DANTE'S SUBLIME COMEDY: PURGATORY: Chapter 28

CHAPTER 28: Eden

The pleasure of exploring such a wood                                                                

            by easy strolling over fragrant turf                                          

            did my heart good. The green boughs overhead              3

filtered the sunlight into golden gleams.                                                               

            The sweet air fanned my brows and shook the leaves

around wee tuneful birds whose vocal art                          6

cheered us by blending with an undertone

of branches softly murmuring like pines

beside Ravenna when Sirocco blows.                                 9

We strayed so far among these ancient glades

            that where we entered them was lost to sight.

            Then, just ahead, a stream three paces wide                    12

ran past from left to right, grass on each side

            wet by small waves. I never saw water

            darker and yet so clear. Earth’s purest wells                    15

are cloudier, though density of shade

            prevented sunshine entering, and made

the richly coloured petals of the blooms                            18

on the far bank much more astonishing.

            A lady plucking them was singing there.

            “Lady,” I called, “if kindliness belongs                            21

to so majestically fair a face,

            come nearer please, to let me hear your songs.

            You gather blossoms like Persephone,                               24

dear daughter of the Goddess, Mother Earth,

            before the King of Hell abducted her,

            thus robbing us of Spring for half the year.”                     27

She turned and danced toward me and her feet

            did not depress the crimson and yellow

            petals she trod. Erect, at the streams edge,                       30

still holding this high garden’s flowering sprays,

            she raised her modest head and smiled at me

            with lovely eyes bright as two morning stars.                   33

  

The strait dividing Asia from Greece

            bound both the scope of human pride and love,

            from Persia’s great king who lost his fleet,                       36

to amorous Leander, who it drowned.

            They loathed the Hellespont. I hated more

            that little stream which would not part for me.                39

“This place, though new to you,” the lady said,

            “should not feel strange, for it was made by God

            exactly to delight the human race.                                   42

The first man and woman thought it paradise.

            Yet wonder (which I notice on your face)

            is natural, for God’s creation is                                       45

almost too wonderful to understand.

            Ask what you wish to know. I will reply.”

            “Lower down this hill of stairs,” said I,                          48

“someone said running streams and moving airs

            could not happen here.” “They can’t elsewhere,”            

            said she. “This summit is exceptional.”                          51

God who delights in generosity

made Adam good, giving him Eve for wife,

this lovely, perfect garden for their home                       54

raised far above the stormy seas and lands

            of Earth and Hell where Satan is interred.

            Here they enjoyed both peaceful ease and mirth,           57

where all good kinds of tree, herb, fruit, flower

            flourish abundantly. By sin they lost

this best and first human nest, exchanged it                    60

for grief, pain, toil in nations you know well.

            From these their children graduate to Hell

            or rise to Paradise by climbing here.                              63

Clouds are sucked upward by the sun, and so

            the triple steps of penitence are raised

so high that nothing misty reaches them,                      66

so no one being purified by pain

            is hurt by harsher natures than their own.

            Air stirring tree tops gently at this height                      69

circles the globe, as the First Mover wills

            who turns bodies of Celestial light­ –

            moon, sun, planets, starry constellations.                      72

Thus, seeds from here are carried by the air

            world-wide to all the nations, taking root

            in soil that suits them best. No rain falls here                75

so far above the clouds. A fountain fed

            by God’s will flows out in two steady streams.

This we call Lethe, the other Eunoë.                              78

           

Who drink this lose all memory of sin;

            the next renews all memory of good.

            Drunk later, it has sweetest taste of all.                          81

Soon these will quench your thirst, but first of all

            you may welcome news I’d like to add.

            Ancient poets spoke of a Golden Age                           84

when all was good and nothing went amiss.

            Here is the former home of which they dreamed.

            Nectar they sang about was in these streams.”                 87

My fellow poets smiled, nodded at this.