  Reflected from the top of Primal Motion,  Which takes therefrom vitality and power.
And as a hill in water at its base  Mirrors itself, as if to see its beauty  When affluent most in verdure and in flowers,
So, ranged aloft all round about the light,  Mirrored I saw in more ranks than a thousand  All who above there have from us returned.
And if the lowest row collect within it  So great a light, how vast the amplitude  Is of this Rose in its extremest leaves!
My vision in the vastness and the height  Lost not itself, but comprehended all  The quantity and quality of that gladness.
There near and far nor add nor take away;  For there where God immediately doth govern,  The natural law in naught is relevant.
Into the yellow of the Rose Eternal  That spreads, and multiplies, and breathes an odour  Of praise unto the ever-vernal Sun,
As one who silent is and fain would speak,  Me Beatrice drew on, and said: "Behold  Of the white stoles how vast the convent is!
Behold how vast the circuit of our city!  Behold our seats so filled to overflowing,  That here henceforward are few people wanting!
On that great throne whereon thine eyes are fixed  For the crown's sake already placed upon it,  Before thou suppest at this wedding feast
Shall sit the soul (that is to be Augustus  On earth) of noble Henry, who shall come  To redress Italy ere she be ready.
Blind covetousness, that casts its spell upon you,  Has made you like unto the little child,  Who dies of hunger and drives off the nurse.
And in the sacred forum then shall be  A Prefect such, that openly or covert  On the same road he will not walk with him.
But long of God he will not be endured  In holy office; he shall be thrust down  Where Simon Magus is for his deserts,
And make him of Alagna lower go!"