DANTE'S SUBLIME COMEDY: PURGATORY: Chapter 10
Chapter
10: To the First Terrace
And
so the angel warder let us through
that gate locked fast to those of
evil will.
We climbed a narrow track in the
cleft hill, 3
nor
did I dare look round when at my back
the gate shut with a clang that
shook the ground.
Our steep path zig-zagged sharply
left and right. 6
Said
Virgil, “This will test your climbing skill,
so concentrate,” I did. It was near noon
when I emerged from that tight
needle’s eye. 9
Footsore
and tired I stood beside my guide,
like him, unsure of where to go again:
sheer drop behind, on each side
empty plain, 12
ahead
a sheer cliff three men’s height away.
We had not moved a step before I
knew
the cliff we faced was marble, pure
and white,
15
marvelously
carved with shapes livelier
and lovelier than a human sculptor
or nature too could ever have
devised.
18
On
going near we recognized just One
could make them so. We saw the angel
there
announce the coming of the Prince of
Peace
21
for
whom man-kind has wept through centuries.
He seemed to say “Hail Mary, full of
grace!”
and the humility of her reply,
24
“Here
am I, God’s servant,” glowed in her face
so I believed I heard her with my
ears.
“Look over here,” my guide said pointing
to 27
images
of a more crowded scene:
oxen pulling a cart holding the ark
brought by King David to Jerusalem.
30
Seven
jubilant choirs surrounded it.
My eyes declared, “they sing!” my
ears, “they don’t!”,
and where, in marble, clouds of
incense rose 33
eyes disagreed with nose. Before the ark,
the psalmist monarch with his robe
tucked up
danced like a happy clown. His wife
looked down 36
from
a high window, smiling scornfully
at his humiliating lack of pride.
Beside this was another crowded
scene:
39
Emperor
Trajan riding forth to war
with knights and retinue. Eagles above
flapped gold wings. A poor widow
clinging 42
to
his bridle cried, “Sir, my murdered son
should be avenged!” “He’ll be,
when I return.”
“But if you don’t?” “My heir will do
what’s right.” 45
“If
you don’t do what’s needed now,” cried she,
“then why should he?” “True!”
Trajan said, halting,
“none should delay just acts.” Justice was
done. 48
Our
best Pope since Saint Peter, Gregory,
esteemed this just humility as proof
of Trajan’s noble
Christianity, 51
so he is now redeemed in Paradise.
These splendid visions of true
humbleness
pleased me by showing truth and
beauty one,
54
till I heard Virgil murmur, “Here come
some
who may show a stair to the
greater heights.”
Dear reader, I was eager for new
sights 57
that
teach how God gets back what is His due–
news that should aid and not
discourage you.
I looked to see some kind of
cavalcade, 60
then
staring said, “I see no folk at all!
Here’s a slow avalanche of heavy
stones
advancing on the ground. Sir, please
explain.” 63
Said
he, “Stoop down and look. Under those weights
see once proud sinners crawling on
their knees.”
I cried out, “O you poor ones who
believed 66
that
wealth and power could magnify your worth!
Now crushed to earth, at last you
will discard
your pride, a grubby caterpillar
shell
69
splitting
to loose angelic butterfly
soaring to God upon His judgement
day.”
Brackets supporting ceilings on
high walls 72
are
sometimes carved like men, knees squeezed to chest.
Those here were just like that,
sorely oppressed,
and the most patient ghosts were
weeping most. 75
Their
state was nearly more than they could bear.